xanawu » food

wrong on so many levels

xanawu — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:59:40 +0000

amazing how many thai-chinese-vietnamese-sushi places you can find in Oslo.

bún chay (with tofu)

xanawu — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 19:50:33 +0000

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

pastéis de belém

xanawu — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:37:43 +0000

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.

NaOH = food product

xanawu — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:08:10 +0000

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.

beer prices in oslo

xanawu — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 13:51:47 +0000

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)