We took a few weeks off to move, but we are back with our Quarantine Travels. This week, in our quest to continue around World Showcase Lagoon, we “visited” Norway.
The Food
I didn’t know very much about Norwegian food, so I was excited to embark on this adventure. Norwegian cuisine is full of seafood, and we definitely ate a lot of fish this weekend.
Our first recipe was oatmeal molasses bread. It was hearty and crumbly, and you could definitely taste the molasses. It reminded me a lot of the brown bread I’ve had in Dublin. It paired very well with the Norwegian smoked salmon we had.
We also tried brunost, Norwegian brown cheese, with some seeded flatbread. I was very excited to discover that Whole Foods had brunost. The carmelized cheese is like no cheese I’ve ever tasted before. It is sweet, rich, and creamy. We also tried melting it onto the oatmeal molasses bread, which didn’t work quite as well as the flatbread.
When reseaching Norwegian food, I also came across vafler, Norwegian heart waffles. These are common afternoon snacks in Norway. We don’t have a heart waffle maker, so our Mickey Mouse waffle maker had to suffice. Vafler are softer and flatter than the waffles I usually make, and they had almost a pancake consistency. They were absolutely delicious with sour cream and jam.
The Entertainment
As big Marvel fans, we had to watch Thor Ragnarok this weekend. In Norse Mythology, “Ragnarok” describes the end of the world or the “final destiny of the Gods.” In Thor Ragnarok, Thor has visions of his beloved Asgard succumbing to to a firey end, and he works to try to prevent this. If you are interested in Norse Mythology, I highly recommend Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman, which I read in 2019.
If you know me well, you know that Anna is my favorite Disney princess. Frozen is based on a fairy tale by the Danish author, Hans Christian Anderson, but Anna and Elsa are in Norway at EPCOT. Really, I will take just about any reason to watch Frozen and Frozen 2. Both films tell empowering stories about the love between two sisters. Frozen 2 addresses colonialism and depression too.
I am a big fan of The Great British Bake Off, and I’ve gotten into watching Paul Hollywood’s City Bakes on Youtube. This weekend, I watched the episode where Paul goes to Bergen. I loved learning about boller (Norwegian sweet buns), stock fish, and the Norwegian baking traditions around Christmas.
Bubbling up with Helena 