#moon safari rarities

[dansnaturepictures]

18th September 2022: Post 1 of 2-Boat trip with Birds of Poole Harbour

We spent some more brilliant time in Poole Harbour during this week off as we went on an autumn cruise with Birds of Poole Harbour this morning/early afternoon. The main hope of the trip was for me to finally see a White-tailed Eagle in the south again after the Isle of Wight reintroduction with a fair few being seen in the harbour especially along the Wareham Channel where we went to Ham Common Viewpoint to overlook on Monday, and on the way back on the boat we did see one. It was an honour to see this gigantic figure gliding through the air as though a log in the sky. Unmissable, unmistakable and phenomenal to see we enjoyed a glorious few minutes seeing it in the air before it went down into land. It was a splendid sight, one to really behold and I was in my element watching it and so happy. They don’t spend much of their day in the air so there is a lot of luck involved in seeing them, and I was over the moon to see one in this year full of big bird of prey experiences for me.

It’s been a very strong year for birds of prey for me, having now seen sixteen bird of prey species this year of the eighteen seen in my life. It’s only the third time I’ve seen a White-tailed Eagle, after a Hampshire rarity that we caught up with at Old Basing in 2011 and one in the Highlands of Scotland in 2018. Seeing it mobbed by birds including an Osprey and Buzzard which was some sight was amazing with an Osprey with fish below the eagle at one point in the air too seeing that in the same binocular view was quite something. What a few minutes it was to see the eagle. 

Before seeing the eagle it had been a raptor fest in the harbour with some astounding views of Ospreys on this sunny morning particularly one. Late on in the time the Ospreys are migrating through this harbour where this species did historically nest for the first time in the south for two hundred years this year in another inspiring reintroduction programme it was a treat and a really notable thing in itself. Seeing their distinctive body and beautiful colours and markings finely shining in the sunlight and seeing them do dives towards the water was fantastic. We saw juvenile and adult, in the best ever year I have had for seeing them I cherished enthralling moments with this one of my very and original favourite birds. I took the fourth picture in this photoset of an Osprey.

It was an autumn bird safari trip and it was a bird fest with so many species seen. Leading the other highlights were yet more Kingfishers seen this week off and this month as we went past the Wareham Channel into the River Frome, the red and blue of the bird as they zipped by enchanted in the sunlight with them seen perched too. Seeing Osprey and Kingfisher together two of my original favourite birds that I have loosely thought of together as they both eat fish that I have had top years for was extraordinary. Marsh Harriers were another top bird of prey to see on the trip. Little Stint, Wood Sandpiper and Common Sandpiper key birds of our year seen nicely again in 2022 were highlights in a pool near the river. Avocet and many Black-tailed Godwits were other wading bird highlights it was nice to see a fair few of the latter feeding in a field beside the river. There were decent amounts of hirundines moving through a constant this week with Swallow, House Martin and Sand Martin seen. More Sandwich Terns this week, Great Black-backed Gull and a stunning Yellow-legged Gull were standout birds on the trip too and so good to see. I took the third and seventh pictures in this photoset of a Shag and Cormorant on the trip other great birds to see today. Away from birds seeing Sika Deers to add to the amazing mammals seen this week was great.

It really was a gorgeous morning and early afternoon with it so sunny, perfect to enjoy the vast landscape of the bright blue harbour and gorgeous green landscape around once more with the reedbed, riverine and lake habitat looking divine in the sunshine too. Seeing Ham Common, Arne, Brownsea Island and Corfe Castle was great as I was able to piece together the geography of places in and around the harbour I have long known or learnt more recently. I took the first two, fifth, sixth and final three pictures in this photoset of views on the boat trip.

It was all so well organised today, the team from Birds of Poole Harbour and the boat crew went out of their way to make it a very enjoyable and informative morning with such interesting and engaging commentary and expert guiding on seeing species. It was so welcoming and friendly, in keeping with the exciting projects underway to really make the harbour and this part of the coast an example to be aspired to on how to support wildlife and help the ecosystem thrive. The team were so enthusiastic and there was a great buzz among all of us in the big moments especially when the White-tailed Eagles and Ospreys were spotted. What an ending to our days off on leave that rather started and ended with a brilliant boat trip making the most of the wonders of the south coast.

Wildlife Sightings Summary: Five of my favourite birds the Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, Osprey, Kingfisher and Little Egret, one of my favourite mammals the Sika Deer, White-tailed Eagle, Carrion Crow, Herring Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Black-headed Gull, Sandwich Tern, Cormorant and Grey Heron well again, Spoonbills well at Arne, Mallard, Gadwall, a fair few Mute Swans nicely, Canada Goose, Egyptian Goose, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Avocet, Oystercatcher, Common Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Little Stint, Stonechat, Blue Tit looking nice in the reedbed, Swallow, House Martin, Sand Martin, Pied Wagtail, Woodpigeon and wasps.

