What's in the fridge?

Seriously, I think so far the grocery store provides me with the most Norwegian cultural experiences. Something new always catches my eye, or a recipe I am hankering to make requires me to buy something that either a) I have no idea if it exists in Norway (like, for example, vanilla extract. nope.), and/or b) I have no idea what the word for it is in Norwegian (thank you yet again, Google Translate, for working on my BlackBerry).


Don't get me wrong; I am not only looking for the familiar at the grocery store. Either by necessity or by curiosity, we have discovered a few things here so far that are relative mainstays in the fridge or cupboard. Let's take a tour, shall we?

Okay, I was not looking forward to reconstituted tomato soup. I mean, how good can tomato powder mixed with water taste? Pretty good, actually. Like a good expat, I bypassed the tiny, expensive can of Campbell's tomato soup and went for the economical envelope of Toro tomatsuppe. With the temperature hovering around -11 C today and still recovering from a bad cold, I thought I'd try it out. Not bad, my friends. Sprinkled a little bit of parmigiano reggiano on it and it was even better than Campbell's, dare I say.

This yogurt is the bomb. There are several brands available on the market, but I am partial to Tine. There are two compartments; one with yogurt and one with some sort of crunchy goodness. The goodness varies depending on the yogurt flavor. Muesli with blueberry, but I think they have nuts with the melon (yes melon) yogurt. And, it comes with a tiny retractable spoon, see?

How cute can it get? These are my treat yogurts; I usually get a smaller variety sans crunchy goodness, but every once in a while I reward myself with one of these.

I should have known this would be good orange juice given it's from Spain. And it's fresh-pressed. Mmmm...this is also kind of a treat thing, but I wouldn't be surprised if it starts making regular appearances in the fridge.

G had a head start on me getting "acclimated" to the beer/wine culture here. Enter Frydenlund, a truly Norwegian beer. He discovered it during one of his outings to Cafe Mono with friends from work. As far as we know, it has not been bought out by the Germans or the Belgians yet. And really, if you go to a upscale bar and order this they kind of look at you like you're ordering a Bud Light at the Pyramid Alehouse, or Charles Shaw at Chateau Ste. Michelle winery. But, I'll admit it's a tasty crisp beer we enjoy from time to time. I'll bet it'll be awesome with all those park BBQs we'll be doing this year.

That's right; we've forsaken Pellegrino for Farris. Farris is a Norwegian-produced sparking water and it's pretty darn tasty. We always have a bottle of lime in our fridge. Think: just squeezed a wedge of lime into your ice cold sparkling water. There you have it.

Okay, the person who invented this is a genius. Seriously. Squeezable mayonnaise? In a tube? That's right. We used to get a chili mayonnaise in Seattle for G's lunch wraps, so when I spied this in the store, I thought we'd try it. This is such a winner in every way I'd started buying our regular mayonnaise in tube form as well. Genius, I tell you.

Considering their exceptionally short growing season, I was not expecting Norwegians to be such jam people. I mean, where and when do they grow everything? Despite the challenges, I swear there must be a dozen different brands and scores of different types of jam at the grocery store. Their jam isn't all sweet and sticky, though. It's really just like crushed up (or in the case of G's blueberry jam, whole!) berries with a little bit of sweetness added. It's more of a spread than a gelatinous goo. So. Good. Especially on vaffels. But I digress.

Two months living alone in a hotel with no oven put G in search of, you guessed it,  pre-made brownies. He found these, and they are now a regular item in our pantry next to our 'treat' box. I am not the huge brownie fan that G is, but these are pretty darn good with a nice 10-year tawny port.

Hey, how'd this get in here?!? These definitely are not found in Norway.