People tend to change their eating habits and preferences throughout a lifetime. My changed when I met Debeli.

I was a normal eater always. Not very picky but not so curious also. I liked what I ate and ate what I liked. And then I met Debeli. And everything changed. For the different. 🙂

He introduced me to some fine food dinning as well as to the weirdest things that I wouldn’t think of eating at all. Like animal intestines in Turkey. Or coach roaches and grasshoppers in Thailand. Or a snail in Ireland. But Debeli is pushing my limits further and further with each travel.

Funny thing is, this time we didn’t need to travel so far at all. One of the weirdest things in Norway, as they have a quite a lot of them, was right under our noses. In the old neighbourhood.

Every year around Chrismas time, one of the places in Oslo that serves traditional Norwegian food, has a smalahovelag evening. It’s usually early November, two weekends in a row. We missed smalahovelag last year, but this year we were in luck. We booked the table just in time and before another corona lockdown starting this week.

The dinner experience started quite early, around 7pm the price of 595 nok per person included welcome drink, appetizers, main dish (the guests could choose between smalahove and pinnekjøtt so we did both) and confetier with tea or coffee.

The star of the dinner was the traditional Norwegian dish originating from the Western part of the country. Made from a sheep’s head it was eaten by the poor in the rural areas in the lead up to Christmas.

The skin and fleece of the head are torched, the brain is removed, and the head is salted and sometimes smoked before boiled or steamed for about three hours.

The serving consists of one-half of a head served with boiled and peeled potatoes and rutabaga mash. Sometimes, the brain is cooked inside the skull and then eaten with a spoon or fried.

The taste is rather peculiar; but the salting and smoking helps a lot as it gives a nice touch to the meat flavour.

Salting and drying of the foods in Norway has been a thing for quite some time. Back in the days, it was a way to preserve your food when fridges were not around. These days it’s a part of the tradition now, so we decided to try another traditional Christmas dish from Western and Northern Norway. It’s called pinnekjøtt. Literal meaning is stick meat, as it’s lamb or mutton ribs in question. Salted, smoked and cured ribs are soaked in water to loose the salt and steamed for hours afterwards. The meat is done when it starts to fall of the bones. Right into your mouth.

Traditionally served with boiled potatoes and rutabaga mash it’s accompanied with tons of akevit (potato distilled and caraway and anise seeds flavoured alcohol drink).

We, however, opted for some apple juice and cider as it was more appropriate for our taste at the moment. Couldn’t say the same for the neighbouring table that was soaking up in akevit and beer being extremely loud.

The dinner was concluded with warm drinks and tasty chocolate snacks and a smile on the face because we have ticked off one more thing from our to try everything list. We’re already thinking about our next weird and strange food experience. Any ideas or suggestions?

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SMALAHOVELAG

Naše prehrambene navike i preferanse oko toga što radije, a što neradije jedemo mijenja se kroz naš život. Moje su se drastično promijenile gkad sam upoznala Debelog.

Što se tiče hrane, nikad nisam bila nešto pretjerano izbirljiva. U većim količinama bih jela što mi se sviđa, a ono što mi nije drago ostavila bih po strani. Eh, a onda sam upoznala Debelog i sve se promijenilo. Neću reć na bolje, jer to ne bi bilo fer prema prošlom životu, ali svakako se promijenilo na drugačije.

Debeli me uveo u svijet fine i ekskluzivne hrane, skupih restorana s jedne strane i najobičnijih prčvarnica s druge. Otvorio mi je um i potaknuo da probam sve. Od janjećih iznutrica u Turskoj do žohara i skakavaca na Tajlandu. Ili puža u Irskoj. Debeli mi pomiče granice svakim novim putovanjem.

Zanimljivo ovaj put smo pomakli granice, a da se nismo maknuli iz Norveške. Naprotiv, objedovali smo u restoranu u blizini starog stana.

Svake godine, uoči Božića, jedan od starijih restorana koji preko stotinu godina nudi tradicionalnu norvešku hranu, priprema smalahovelag večeri. Događaj se obično održava početkom studenog, dva vikenda za redom. Prošle godine smo propustili veselicu, pa smo ove godine bili pametniji. A i sretniji jer se zbog novih corona restrikcija sve zatvara ovaj tjedan i otkazuje se drugi smalahovelag.

Večera je započela poprilično rano, obzirom da ograničenost druženja, a za sitnu cijenu od 595 nok po osobi dobili smo piće dobrodošlice, suhomesnato predjelo, glavno jelo a mogli smo izabrati između smalahovea i pinnekjøtt, pa smo uzeli oboje :), i konfeti čokoladica s toplim napitkom.

Zvijezda večeri, smalahove, tradicionalno je norveško jelo što potječe sa zapadne obale zemlje. Seljačko jelo spravljeno od ovčje ili janjeće glave, jeli su isključivo siromašni u ruralnim dijelovima zemlje, najčešće pred Božić.

Glava se priprema na način da se koža i dlake spale, mozak ukloni, a sama glava se potom nasoli i ponekad podimi prije nego se kuha oko tri sata.

Porcija se uglavnom sastoji od polovice jedne glave poslužene uz kuhane i oguljene krumpire i kašicu od repe. Ponekad se ostavi i kuhani mozak koji se jede žlicom ili ispržen.

Iako su kuhane janjeće glave u Hrvatskoj uobičajena delikatesa spravljena za posebne prilike, uglavnom u Dalmatinskoj Zagori, smalahove ima malo drugačiji okus. Razlog su soljenje i dimljenje, tradicionalna metoda konzerviranja hrane, popularna i dan danas u Norveškoj.

Velik dio jela ovdje i dalje prati tu tradiciju, a radi se ponajviše o predbožićnim, ”teškim” jelima, poput pinnekjøtta ili mesa na štapu, ako bi doslovno prevodili.

Ovčja ili janjeća rebra sole se suše tijekom cijele sezone, da bi se potom namočila u vodi i kuhala dugo dugo, dok meso ne počne otpadati s kostiju. Uobičajeni prilozi su, opet, krumpir i papica od repe te kobasica od janjećeg mesa.

Slani okus i mašćoba ispiru se litrama akevita, alkoholnog pića spravljenog od destilata krumpira (krumpir je veliki ovdje ako niste shvatili J) s puno začina kao što su sjemenke kumina i anisa.

Mi smo se, pak, odlučili za nešto manje alkoholnije, a više sezonsko, jabukovaču i sok od jabuke prije malih slatkih zalogaja i kave i čaja.

Sve u svemu, smalahovelag, nije razočarao. Kako i bi, kad se Norvežani diče ovakvim neobičnim kulinarskim izazovima. Ono što bi negdje bacili drito u smeće, evo ovdje se smatra poslasticom. Jel imate kakvih prijedloga za naš sljedeći poduhvat? Rado bi probali sve 🙂