[chrisryanspeaks]

AIR Announce New Tour + Release of New Demo

French duo AIR announced an extensive North American tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut album Moon Safari. This announcement follows the release of the demo version of "New Star In The Sky,” before a deluxe rarity edition of the album is released on March 15th. Purchase Tour Tickets Read the full article

[audiofuzz]

AIR Announce New Tour + Release of New Demo

French duo AIR announced an extensive North American tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut album Moon Safari. This announcement follows the release of the demo version of "New Star In The Sky,” before a deluxe rarity edition of the album is released on March 15th. Purchase Tour Tickets Read the full article

[eddiejpoplar]

Call Me the Ram ProMaster Pro

I just spent a week each with a Ram ProMaster 2500 cargo van and the smaller ProMaster City from FCA. And rather than driving aimlessly around in these purpose-built haulers, as automotive journalists turned loose in utility vehicles often find themselves doing, I put them to something approximating the real test. With a daughter graduating college 170 miles away, a car that needed towing from Connecticut, and a warehouse full of They Might Be Giants t-shirts to cart around New York, there was some real work that needed doing. No need to imagine these things with a load when real ones were waiting to be moved.

Longtime readers will know that rock bands were my original introduction to van life, one of my first pieces for Automobile Magazine (“Our Roadies, Our Selves,” Feb. 1988) being a test of a Plymouth Voyager minivan undertaken on one of the very first tours by the “modern,” (later “alternative”) rock group, They Might Be Giants, then a duo, who became the first band I managed. (Still do.) The intervening years have seen me spend significant time behind the wheel of a veritable parade of boxy haulers while on band duty, with more seat time in Econolines, GMC Safaris, Chevy Express, Dodge, and Sprinter vans to my name than memories of beer-stained, pee-infused rock clubs, of which there are more than I can count.

The Sprinter was, of course, the van that kicked off the American van revolution of the 21stcentury. After decades of only the most incremental updates to the domestic van fleet, this new box out of Germany heralded a new era of vehicles that followed the European practice of unit body construction, with taller, more configurable bodies and more efficient engines, plus the additional virtues of better handling and braking, and generally improved safety.

Recently a young act I manage, the saxophone dance trio Moon Hooch, practitioners of what they call “cave music” (like house music, but more primal and raw,) put their own money down to buy a Sprinter and racked up a quick 80,000 miles on it. So far, so good, knock on wood.

Climbing out of a Ford Aerostar with 370,000 miles on its odometer, the Sprinter was even more of a revelation for Moon Hooch than it was for me, when I bought a brand new 3500 duellie for band use from my local Freightliner dealer in 2002. Ten years and 195,000 rock and roll miles on the dually demonstrated just how hard life is on a working van and how expensive it might be to keep such a vehicle in safe and reliable condition. But it made it, and in 2011 was sold on quickly for good money to live on with a new owner, the first of dozens who phoned about the ad I’d placed—response and resale value that said a lot to me about the Sprinters reputation among the tradesmen who typically use it.

Still, if the Sprinter led the way into new technology, the Ram ProMaster cargo van, which was up first for me in my 2018 ExtraVanGanza, speaks just as clearly to the giant leap the American market took in recent years, especially at FCA. The ProMaster’s predecessor, the vans sold largely unchanged by the former Chrysler from the early 1970s into the 2000s, spoke most eloquently to the calcification of American van technology. But this latest FCA effort, based on the top-selling Fiat Ducato van one sees all over the rest of the world, (like Ford’s Transit, it was designed in Europe,) is more curious than the Sprinter, notable for a front-wheel-drive arrangement and extreme driver forward cab and seating position, with exceptionally short front overhang.

Front-drive limits the upper limit of its tow capability, some will say, but I am unconcerned. With standard 3.6-liter V-6 gas engine making 280 horsepower, 260 lb-ft of torque, it is sufficiently hale and hearty in 2500 trim to tow a 1957 Chevrolet 210 four-door on a U-Haul auto transport trailer while returning gas mileage in the high teens. Steering is good with a reasonable turning circle and the ProMaster managed to pack a graduating college senior and all her worldly possessions into its cavernous hold without objection.

