Mathallen, Oslo – A Taste of Things to Come?

It's finally happening! In just a few months' time Oslo will boast its very own permanent food hall. Norway's capital has lagged behind its Nordic neighbours when it comes to indoor food markets. Stockholm has the wonderful Östermalms and Hötorgshallen food halls, Helsinki boasts the Kauppahalli food market, and Copenhagen now has the new gleaming Torvehallerne food hall. But until recently (and for a few more months yet) Oslo had nowhere permanent to buy speciality produce from local producers.

Where's the (fresh) Beef? The Current State of Food in Norway

For those that think everyday food in Norway is a never-ending parade of glistening fresh seafood, wild game, root vegetables and berries, or smoked this and hay-baked that made by sweet-smelling blonde maidens, I have disappointing news for you.

A recent government commission found that Norway has the poorest selection and highest prices of food in Europe. The reasons for this are varied, but this article (and this more recent one) describes them quite well. To sum it up: protectionist import tariffs, huge farm subsidies, supermarket monopolies, and consumer indifference have all conspired to create a lacklustre daily food experience in this country. I want, therefore, to show you the other, more typical side to the execrable state of mainstream food in this country.

Oslo Christmas Market (Julemarked)

This weekend I took advantage of a brief respite in the freezing weather we've been having and headed off to the Oslo Christmas Market (Julemarked). The market is held every year in the shadow of the imposing Oslo City Hall (Rådhus). This year around 80 exhibitors were present, who were selling homemade jewellry, pottery, artwork, textiles, and food. The focus here isn't really on food, though, and the food offerings were rather limited compared to the rather excellent Matstrief food festival held in the same location. To be honest, the whole event was a tad disappointing, with some stands selling tacky knick-knacks with dayglo, star-shaped price stickers plastered all over them, but there were still a few interesting food related things to see and taste to make the visit worthwhile.

In addition to the ubiquitous hot dog (pølse) there were delicious warm waffles, lefse, cured fish and meats, cheeses, aquavit tastings, mulled wine (gløgg), and other unusual treats such as reindeer soup (well, it is Christmas after all)!

So, with minimal description, here are a few photos from the event:

Reindeer horns



View from the market across Oslo Fjord



Warming up inside the Sami tent

Beautiful leather bound books. Norwegian arts and crafts are also available at the market

Burger stand Norwegian style - Elk Burgers

Gløgg - Norwegian mulled wine, with or without booze

Many fiery aquavits were available to taste

Award-winning Norwegian spekeskinke (cured ham), from Bekkereinan in Kvinesdal

Cheese!

A variety of sild (pickled herring) - cranberry, sour cream, and cherry

Rakørret - the dreaded fermented trout, aka rotten fish! 

Treak - a delicious old Norwegian toffee made with juniper berries

Reindeer soup!

Traditional Norwegian trekopper - wooden cups

Smoked reindeer salami

Reindeer pelts 

The Oslo Christmas Market is open from 25th November to 22nd December from 11.00 to 20.00, Monday to Friday, and 11.00 to 18.00 on Saturday and Sunday. Access is free, and more information can be found on their website.

Matstreif Food Festival, Norway

One of Norway's largest annual food festivals, Matstreif, took place in Oslo the other week. This is the sixth year it has been run, and such was the popularity of last year's festival (over 120,000 people attended last year) that this year it was held over three days.

So it was that I found myself on a chilly October day in front of the austere looking City Hall, with Oslo Fjord acting as a beautiful backdrop, ready for some culinary exploration. The festival is sponsored by Innovation Norway, who help promote Norwegian business and, as such, the festival is a real showcase of the very best of Norwegian cuisine.

I only had a couple of hours there, which was nowhere near enough time to fully explore everything. This was a truly huge festival and I could have easily spent a whole day wandering round and stuffing my face. There was so much to see and do and eat. Artisan producers from all round the country were represented, there were live demonstrations from chefs, presentations, competitions and, of course, lots and lots of fantastic Norwegian food to try. Many of the same producers that attended the Oslo Farmers' Market were there and they were joined by dozens of others. In total there were about 140 exhibitors and over 3,000 different products.

