A Taste of northern Norway

What travel recollections are complete without a
recounting of all the interesting foods I tried? Here, Cortina and I are eating hot waffles with a slice of goat cheese in the middle- surprisingly good! We bought them on the street from two young boys who were doing some kind of fundraiser.

On my first night in Tromsø we had a traditional rice porridge, sweetened with sugar and cinnamon. It was delicious though I had not expected to eat it for supper. But I'm never one to argue with having something sweet for any meal! The leftover porridge was saved and made into rice cream the next day- whipped cream just folded into the porridge and served as dessert with berry syrup or carmel sauce drizzled over it. Wow!

Our next traditional meal was cured lamb, which has to soak in water for eight hours before being cooked. It was served with boiled potatoes and mashed kohlrabi. The meat was rich and salty and it was good to have the blander flavors alongside. Unfortunately, that evening I was coming down with a nasty but short-lived stomach flu so I didn't have the best appetite. Cortina loved the meal. Ben, who's the Norwegian one, doesn't like it and ate something else for dinner!

The night before I left, they went to no small trouble to make reindeer stew, with mashed potatoes and lignonberries. Mmmm- it was really good! My job was to occupy the kids while they cooked so I didn't pay close attention but I think the stew was made with goat cheese, sour cream and mushrooms in it. Delicious flavors!

Of course, there is a lot of fish and seafood to be had there and they eat caviar as a normal spread, not a special delicacy. Liver pate is also a popular spread for the fresh bread that is part of many breakfasts and lunches. The grocery stores carry many familiar items- fresh fruits and veggies, milk, cereal, packaged and frozen meals, etc.

Don't you just love food?