It is, to be clear, an all-business, no frills vehicle, devoid of distraction, which is kind of refreshing. Though the two front seats are comfortable and the driving position superior, its fixed steering wheel and unfinished cargo area, plus that the fact that there is no passenger van setup available from the factory, limits its utility as rock band transport. They also never let you forget that you’re in a commercial, lugging vehicle. Unlike, say, an optioned-up RAM pickup, where you might lose sight of the fact that you are in a truck, the ProMaster reminds you that you are a working stiff pretty much all of time. That said, I think there is pride in labor and in presenting the facts honestly.

So it is, too, with the RamMaster ProCity, a small, front-drive van that compares to the Ford Transit Connect, Nissan NV200 (aka the official taxi of New York City), and Mercedes-Benz Metris. It’s unmistakably a van.

Though it has as many features as your average passenger vehicle of a few years back, it seems Spartan to the novitiate. With interior materials a couple notches below best in class and no rear or side windows aft of the front doors to look out of, there’s a definite penalty box feeling to the ProMaster City we’re testing, though available windows might lend an uplifting airiness to the proceedings. But it really is a van. Sold around the world by Fiat as a Doblo and assembled in Turkey, it has been massaged for the American market but retains the enormous utility of the original—and for many van intenders will do just as well as a full-sizer. It rides better than most, a credit to its all-independent suspension, a rarity these days. With FCA’s 178-hp, 174 lb-ft 2.4-liter Tiger Shark four and heady nine-speed automatic transmission, the very ones we saw in the late Chrysler 200, it gets out of its own way pretty well while returning 28 EPA highway mpg (24 overall).  In sum, it works and handles like a van (nimble, but a body roll Pro) but gets better gas mileage. And, stars willing, it will be reliable and long-lived, like a van’s supposed to be.

ProMaster Pro conclusion: Touring rock bands may need to look elsewhere, but these are worthy machines. Van consumers have never been so spoiled for choice.

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

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[jonathanbelloblog]

Call Me the Ram ProMaster Pro

I just spent a week each with a Ram ProMaster 2500 cargo van and the smaller ProMaster City from FCA. And rather than driving aimlessly around in these purpose-built haulers, as automotive journalists turned loose in utility vehicles often find themselves doing, I put them to something approximating the real test. With a daughter graduating college 170 miles away, a car that needed towing from Connecticut, and a warehouse full of They Might Be Giants t-shirts to cart around New York, there was some real work that needed doing. No need to imagine these things with a load when real ones were waiting to be moved.

Longtime readers will know that rock bands were my original introduction to van life, one of my first pieces for Automobile Magazine (“Our Roadies, Our Selves,” Feb. 1988) being a test of a Plymouth Voyager minivan undertaken on one of the very first tours by the “modern,” (later “alternative”) rock group, They Might Be Giants, then a duo, who became the first band I managed. (Still do.) The intervening years have seen me spend significant time behind the wheel of a veritable parade of boxy haulers while on band duty, with more seat time in Econolines, GMC Safaris, Chevy Express, Dodge, and Sprinter vans to my name than memories of beer-stained, pee-infused rock clubs, of which there are more than I can count.

The Sprinter was, of course, the van that kicked off the American van revolution of the 21stcentury. After decades of only the most incremental updates to the domestic van fleet, this new box out of Germany heralded a new era of vehicles that followed the European practice of unit body construction, with taller, more configurable bodies and more efficient engines, plus the additional virtues of better handling and braking, and generally improved safety.

Recently a young act I manage, the saxophone dance trio Moon Hooch, practitioners of what they call “cave music” (like house music, but more primal and raw,) put their own money down to buy a Sprinter and racked up a quick 80,000 miles on it. So far, so good, knock on wood.

Climbing out of a Ford Aerostar with 370,000 miles on its odometer, the Sprinter was even more of a revelation for Moon Hooch than it was for me, when I bought a brand new 3500 duellie for band use from my local Freightliner dealer in 2002. Ten years and 195,000 rock and roll miles on the dually demonstrated just how hard life is on a working van and how expensive it might be to keep such a vehicle in safe and reliable condition. But it made it, and in 2011 was sold on quickly for good money to live on with a new owner, the first of dozens who phoned about the ad I’d placed—response and resale value that said a lot to me about the Sprinters reputation among the tradesmen who typically use it.

Still, if the Sprinter led the way into new technology, the Ram ProMaster cargo van, which was up first for me in my 2018 ExtraVanGanza, speaks just as clearly to the giant leap the American market took in recent years, especially at FCA. The ProMaster’s predecessor, the vans sold largely unchanged by the former Chrysler from the early 1970s into the 2000s, spoke most eloquently to the calcification of American van technology. But this latest FCA effort, based on the top-selling Fiat Ducato van one sees all over the rest of the world, (like Ford’s Transit, it was designed in Europe,) is more curious than the Sprinter, notable for a front-wheel-drive arrangement and extreme driver forward cab and seating position, with exceptionally short front overhang.

