Eatling Local in Bergen, Norway

"Pingvinen", the restaurant Aileen originally chose for her 30th birthday dinner ( by reading about it in a guide)- not knowing that pingvinen is Norwegian for penguin*. We had to come back a different day because they were full up on June 17. But, she chose it because she'd read that they specialize in traditional Norwegian fare. This food may actually qualify more as "traditional" than truly "local" to the Bergen area. But, I promised a post on local eating from our trip and this is probably going to be the best I can muster up.

We all agreed that the best approach at this restaurant was to order five different entrees for the 6 of us (as Karen was sick this particular evening) and share them around. This way, we all got to try each thing.

Dried salted cod ( similar to Bacalhau in Portuguese cuisine)

Fish Souffle

Whale

Tuskfish

We also had a dish with meatballs, but I don't seem to have come home with a photograph of the meatballs. Overall, the food was quite delicious. A few (well, specifically the whale) unusual enough to qualify more as "interesting" than "good" tasting, in my opinion. But, the vegetables served with these items were all nicely cooked and very fresh tasting.

The crew heading back to our hotel after a delicious and very unusual dinner at Pingvinen.

In general, the food we had throughout Norway was much better than I had expected. Fruits and vegetables were usually very fresh. The bread served with breakfast, at every hotel, was full of whole grains and really wonderful. We had very fine picnic lunches of flatbreads with cheeses, sliced meats and fruit. A couple of evenings, one or more of us also had reindeer - either in a stew or sliced and served with mushrooms. So, although VERY expensive, food was a pleasant surprise throughout our trip - in small towns and in the bigger cities.



*For the occasional readers who are not familiar with our family, I'm thinking I might explain why it was such a coincidence that Aileen chose this restaurant without knowing what the name means. She is a biologist and a significant amount of her work has been with research on penguins in Antarctica.

Off to Norway with the Family!

We are off to Norway and then to Paris - leaving tomorrow morning. It's a family trip - Grady and I, our two kids, his sister, and her two kids. Several years ago, G and I took Aileen and Kris to Ireland and were able to visit with some of my Irish end of the family and see Arranmoor Island, home of the Boyle end of our family. Since that time, I've suggested to Grady that we should follow up with a similar family trip to Norway where much of his family originated. So, it's finally happening!

This means my blog and my weekly reports for One Local Summer will most likely be on a hiatus until early July. We return on July 2, but then head to the coast for the 4th of July holiday. I'll keep an eye out for Norwegian food specialties, but I don't know whether I'll want to spend much time in internet cafes. I hope to have things to report on when I return.

Random observations from our B.C. Road Trip

Every town in British Columbia has:

1. a community center - usually large and quite beautiful, no matter how small the town
2. one or more of the following - Subway, A&W, Dairy Queen- all three usually unless town is very small
3. log house builder
4. at least one liquor store - no exceptions; three or four unless the town has a population under 50; often they are combined with something else - liquor store and tavern, liquor store and gas station, etc. - very efficient
   
5. at least one "Chinese and Western" restaurant
6. taxidermist
7. An official 'Information Center - in which the employees are paid by the number of maps and brochures they are able to hand out to visitors, more points if they can mark up the map with random points of interest first; but the Info Centers always have a restroom, so I am a big fan
   
8. a drop-dead gorgeous scenic view - including rivers, forests and mountains in the distance
   

OK, maybe there are just a few generalizations here, but not too many. Most of all, it is a beautiful province and we felt welcomed by friendly people every place we stopped or stayed.

Two Highlights of the trip:
1. Visits to two first nations cultural centers and several galleries that specialize in native arts in Victoria -
'KSan Historic Village - for centuries, the home of the Gitxan in the upper Skeena River region near Hazelton; a replication of the houses, totem poles, and other artifacts of their culture
Quw'utsun' Cultural and Conference Centre
run by the Cowichan Tribes; in addition to an interpretive tour and opportunity to talk with a basket-weaver and a carver, we lucked into an opportunity to see a performance of aboriginal songs and dances by the Cowichan Tzinquaw Dancers.

In Victoria, we browsed through several galleries that focus on art of the northwest coast. Our favorite were prints by Coast Salish artist, lessLIE at Alcheringa Gallery. After a fair amount of looking, hemming and hawing, we managed to decide on one print to bring home.

2. The ferry trip from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy
A 15-hour ride through the inland passage along the west coast of B.C.. Again, gorgeous scenery on both sides of the boat. And many wildlife-viewing opportunities throughout the day- LOTS of whales, dolphins playing in the wake of the boat, eagles flying overhead and a few seals. Observation of the wildlife on board also helped pass the time. I believe we were among a small minority of people on the boat who were native speakers of English. It seems to be quite a popular trip with European tourists. It was also my observation that we were among a similarly small minority of people on the boat not wearing travel pants - men, women, children, couples in matching travel pants. (If you ever see Grady and I wearing matching travel pants and matching jackets, please put us out of our misery.)

Lastly, here are a couple of the house fronts and totems in the 'KSan village:



And, for those of you who heard (or read in last year's travel blog) about our "rough crossing" of Lake Michigan, I thought I might show you a picture of me not throwing up on this ferry ride. Note: no white knuckles on the seat arms, no extra large barf bags in sight. Whew, what a better way to travel.



