Restaurants – The Jolly Jaunts of Sarah Kooky Cook

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Prawn Starter – about 2 pints in a bucket

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.

Mussels at a harbour-side restaurant in Oslo

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.

Parma Ham and Mozarella Salad with cheesy garlic bread -sadly the salad had too much raw onion in! My lunch in Drammen

Chicken and Mushroom Pasta in Notodden – excellent but some raw onion crept in despite our requesting for it to be left out!

Pizza with mozarella and rocket in Bergen

Breakfast in Stavanger – I was feeling a need for fruit and it was quicker to do our own breakfast

Raw onion extracted from a salad on our way to Stavenger

Fish soup in Stavenger – this was superb and we both had the same dishes in this restaurant

White fish (possibly cod) with gnocchi, peas and asparagus in a creamy sauce – just superb!

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.

A fairly standard pizza in Hemsedal, a ski resort. There really was not much open out of season, but it was a fun place to stay; we were in a typical ski chalet

Typical Norwegian Restaurant in Tjuvholmen, Oslo; the food we ate in this restaurant is in the pictures below

Prawn shells left after I had devoured the prawns in the first photograph. There really were about 2 pints of them, but surprisingly I still had room for my main course afterwards

Game Casserole with mash and jam similar to the type served with Swedish meatballs

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.

Beautiful vegetables in Eataly in New York

Why is this pudding so huge with too much cream?!

This is a belated piece about our food whilst on holiday in New York and Florida in April. We love to eat good food all the time and I was looking forward to America because, like the UK, it is very multi-cultural and has such a diverse range of restaurants. My daughter Jess is also quite conservative in her food tastes but embraces American culture, so it seemed that it would be an easy place to find food to her tastes too. This was my first trip to America and Jessica’s too. Paul has been many times before, although not for a long time. I have known him for 22 years and he has not been to the USA since I have known him!

Some of my pre-conceived ideas about eating out in America and were they confirmed as being true or not?

I try not to be closed minded and have lots of pre-conceptions about places and people. However, with American culture being so widely known and shown on our TV and film screens, it was difficult not to have a few expectations. Actually, I did not have that many ideas about what to expect, but I had heard that eating out can be relatively cheap and that it is quite common to dine out a lot. My other expectation was that in restaurants the portions would be large. I have a very healthy appetite and can pile up my plate, but some of the meals defeated me! Hence the caption on the photo above of a pudding I had one day. For this reason we very rarely indulged in a pudding. In New York we ate out all the time; we had two nights there on our outward journey and three nights on our way back. Our apartments were not big enough for catering comfortably and we really wanted to see the big city in all its glory, so sitting in a cramped apartment was not an option we went for! We also like to have 3 meals a day, so sometimes I was frustrated with the breakfast being so huge and being mindful that I would need space for lunch! On our first morning in New York we had bagels – sadly I did not take any photos. They were excellent; mine was the traditional smoked salmon and cream cheese and I had fresh orange juice and fresh coffee to drink. Eating out in America is fun, noisy and vibrant and it is true that a lot of people partake of the pleasure. In terms of the cost, I’d say that New York was really quite pricey and comparable to London, whereas Florida was much more reasonable and as I was expecting American prices to be.

Below you can see some pictures of a breakfast we had en route one day in Florida:

Because of the huge portions, I was particularly looking forward to reaching our holiday home in Florida and being able to cook our own meals. Some might say, why would you go on holiday and cook your own food?! I even invited my dear old friend Gillian round for lunch on Easter Sunday; she has lived in Florida for over 30 years and was the reason for our visit. Well I just love to cook and really it does not matter where in the world I am; I want to go to the shops and go back and cook in a different kitchen. In this case the kitchen was large and well equipped; this made a lovely change from some of the villas we have rented in European countries, which often have rather small and uninspiring kitchens.

However, there are sometimes unexpected items missing or not working even in a big kitchen. The filter coffee maker did not work, so our host sent a replacement very promptly for us. The ice function in the fridge stopped working on Easter Sunday, which was not good news! Also, I could not find a proper can opener. Hence my attempt to open a can with a bottle opener. Result below, with no injuries at all!

Pre-dinner nibbles at Gillian’s fabulous Florida home

Here are some of the meals I cooked in our lovely Florida kitchen:

A melange of left-over pork, beans and tomatoes with some spice and topped with asparagus

Free-form pizza made with a flour tortilla and some chilli mince cooked up by Jess

Free-form chocolate cheesecake topped with fresh fruit, for Easter Sunday

We did have some wonderfully memorable meals in Florida in particular, where the fruit and vegetables were fresh and tasty and there was plenty of fish. We also tried alligator a couple of times. I had hoped to have it unadorned and looking like an alligator, but it was served in batter or in a macaroni cheese. The latter was for a late lunch after a long afternoon swimming with the manatees – more about that in another blog piece.

We spent two nights away in the middle of our Florida break, travelling through the Everglades and finally arriving at Key West. Paul and Jessica did so much driving and I did my usual job of assisting or interpreting what the sat nav was trying to tell us!

We particularly enjoyed Key West, because it is a little bit different in terms of American suburbia. You get used to driving along main roads and passing shopping centres and restaurants without that town or city centre experience. It is true that it would be very difficult to walk anywhere in most locations, and those people you do see walking seem to be an oddity and it does not look very safe! Key West is more of a proper town with streets and shops. You can park your car and then stroll the streets to find somewhere to eat. Curiously though, most of the buildings are of a clapboard design so many of them look the same. We had a bit of difficulty finding the post office. Our main reason for visiting, apart from the wonderful coast (I have to swim everywhere we go!) was to see Ernest Hemingway’s House with the many 6-toed cats. More about this another time, but we had the most wonderful lunch at the Moon Dog Restaurant; it used to be called the 6 Toed Cat, but for some reason was renamed. I had the most divine steak salad, just cooked rare and to perfection.

Stunning Artwork on the walls at the Moon Dog

On some occasions we got round the huge portion dilemma by sharing a meal. This is really ideal with a pizza, and to be honest we sometimes do this in the UK anyway. At home I make one big pizza and cut it into portions; we would never have a whole pizza each, although my toppings tend to be more substantial than those you get in a restaurant.

The fish in Florida was superb. Common varieties were grouper and mahi mahi. The latter is also known as dolphin fish, but don’t panic! It is not anything to do with dolphins as we know them. One restaurant we ate in offered a couple of different fish with a selection of sauces and side dishes. A lovely, simple way of offering choice to customers.

On our way back home, having had a rather hot and tiring journey, we ate in one of the airport restaurants at JFK airport; much nicer than sitting around in crowds waiting for the flight. On this occasion, even Jessica was a little defeated by the large ice-cream sundae.

In conclusion I would say that the food in America was enjoyable and rarely disappointed us. If you are not like me and can cope with fewer than 3 meals a day when you need to have every meal in a restaurant, then that is definitely a wise option to take on occasions.

Tag: Restaurants

Food in Norway – should I divide by 10 or 12?

Eating our way through New York and Florida