What's Your Nationality?

I"m 7/8ths Norwegian. One Danish great grandfather prevented me from being a purebred Norwegian. I think of my heritage most often during the holidays which of course means food. Come Christmas I wish I was German. Those good sausages, kraut and beer.

If not for the delicious pastries like krumkake, son buckles,futti mun and such I'd probably starve to death if I had to eat just popular Norwegian dishes. I won't even bring up the word lutefisk.

Here's a few other popular Norwegian foods I wasn't aware of. Rakfisk is a fish you salt and then let it ferment for several months. What is it with smelly fish and Norwegians? It's said you have to be very careful and sanitary when making as botulism is a possibility.

Did you know mutton stew is the national food in Norway? While we had plenty of the aforementioned foods, minus rakfisk, my family has never served any type of lamb let along mutton stew.

There's a couple of other items that I've come close to experiencing but passed on the chance. As a little boy I remember my grandparents excitedly telling my mother than they had just made some fresh krube. I asked my mom about this and when she said it's made with blood that was enough for me. Never even got close to it.

Finally here's one that may make your stomach churn. Norwegians have a lot of cream. My grandfather used to come up to the farm with a quart jar of milk and then place it in the sun. After it curdled it he'd drink it down. Oh my. Well, he lived to the age of 89 so it couldn't have been that bad.