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We recently went on a week’s holiday to Norway. It all started when Paul had the opportunity to attend a really useful business conference in Drammen, near Oslo. He suggested that I may as well go with him, as it was in the middle of the school holidays; it also seemed more sensible to extend our stay, given that the conference was only for 2 days.
We went away with the full knowledge that this is an expensive country in terms of accommodation and eating out. Even if we had not known beforehand, it is generally the first point of interest that people will tell you about as soon as you say you are paying a trip to Norway! We watch quite a few Scandi dramas and enjoy the scenery as well as the tense drama; hopefully we would not come across any dead bodies, as murder is clearly as prolific in Norway as it is in Midsomer and Shetland.
Paul planned a whistle stop driving tour for after his conference, taking in some of the most significant cities with views of the fjords and mountains. Thus self-catering was not an option, as we typically had a day of driving and an over-night stop in a different location every evening. The idea is that we return for a longer holiday in the future with more self-catering possible. Our apartments were all of a really high standard and I was quite disappointed not to have the time to shop and cook. We just managed to make a couple of breakfasts, and one simple picnic lunch. I’ll describe the apartments in more detail in the next blog article, just telling you about the food we ate in this piece.
This was a lunch I ate on my own, whilst Paul was busy at the conference in the Drammen hotel. I just adore mussels and usually find they are beautifully cooked in the average restaurant. I like to spend the time eating them slowly, using one mussel shell as my ‘fork’ for extracting the meat from the shells. It is also a treat to have them with chips; I sometimes splash out and do this at home, but chips deep fried are one treat which it is good to let restaurant staff do for you. You get the bonus at the end of a lovely bowl of fishy sauce or soup.
I do like to have some idea of how much we are spending on a meal, even if we have accepted that this is going to be an expensive holiday. The average main course in Norway could set you back between 200 and 400 Kroner. You roughly divide by 12, not 10 as Paul first advised me. As we are talking about mid-range restaurants here, not really high class, that is much more than in the UK and all mounts up. Happily, all of the food was really good and not once did we feel that we had eaten a really disappointing meal.
I shall now show you a few more photos of the meals that we had, with brief descriptions. Just to add that I loved the style of the food, with a good choice of fish, meat and vegetable dishes. One feature which really impressed me was the integration of vegetables into your main course, rather than being half-hearted side dishes. In addition, the presentation was superb and very professional, as you should be able to see from the photos. If you think of the artistic presentation of the old style ‘Nouvelle Cuisine’ and just increase the size of the portion, that will give you a good idea of a typical Norwegian meal.
Our one frustration was the continuing and increasing tendency to put copious amounts of raw onion into salads. This happens everywhere, not just Norway. I have written a whole blog piece about it! We both dislike it intensely and have found that many people agree with us that it is unpleasant and unnecessary. We started to request food without raw onion; why did I never think of this before? Neither of us has allergies, so it is not being too fussy I think.
We also spoke to our waiter in this restaurant, who was so friendly, and from Maida Vale! I just had to tell him that this was my mother’s place of birth. The restaurant was truly international, with conversations taking place in English despite the diners not being from the UK.
Of course it goes without saying that we also drank quite a lot; wine for me and non alcoholic beer for Paul. Again the prices were much higher, at about 150 kroner for an average glass of wine. I show you below the menu for our last night dinner in Oslo, not including the drinks menu, but it gives you a little flavour of a typical restaurant in Oslo.