A group of my photos from this trip are on my flickr page.
I'm hoping Grady will get his developed soon. He actually took two FILM cameras. On the ferry ride, he was stopped frequently by other folks who were curious about these antique cameras he was using! But, of course, he has not only a better camera, but actual knowledge and skill in using it. So, his pictures of the whales and dolphins are likely to actually look like something. And, maybe I can get digital versions to post later on.

Road Trip 2008

We’re off in the little red car again, heading north – farther north than either of us have even been. On our way to Prince Rupert, British Columbia - four days worth of north. We should get there by tomorrow evening and then we'll be taking a 15-hour ferry ride to Vancouver Island. I don't feel up to a frequent and detailed trip blog as I had done with our road trip last year (huge sighs of relief from the hoards of readers). But, I'll post an assortment of pictures and comments for the family. Then it should be easy to scroll through.

The first day and a half was urban:
Seattle - dinner with Barb Williams and a stay at the Chez Rinehart/Young, relaxing in the front yard looking out over the sunset on Greenlake.
Vancouver - lunch with Chris (friend of our Kris), Ashley (his wife) and Riley (friend from Montreal who had just ridden his bike from Portland to Vancouver); transported "gifts" and wine for Chris and Ashley

The Alex Fraser bridge heading into the part of town nearest to where Chris and Ashley live. Very cool looking.

Saturday - drove along the "sea to sky highway", up through Whistler and on to Pemberton. We were curious about the amount of road construction until we saw the signs reminding us that the 2010 Winter Olympics will be in that area. Pemberton was a lovely little town, particularly the restaurant where we had dinner and the farm at which we had breakfast the next morning. (more on the food in both places in the last post about local eating)

Grady relaxing and enjoying the view from the patio of the Pemberton Valley Vineyard Inn and Restaurant.

And this is the view he was appreciating.

The North Arm Farm has been farmed by the Sturdy's since the mid 1990's. They grow a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, including the strawberries and cherries we tasted, without herbicides, pesticides or fungicides. They are open for visitors and have a bakery where they sell pastries and pies made on site using the fruit that is in season. In addition to enjoying our breakfast, we walked around the farm and said hello to some of the animals.

But, when I headed even a little close to mama and baby (behind a fence, mind you),

these three members of the family (or close friends, I'm sure) immediately headed my way making loud remarks that did not sound very much like "hi, come on over, you're welcome here any time."


Here is another version of what the folks who work on this farm get to look at while they're working (the other being in that post about the local eating in Pemberton).

Our next stop after Pemberton was in Quesnel after a very dramatic and scenic drive along the Cariboo highway. We stayed in the lovely "Garden Gallery B&B".

Grady relaxing on the deck with our hosts, Don and Darleen (and their dog, Dudley). With a bit of wine and lemonade, we learned about their careers as teachers and how they turned their home into a B&B after they retired. We had the whole second floor to ourselves. In the morning, they fixed us a full breakfast of potato pancakes with herbs and scapes from their garden, sliced tomatoes and fruit, and some locally made sausages they picked up that morning at the farmer's market.

A fairly uneventful drive today. Lunch in a nice park in Frasier Lake (next to a large grouping of those red hat ladies). I'd have to say that the highlight of the day was a walk on the trail around a wetlands area here in Houston called the "Duck Pond Trail". It was good to get outside a bit more and we got to see several ducks, geese and other birds in the pond.

So, there's a recap of the trip so far. On to Prince Rupert tomorrow after spending some time in one of the three Hazeltons.

Eating Local in Pemberton, BC - OLS Week 6

I thought I would report in from the road and share a little of our local eating efforts in British Columbia. During the first part of this week, we were mostly just trying to use up leftovers and bits of things in the refrigerator to clean it out before leaving for 10 days. We had lots of lettuce from our garden and our CSA with all those leftovers. But, otherwise, it was not too interesting.

We are currently on a road trip loop through British Columbia, on our way to Prince Rupert (four days worth of north). From there, we take a 15-hour ferry ride wouth along the inland passage to Vancouver Island. At the moment, I am sitting in a park in Fort Frasier using wifi from the public library, I think.

Day before yesterday, we were in the little town of Pemberton, a short distance north of Whistler. Saturday night we had dinner at the Pemberton Valley Vineyard Inn and Restaurant. We started with a salad of several types of greens, and both red and golden beets from their garden.

I had wine-poached Pacific west coast halibut with Across the Creek baby new potatoes. The Pemberton area has quite a bit of farming and potatoes are a specialty. These were served with some zucchini spears and onions also from their garden. I don’t remember the name of the duck entrée that Grady had, but I believe it was also raised in the area. I also had a glass of the Pemberton Vallery Vinyard wine.

ncidentally, we had a lovely evening because of the beautiful setting and the fact that they were not busy. So, we were there three hours, getting to watch the sun go down and the moon appear and make its way across the tops of these mountains.

Sunday morning, we drove to the North Arm Farm. We walked around the farm a bit and then got a pint of strawberries they had just picked and pastries made in the kitchen there. They have a bakery in which they make pies and other pastries using whatever fruit is currently in season.

This is a cherry strudel. Doesn’t look like much in this picture, but it was so delicious. Quite decadent to have, basically, cherry pie for breakfast, but we tried to be more circumspect the rest of the day.
It was a beautiful warm sunny morning and we ate our breakfast out on one of the picnic tables looking at this view.