Free Money!

I'm back in Norway for the summer and have been loving it so far.

Every time I get home, the very first thing I eat is "sild i tomat", herring in tomatoes. I always get in sometime in the early afternoon and even though I'm deadly tired and smelly from the plane ride, I usually sit down with my parents and have brødskiver, openfaced norwegian sandwiches. Norwegian bread is so good, everything pales in comparison- it's crusty on the outside and nice and soft in the middle and full of seeds and oats and other good stuff. Herring is a white fish and it comes with onions in a tomato sauce. Probably sounds a bit weird, but I love it and it's a great thing to come home to.

The first night I came back, I went out with a bunch of friends, and the next morning, sligtly reduced from then night before, I met up with Bettina and Andreas, and went to town. Seriously!

Basically, this really gross guy who was already drunk at 2 in the afternoon may or may not have dropped 500 kr on the ground, but we couldn't be sure it had been his, so we decided to use the money on the beautiful day that lay ahead of us! We felt like little kids who had found 20 kr and could now do ANYTHING.

What better thing to spend money on than food!?

There's a new opera house in Oslo, which has been in the works for years. It's built right on the water and is supposed to look like an iceberg, I think, but in any case, you can walk up the slant which is the roof and look out at the water and sit there. I hadn't been yet, so we headed over there, and on the overpass on the way there, we smelled waffles. Beautiful norwegian waffles. They're usually shaped like hearts, 5 of them in a circle and topped with some combination of sour cream, strawberry jam, raspberry jam, or sugar. A woman was selling them at a stand right by the opera, so we each got one, (probably courtesy of the gross drunk man, although we can't be sure). So we sat down at the opera house (which was suprisingly pretty and fitting for the city, which you never would have guessed by the drawings that had been in the newspapers for years) and ate scrumptuos Norwegian waffles with raspberry jam on top. I'll post a recipe for Norwegian Waffles at the end here.

Oslo is an expensive city. The world's 10th most expensive city according to CNN (New York is 15th on that list), but I've also seen lists where it ranks number number two, right after London. So, eating out is tough and whenever I find a new place to eat where prices aren't crazy, I get excited!

We had 440 kr left, and decided to go to "Rice Bowl" (Youngsgate 4, 0181 Oslo, 22 41 20 06), a Thai restaurant that Bettina and Andreas knew about, for a late lunch. Our friend Sandra met us there. Prices weren't crazy- from 95 to 130 for a meal. We each had some version of yellow or red curry with chicken and veggies and cashews, except for Sandra, who had rice noodles with broccoli. It was all very yummy and very free.

Yay free money and a summer day filled with food!

KORPSETS VAFFELRØRE

This is my Aunt Laila's recipe for Norwegian waffles. "Korps" means school band, and this recipe was used for the waffles made and sold for fundraisers for the school band. It's really good.

This is a really big recipe, so it's probably a good idea to half it eventually. Also, a pinch of cardemomme is really good too.

1/2 l (2.1 cups) kefir (or buttermilk)
1/2 l (2.1 cups) whole milk
300 g (1.3 cups) melted margerine
500 g (4 cups) flour
1 or 2 eggs
300 g (1.5 cups) sugar
1/2 ts vanilla
a pinch of salt

Mix everything together, let it stand for about 15 minutes.

Preheat the waffle iron, make them one at a time, try topped with sour cream and strawberry jam!