Gastroanthropology

My Three Travel Secrets, Part 2

The following post is Part 2 of My Three Travel Secrets.

When you travel you often learn a lot about different cultures and different people. But I've realized that with all this traveling, I'm learning a lot more about myself. I've learned how I handle stressful situations and things that will happen beyond my control, such as canceled flights or lost reservations. I've also learned that I really, really prefer the path less traveled, outdoor expanses, and find the hustle and bustle of cities unpleasant.

If you too prefer something a bit more remote, then you will enjoy my second travel secret.

My second secret: Jotunheimen National Park in Norway (Home of the Giants)

The Jotunheimen, in Southern Norway, are home to the tallest peaks in the country. Filled with glaciers, lakes, waterfalls, and jagged mountains its a haven for rock climbers and mountain hikers. I would of course recommend going in the summer when Norway is blessed with sunshine most of the day and enough snow has melted that everything is green, flowing, and not bitter cold.

It's easy to stumble upon glaciers...

and waterfalls...

and small Norwegian villages nestled among the many lakes...

If visiting the national park, stay at Turtagrø -

The perfect place for an evening of rest after hiking, climbing, or cross-country skiing. The lounge downstairs is full of large couches, books, maps, and a fireplace. Dinner at the Turtagrø was an amazing spread of mountain trout, a thick meaty stew, and roasted root vegetables, all served community style with the other guests. Jotunheimen National Park is close to some of the western fjords in Norway. The Turtagrø has quite a history and is about 300km from Bergen, and 400km from Oslo.

And finally, my third travel secret: Assume everything will go wrong. Assume you will lose your passport. Assume you might need emergency surgery that will end up costing you $35,000. I haven't lost my passport yet (knocked on wood), but I did need emergency surgery in Switzerland. As a foreigner they estimated the cost of my surgery just before they wheeled me into the operating room and made me pay up front. So I charged it on my credit card. Thanking my lucky stars as all my hospital bills were reimbursed in full, because I listened to my mother and got travel MEDICAL insurance. Read the fine print too - just travel insurance probably won't cover medical expenses, and make sure you get comprehensive coverage if you are doing sporting activities.

A few other bits of advice: One: Learn how to drive stick shift. Automatic is a very American thing. Two: I fear motorcycles, but being familiar with motorbikes comes in handy in many cases, especially when visiting islands. Three: Bring earplugs for the plane and train - seems like I'm always sitting next to the screaming baby. 

Norwegian Cinnamon Boller (Buns)

My absolute most favorite thing to do in the world is visit bakeries. While I love visiting food markets on my travels I'm often limited to what I can buy because I don't have access to a kitchen or have to keep in mind airline restrictions. When you visit a bakery, however, its on the spot consumption and instant gratification. I'm not a fan of sickly sweet or smothered with glazes, so multigrain breads, buttery croissants and spiced buns are more up my alley. In Norway, they have these just barely sweet spiced buns called boller. Cardamom and cinnamon are popular spices. We saw plain spice boller, some with raisins, and some with chocolate chips. Nate's mom informs me that never did they have chocolate chip boller in the Norwegian bakeries when she was growing up. We actually sampled one with chocolate chips and decided chocolate doesn't really go with the boller.

Last week, no its been two weeks now (how time flies!), when we were in Norway, after an afternoon of swimming here...

we were treated to a delicious, homemade Norwegian Spice Kringle (sweet bread), very similar to the boller we had tasted.

So, today after a very successful morning on my dissertation I took the afternoon off to make Norwegian Cinnamon Boller. It's just a barely sweet, flaky, cinnamon-y bun. Simple and fan-freakin-tabulous. 