So here's a quick snapshot of the food festival. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but I think I managed to capture most of the main highlights.

Here's a burger stand Norwegian style: elk burgers from Ommang Søndre, a bio-dynamic farm in Løten! I've eaten elk before so I thought I'd save myself for something else. But if you're wondering what it tastes like then think of a less gamey tasting venison with the texture of very lean beef.

Berry Syrups from Linnea Finnskogen

Lots of organic vegetables:

Striped beetroots, they look so beautiful!

I spotted what I thought was smoked trout and gleefully popped some in my mouth. I regretted it instantly. It turned out that this wasn't smoked trout, but was, instead, the infamous rakfisk, aka rotten fish. And it was... IN MY MOUTH. Rakfisk is fermented trout, and apparently people have gone blind and even been killed by badly prepared rakfisk. The sweet lady serving it smiled at me and expectantly asked me in Norwegian if I liked it. I didn't have the heart to say otherwise, so I swallowed the cold flaccid fish, grinned like a lunatic and said it was delicious, and then hurried to the fresh-pressed apple juice stall to try and get rid of the rancid taste in my mouth. It was singularly the worst thing I have eaten, with a noxious taste of rotten flesh and ammonia, and a smell like it forgot to wipe.

Rakfisk is perhaps one of Norway's oldest foods. The first record of it dates back to 1348, but the method of preserving fish by fermentation dates back thousands of years. Fish, usually trout but sometimes char or herring, is gutted, washed and soaked in vinegar for half an hour. The fish is then salted and placed in a bucket with a weighted lid for up to three months at around 4°C. In other words, the fish is allowed to rot.

Today, rakfisk is enjoying a resurgence in Norway, and it is considered quite fashionable to have rakfisk parties, where the fish is consumed with potatoes, onions, sour cream, flatbread, and plenty of akevitt. I think it's one of those foods that you have to have grown up eating in order to like it, as Norwegians seem to really enjoy it. It reminded me of the BBC TV show "Cooking in the Danger Zone", where the host, Stefan Gates, visits the Inuit in the Arctic circle and eats igunaq, which is rotten/fermented walrus. The sight of young Inuit kids gleefully eating igunaq made an amusing contrast to Gates, who was doing everything in his power not to throw up.

Rakfisk - looks so tasty, but packs quite a punch

More familiar territory now with some klippfisk, or salt cod. Although being one of the country's largest exports historically, it is not often eaten in Norway. For a quick and tasty klippfisk recipe, see here.

Klippfisk (salt cod)

I won't get into the whole whaling debate, but suffice it to say that Norway is a proud whaling nation, and there was plenty of whale meat on offer at the food festival. I tried some smoked whale meat, which was quite pleasant. It had a texture like tuna, with an unusual flavour of mildly smoked beef and fish. It's probably not something I'd jump at to eat again, but it was interesting nonetheless.

"Whale Wok": stir-fried whale

There were plenty of stalls that were cooking some amazing dishes, which created such a wonderful mix of aromas.
 

A hearty autumn stew with grilled pork loin

For my first lunch I had this delightful little plate of food, which comprised of a starter of pike mousse and smoked salmon roulade, meltingly tender roast pork from Brødr. Ringstad with herb butter and mashed potatoes, and a mousse of crowberries, blueberries and nýr (a sort of mild fresh cheese, like ricotta) from Grøndalen farm.

My second lunch was equally delicious; gratinated scallops served in their shells piping hot from the grill.

It doesn't get much better than Norwegian seafood, and there was plenty on display, including one of my favourites: arctic char from Vesterålen in the north of Norway.

Crab claws

Wonderfully sweet mussels from Snadder og Snaskum. Stay tuned for a simple pasta recipe in which I use these delicious molluscs.

This fella scared the life out of me. Not sure where it was caught though.

Come on in, the water's lovely!

Here is some cured mountain goat leg from Fjellgeit BA in north Gudbrandsdalen. Such is the craftsmanship that if it were 20 degrees warmer we could almost be in Spain eating jamón Ibérico.

