Nordic cuisine

Norway seems almost too good to be true.

It isn't.

I have never been to a place more expensive in my life.

This is not simply hyperbole either. This place is by far and away the most expensive place I have ever set foot in. Even with the spectacularly performing Australian dollar, I found myself taken aback by how quickly my money seemed to be slipping out of my grasp.

Even for something as simple as one of their delicious bolles, it was a shock to the system every time they told me the price.

On the whole, the food in Norway was quite simple. There wasn't too much complicating or masking the flavours of the underlying ingredients used.
That's when I was actually able to find real "Norwegian" food that is.

On the whole, the locals seemed to have embraced foods like Thai and Italian as the cuisine of choice.

It took a bit searching, but I was able to find some more traditional purveyors of Norway's food.

Selling local delicacies such as salted fish and smoked elk, the strong flavours of the food reminded me of some of the more interesting foods I encountered as a child growing up with Chinese parents.
I wasn't completely surprised that this food wasn't common inside the homes of Norwegians anymore.

It took too long, too much time to prepare. The easy options are so much more enticing due to their simplicity.
It didn't mean I didn't like it though. The food was like nothing I've ever had before. Eating things such as the "molter" jam, with its sour and strangely sharp flavour was incomparable to anything I've ever eaten.
I was also able to try the famed "brown cheese" of Norway, which completely changed my preconception of what a cheese could be. Biting into the traditional brown cheese from the specialty store, only a sliver, was like eating a creamier version of some of the strongest burnt caramel I've ever had. Who would have thought that to be possible from a cheese?