Thursday, March 11, 2010

Delicacies of Norway

On our first night in Norway we were greeted by a traditional Norwegian supper. Norwegians eat 4 times a day: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Supper.

Breakfast and Supper are generally the same and consist of a variety of breads and crackers and things to eat on them. Usually several types of cheese and spreads, sliced meats, eggs, herring in tomato sauce, fresh veggies like red pepper, cucumber, and tomato. Breakfast tends to be a very important meal compared to in North America. Lunch and Supper are eaten in typical fashion and then supper is eaten at around 8pm.

I tried a variety of traditional Norwegian foods as well. Some popular items are dried fish (a less tasty beef jerky idea), canned mackerel in tomato sauce (usually eaten with breakfast), liver paste, and prawn cocktail. Fish cakes and paste and caviar are also popular but I did not have the chance to taste them.

One night we had waffles that we topped with jams, sugar, sour berries and vanilla cream sauce, and most unique of all is Norwegian brown cheese. Brown cheese is semi-soft cheese that comes in a block and is eaten alone, on waffles, or sweet buns mostly and has a somewhat sweet caramel like taste. I found it delicious on waffles with strawberry jam.

We also had hot dogs that were topped with dried crispy onion bits and rather than using buns we wrapped them in a potato tortilla called a lompe, which are popular in some countries in Europe.

Most of all I ate lots and lots of chocolate!! The Norwegians make chocolate as good as the Swiss and sell them in large bars that seem to get eaten as fast as a small one. They have all sorts of kinds, all of them excellent. They also have a treat that my brother and I are obsessed with called SMASH. Smash are basically Bugle corn chips that are covered in chocolate and are possible the single most addictive food I have come across since green tea smoothies.



Thursday, March 4, 2010

A few treats from London

Although Londoners are known for having some very bland food, eating just meat and potatoes, and boiling EVERYTHING I have found some great food.

In the market in Covent Garden we had Ben's Cookies. They are baked fresh and sold by weight. They had peanut butter full of whole peanuts, One inch chunks of white chocolate with cranberries or macadamia nuts, chunks of spicy-sweet ginger. They were unbelievably good!

Also in the market we had a Portuguese rice dish called Paella with veggies and seafood. We also got it on discount because they were closing up.

That night we watched the Olympic Gold hockey game at an Aussie Pub. The next morning we met my friend Barbara from South Africa (who lives in London) and my brother's girlfriend's friend Hanna from london and went to a restaurant called the Breakfast Club. I had a breakfast burrito and Banana Bacon French Toast. SO GOOD
We then spent the afternoon at the world famous Harrods. We had chocolates and cupcakes and asian foods. (Even ferrero roche cupcakes) The full displays from all over the world were unbelievable. We then looked at designer clothes, jewellery, and laid on patio furniture.

In another market in London we found a fantastic tea shop where they had a wall of tea. I had coconut black tea and Earl Grey with rose and lavender. That was only a few among the array.


This was a taste of my food in London and will be filling you in on Norway very Shortly.