Some Images from Norway

We were in Norway for the past few weeks, hence the silence on the blog. Here are some of our favorite food-related pics from the trip. Okay, the above is one of our many scenic pictures from Norway (an extremely photogenic country), but just out of the frame is a small fish farm. The interesting thing about Norway is how they manage to tuck their farms into every seemingly inaccessible and hidden (well, not so hidden, since we found them) corners of Norway. And they're everywhere. For a country that seems to have largely non-arable land, with long, dark winters, Norway manages to produce about half of their own food, from what looks like small, family run farms. Next time we go back to Norway, I'd like to go through WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms). I imagine there's a lot we could learn from them.



Another thing Norwegians do well: bread. Any grocery store or bakery in the larger cities had at a minimum, twenty different types of fresh-baked loaves, made of walnuts, spelt, oatmeal, graham, or rye...and more than Google Translate could translate for me. Even gas stations and convenience stores carried at least a few loaves of fresh bread and had small ovens where they could bake off boller throughout the day--soft, sweet, round buns sometimes studded with raisins and cardamom, or chocolate chips.


In the Lofoten Islands, above the Artic Circle, dry cod is a huge industry. The islands smell of the drying fish, hung by their tails, with mouths wide open on these wooden racks all over the islands.


Fjord trout, slightly pinkish like salmon, but with a milder taste.

A restaurant that sells only one cut of steak with a choice of sides like asparagus, cauliflower, or baked/boiled/mashed potatoes. This chalkboard outside proclaims its commitment to only the best meat from the best suppliers ands details some of their steps in preparing the best tasting steak.


Strawberries, so beautiful, glossy, red, and perfect that when I put them in our shopping basket, Ben wondered why I was buying plastic strawberries. How about the taste? Some of the sweetest we've ever had.