I plan to celebrate my Swedish heritage and the end of summer Thursday night at a crayfish party at Sunrise's IKEA store. I'll wear a silly hat and paper bib and sing songs about beer with about 250 other fans of the tiny red crustaceans.

In Sweden, such parties are traditional on August nights as the summer comes to a close and the short season begins for crayfish (aka crawfish). Cooked in brine with lots of fresh dill, the critters are eaten with the fingers from paper plates. Sucking noisily to extract the juices is part of the fun.

The second of two parties (see end of story for details), it takes place in the second-floor cafeteria, where full-moon paper lanterns will dangle over the tables; packets of hats, bibs and songbooks will await guests at each table and a big, red, wooden Dala horse will oversee the scene.

Manford Gahler, the Dutch director of IKEA food services, organizes the parties with Italian executive chef Craig Devescori. Gahler oversees the Swedish food market on the ground level and the self-serve cafeteria upstairs. On a busy Saturday, about 4,000 customers take a fika (coffee break) or grab a quick meal there.

One of the bargain meals consists of 15 Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes, gravy and lingonberry sauce for $4.99.

Other dishes to try here include cured salmon gravlax with salad and sweet mustard sauce, open-faced shrimp sandwich on rye and pyttipanna, a hash of seasonal vegetables and potato with optional meatballs or salmon. Beef ribs with potato puffs is one of the daily specials. Or just get coffee and a slice of daim torte (chocolate cake with almonds) or apple cake with vanilla sauce.

The food market downstairs is the place to find ginger thins (cookies), rye crisp, princess cake (sponge cake layered with pastry cream covered in marzipan), cloudberry jam, black currant-marinated herring, crab pate and prinskorr (pork sausage).

There's also herrgard cheese (similar to pale Cheddar) and semi-hard greve (like Swiss). And don't forget the frozen crayfish in dill sauce. Smaklig maltid! (Happy eating!)

Linda Bladholm's latest book is Latin and Caribbean Grocery Stores Demystified.

Place: IKEA cafeteria and food market.

Address: 151 NW 136th Ave., Sunrise.

Hours: 9:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Sunday.

Crayfish Party: 6-8:30 p.m. Thursday in the cafeteria; $9.99 for adults (includes aquavit sample), $4.99 for kids.

Contact: 954-838-9292.

Prices: Cafeteria food $4.99-$7.99, beverages $1.29.

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