September 2008 Archives
Looks like I've started my own Oslo tradition: the Sunday afternoon walk and early evening meal. I know in the U.S. that would seem like a senior-citizen-early-bird-special tradition, but here in Oslo it seems so cosmopolitan. Young and old flock to cafes and sit outside people watching, conversing, and otherwise enjoying the weekend. These are my kind of people!
Today, I walked down to Aker Brygge to watch the last marathon runners finish their race.
A number of my family members have decided to train for a marathon; I'm so impressed with their dedication and hard work! As I watched these runners finish the route, I imagined Diane, Ted, Emily, Steven, Carrie, and Matt (the runners in my family) and how good it must feel to achieve a difficult goal.
I walked around the finish line, enjoying the sight of hundreds of banana peels and tired athletes getting massages. I admired those whose bodies had already started stiffening up yet who still had a long trip home on public transportation ahead of them. They looked tired but proud.
But my stomach was rumbling, so I walked down to where all the restaurants are. I finally decided to go to Olivia right by the last leg of the route. On the waitress's suggestion, I tried the pizza with chicken, olives, arugula, and a sundried tomato pesto.
I have to say, Norwegians understand pizza. The thin, charred crust was perfection. And the mix of the peppery arugula and the concentrated tomato taste of the pesto was soooooooo good. The chicken was pretty bland and there was very little cheese (maybe a sprinkling of parmesan), but the other ingredients more than made up for that.
I hope this isn't the end of my tradition. By the time I'm able to do this again, it will be mid-October. At the end of my dinner today, I was beginning to get cold--and it looks like this week the temperature will drop another 10 degrees. Although I'm told that Norwegians go to cafes in dead winter, huddling by heaters and wrapped in blankets, I think that might be a little much for me.
Of course, I could sit inside where it's toasty warm right by a window . . .
Thursday evening, I met some friends at a restaurant called Kaffistova (which translates as "coffee room"). It's in a Best Western hotel here in Oslo, but it actually has an interesting history. The hotel opened in 1913 and was the place where many rural Norwegians stayed when they came to town. The restaurant is known for serving country fare from the western part of Norway, so it was a place that brought comfort to travelers who might not have been quite so excited to be in a city. According to Tove, the food that they serve is what most Norwegians ate until the 1970s brought fast food, pizza, and such other fare here.
I was really excited to finally eat a more traditional Norwegian meal. Thursday is the night that the hotel serves raspeballer (potato dumplings), so that's what I ordered. I'm not positive, but I think the other items on the plate are lamb, some kind of sausage, and a rutabaga mash.
This isn't the prettiest plate, nor was it even close to being a fantastic meal. Still, the lamb was flavorful and I enjoyed eating rutabagas for the first time (I just love that word, "rutabaga"). The dumplings were a little greasy and quite heavy. Susie said the chef had told her to put honey on hers and that she thought that improved the taste. I'm really glad I had the experience of eating here, but I'm not sure I'll return any time soon.
After dinner, we went to the annual walk along Akerselva, a river that runs through Oslo. I've been told that 25% of Oslo's population turns out for this event. There are small lights along the path, people performing at various places, and, yes, a ton of people everywhere.
Somehow, my group ended up walking against the flow of people. Every so often we'd lose each other, only to meet up again when there was a little more space. We watched bad performance art (people dressed in white, glowing in the dark, running around looking "arty"!), heard someone singing a James Taylor song, and saw fire dancers at a couple of different places. After awhile, I got a little claustrophic.
Although these two events won't make my list of favorite things I did in Oslo, I am really glad I had both these experiences. And, of course, being with my fellow Fulbrighters and their friends is always fun.
This evening, after a walk around town, I stopped at a restaurant to read and nosh. I just started Ruth Reichl's Comfort Me with Apples, which tells about the beginning of her career as a restaurant critic. I sat at a table outside of a restaurant called Rust (Hegdehaugsvn 22), eating a petite but tasty spanish tortilla (think eggs, potatoes, and peppers), a couple of meatballs in a mildly spicy sauce, and fabulous, garlicky marinated artichokes. As Reichl transitions from hippie chef in Berkeley to renowned food writer, she describes divine meals with a sensuality and pleasure that transferred to my own culinary adventure today. I savored the different dishes--their flavors seemed so vibrant in the sunny cool of Oslo's fall. Everything seems so beautiful to me right now . . . .
My favorite quote from the book so far is when one of the other inhabitants of Reichl's commune evaluates her decision to become a food critic: "You're going to spend your life telling spoiled, rich people where to eat too much obscene food?" He has a point, but it's clear that Reichl has a passion for food and the obsessive desire to talk about gustatory experience in narrative form. I'm interested to see if she's able to create a balance between her hippie roots and her yuppie occupation.
No pictures today since I was traveling light--just me, my bankcard, and my Kindle--my own version of yuppie paradise.
Oslo doesn't have a large number of vegetarian restaurants. Last night, a group of us met at Krishna's, a vegetarian Indian restaurant in the Majorstuen area. The restaurant has one daily special--and that's it. One can choose whether to have the full meal (which includes a soup and salad) or not, but otherwise there aren't any other choices to make. It's a very informal place--a good place to take kids (and we had three in our group). We ordered at the counter and shared a table with several other people.
