Posts from August 2009

svinekjøtt

Posted by kari 1 Comment
Aug 14 2009

pork tenderloin on the coals

pork.  pig meat.  Growing up I used to really dislike it (parents made really fatty, dried out pork chops-svinekoteletter and other poorly made pork), but now that I live with a hog farmer (grisebonde) who loves to barbecue and grill (do you know the difference?) and makes amazing food, I love pork!  Jeg elsker svinekjøtt! And I bet a lot of you do too!  Vegetarians aside, who doesn’t like a thick slice of smoked, crispy bacon with their french toast?  Or a thick, juicy pork chop to accompany sweet corn and bread.  Or perhaps a bacon explosion (not sure who thought it was a good idea to create this, but it is many pieces of bacon weaved through each other filled with lots of ground pork and more bacon.  If you wish, you can stuff it with other tasty things, such as jalapeños and cheese).  Actually I have yet to try it, which I am happy about because it looks to me as if a small slice might cause a massive coronary upon consumption.

As the girlfriend of a grisebonde, I have learned a few things about griser (pigs) and svinekjøtt (pork, or pig meat) and I want to tell you about one of them: humans consume nearly hele grisen (the whole pig), which is not true of all other animals.  I am not sure if I would venture to eat griseføtter (pigs feet) or griseører (pigs ears) or the insides, but some cultures do.

So let’s learn a few more griseord (pig words):

en gris is a pig

svinekjøtt is pork meat

believe it or not, bacon is bacon

svinekoteletter are pork chops

svinestek is roast pork

svinepostei is pork pie

en svinemørbrad is a pork tenderloin

en pølse as you already know is a hot dog (60-70% ground pork)

skinke is ham

spareribber are pork spare ribs

Have any of you ever had prosciutto?  I made a pasta dish with prosciutto the other night and my boyfriend, of all people, hated it.  In fact, thought it was so gross he couldn’t eat for the rest of the night.  I liked it, oddly enough.  It does have a very odd, distinct flavor, so I get that someone would either like it or be disgusted.  Just curious if any of you have had it, liked it, and would like to recommend a dish with prosciutto in it.

Keep eating pork despite the continued media coverage of the H1N1 virus!

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lutefisk

Posted by kari No Comments
Aug 12 2009

Literally “lye fish”-the first word that comes to my mind is yuck.  Lutefisk is a traditional dish of the Nordic countries (namely Norway, Sweden, and the Swedish-speaking part of Finland) made from dried or salted whitefish (klippfisk) or stockfish (air-dried whitefish) that goes through various treatments soaked in lye (lut). For those of you who don’t know what lut is, it is sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda, a metallic base that forms a strong alkaline solution when dissolved in certain solvents-water, for example.  Lut is commonly used in the production of pulp, paper, textiles, soap, and best yet, detergent and drain cleaner.  Knowing that this chemical base is involved in such tasks as producing household cleaning products makes me not want to eat it.

Fear not, it is not harmful to your health.  In fact, many other kinds of foods go through a treatment process with lut as well.  These include fruits and vegetables (through a chemical peel process), poultry scalding, thickening ice cream, soda production, German pretzels, Chinese noodles, and more.  The Scandinavians aren’t the only ones who use lut to treat food. 

It is unknown how Scandinavians discovered the use of lut for fish treatment.  There are several theories on the origin of lutefisk.  One thought is that fish accidentally fell into a bowl of lut and because the family was so poor, they simply had to eat it, and discovered it was edible, perhaps tasty.  Another theory is that fires would have created ashes of wood that mixed with the water to create lut.  Yet another theory is that a rack of stockfish was out drying and got caught on fire, then it rained for several days, and again due to poverty, the fish was cleaned and eaten. 

Who knows how lutefisk was discovered.  All we know is that it remains extremely popular.  It may come as a surprise to you, but more Norwegian-Americans and Canadians of Norwegian descent eat lutefisk today than native Scandinavians do.  Madison, MN is the ‘lutefisk capital of the world.’  However, that’s not to say that in Norway, for example, lutefisk goes uneaten.  In 2001, 2,055 tons of the jellylike fish were consumed in homes and 560 tons in restaurants (wikipedia).  It is more common for Norwegian-Americans to eat lutefisk on Christmas, whereas over half of Norwegian families dine on pork ribs (svineribber) on Christmas. 

Lutefisk is usually served with dishes such as green peas, potatoes, rutabaga, bacon, and lefse.  The sauce used can vary from white sauce to gravy to geitost to clarified butter or syrup.  Here is a very descriptive quote from Garrison Keillor (Wikipedia) concerning lutefisk: 

“Lutefisk is cod that has been dried in a lye solution. It looks like the desiccated cadavers of squirrels run over by trucks, but after it is soaked and reconstituted and the lye is washed out and it’s cooked, it looks more fish-related, though with lutefisk, the window of success is small. It can be tasty, but the statistics aren’t on your side. It is the hereditary delicacy of Swedes and Norwegians who serve it around the holidays, in memory of their ancestors, who ate it because they were poor. Most lutefisk is not edible by normal people. It is reminiscent of the afterbirth of a dog or the world’s largest chunk of phlegm.”