Front-drive limits the upper limit of its tow capability, some will say, but I am unconcerned. With standard 3.6-liter V-6 gas engine making 280 horsepower, 260 lb-ft of torque, it is sufficiently hale and hearty in 2500 trim to tow a 1957 Chevrolet 210 four-door on a U-Haul auto transport trailer while returning gas mileage in the high teens. Steering is good with a reasonable turning circle and the ProMaster managed to pack a graduating college senior and all her worldly possessions into its cavernous hold without objection.

It is, to be clear, an all-business, no frills vehicle, devoid of distraction, which is kind of refreshing. Though the two front seats are comfortable and the driving position superior, its fixed steering wheel and unfinished cargo area, plus that the fact that there is no passenger van setup available from the factory, limits its utility as rock band transport. They also never let you forget that you’re in a commercial, lugging vehicle. Unlike, say, an optioned-up RAM pickup, where you might lose sight of the fact that you are in a truck, the ProMaster reminds you that you are a working stiff pretty much all of time. That said, I think there is pride in labor and in presenting the facts honestly.

So it is, too, with the RamMaster ProCity, a small, front-drive van that compares to the Ford Transit Connect, Nissan NV200 (aka the official taxi of New York City), and Mercedes-Benz Metris. It’s unmistakably a van.

Though it has as many features as your average passenger vehicle of a few years back, it seems Spartan to the novitiate. With interior materials a couple notches below best in class and no rear or side windows aft of the front doors to look out of, there’s a definite penalty box feeling to the ProMaster City we’re testing, though available windows might lend an uplifting airiness to the proceedings. But it really is a van. Sold around the world by Fiat as a Doblo and assembled in Turkey, it has been massaged for the American market but retains the enormous utility of the original—and for many van intenders will do just as well as a full-sizer. It rides better than most, a credit to its all-independent suspension, a rarity these days. With FCA’s 178-hp, 174 lb-ft 2.4-liter Tiger Shark four and heady nine-speed automatic transmission, the very ones we saw in the late Chrysler 200, it gets out of its own way pretty well while returning 28 EPA highway mpg (24 overall).  In sum, it works and handles like a van (nimble, but a body roll Pro) but gets better gas mileage. And, stars willing, it will be reliable and long-lived, like a van’s supposed to be.

ProMaster Pro conclusion: Touring rock bands may need to look elsewhere, but these are worthy machines. Van consumers have never been so spoiled for choice.

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

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[rainer71]

Von mir favorisiert auf #Deezer: Moon Safari Remixes, Rarities And Radio Sessions by Air

Moon Safari Remixes, Rarities And Radio Sessions von Air

[oddusee]

Thoughts of Oddusee Bottle of wine a full moon playing soft melodies Pen and Pac and memories as I start to squeeze The pen the ink, it releas3s its fluids The movement of my left hand my mind made me do it Write these written no thesaurus pure vision Dominate the industry my heart intention To pump out lyrics to intrigue the ears daily Close your eyes as the Oddusee amazes The crowd of listeners but their bodies cant react From the impact of this informal English attack It's simple wordplay mathematics and some science They see a pyramid but they dont know its alignment The beauty of a structure simplexity designed But when building this pyramid the complexity blows their mind The vivid translations mess with browsers imagination chrome and Safari wants Oddusee decapitation To explore my brain to drain all that it contains Insane the frontal lobe is their aim The see what I think and examine my personality What different in my D.N.A why is Oddusee a rarity It's my spirituality that gives me this mentality The forces of good and evil are coming after me drastically But I got an addiction to hip hop beats and freaks With phenomenal physics in exotic places that I seek In jets and cars, taste grapes in vineyards that are private Clothe in knits by Roberto Cavalli In contrast I have a desire to live forever on earth To avoid death I dont want to return to return to dirt No sickness, forever young, no hard work No guns no violence no jails or courts One heavenly King to restore the dreams on many To bring back dead loved ones from over the centuries. THOUGHTS OF ODDUSEE PART 1. #ultratravolta

[samanthasroberts]

18 Norwegian foods you’ve probably never heard of

(CNN)“We have products, history here that you don’t find anywhere else in the world,” says Esben Holmboe Bang, the Danish head chef of Oslo’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant Maaemo.

“For me it was mind-blowing. I saw the way they preserved fish, meat and I just thought I’ve never seen this before.”

