The Nordic 18 Days： [Food] 5 Must-eat Delicacies and Dark dishes in Northern Europe

As an Asian, if we want to choose between Nordic cuisine and Chinese cuisine, we will definitely choose the latter. However, there are still a few dishes that are must try in Nordic countries!

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Nordic delicacies:

1. Cinnamon rolls
2. Sandwich
3. Fish soup
4. Berries
5. Norwegian Salmon

Nordic dark cuisine:

1. Whale meat
2. Pickled herring (surströmming)
3. Licorice
4. Brennivín
5. Smalahove

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1. Cinnamon Rolls

The ingredients of cinnamon rolls are not complicated, they are made of fermented bread, sugar and cream plus cinnamon. Cinnamon rolls originated in Sweden. When we checked the information, I discovered that Swedish loves cinnamon rolls so much that it has established a “Cinnamon Roll Day”, which is scheduled for October 4th every year.

A little bit of cardamom (cardamom) pungent, stimulates the taste buds. The Swedish word for cinnamon rolls is Kanelbulle. Kanel = cinnamon and Bulle = bread.

Recommended by netizens living in Copenhagen, Denmark:

Brød (Copenhagen)
Address：Enghave Plads 7, 1670 København V
Phone：3322 8007
Website：Visit Copenhagen

After we tried it, we thought this one in Copenhagen is also pretty good:

Lagkagehuset (Copenhagen)
Address: In fact, it is a chain store. The two more convenient branches are as follows:
– Ny Østergade 12, 1101 København K
– Vesterbrogade 4, A, 1620 København V （Opposite to the Tivoli Park）
Official Website(Danish)：Click here

The place where cinnamon rolls are made, Sweden eats this one, which is better than Copenhagen’s.

Vete-Katten (Stockholm)
Address：55 Kungsgatan, Stockholm 111 22, Sweden
Phone：+46-820-84-05

2. Smorrebrod

Sanwich Smørrebrød – In the past, Danish workers carried them so that they could eat them easily at work. Traditionally, wheat buns are used as the base, and then spread with sauce and simple ingredients to make a lunch. However, the current Smørrebrød has been upgraded to become a frequent visitor of gourmet Bloggers, using fresh and colorful ingredients to create beautiful instragram photos.

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3. Fish Soup

When I went to Northern Europe, we always felt that the food they ate in the snow country was cold, and European were still eating salads and cold pickled foods in cold weather. Only the fish soup made us feel warm and satisfied after drinking. Northern Europe has plenty of seafood and related dishes, just like fish soup.

We went to Sweden to drink Kajas Fisk, which is the most popular fish soup online. The location is not easy to find. In the underground of a shopping mall, there is another lower level where there is a mini market. The base of the fish soup is tomato, the fish is rough but the meat is solid, and the taste can be maintained after the soup is boiled. In addition, other types of seafood such as shrimp and mussels are not top-quality seafood, but they are used for this soup. There is also a layer of garlic mayonnaise (Aioli) on top to add aroma. There are also free bread and salad bars. For less than $100HKD, it can be said to be very reasonable in Northern Europe fro such tasty soup.

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4. Berries

As long as you pass through the Nordic markets, you will see many stalls stacking berries into small hills. The price is similar to that of other Nordic fruits. You can also find berry varieties that you can rare find in Hong Kong.

Lingonberry is the most special one. You can buy it alone, but it is usually very sour. It is recommended to find mixed berry jam and put it in the yogurt if the breakfast is included in the hotel. The smaller one is lingonberry.

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4. Norwegian Salmon

In Hong Kong’s supermarkets, all salmon are advertised as coming from Norway. They come to the place of origin in one go, and there is no reason not to eat salmon locally. At the fish market, we ate salmon sashimi salad and mixed salmon with mayonnaise. The meat was delicious. During the trip, we also occasionally ate pan-fried salmon. The price was similar to that in Hong Kong, but it was considered cheap in Norway.

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Dark Cuisine No. 1: Whale Meat

We went to the fish market in Bergen, decided to try seafood products, ordered a market fish, and then saw Whale Burger, we couldn’t help but order a try. The meat is dry and coarse, and there is an inexplicable fishy smell, which is annoying!

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Dark Cuisine No. 2：Surströmming

The sticky juice, the smelly fish, the canned herring is terrible. There are also homemade pickled herrings in Northern Europe. They smell good, but they are terribly fishy.

Swedish fishermen can catch dozens of tons of herring in a week from May to June each year. In order to preserve, the herring is fermented by removing the viscera, and then put into cans for secondary fermentation after maturation.

I heard that as long as you open the can in clear water, wash off the strong soup, remove the tail of the sauce, then cut the fish into small pieces, and eat it on an open sandwich is the most authentic way to eat.

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Dark Cuisine No. 3：Licorice

I found a very interesting comment on the Internet: “This thing tastes like devil’s feces. It feels like a public toilet in your mouth.” I heard that it is salty and sweet, containing licorice, star anise, mint, etc. The rhizomes of licorice are boiled into a thick dark-brown juice, and then add a salty sodium chloride. You can consider whether to try or not, anyway we don’t want to.

Dark Cuisine No. 4：Brennivín

This is simply a wonder in the wine world. In the end, there is a shortage of materials, and potatoes and coriander will be used to make wine. Of course, many people are curious, but the feedback after drinking it are either disgusting or “will never drink this again”. Poor Icelanders, the only ingredients for them to make wine are potatoes, and they lack all wheat and rice.

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Dark Cuisine No. 5：Smalahove

Smalahove, a famous Norwegian dish, must be mentioned, and the pride of the Vikings is well-deserved. Smoked sheep’s head with a long history has a history of more than a thousand years, but its primitiveness is really uproar. First cut off the whole brain off the sheep and then use scissors to remove the hair, and then send the head of the sheep to a charcoal fire to roast until brown. After it’s out of the oven, the head is split in half, taken out and salted, and it becomes a “dish” a few weeks later. It is a pity that no one has seen this wonderful dish in Norway. It should be even more shocking to watch it live!

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