Norwegian Language Blog

I´m sure it seems odd to think about Norway as a place with a lot of street food.  Before I lived there, I didn´t imagine there would would be so many options, nor did I think Norwegians would be keen on street food.  Not the case at all!  There are plenty of options for street food if you are on the go.  Perhaps you are on your way to work or school, or on your lunch break.  Or maybe it´s 3am and you´ve left the bar saturated with alcohol and you want something to eat while you´re waiting for your taxi, the t-bane, or walking to your final destination.

You can find both traditional and modern cuisine in the form of street food.  If you´re in the mood for something sweet, I would highly recommend vafler (waffles) topped with syltetøy (jam), bær (berries) and-or krem.  You will not find syrup as a topping.  In fact, come to think of it, I´m not sure I´ve even seen syrup in matbutikker (grocery stores).  I´m sure it exists, but it is certainly not a popular pålegg(topping).  Another sweet item you will see in most convenience stores such as 7 Eleven or gas stations is softis (our equivalent to soft serve, but in my opinion, it is much better in Norway!).  You can order your softis plain in several flavor varieties, as well as with strø (ice cream topping, literally sprinkles), such as godteri (candy), nøtter (nuts), for example.  My personal belief is that all dairy items in Norway are far better than what you typically get in the US.

Another very popular item to buy if you´re on the go is smørbrød (an open faced sandwich) with various pålegg, such as hard boiled egg, reker (shrimp), pesto and  kylling (chicken), or something of the sort.  Baguettes with similar fillings are common, as are calzones and hot food such as pizza, warm Chinese food, or pasta.  Deli de Luca is my personal favorite for buying these items.

By far the most common after-bar foods are pølser (hot dogs) either plain in a bun or lompe (lefse-type wrapping) with some sort of saus (and maybe even bacon wrapped) and kebabs.  That´s right-kebabs.  My favorite kebab joint in Oslo is called Bislett.  In it, you can have kylling or kjøtt (which means meat, but in this case, beef) and they are typically filled with løk (onion), mais (corn), paprika (peppers), and lots of saus, wrapped in a pita.  My favorite kebab joint in Tromsø, in case you find yourself there in need of a gyro, is Snappes Kebab.

Happy street food eating!

the long, but worth it line

Glazed Leg of Lamb with Roasted Root Vegetables

Root vegetables are important ingredients in Scandinavian cuisine. In this dish the lamb meat is accompanied by a plethora of root vegetables – scented with mustard, rosemary and garlic—New Scandinavian Cooking

So I went to ´The Inn´last night with my family.  I had heard it was a new Scandinavian restaurant in Minneapolis and everything about it last night proved this true.  Oddly enough, the website for the restaurant does not say anything specifically about a Scandinavian influence.  Either way, it was fantastic.  The atmosphere was great-it felt cozy, casual and elegant at the same time.  Our server was awesome and the food and drinks were phenomenal.

We had a few appetizers including a cured meat plate, potato dumplings, and smoked trout.  I drank a `Scandinavian´which consisted of Aquevit, orange, and bitters (the bar is big into mixology)-it was delicious.  I ordered a pork hanger steak accompanied by a warm apple mostard (mustard soaked warm apples) and I ordered a side of turnip purée.  The turnip purée was absolutely amazing.

I don´t pay enough attention to certain root vegetables.  I eat a lot of gulrotter (carrots), løk (onions), hvitløk (garlic), and poteter (potatoes), but other root vegetables, such as kålrabi (rutabaga), turnips, and parsnips are not frequently in my shopping cart or on my order at a restaurant.  It seems like only more upscale restaurants offer these sorts of root vegetables and I wonder why?  They are simple to prepare and don´t seem super pricy either.

My pork steak last night was prepared at the perfect temperature and tasted great, but the turnip purée was seriously to die for.  It was mildly sweet, creamy, and salted to perfection.  Root vegetables like turnips and kålrabi are typically a bit sweet and pretty dense.  I´m really terrible at describing how food tastes, so forgive me, but if you don´t eat these root vegetables often, I highly suggest that you try them again.  They are sooo good!

Kålrabi is a very common food in Norway.  It grows in cooler climates and can be stored for up to 6 months.  It is low in sodium and high in calcium, potassium, iron, phosphorus, vitamin E, beta-carotene, almost all vitamins B.  So, it is very good for you, especially if you live in a cooler climate during the winter when you need all of those vitamins that you aren´t getting from the sun.

You can eat kålrabi prepared in many different ways, similar to poteter.  Try them raw, mashed, fried, in soup or salad, steamed, boiled, roasted, or baked, or even in cake!  Eat root vegetables:)

Check out the menu at “The Inn”

Andreas Viestad is a famous Norwegian culinary delight.  He is a food columnist,  TV chef, and cookbook author who for years has aired on TV channels in 50 countries throughout the world, will finally air on Norwegian television.  Viestad, born in 1973 in Oslo, has been referred to as ”Norway’s culinary ambassador”  and “Norway’s most exciting food writer.”

While he is not a trained chef, Viestad is deeply involved in food science, as well as creating delicious cuisine.  He has been a part of the “molecular gastronomy” movement since 1999, a discipline that seeks to explain the scientific processes that occur during the transformation of ingredients during cooking.  Since 2008, he has written a monthly food science column titled “The Gastronomer” for the Washington Post.  Another well-known food scientist that may inspire you, to give a comparison, is Alton Brown (who hosts a show called “Good Eats,” which is fabulous).

Back in 2003, Viestad premiered as host of the series “New Scandinavian Cooking” on public television.  Americans tuned in by the millions.  The show was immediately a hit for several reasons: the ingredients chosen and the fact that all episodes were shot on location.  Viestad aims to get as close to nature and the ingredients as possible, so his shows are sometimes next to a beautiful lake or a jagged mountain.  Norwegian culture had not received that much attention since a decade earlier with the olympics in Lillehammer.  He really put new Scandinavian cooking on the world’s plate.

Most people outside of Norway, I would argue, didn’t have a clue what kind of things could be done with Scandinavian cooking-isn’t it just plain meat, fish, and potatoes? No.  Sure, it can be, but it can also be so much more.  To quote Viestad from his own webpage books.html, Viestad writes “In a land where torsk (cod) and poteter (potatoes) are no joke, I try to show that a contemporary touch can be both relevant and exciting. Yellow and Red Cod with Pomegranate-Mango Salad, anyone?”  Many oppskrifter (recipes) may contain seemingly “boring” or “tame” ingredients, but with the right krydder (spices), a meal that would otherwise be relatively smakløs (tasteless) can be almost eksotisk (exotic).

Viestad has written 2 books, The Kitchen of Light-New Scandinavia Cooking (2003) and Where Flavor Was Born (2007, which traces the Spice Route around the Indian Ocean).  His recipes and writing have appeared in Food & Wine, Gourmet, The Sunday Times, Vogue, and Vanity Fair.

Several years ago Viestad started another series called “Perfect Day”, which involves more traveling around the country, but is still very similar to “New Scandinavian Cooking”.  In addition to his writing, Viestad spends a lot of his time focused on farming.  He has a small farm in Farsund, a city in southern Norway, as well as an agricultural project in Elgin, South Africa that is home to 50 different citruses.

What a guy!