Oh Deer!

The one thing I couldn't get into in Norwegian cuisine is reindeer meat and sausage. We visited a really nice food store close to City Hall on Rosenkrantz street called Fenaknoken and the proprietor offered me some reindeer sausage which he said was really sweet. When I told him I just couldn't bring myself to eat Comet or Rudolph, he laughed and assured me that "our hunters know to stay away from Rudolph"!

He had huge slabs of the dried lamb called Pinne Kjott hanging from the rafters alongside giant dried cod fish. I tried some salted lamb wrapped in the thin bread called lefse (leff-suh) and it was very good. They also had some brown cheese made from the carmelized sugar in the milk. It's eaten with dark bread and often used in gravy.

This is definitely a great shop for true foodies who want to explore the traditional local foods of the region.