NORWEGIAN CINNAMON BOLLER, makes 9 servings

For the Dough:

• 1.75 oz butter, melted
• 3/4 c whole milk
• 1 egg
• 2 1/4 c flour
• 1/4 c sugar 
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 4 tsp rapid-rise or instant yeast (about 11 grams)

For the Filling:

• 3 oz butter, room temp 
• 1/3 c packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cardamom 
• 2 tsp cinnamon 
• 1/2 chopped walnuts (or pecans) 

METHOD

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a bowl. Heat milk till its hot to touch, but not boiling. Whisk in egg and melted butter. Pour over dry ingredients and combine. Knead dough with a dough hook on your kitchen aid. Mine's at home, far, far, away so I kneaded by hand. A bit tough for my arm muscles and a bit sticky - but worked fine. Add a bit more flour if its so sticky you can't work with it. Knead till dough is smooth and springs a bit. Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap and then a kitchen towel. Leave in a warm place till the dough doubles (30-45 min). 

Meanwhile, combine filling ingredients. When dough has doubled, turn out onto a well-floured surface. Roll the dough out, trying to keep it as rectangle as possible, between a quarter to a half inch thick. Spread the filling to cover the dough, and make sure it spreads to the edges, especially width wise. Roll it up from the longer side and cut into nine equal pieces. Put in a buttered 8X8 cake pan. They don't need to touch. Let sit out for 15 minutes then place in a 400 F/ 200 C oven for about 25 minutes. When deep golden brown and cooked through remove from oven. Let sit out for a few minutes if you can bare it to spare your tongue from burning! I'm always so impatient I burn my fingers and my tongue.

Enjoy. I am - while posting!

Norwegian Geitost

My Korean-American union with my Norwegian-American husband has created an extended family that might put the UN to shame. We've got family members from all over Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. With my dark brown hair and his blonder than blonde we are definitely melting the pot. Our move to London has definitely deepened the Norwegian connection as it's a quick flight to Oslo. My husband's family summer home on the coast, 2 hours from Oslo, near Sandefjord, is quite possibly the most relaxing place ever. Steps away from the beach and 20+ hours of sunlight per day require just a few things: towel, good book, snorkel, eyeshades, and Nordic food. Bathing suit optional. For days we just woke up (early - no sleeping in when the sun's rising at 3 am!), drank coffee, ate, sunned, rowed around in a little boat, swam, went for walks in the woods, picked Norwegian berries, attempted to fish, and fell asleep at who knows what time. We felt no sense of time as this was the scene at 10 pm...

The house sits back on rock at the edge of Norwegian woods, just hugging the coast. The actual home is hundreds of years old and was moved to the coast from the north when wartime made lumber scarce. Little wild strawberries were in full bloom and blackberry bushes were full of flowers and bee activity. 

We had bowls of Norwegian strawberries with cream for dessert. They are so intensely full of flavor that you almost feel like your getting drunk off strawberries.

Besides smoked salmon I had little experience with Norwegian food until I met my other half. The first Norwegian food I was introduced to was a block of Ski Queen Gjetost that Nate found at Whole Foods. Geitost, sold as in the Gjetost in the US, is a brown cheese (brunost). Goat's milk, cream, and whey are boiled until the sugars in the milk and cream caramelize and water evaporates. What's left is a semi-hard brown goat cheese that's a bit sweet and really creamy. 

The cheese is getting easier to find in the US, and if you happen to get your hands on some, make sure you use a cheese slicer. Using a knife is a futile attempt against this cheese and screams amateur. 

For breakfast we had geitost on toasted rye, and for lunch geitost on lefse...

Lefse, is a traditional Norwegian flatbread, often made with potato flour. It's usually eaten with geitost, butter with cinnamon sugar, berry jams or tyttebær (Norwegian mountain cranberry) jam, or used to wrap hot dogs - a childhood treat that Nate must always have when back at the homeland. 

Honestly, the days in Norway absolutely refreshed me. We came back to London with the tiles ripped out of our shower, a broken toilet, phone line malfunction that has cut off broadband, and heavy rains - but whatever, life is good. More on Norway and Nordic treats in the weeks to come...