Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
more expensive. The quality is consistently top-notch. An excellent salmon dish,
gravat
laks
is made by marinating salmon in sugar, salt, brandy and dill and serving it in a creamy
sauce.
Other Norwegian freshwater seafood specialities that are recommended include brown
trout (only in the south), perch, Arctic char, Arctic grayling, bream, tench and eel.
In 2008 Norwegian chefs topped the medal table in an international cooking competition known unoffi-
cially as the 'culinary Olympics' and involving 32 countries (which didn't, perhaps significantly, include
France or Spain).
The most common ocean fish and seafood that you're likely to eat are cod (
torsk
or
bacalao;
often dried), boiled or fresh shrimps, sprat, haddock, mackerel, capelin, sand eel,
ling,oceanperchandcoalfish.Theuglybutinexplicablylovablecatfishis,sadly,ratherde-
licious, as is the blenny. Herring (once the fish of the poor masses and now served pickled
in onions, mustard or tomato sauce) is still served in some places, but it's becoming rarer
while wild stocks recover. Norwegians are also huge fans of
fiskesuppe,
a thin, creamy,
fish-flavoured soup.
Otherdishestowatchoutforinclude
fiskebolle
(fishballs),
fiskegrateng
(fishcasserole),
gaffelbitar
(salt- and sugar-cured sprat/herring fillets),
klippfisk
(salted and dried cod),
sildesalat
(saladwithslicesofherring,cucumber,onionsetc)and
spekeslid
(saltedherring,
often served with pickled beetroot, potatoes and cabbage).
Other Specialities
Potatoes feature prominently in nearly every Norwegian meal and most restaurants serve
boiled, roasted or fried potatoes with just about every dish. Other vegetables that turn up
withsometimesmonotonousregularityarecabbage,turnip,carrot,swede(rutabaga),cauli-
flower and broccoli.
The website of Arne Brimi (
www.brimiland.no
,
in Norwegian), arguably Norway's most celebrated chef,
may appear only in Norwegian for now, although expect that to change as his international reputation
grows.
The country's main fruit-growing region is around Hardangerfjord, where strawberries,
plums, cherries, apples and other orchard fruits proliferate. The most popular edible wild
berries include strawberries, blackcurrants, red currants and raspberries; blueberries
(huckleberries), which grow on open uplands; blue, swamp-loving bilberries; red high-
bush and low-bush cranberries; and muskeg crowberries. The lovely amber-coloured
mol-