I started off with the cauliflower soup--it was mild and creamy with a very definite taste of cauliflower. The salad was a kind of cole slaw--I didn't eat much of it since there was so much other food. The main plate included a pasta with veggies and paneer, chick peas with brussel sprouts, fried zucchini and a sweet apple chutney topped with rice and papadum. I liked the surprising apple chutney, surprising because I thought it was just part of the pasta dish until I tasted it. The pasta dish was mostly non-descript, although the flavors were pleasant. The chick peas and brussel sprouts had a stronger curry flavor. And the fried zucchini was a little soggy with a strong oil flavor.
For Oslo, the food was pretty inexpensive, just 110 kroner or $18! Any meal that costs less than 150 kroner is dirt cheap. It was nice to eat out with friends--and great to have something other than pizza and open faced sandwiches. Next week, we're hoping to eat at a traditional Norwegian restaurant. You'd be surprised at how difficult it is to find restaurants in Oslo that serve classic Norwegian dishes. There's a sushi or pizza place every time I turn around, and McDonalds (with its salmon wrap) and Burger King (with the "angry" burger, which means, I think, that it's spicy) are also really common. But I'm really longing to have fish or potato dumplings or some kind of Norwegian dinner.
I'm still getting used to being a food blogger in Norway--which basically means that I keep forgetting to take pictures of food! I guess I'm on sensory overload which focuses me quite firmly on the PRESENT rather than the future blogging I want to do. In any event, I offer up a few photos at the altar of Savory Morsels as penance . . . with a promise to try to do better!
Friday night, a representative from the America-Scandanavia Foundation was in town from New York. Tove organized a dinner in her honor at Pizza da Mimmo, a small restaurant in my neighborhood. Turns out, Pizza da Mimmo has wonderful pizza! I had a vegetarian pizza (complete with artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and sun dried tomatoes). I think when I go back, though, I want to try the four cheese pizza--it looked really yummy. The thing I liked best about the pizza was the thin, charred crust. That's my favorite kind of crust--I guess because it allows me to eat a lot more of the sauce, cheese, and toppings than when the crust is thick and heavy. I forgot to take a picture of the actual pizza, but here's a photo of most of our group.
Charlie, Johanna, Tove, Jennifer, Jeff, Valerie, and Kathee
Sara had to leave early and Charlie's parents (who were visiting from Napa Valley) bowed out of the picture. Although I've had a cold this week and was still recovering from it, I really enjoyed this evening out.
Last night, Hilde had a small dinner party. A week ago, we had talked about typical Norwegian fare, so she made Jen and I waffles. Norwegians like waffles with several kinds of toppings: butter and sugar, brown goat cheese and butter, Jarlsburg cheese and butter, and sour cream and jam. I think my favorite was the sour cream and raspberry jam, but I also really enjoyed the brown goat cheese--which is a little sweet and nutty. I'd tried a darker brown cheese already which has a caramel taste, but I now prefer the lighter variety.
Hilde made the waffles all at once and then we sat in her living room trying different combinations. She said that her mother's waffles are usually crisper, but Hilde prefers a softer texture. Basically, we took a half a waffle, spread ingredients on top, folded it in half, and ate the delectable combinations. As we ate, Hilde told us about several Norwegian holiday foods, including a porridge that is her favorite. I'm so grateful that Hilde opened her home to us; I'd been told that it's rare for Norwegians to invite others over. Hilde has been such a good friend to me: allowing me to observe her English class so that I could see what Norwegian classrooms are like, showing me some of the hidden gems of Oslo last week, and now making Norwegian food for me. She's really a lovely person.
So that's my blog post about typical Norwegian food: pizza (really, it's amazing how much Norwegians love pizza) and waffles!
Saturday, I ended up going to two different music festivals, one in Hovseter during the day and another in St. Hanshaugen's park in the evening. When I read the Events listing for the one at Hovseter, I made the mistake of thinking it was Norwegian FOLK music, when all the ad really said was "Norwegian music." When Jen and I arrived, a group of boys, probably around 16 years old, were playing some very tongue-in-cheek rap about the agony of puberty. They made me smile.
When their set was over, we walked around the square, trying to find a bit of shade (horrors, it was 70 degrees!). What we found was the Carlton Pie Company which serves both fruit and meat pies. The owner's wife was Irish and the owner himself had lived a number of years in South Africa. He quite charmed us with his stories . . . so we ordered pie: broccoli and curried veggies.
The broccoli pie is on the left, the curry on the right with tzatziki, the Greek cucumber-dill-yogurt sauce. The flaky crust and vegetables made for a nice late lunch--although I have to say that this wasn't necessarily an "I have to go back" kind of experience.
EXCEPT that I really want to try the chocolate-fruit pie. The description reminded me of a fruit tart that John B. made once when we all ate dinner at Liza's. You know, a tart with custard and fruit on top. Only John spread chocolate over the crust before he added the custard. It was divine! The Carlton Pie Company drizzles the chocolate on top. I'd really like to try that . . . unless John is willing to send me his version via very expensive, overnight, refrigerated mail????
Unfortunately, the next band started to play just before the veggie pies arrived. They were not nearly as fun as the first band. In fact, they were down right irritating. We were glad when we'd finished eating so we could flee the square.
On the other hand, the music Saturday night was actually pretty good. Kirsten, Andreas, Jen, and I looked at the beautiful sunset from our seats overlooking the fjord. Kirsten loves Norwegian sunsets (which remind me of Arizona sunsets with their striking reds and pinks). The music served as a nice backdrop while we watched the sun sink below the horizon and the arrival of the Norwegian summer night.