I don’t remember my family ever eating lutefisk for a holiday, but I do remember it from my college days at St. Olaf.  Every year during Christmasfest, a major musical production (St. Olaf Choir is very well-known, even internationally) attracts lots of Norwegian-Americans.  And most of them wear Norwegian sweaters (lusekofter).  The food service in the cafeteria prepares lutefisk, poteter, lefse and more for the entire duration of the event (about 4 days).  Therefore, the entire cafeteria smells like lutefisk and that is why I chose to eat off campus every year during Christmasfest. 

I have to be honest with you, I’m not a fan of lutefisk.  No lye for me please.

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Lange ord

Posted by kari No Comments
Aug 6 2009

long words.  Norsk is notorious for long words, most of which are conglomerations of several words.  A professional linguist would probably be able to tell you why this is the case, but I can give speculation a shot-why create an entirely new word when you can use 2 or more existing words to describe something?  Even if it’s longer than it’s English counterpart…no reason, as far as I’m concerned.  Norwegian is a simple language and the abundance of words strung together to describe one thing is definite evidence of this simplicity-one of the many reasons I love norsk. 

Time to learn some lange ord!

menneskerettighet means human rights (et mennekse is a human, en rettighet is a privilege or right)

lungebetennelse means pneumonia (en lunge is a lung, en betennelse is an inflammation)

luftfartsdirektoratet means Civil Aeronautics Administration (luftfart means aviation, et direktorat is a Directorate)

en forbedringsanstalt is a reformatory (forbedring means improvement and en anstalt is an institution)

inflytelsesrik means influential (en inflytelse is an influence, rik is rich)

et helsetilsyn means hygiene (helse is health, et tilsyn is an inspection)

hemmelighetsfullhet means secretiveness (hemmelig means secret/confidential, hemmelighet is secrecy, and het is the common subject for abstract nouns, meaning -ity, -ment, or -ness)

folkevandring means migration of nations (et folk is a people, or in this case a nation, en vandring is a hike, a ramble, or walk)

et tilleggsspørsmål means a supplementary question (tillegg is in addition to, et spørsmål is a question)

en standpunktkarakter means a mark based on character (et standpunkt is a standpoint and en karakter is a character)

et tankeeksperiment is a hypothesis or supposition (en tanke is a thought and et eksperiment is…well I think you can figure it out)

There are many more of these long word/multi-words.  Of course we have them in English and I imagine in all languages, but norsk seems to have an abundance of them.  And aren’t they fun to say?

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begravelser

Posted by kari 1 Comment
Aug 3 2009

funerals.  I know that this is a depressing topic, but I have spent the last week mourning the death of a very close friend and thus got to thinking it is a topic worth learning about in terms of language and traditions for people learning a new language. 

Begravelser in Scandinavian history were similar to many cultures throughout history in that they buried their dead with objects and sometimes sacrifices to prepare them for afterlife.  Nordmenn often cremated their dead in ship burials (which supposedly reached a temperature of 1400 degrees celsius, much hotter than crematories burn bodies today).  Especially in hard times (famine, disease, war), people would fear death and the repercussions of improper burial and preparation of the deceased for afterlife.  It was extremely important to bury the dead with objects and other sacrifices that made sense according to their social status so the deceased would remain in the same social class in the afterlife.  I find it quite interesting to learn about how people throughout history viewed death and responded to it.

Begravelser in Norway are very similar to begravelser in the United States, as I understand.  I have only attended one begravelse in Norway (for an elderly relative), but through talking with another relative I got the impression that they are fairly similar to begravelser here in the United States.  Of course the type of begravelse for the deceased depends largely on religious beliefs of the deceased and close family members.  Therefore the arrival of immigrants to Norway has meant an increase in cultural differences regarding funerals.  However, the vast majority of begravelser take place in en kristen kirke (a Christian church), followed by the actual burial (same word-begravelse) in a graveyard (en kirkegård), where the deceased (en avdøde) is buried (begravet) with a gravestone (gravstein).  Typically a pastor or priest (minister or prest) speaks at the begravelse and the congregation (forsamling or menighet) sings (synger).  There is also usually a soloist (solist) who sings and someone (perhaps the minister or priest) who shares Scripture (gudsord-literally “Gods word).  Following the service (gudstjeneste) there is often coffee (kaffe) or a meal (måltid) served to close friends and family. 

The following are more words and phrases involving death and what kinds of things we think about and say during a time of mourning:

en død or et dødsfall is a death

en dødsulykke is a fatal accident (which is what happened in the case of my best friend)

døende means dying

døsleie means deathbed (å ligge på dødsleiet is to lie at death’s door)

dødelig means fatal or deadly

dødsstraff means death penalty (refer to previous post for information on this)

et minne is a memory

en historie is a story

å gråte is to cry

sjokk is shock (sjokkerende is shocking)

sørg is sorrow (å sørge is to grieve or mourn)

sympati is sympathy (å sympatisere means to sympathize)

dårlig nyheter means bad news

med vennlig hilsen means yours sincerely

trist means sad

å brenne or å kremere means to cremate

Again, my apoligies for such a depressing topic, but good stuff to know. 

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