Falling Asleep in My Fish

I was seriously sleep-deprived by the time I finally arrived at the Hotel Continental (www.hotel-continental.no) in Oslo, but it was an easy and quick ride from the airport on the express Flytoget train which deposited me just across the street from the hotel.

Fortunately, Theatercafeen was located on the ground floor of the hotel, so that was an easy trip down the elevator to this beautiful, old traditional restaurant. The grand room was decked out for the holidays, with a piano player on the balcony above the dining room who played a medley of Christmas carols throughout the evening. All of the city restaurants including Theatercafeen have introduced their special holiday menus with traditional Norwegian specialties like Lutefisk ( a salted and aged raw trout), Rakefisk (similar to lox and served with sour cream, onions and beetroot), Pinne Kjott (pina-shut) which is a salted, dried lamb, and of course, rice porridge with cinnamon and sugar for dessert. Everyone drinks the national liquor, Aquavit, with their fish so I tried some, but it must be an acquired taste as it was very strong.

I love firm white fish, so I chose the baked halibut, which was served on a bed of onions and fresh spinach sautéed in a red wine sauce. It was hands-down the best halibut I’ve ever tasted…so fresh it could have leaped from the sea onto my plate…and cooked to perfection. I couldn’t keep my eyes open long enough to try one of the decadent desserts or the rice porridge, so I stumbled back to the elevator in a food coma and passed out in the soft cloud of my featherbed.