
Ah, the land of the Vikings, the birth place of one of the best children’s authors this world has ever seen (Roald Dahl) and Antarctic explorers extraordinaire; I’ve always been an avid Robert Scott fan myself, but there’s no escaping the fact that Scott perished in his tent whilst Norwegian Roald Amundson made it to South Pole first…and got out again. Speaking of which the Norwegians have laid claim to a gargantuan 2.7 million square kilometres of Antarctica, just thought I’d throw that factzoid in there, that’s a fuck load of snow. Note to self, do NOT challenge a Norwegian to a snowball fight.
So what do the Norwegian’s do when they’re hungry? Just like their neighbours they’re masters of the art of preserving and foraging. Burying salt/sugar coated fish? Yes! Fermenting, you got it? They’ve truly got preservation covered. On a typical Norwegian menu you’ll find mutton, pork, potatoes, onions, cabbage, sausages, mountain hare and fish fish fish, especially smoked salmon for which Norway is renowned. Bilberries, cloudberries, lingonberries, dill, pepper, cardamom, cinnamon. The kind of comforting food you crave when it is bloody cold outside.
I don’t do fish, sorry Cosmin, so rakfisk, lukefisk, torsk, fiskesuppe, sursild and stekt fisk were promptly ignored and instead we scoffed down spinatsuppe, farikal and krumkake.