One of my favorite things to do is to try new foods. Our trip to Scandinavia gave me an opportunity to try an ethnic food that I have not experienced very much, maybe a few restaurants over my lifetime. So, I was eager to try the "real thing".
When we were in Alesund, Norway, getting ready to take our trip along the Geiranger fjord, we received a tip that the best restaurant was XL Diner (in no way was it like a "diner"). So, we tried it. It was a pretty restaurant that looked out on the sea.
I was surprised that they had several bacalao dishes. The first time that I had tried this was when I was in Barcelona, Spain. Bacalao is salted, dried cod. This restaurant had a dish called Royal Bacalao, which had 3 styles of bacalao. I liked the curried one the best. The traditional style did not have much flavor to me.
Historically, drying food is an easy way of preserving food. A dried fish can be stored for several years. Initially, cod was placed on scaffolds or on cliffs and dried by sun and wind. This process preserves the nutrients. In the 17th century, cheap salt became more available from southern Europe and was more economically feasible for northern Europe's maritime nations. The drying process became easier with salt and could be done by the family and transported to market. For Scandinavia, this was very helpful to preserve fish for the long, cold winters, when the fish would not be available.
The first time that I bought salted cod at a grocery store was at Central Market in Houston. I had wanted to fix my mom's famous codfish cakes. :) Mom used to get codfish in a can, like a tuna fish can. But you can't get that anymore. ( I thought that I couldn't get it in a can anymore because it was being overfished, but cod is certainly plentiful in Scandinavia.) After I bought it and opened up the wooden box, the codfish was covered with a thick layer of salt. My recipe had said that it was necessary to soak the fish in water for 40 minutes for several times to get rid of the salt. I did that and after cooking it, the cod was still salty.
Anyway, back to the food tasting. We had lots of fish: lots of salmon, lots of cod, shrimp, crayfish (crawfish for Louisianans), mussels, etc. One of the dishes at a wonderful restaurant in Bergen, Norway, called BOHA was gravlax. It was a fish terrine of gravlax flavored with juniper and the liquor aquavit. I had to ask the waitress what gravlax was. It turns out that it is salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill. Fisherman, during the Middle Ages, made gravlax by salting it and then fermenting it by burying it. "Grav" means grave and "lax" means salmon (buried salmon). Now, with the availability of salt, it is placed in a marinade of salt, sugar and dill and cured in a couple of days.
Needless, to say, most of the dishes we tried were pretty salty to me, and I really LIKE salt. Even for breakfast. With the soft and hard boiled eggs they placed a little tube next to the eggs. I opened it and put it on my soft boiled egg. It was fishy, but salty. I thought that it might be anchovy paste, but when I posted a picture of it on Facebook, a Norwegian friend told me what it is and that she has 3 tubes in her Houston pantry. It is fish roe. Another way of using fish. :)
Anyway, it got me to wondering how the Scandinavians could consume SO much salt and be healthy. They certainly looked healthy. People were out and about hiking, biking, skating, kayaking, walking, running. It was not unusual to be looking out of the window of the train and see a lone person appearing out of nowhere in the forest. There were often very elderly ladies walking by themselves in the bustling city using ski poles to help with their balance. There were two elderly ladies, with their bike helmets and backpacks, biking along the Gota Canal in Sweden, observing the lock systems. So, what was up with the contradiction of not ingesting too much salt for health? I did a little armchair research. It seems that there are at least three ways to take care of a high salt level. The body is a very complex system and it is necessary to maintain a good balance of sodium and potassium. So, if you have a high sodium intake, you need to balance it with a high potassium intake. So, I was curious whether the foods that we were served in Scandinavia also had a high potassium level. Well, it turns out that high potassium foods are: salmon, halibut, potatoes, dried apricot, yogurt, etc-everything that we had on a daily basis when were there. Also, exercise is a good way to help with high sodium, I guess sweating it out. And that is what people are doing there. They are definitely exercising. And Vitamin D is known to help regulate blood pressure. As I said, Scandinavian people outside in the sun all the time, walking, biking, etc. They are definitely getting their Vitamin D from their sun exposure.
So, even though they are taking in an enormous amount of salt, they are balancing it out in other ways. It is a reminder that the body is a very complex system.
And I read an interesting article about the dubious benefit of drastically reducing salt intake in the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/health/panel-finds-no-benefit-in-sharply-restricting-sodium.html?pagewanted=all&module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A12%22%7D
Other interesting food that we had was reindeer in Sweden, surprisingly good and whale ,from the minkle whale, sashimi (very good) in Norway, lots of delicious fish soup, shrimp salad with dill on toast, herring at breakfast, lots of rhubarb...
In Stockholm, Sweden, we had the best pork tenderloin that we had ever had. It was at a little restaurant, The Grill next to the Photo museum, recommended by our hotel clerk. Ken chatted with the chef. His method was to put the pork with marinade in a vacuum sealed bag, then cook it at a very low heat, approximately 175 degrees F, for a long period of time. I don't remember how much time. :) It was so flavorful and tender. They also charred leeks and sprinkled the pieces on a garlic sauce for the pork. Yummy! The restaurant overlooked the area where the Baltic Sea meets the lake and overlooks the big amusement park. In Copenhagen, we had very good steaks. One of the interesting things at that restaurant, Nimb, was that the butter was served in a bone, with course salt sprinkled on the top and with bread that had salt crusted on the top. (Again, salt was everywhere.)
