I am not Swedish, but I have always had a special fondness in my heart for Sweden. Three years ago, my friend Andrew and I discovered the American Swedish Historical Museum in South Philadelphia. (http://www.americanswedish.org/)

We decided to visit this museum to see what we were missing from our heritage. Upon visiting their website, we saw that the museum was hosting their very first “Great Meatball Match-Up,” and in one of the best spontaneous decisions ever made, we decided to enter the contest.

Andrew and I didn’t know much about cooking Swedish meatballs. We found a few recipes online and tried them out. The meatballs weren’t great at first, but after a few attempts and some helpful critiques from our friends and neighbors, we were ready for the competition. We couldn’t drive, so we had to take our meatballs on the subway. We hoped that our youthful enthusiasm would be enough to win — it wasn’t.

Still, we had so much fun that we decided we would try again. We had entered last year and also came home empty handed, but it didn’t matter; the experience was more important to us. We participated in the third annual competition this past weekend.

There are two parts of the competition — the amateur division and the restaurant division. The restaurants are all local South Philly favorites that change from year to year.  The amateurs are often individuals whose meatballs have been revered by their families for years, with Andrew and I being the exception.

Dad’s Stuffing (http://www.yelp.com/biz/dads-stuffing-philadelphia) placed first in the restaurant competition, followed by a tie between Mekong River (http://www.mekongriverphilly.com/) and Antney’s Grub (http://antneysgrub.net/). For the individual competition, there were two chefs tied for first — Louis Leonardi and Michael Antinore. The event is great publicity for the museum and the restaurants that participate. Although we’ve never won, entering in “The Great Meatball Match-Up” has become one of my favorite fall traditions.