Eating like a Norwegian

I love eating. Period. My friends and family are aware of my passion for food and some red wine. I was more than happy to start trying my Norwegian food “experiments” as I headed to the supermarket after my first day at the office. At first I was shocked at the prices. Of course, I was thinking in Euros and Euro-wages. In Norway things are expensive, yes, but everyone can afford it. Norway is normal for Norwegians and lucky foreigners like me.

In my visit in July to Bergen I ate very basic student food as I was in a tight budget but I tried some of the Norwegian staples: Norvegia cheese, caviar, salmon (I love this), some Freia chocolate and other cool and tasty stuff. Oh, I also had the chance to drink Øl (beer) produced in Bergen. Not the best ever and very expensive. I still love my Austrian beer.

When I stepped into the supermarket I entered in a new world. This was the real culture shock. New names, new food, new ways of eating the same things.

In this new adventure I decided to be bold and eat like a real Norwegian. I wanted to eat Raspeballer. These are what I believe potato dumplings. I thought that, like Knödel in Austria, they are almost always filled with "something" but I was wrong... (later I discovered that there are filled ones as well). After 20 mins of cooking this in water (I supposed that was the label suggested) I tried them and to my surprise: they had no flavor!

This morning, when I came to work I was informed, among many odd looks and many laughs that Raspeballer are eaten as a side dish and usually with Pølse or something else. I guess this is the kind anecdote that will be worth remembering in a few months.

Tonight I will be eating the most common Norwegian dish: Pølse, which is nothing else but sausages. I saw that there are many varieties of pølse at the supermarket (I think Norwegians are pølse-crazy) and some of them are even called Wiener-Pølse! Funny, in Vienna I used to called them Frankfurter... Wish me luck!