We basically had fish everyday for 3 weeks. It was at breakfast buffet, lunch and dinner. I love seafood, so I was OK with that. :) It was a very interesting culinary adventure.
When we were in Alesund, Norway, getting ready to take our trip along the Geiranger fjord, we received a tip that the best restaurant was XL Diner (in no way was it like a "diner"). So, we tried it. It was a pretty restaurant that looked out on the sea.
I was surprised that they had several bacalao dishes. The first time that I had tried this was when I was in Barcelona, Spain. Bacalao is salted, dried cod. This restaurant had a dish called Royal Bacalao, which had 3 styles of bacalao. I liked the curried one the best. The traditional style did not have much flavor to me.
Historically, drying food is an easy way of preserving food. A dried fish can be stored for several years. Initially, cod was placed on scaffolds or on cliffs and dried by sun and wind. This process preserves the nutrients. In the 17th century, cheap salt became more available from southern Europe and was more economically feasible for northern Europe's maritime nations. The drying process became easier with salt and could be done by the family and transported to market. For Scandinavia, this was very helpful to preserve fish for the long, cold winters, when the fish would not be available.
The first time that I bought salted cod at a grocery store was at Central Market in Houston. I had wanted to fix my mom's famous codfish cakes. :) Mom used to get codfish in a can, like a tuna fish can. But you can't get that anymore. ( I thought that I couldn't get it in a can anymore because it was being overfished, but cod is certainly plentiful in Scandinavia.) After I bought it and opened up the wooden box, the codfish was covered with a thick layer of salt. My recipe had said that it was necessary to soak the fish in water for 40 minutes for several times to get rid of the salt. I did that and after cooking it, the cod was still salty.
Anyway, back to the food tasting. We had lots of fish: lots of salmon, lots of cod, shrimp, crayfish (crawfish for Louisianans), mussels, etc. One of the dishes at a wonderful restaurant in Bergen, Norway, called BOHA was gravlax. It was a fish terrine of gravlax flavored with juniper and the liquor aquavit. I had to ask the waitress what gravlax was. It turns out that it is salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill. Fisherman, during the Middle Ages, made gravlax by salting it and then fermenting it by burying it. "Grav" means grave and "lax" means salmon (buried salmon). Now, with the availability of salt, it is placed in a marinade of salt, sugar and dill and cured in a couple of days.
Needless, to say, most of the dishes we tried were pretty salty to me, and I really LIKE salt. Even for breakfast. With the soft and hard boiled eggs they placed a little tube next to the eggs. I opened it and put it on my soft boiled egg. It was fishy, but salty. I thought that it might be anchovy paste, but when I posted a picture of it on Facebook, a Norwegian friend told me what it is and that she has 3 tubes in her Houston pantry. It is fish roe. Another way of using fish. :)
Anyway, it got me to wondering how the Scandinavians could consume SO much salt and be healthy. They certainly looked healthy. People were out and about hiking, biking, skating, kayaking, walking, running. It was not unusual to be looking out of the window of the train and see a lone person appearing out of nowhere in the forest. There were often very elderly ladies walking by themselves in the bustling city using ski poles to help with their balance. There were two elderly ladies, with their bike helmets and backpacks, biking along the Gota Canal in Sweden, observing the lock systems. So, what was up with the contradiction of not ingesting too much salt for health? I did a little armchair research. It seems that there are at least three ways to take care of a high salt level. The body is a very complex system and it is necessary to maintain a good balance of sodium and potassium. So, if you have a high sodium intake, you need to balance it with a high potassium intake. So, I was curious whether the foods that we were served in Scandinavia also had a high potassium level. Well, it turns out that high potassium foods are: salmon, halibut, potatoes, dried apricot, yogurt, etc-everything that we had on a daily basis when were there. Also, exercise is a good way to help with high sodium, I guess sweating it out. And that is what people are doing there. They are definitely exercising. And Vitamin D is known to help regulate blood pressure. As I said, Scandinavian people outside in the sun all the time, walking, biking, etc. They are definitely getting their Vitamin D from their sun exposure.
So, even though they are taking in an enormous amount of salt, they are balancing it out in other ways. It is a reminder that the body is a very complex system.
And I read an interesting article about the dubious benefit of drastically reducing salt intake in the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/health/panel-finds-no-benefit-in-sharply-restricting-sodium.html?pagewanted=all&module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A12%22%7D
Other interesting food that we had was reindeer in Sweden, surprisingly good and whale ,from the minkle whale, sashimi (very good) in Norway, lots of delicious fish soup, shrimp salad with dill on toast, herring at breakfast, lots of rhubarb...
In Stockholm, Sweden, we had the best pork tenderloin that we had ever had. It was at a little restaurant, The Grill next to the Photo museum, recommended by our hotel clerk. Ken chatted with the chef. His method was to put the pork with marinade in a vacuum sealed bag, then cook it at a very low heat, approximately 175 degrees F, for a long period of time. I don't remember how much time. :) It was so flavorful and tender. They also charred leeks and sprinkled the pieces on a garlic sauce for the pork. Yummy! The restaurant overlooked the area where the Baltic Sea meets the lake and overlooks the big amusement park. In Copenhagen, we had very good steaks. One of the interesting things at that restaurant, Nimb, was that the butter was served in a bone, with course salt sprinkled on the top and with bread that had salt crusted on the top. (Again, salt was everywhere.)
We basically had fish everyday for 3 weeks. It was at breakfast buffet, lunch and dinner. I love seafood, so I was OK with that. :) It was a very interesting culinary adventure.
