Pancakes

There are some special pancakes made in Sunnmøre, the area of Norway where we lived, called “Svela.” I never understood why Norwegians eat French fries with a knife and fork, but they eat pancakes with their hands. They sprinkle sugar, jam or a thick syrup on them and roll them up and eat them like a burrito anytime of the day or night. It’s often used as road food, since eating out in restaurants is prohibitively expensive.




Norwegians refer to “Swedish pancakes” (those thin crepe like things filled with goo), as just “pancakes” (pannekake) – because they aren’t about to give the Swedes credit for anything. Pancakes and bacon are a very common item on the dinner menu in Norway, and Norwegians can’t understand how in the world Americans could eat such a thing for breakfast.



The pancakes known as Svela look just like our American buttermilk pancakes, but they aren’t the same at all. The key ingredient in Svela is something called “Hjortetakksalt.”



I bought Hjortetakksalt a few years ago and brought it home so I could make Svela in America. When I opened the package I discovered it’s a powder that smells exactly like strong ammonia (or pee, whichever you prefer). The scary thing is, if you literally translate the name Hjortetakksalt, it means “thanks to the deer salt”… so ya gotta wonder what’s in there. (It’s actually the secret ingredient that makes the pancakes a little bit rubbery so they can be rolled up without breaking.)



One day a neighbor girl, Sabina, went blueberry picking with my son, Kaleb. Wild blueberries in Norway are even more prolific than wild blackberries in the Northwest. I thought I would treat Sabina to good old fashioned American blueberry pancakes – since she’d only ever eaten Svela before.



It was Sabina’s first opportunity to sample some American cooking so she was thrilled to sit down to a plate full of my pancakes – until she discovered the blueberries in them. She looked at me like I was crazy. She preferred the ones without. I guess she’s used to the pee.