Shopping

(Apologies - I've been too busy to write anything new so this is a modified version of an article from over 2 years ago. :)

Shopping for groceries in Norway is always an adventure.  It’s one thing when I’m feeling adventurous and buy a Norwegian product made to tickle the local’s taste buds, but it’s often quite frustrating when I’m looking for a run-of-the-mill product I’m used to buying in America.

One time I checked every grocery store in our city for ground cornmeal so I could make cornbread, but had no luck until I happened upon a box with a picture of corn on the outside.  I was sure I’d hit the jackpot, until I got it home and discovered I’d purchased cornstarch instead.  I never did find cornmeal.

Spices come in sealed foil pouches with the same illustration of a bouquet of herbs on every packet so there is no possible way to know which spice is inside until I learn what the Norwegians call them, and it’s never even close to the name we Americans use.  I’ve often bought several spice packets, taken them home, cut them open and started sniffing, trying to figure out what in the world I just bought and how I might use it up so it doesn’t go to waste.  Cooking is an expensive endeavor in Norway.

One day soon after we moved there, I spent a good twenty minutes trying to locate vanilla and baking soda in the market.  I had no less than four people try to help me.   One product I ended up with was called “natron” and I hoped it was indeed baking soda.

When I tried to verify that the package actually contained baking soda, I asked the employee whether I could use it not just for cooking, but to brush my teeth and clean things. I got a most definite, “No.” I figured they either aren’t hip to the many great uses for baking soda, or I got the wrong thing.  Only time would tell I got lucky with that purchase.

As for the vanilla… a customer in the store overheard my repeated description of “black water” which was the best way I knew how to describe vanilla extract in my limited Norwegian vocabulary at the time.  The customer handed me a container with some kind of powder in it, clearly marked “vanila” and wondered what my problem was.

I spoke again in broken Norwegian, saying “No, black water.”  She explained to me in broken English that her daughter-in-law was from Australia and she had the same problem – she wasn’t used to cooking with the vanilla powder, either, but that’s all they have available in Norway.

She also told me her daughter-in-law only lasted five years and then went back home. “Too many differences,” she said. I still don’t know whether she was referring to the marriage, or the vanilla.