"At her newest restaurant, a café called Björk, in the lobby of Scandinavia House, a Nordic cultural center in midtown, Bengtsson bounds around the dining room beaming, with a buoyancy that can’t be learned. Patrons of Ulrika’s, the homey Upper East Side restaurant that Bengtsson ran from 1999 to 2006 (before that, she cooked at the Swedish consulate and at Aquavit), will be thrilled to reunite with her bisque: Arctic char, salmon, cod, and crunchy cold-water shrimp are nestled with fingerling potato, carrots, and leeks and then bathed tableside in a light, creamy saffron-and-fennel broth. During a recent meal at Björk, the air became heady with the powerful perfume of bacon, which emerged from the kitchen moments later, paired with lingonberry preserves atop a thin, golden-edged waffle, made from a grated-potato-based batter, that could be broken into heart-shaped quarters. The smørrebrød, or open-faced sandwiches, such as one spread with “Gentleman’s delight,” a salad of herring and hard-boiled egg, are lovely and light. The open-faced tunnbröd, similar to Norwegian lefse, here a pan-fried, mashed-potato-based flatbread, is much heavier, topped with more mashed potato, pickled cucumber, fried onions, mustard, and two charred hot dogs, their ends split open like flower petals. Heartier still is a beautiful plate of tender, fatty brisket, sliced into batons and strewn with bits of roasted carrot, zucchini, and potato and a tangy parsley cream sauce." - Hannah Goldfield
