The Girl Who Ate Everything

Blogging about food and whatever since 2004.

Bergen, Day 7: Prawn Sandwich Party

This is the final post about the trip I took to Norway about NINE MONTHS AGO. Yeah, it's about time. Thanks for sticking with me.

Kåre and I started off the day with gas.

Gas time
Gasin'.

...For the car! At this nifty gas pump, aka a normal Norwegian gas pump. But it's far sleeker than those I've seen in the US—this specimen, for example. Or maybe this design is used in the US, just nowhere I've been. WHAT IS THE LIFE OF A GAS PUMP DESIGNER?

And so I wonder. And have no answers.

menu
"Påsmurt" means '"sandwiches." ...Heehee. Påsmurt.

For lunch, we stopped by Godt Brød, a local bakery chain. They specialize in bread and thus offer sandwiches, but they don't have a menu of sandwiches optimized for deliciousness—it's all DIY.

sandwich ingredients
Oh no, the choices...shiiiiiii—

In my case, DIY = sandwich failure. Sure, I could make a decent grilled cheese sandwich or tuna salad sandwich, but when faced with a selection of fillings that I'm supposed to combine in a cohesive manner, the "cohesive" part kind of shrivels up and collapses into a poof of dust.

A sandwich with a bunch of stuff in it A sandwich with a bunch of stuff in it
Sandwiches of stuff.

So we ended up with these sandwiches. What's in 'em? Sliced meats, lettuce, cucumbers, red peppers, sprouts, cheese, and spreads. The individually ingredients were tasty, but altogether they didn't mesh that well. They probably would've been better as salads sans bread.

So many prawns!
Giant bowl-o-prawns.
Prawns on buttered bread, topped with mayo and lemon
Prawns on bread. Good times.

Thankfully, dinner made up for everything. Kåre and I visited his cousin Joar (pronounced yoo-are) and Joar's wife Jahara at their home in Os for a night of open face prawn sandwiches (or a prawn buffet; Norway's got a whole lotta prawns). To recreate it at home, get a huge bowl of prawns—they had cooked 'em from a bag of frozen ones—and lay it out with a loaf of sliced bread, butter, and mayonnaise. Slather a slice of bread with butter, peel prawns and layer them on the bread, add some mayo, squeeze on some lemon juice, and eat! Then repeat one to ten times. It's a fun, easy, and damn tasty way to feed a group of people, unless you're allergic to shellfish (sorry, Nick).

espresso Kåre, Jahara, and Joar all done
Coffee and dessert.

We finished off with coffee and dessert. Or everyone else finished off with coffee and dessert, while I just ate dessert (there was ice cream on my plate before I...ate it).

Joar and Jahara are two of the sweetest, coolest people you could ever meet. I'd say, "You should meet 'em!" except you probably won't with the geographical obstacle and all. ...But you should meet 'em.

Candy candy candy Jams jams jams Chocolate bars cured meat stuff
Norwegian grocery store yaaay!

On the way home we took one last look around a grocery store in case I wanted to buy anything, "anything" really only meaning "giant chocolate bars." The other purpose was to take photos of products I could use in a post about Norwegian grocery stores on Serious Eats, a post that up until three minutes before writing this paragraph I thought I had written. But then I realized, haha!, nope, it never went up because I forgot to finish it. And I was so very pumped to give you the link to this post that doesn't exist. (I did write this guide to Norwegian (and some Swedish) candy; do I get some points for that? I hope so because that post took ages. Also, I had to eat all the candy multiple times, which you'd think is fun, but after a while it really isn't. Yeah cry me a river whatever I'llstopnow.)

Full moon
Full moon.

My last night in Norway ended with a full moon. And then...back home.

But "back home" was on February 19. What's happened since then? Kåre visited New York twice, in May and August, and we met up in Sweden in June. I'll be visiting Bergen from December 22 to January 3. So. Things are going quite swell. :)

Related
Bergen, Day 1: Snack, Nap, Burger
Bergen, Day 2: Puppy, Pizza, and Waffles
Bergen, Day 3: Hot Dogs, Lung Malfunction, and Potetkjelleren
Bergen, Day 4: Buns, Lamb Ribs, and Meeting the Parents
Bergen, Day 5: Roast Pork Ribs at the Sandvik Summer House
Bergen, Day 6: Norwegian Food Explosion at Bryggen Tracteursted

Comments

Katie / November 7, 2011 7:30 AM

Ahh it's a new post :) Always makes my day!

Also, those are some futuristic gas pumps. I've never seen one like that over here. Maybe someone else has?

Hopefully when Kare visits he brings more giant chocolate bars, as those sound pretty awesome! (I think it's superduper awesome that you guys are together! I know I am an internet stranger and all, but it's cute :)!)

Thanks for this new post, I love reading them!

roboppy / November 8, 2011 1:03 AM

Katie: Thank you for reading and for sending me your super duper awesome feelings through the internet. :) Kåre always knows to bring giant chocolate bars when he visits me, bwahahahaha.

EvvilB / November 8, 2011 8:56 AM

Reminds me of the food in "the girl with the dragon tattoo" series, even thought that takes place in Sweden.

roboppy / November 12, 2011 1:10 PM

EvvilB: Cool! I figure there must be some food crossover. I haven't read "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" yet.

Amanda: Thank you!

Rodzilla: I still have a draft of the post somewhere...I could finish it! If I get unlazy.. ;_;

roboppy / November 21, 2011 12:39 AM

Lola: It's a fun word. :D Kåre has since corrected me to say that påsmurt doesn't directly mean "sandwich", but bread with stuff on it. So butter or jam on bread would also be påsmurt.

Kimberly: Ah yes, one of my coworkers told me about it! But since I'm going to Norway for Christmas, methinks I'll hold out for that.. :D

Jen Kley / November 21, 2011 4:48 PM

I was supposed to go to Norway when I was 17 and in high school but I didn't because I was young and stoopid and I hadn't yet learned that a free trip to Norway was far greater than spending the summer chasing some pimply boy who wouldn't know my name in less than 10 years into the future anyway. We live and learn?

chris / December 6, 2011 4:35 AM

hey, can you see the northern lights from norway (aurora borealis)? that would be neat.
another great thing to add to prawn salad sammiches, which i learned in italy, is sliced green olives, believe it or not. very yummy with prawns/shrimp, mayo, and finely chopped onion. :)
glad you're still around!

roboppy / December 15, 2011 12:17 AM

Chris: You can see them from Norway, but it's better in the northern part and I'll be in the south, where I understand it's not impossible to see em, just...highly unlikely? I hope to travel to the north some day!

As for olives and prawns, I didn't know about that! I'd totes try it.

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