For the most part, we can get all the ingredients we need to keep making the same dishes we used to make in the US, but sometimes they have slightly different names. For example, baking soda is called \u201cnatron,\u201d probably derived from \u201cnatrium\u201d, another name for the element sodium. My coworkers from the UK often end up buying corn flour (corn meal) instead of corn starch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes the ingredients we need just don\u2019t seem to exist here. We haven\u2019t found graham crackers anywhere, and the marshmallows here are typically vanilla flavored and prone to burning, so making s\u2019mores is difficult. We can find panko bread crumbs at Asian grocery stores, but we can’t find what I would call “regular” bread crumbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I asked a group of coworkers about bread crumbs specifically, and my boss said they did not exist in Norway. Another coworker suggested I put bread through my coffee grinder. \u201cI more or less do that,\u201d I said. \u201cWe buy those long Wasa cracker things and put them in a food processor.\u201d I held up my hands to show the size of the cracker, about the size of a dollar bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My boss stared at me with a mixture of shock and disgust. I had seen this look before. It\u2019s the same look New Englanders are trained to give whenever anyone says Dunkin\u2019 Donuts isn\u2019t very good, or Tom Brady is a system quarterback. I had somehow managed to insult the very bedrock of Norwegian culture. But what had I done? I lowered my hands sheepishly. Maybe I had inadvertently made a rude gesture? Am I not supposed to crush crackers? The table was silent for a moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose are NOT crackers!\u201d exclaimed my boss. \u201cThose are knekkebr\u00f8d. Completely different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey are definitely crackers,\u201d replied a Canadian coworker. \u201cWhy aren\u2019t the Ritz crackers in the same aisle? That always annoyed me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey are different things!\u201d insisted our boss. \u201cYou use them differently, they taste different, they are not the same at all! Next group trip we are going to the store and I am teaching you all you need to know about Norwegian food.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the most part, we can get all the ingredients we need to keep making the same dishes we used to make in the US, but sometimes they have slightly different names. For example, baking soda is called \u201cnatron,\u201d probably derived from \u201cnatrium\u201d, another name for the element sodium. My coworkers from the UK often […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-norway"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/img_9352-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1585"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1590,"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1585\/revisions\/1590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}