At first, the challenge seemed easy. Assemble an open-faced sandwich with rye bread, vegetables and either fish or meat. I forgot to account for the fact that I was choosing from dining hall food, however.
The first day I tried a spin-off of a recipe I had gotten from a cookbook titled, The Nordic Diet. I topped a toasted piece of marble-rye bread with tomato, hard-boiled egg, onion and cucumber slices. A little Djon mustard added for taste. It was good but it was lacking in substance. Fortunately, I just increased the amount of fruit and vegetable sides eaten in the meal. I drank a lot of water accompanying the meal. Overall, not bad. At the very least it looked pretty legit.
The rest of the week went by and I quickly adapted to the Norwegian cuisine. I began to become more experimental with different ingredients, including the addition of kale in my absolute favorite recipe of the week. The fish was the hard part of the diet, however, as the dining hall's fish selection is sub-par. The kosher station did produce very delicious salmon one day which was perfect because Norwegians love their salmon. Although instead of eating freshly-caught salmon, I was eating salmon without a clue where it was shipped in from.. You can't win everything.
My favorite creation was a piece of toasted marble-rye bread topped with beef brisket and kale sauteed with onions. It was delicious. Kale is a fairly new food to me and I am interested in trying more recipes with the leafy, dark green, magical vegetable that is super healthy.
I am happy to report that I love the Norwegian eating habits and plan to include some of my favorite elements into my normal diet. My only regret is that I was unable to purchase brunost (brown goat cheese) for at least one of the recipes. I absolutely love brunost but it's so hard to find in America without going to a specialty store. Maybe next time!
Happy eating,
Mary
