Hei! fra Norge

I don’t know why Norway isn’t better known for its cuisine, or at the very least for their great hospitality.

Åse, my host, had everyone over for a shrimp dinner in a very traditional coastal way. She put out two vats of boiled shrimp, then passed around bread, butter and fresh mayonnaise. You start with one slice of bread and butter it. Then you grab a handful of shrimp and peel away. (There’s an art or at least a science to the peeling part — but it’s too hard to describe without visual aids.) When you’ve amassed a pile on your bread, you drizzle mayo all over and eat it with a knife and fork. I don’t know if the wine helps or hinders the peeling process. After everyone is “done,” and the conversation continues, you pull out one or two shrimp at a time and keep eating until everyone is over-done.

Then there was the warm-smoked salmon at Andreas’ house. Andreas, Jim’s host in Flekkefjord, has built a mausoleum-sized smokehouse in his back garden, where he smokes salmon, trout, anything he can fit inside. At dinner he pulled out platter after platter of the tenderest, most flavorful salmon I’ve had, all with a beautiful burnish on top. It was definitely worth a vacation from the vegetarian wagon.

Yesterday, we had traditional Norwegian fish soup in the “slow” town of Sokndal. “Slow” meaning the antithesis of McDonald’s. The Slow Food Movement is gaining momentum in Europe, where towns try to qualify for certification by eschewing large-scale franchises, and thoroughly embracing artisanal cottage industry. There are only two such cities in Norway, so it was very special to see the town. We had been walking around cold,windy, wet weather that morning, so it was especially comforting to settle into the little inn, eating freshly-baked homemade bread and large bowls of the creammmmmmmmmy concoction, digging for shrimp, salmon, and mussels.

Then in the evening, Åse made her traditional Christmas dinner, pinnehuøtt (spelling?). The word “pinne” comes from the Norwegian word for “birch,” because the cook traditionally makes a grid of birch twigs on the bottom of the Dutch oven to form a steamer (nowadays, Åse uses a metal rack.) Then one places smoked, salted and dried rack of lamb on top, and steams it for hours. The result is served with what they call sweet-root, which looks like a huge rutabaga, mashed. And of course: potatoes. We were told that it’s perfectly acceptable to gnaw on the bones, holding them with one’s fingers. I double-checked today, and apparently it’s true. For dessert, Åse made a sort of mousse with beaten egg white, sugar and preserves of the tyttebø (a sort of cranberry-ish fruit).

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