30 October 2011
the wonderful bún at Lille Saigon 1 (not to be confused with their competitor Saigon Lille Cafe up the street–a splitting of ways apparently caused by some nasty divorce). but really, what could go wrong when you combine rice vermicelli, pickled carrots & daikon, fresh cucumber, fried onions, bean sprouts, peanuts, tofu fried with lemongrass, and sweet/spicy fish sauce? nothing.
Lille Saigon 1
Bernt Ankers gate 7
0181 Oslo
23 October 2011
One of the highlights of my trip to Portugal was a visit to Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, considered the mecca of portuguese egg tarts. Normally you can get custard tarts in any Portuguese snack bar by asking for “pastéis de nata”, but the best ones are to be found at this bakery, served warm out of the oven, and specially called pastéis de Belém.
An excellent description of this Portuguese institution/legend can be found on Leite’s Culinaria.
14 September 2011
Only in Norway could caustic soda be advertised as something to cook your fish with (“luting” being the verb for making “lutefisk”–a dish commonly served at Christmas, no less).
 good for cleaning, removing paint... and cod An apt description by a Norwegian-American named Dave Fox:
Norwegians didn’t invent lutefisk because they thought it was tasty. A long time ago, in the pre-refrigeration epoch, salting and drying fish was an efficient way to preserve it. They soaked it in lye afterward to pull the salt out and — believe it or not — make it more palatable. A century ago, lutefisk really was a staple in the Norwegian diet. Also a century ago, a lot of Norwegians fled the country.
14 August 2011
yes, oslo is one of the most expensive cities in the world, and people often complain about measure it using the price of beer. the alternative newspaper natt&dag has a weekly “beer barometer” (ølbarometer) which lists oslo’s cheapest beer places, but unfortunately not online. fear not, I can share with you oslopuls’ recent survey of 55 bars around the city, with prices ranging from 29 kroner (if you buy before 1 PM) up to 92.5 kroner (at the touristy place by the sea)–all for a half-litre of beer.
(1 USD = 5.5 kroner)
4 August 2011
had a nice visit to Paris with my parents, and was surprised to learn a few things about food in France:
- as expected, the food at most of the random French restaurants we tried was delicious. unexpected: the portions were huge.
- any dessert that even mentions chocolate is swimming in it. and chocolate shops are everywhere.
- moules frites: our waitress was so distressed to see me eating mussels with a fork, that she insisted on teaching me the correct method (“it’s so ugly to see you eating it that way, and your mussels are getting cold!”) and literally hand-fed me to show me how (yes, she was manic and more than a bit embarrassing). FYI: you’re supposed to use a mussel as pincers to pull out the flesh from another. and then you’re supposed to nestle the empty shells within each other into an orderly pile on the side of your plate.
- foie gras: not a big fan.
- pâtisseries: big fan, and happily you can find plenty of bakeries on every street.
- can’t decide what to have for dessert? no problem: café gourmand includes a mini-portion of 3-4 of the restaurant’s desserts, accompanied by a cup of espresso.
- macarons are expensive.
 5-kg containers of nutella (I saw a woman buying two)  fancy chocolates at galeries lafayette  our successful search for tarte tatin (flambée & à la mode) looking forward to our next visit!
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