A Twitter thread went viral in May: a user on Reddit just told how he once went to a Swedish friend’s house “and while we were playing in his room, his mom yelled that dinner was ready. And check this. He told me to WAIT in his room while they ate.” Would the Swedes really NOT share their food with their own friends, at home? It seems that this kind of ‘non-hospitality’ was customary in Sweden and other parts of Northern Europe in the ’60s and ’70s. A guest over at a friend’s house at dinner time was likely to go back to his/her own house to eat, or he/she would stay and wait in another room while his/her friend finished his/her meal. Then they’d continue playing. It was not a ‘universal rule’: families in the countryside, for example, were more likely to feed guests, as people lived farther apart, so it was not as easy for people to go back home and eat. Although non-sharing hosts haven’t entirely disappeared, since the 1990s food has become a new symbol in society: Swedes now have open kitchens and people like to dine there and show off their cooking abilities. Read more: NPR.org