Land of the Midnight Sun. And Cheese

Just back from a week in Norway. In reality, too late in the season for midnight sun-- there were, in fact quite a few hours of daylight though many of the days I was there were overcast, grey and snowy. I thoroughly enjoyed the snow. It had been many years since I trudged around in snow. The last time was most likely in St. Petersburg, Russia, or maybe a January trip to New York. But in any case, I loved it. I had a thinsulate jacket and my ears were covered, so the cold was not too bad. Also, my friend Arna had me buy a pair of feetless wool tights. Absolutely wonderful and I'm considering wearing them for cold weather cycling.

Aside from the snow, there was, the cheese. Part of the extreme cheese eating was due to the fact that my friend is kosher, and she can't get kosher chicken in Oslo. She did have some chicken she had brought from the states (thank you, Trader Joe's) and we partook of that and some kosher lamb she had also imported. And, we ate a lot of cheese.

I absolutely love cheese but eat it very sparingly at home, mostly due to its monumental fat content, but hey, I was on vacation.
We ate hard cheese, soft cheese, goat cheese, cream cheese. We had it on wonderful thin flatbread flavored with rosemary. We had it on hearty whole grain crackers and wonderful crusty bread.

We also had good Indian food in Oslo and decent Chinese food in Kongsberg. Norway is legendarily expensive, but while these restaurants were pricey by American standards, they were quite reasonable for Norway.

Being a huge cluckaholic, I had chicken at both restaurants. I was relieved that the chicken at the Chinese restaurant was not sweet, as is so often the case. Anyone who knows me knows I have a thing about sweet food. Sweets are for dessert. Not for main course. Do not put orange sauce on my duck; no sweet ginger sauce on my salmon, thank you very much.

And speaking of salmon, we also had lovely salmon one night for dinner. It was not sauced at all and was moist and flavorful.

I drank my share of coffee in Norway, and a lot of it was good. That's partly because I brought a can of Trader Joe's French roast with me and we made coffee in an Aero-Press. In addition, Arna's office had an industrial-sized Nespresso machine, which churned out great cups. But "regular" coffee in Norway is not to my liking. It tends to be not dark roast enough and a bit bitter to my taste. I had vague memories from my last trip there, which was all the more reason to bring some coffee.

In addition to coffee, I brought three or four Aeropresses with me. Arna had one, but wanted another for her office, and being the envy of many friends who loved hers, I brought some more for friends and coworkers. How such a simple little coffee maker can make one of the absolutely best cups of coffee is amazing. By far the most portable coffee maker I've ever had, and in my opinion, far better and neater than French press.

And then there were the Norwegian potato chips. Normally, I reserve potato chip eating for the AIDS ride, but again, I was on vacation. And the potato chips were outrageously crisp and crunchy. We went through two bags while I was there, and if there had been another bag sitting around, it would not have sat around for long. Yum.

What I didn't eat a lot of were sweets. Chocolate gives me migraines and we also had to deal with the meat/milk aspects of meals at Arna's. We did have ice cream one night, but by and large, it was not a dessert-laden week.

Home now, I'm back to a refrigerator with some feta, but no other kinds of cheese, and it will stay that way.

And most definitely no potato chips in the cupboard.