Vinegars, jams, and honey

And now one of my favourites: warm svele fresh from the griddle, made by Anne Karins from Fagerstrand. Svele are thick, fluffy pancakes that are made with flour, eggs, sugar, buttermilk, and baking soda. They originate from the west coast of Norway, and if you ever take a ferry across one of the many fjords in this part of the country, you will invariably be served svele. Here they were served with sour cream and a blueberry jam. Soo yummy; I could have eaten many, many more.

Warm svele with sour cream and blueberry jam

Finally, what better to go with the svele than a luxuriously thick, dark espresso.

By all accounts, it seems that Matstreif 2010 was a resounding success, and the expanded format this year was a very welcome addition. This food festival was just the sort of thing that makes me so happy: seeing knowledgeable local producers and their delicious bounty of local food. Norwegian food often gets a bad reputation, and yes, sometimes it is justified, but I left Matstreif excited with the knowledge that with producers and products like these, Norway has so much good food to be proud about.

Oslo Farmers' Market (Bondens Marked)

One of the things I really miss about living in London is the abundance of farmers' markets. I love spending a day lazily wandering around, looking at the bounty of beautiful fresh produce, chatting to producers, and grazing on various exciting foods. So I was overjoyed to discover that Norway has a small, but growing farmers' market scene.

The Norwegian Farmers' Market association was started in 2003 and it imposes quite high standards on producers - the processing of food must be small scale and dominated by craftsmanship, raw ingredients must be locally produced and traceable, and only the producers themselves can sell their products at the market. So, although the range of products offered is quite limited compared to other markets I've been to, the quality of food that is offered is very high indeed.

Recently, I stopped by my local Farmers' Market on Vika Terrassen in Oslo along with Mrs. Nibbler and the Nibbler kids. Although we arrived early, there was already quite a sizeable crowd; a good sign of the growing interest in local, specialty foods. We spent a very pleasant couple of hours at the market and I thought I'd share some of the highlights with you.

Most of the producers that turned out are based relatively near to Oslo, so it really was great to see such wonderful produce being made locally. Here are some preserved plums from Sjødalstrand Gård, a farm just 20km south of Oslo:

Apples are in season now in Norway, and the family run Eplegården had a stand at the market. Eplegården is a family-run farm located 40km south of Oslo. They have been growing apples for five generations and the farm has over 4,000 apple trees, producing 25 varieties of apples. They were pressing apples to make fresh unfiltered apple juice, which was wonderfully crisp and sweet:

The biggest queue of the day was for this:

Warm, golden beauties with a touch of sweetness. No, not that, I'm talking about the pancakes, which were thick and fluffy, and were served with a delicious strawberry compote.

There was also some excellent organic ice cream, made by Isrosa on their farm in Herøysundet, 90km south of Bergen.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Norwegian farmers' market without brunost, or brown cheese. There were a few varieties on sale but most of these were the traditional, old-school geitost (goats cheese) variety. I tried a traditional geitost from Prestholt farm, located 1,200m above sea-level in the stunning hills of northern Buskerud County. It was dense and fudgy with a pleasant sweetness to it and had just a hint of goat about it (in a good way though).

More geitost:

Corn is in season too at the moment, and Bjørke Gård was there grilling some fresh husks of corn that were dabbed with a slick of butter. They smelt fantastic, but unfortunately they tasted a touch anaemic.

We're just at the tail end of the raspberry season now and there were some stunning examples on display. These were from Søndre Bjerkerud farm, north west of Oslo, where they grow 12 varieties of raspberries.

Søndre Bjerkerud also produces a lightly sweetened raspberry concentrate. Mix with hot water, pour into a Thermos, and you have the perfect drink to take with you on those cross-country ski trips in the forest.

There were also some interesting herb oils, vinegars, and mustard from Stabburstua, which is located south of Oslo, near the Swedish border.

Farmers' Markets are held across Norway throughout the year. For more information and dates check out the Norwegian Bondens Marked site.