Norway’s Favourite Flavour is…
…not fårikål, not strawberries and not cardamon, but TACO!!! Unofficially, of course, but taco is the first spice mix that has infiltrated most ‘quick’ foods in Norway. You can get taco flavoured pizza, quiche, burgers, boller, pølse, dip, soup, salad, baguettes and potato chips, just to name a few. What’s worse is that quite often not one, but every ‘quick food brand’, such as potato chips, has their own ‘special taco’ flavoured line. This agonisingly limits selection at food stores because the shelves are filled with the monopolized flavour. There is only one reason for this invasion – kids! I know this because there was a Norwegian kids show, Amigo, that profiled their contestants and you know what everyone wrote down as their favourite food? Tacos!! Whenever we have babysitters, Taco is always their first choice for dinner (the kids get to make their own Tacos and therefore bypass the tomato and lettuce.)
It is no wonder that taco flavour has become so popular here as Norwegians have are very particular palate – salt, salt and more salt!
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I always thought it was funny when I lived over there and folks would have me to dinnner. Invariably they would say, “We wanted to make you something American…Tacos!!”
Of Course, tacos are Mexican.
Have you looked carefully at the ingredients list on the taco spice packets? They are pretty horrifying!
Taco as a favourite dish may seem strange. Especially, like one other here comments, you take a look at the ingredients on Old El Paso Taco dinner kit. But if you see a bit beyond the yellow packing and the salt content there’s actually a far more important family tradition developing in Norway, post war. Norway used to be a extremely poor country, surviving on porridge, potatoes and pigs meat for Christmas. After WW2 we luckily discovered the oil, and gradually we developed a more luxurious family lifestyle than before (when life more or less consisted of hard work, a little food and rest before more hard work.) The family would now enjoy more spare time with holidays and new food being imported. Saturday became the day of indulgence for the family where you would have a light but cozy meal, like boiled shrimps, mayo and loaf in the summer and taco in the winter. It was more about having a enjoyable (and late) supper on a Friday or a Saturday than actually being healthy. Where as Norwegians still don’t have a word for snack and you would be reported to social services if you handed a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps to your child on the way to school in the morning, this weekend indulgence quickly became socially acceptable. (A bit like with alcohol, no drinking during the week, only a tiny drop on “Little Saturday which is Wednesday and Friday and Saturdays).
Watched Hellstrom last Sunday, and he made homemade taco. We do too, and it’s nothing wrong with it! Lots of vegetables and homemade goodies. And like you say, the kids get to choose what they put on. An excellent opportunity to encourage them to try more veg, and to feel in charge of what they eat.
So as with everything; not all black and white.
Just thought I’d ad my own observations and thoughts around the subject.
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from L-Jay:
The shops here in Alta are trying to get rid of all their taco quiches cheaply. I guess ‘taco pai’ didn’t sound too tasty to nordlendings…lol.
In Australia we used to have traditional days for doing things in the week – sunday roast, friday night pizza/clubbing, tuesday movie night – but when it became a 24/7 society then the regular stuff became boring. It was more fun and convenient to be spontaneous. I think the bigger cities in Norway will eventually become like this whereas it is hard for any store in the country to be open 24 hours unless it is a servo.
And then there’s soup day, originally on Thursday. With the lovely combination of tomato soup and pancakes.
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from L-Jay:
Also, grøt saturdays!! (Though, our family does it on Sunday).