Norway’s distinctive cuisine has been shaped by its 100,000-kilometer coastline, by its long winters and brief summers, by the forests that cover a third of its surface, and by the mountains that cut west off from east.

Here are 18 of Norway’s greatest — and strangest — specialties.

MORE: Norway becomes first country to ban deforestation

1. Smalahove

“You have to try it once in your life. This is amazing thing,” says Eirik Braek, owner of Oslo deli Fenaknoken, holding up a whole sheep’s head.

Fenaknoken is an Aladdin’s cave of cured, dried and salted delicacies, with hams strung from the ceiling like chandeliers, and Braek is a charming and enthusiastic host, giving all visitors to his shop a tasting tour of Norwegian food history.

Smalahove — literally sheep’s head — is a Christmas treat in Western Norway.

“You start with the eyes,” says Braek, because the fatty areas taste better warm. “This one you have to serve hot.”

2. Great Scallop

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“The sea is something we live off now and it’s something that we lived on for centuries,” says Holmboe Bang. “There’s a strong belonging to the sea.”

The cold waters mean seafood takes longer to grow, making the flesh is extra plump and tender.

In the Norway episode of “Culinary Journeys,” Holmboe Bang and Maaemo’s diver Roderick Sloan feast on “salty, intensely sweet” Great Scallops, served in their shell with reindeer moss and juniper.

People love fish so much, says Braek, that they’ll drink Omega 3 at Christmas to line their stomachs pre-revelry: “Just a small scoop. You can have more alcohol, maybe.”

MORE: Culinary theater at the world’s most northerly Michelin-starred restaurant

3. Mahogany clam

The world’s oldest animal ever is said to be a sprightly little bivalve mollusk by the name of Ming, who was dredged off the coast of Iceland in 2006 and estimated to be 507 years old.

The ones found off Norway’s northern coast will usually have been chilling in the Arctic depths for 150 to 200 years.

Says Roderick Sloan: “My job is like going to the moon every day.

“When I’m on the bottom, I only have two sounds: the sound of my heart and the sound of my breath.”

4. Dried everything

“In Norway we dry everything, because we have to,” says Braek. “We did this to survive in the future. We salted and dried things.”

Holmboe Bang agrees.

Fermenting, pickling, salting, curing, smoking: “It’s all about trying to prolong summer, it’s about making the taste of summer last.

“We’ve developed these intensely special, completely different flavor profile than the produce has in the summer, but that’s for us the taste of winter.”

“People did this for thousands of years,” he adds.

“When you think about the way people had to survive, you had to preserve your fish, you had to think ‘I have to stock up my larder for the winter, otherwise me and my family are going to die’… We don’t have that mentality any more.

“I feel like now we live in a society where everything is available all the time, and that’s a blessing and a curse.”

5. Klippfisk

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Klippfisk — literally “cliff fish” — is dried and salted cod, in a tradition dating back to the 17th century.

In the “Culinary Journeys” video above, Holmboe Bang is schooled in the method by Nordskot expert Erling Heckneby.

6. Cod tongues

The season for fresh fish is January to April, says Braek.

Skrei — or cod — is one of Norway’s greatest exports but one specialty that hasn’t been such a hit abroad is cod tongue.

The cut is less the actual tongue than the underside of the cod chin, should you find “cod chin” sounds more appealing.

The best way to wrap your lips round some cod tongue is to toss them in seasoned flour and fry them in butter.

7. Gamalost

Gamalost means “old cheese” — and this is one that was actually eaten by Vikings.

It’s a hard, crumbly brownish-yellow cheese with a sharp, intense flavor and a pungent scent to match.

“Some people love it, some people hate it,” says Braek.

Those who really love it can join the annual Gamalost Festival held in Vik in May.

“This cheese we can keep forever. This never gets old,” adds Braek, explaining that it was a Norwegian staple in the days before refrigeration.

Production is very labor-intensive, so it’s rare to find gamalost for sale outside Norway.

MORE: Best country in the world to live? Still Norway, according to the U.N.

8. Brunost

Much easier to find than gamalost, brunost is the sweet-savory brown cheese that delights Norwegians and surprises foreigners.

It’s a goat’s cheese made from caramelized whey — giving it a sharp, sweet-sour dulce de leche taste — and its fat and sugar content is such that a truck of the stuff burnt for five days when it caught fire in a Norwegian tunnel in 2013.

Norwegians eat it on toast, with crispbread, with jam and at breakfast — though any meal will do.

A classic combo is sliced brunost on top of one of Norway’s sweetly heart-shaped waffles. They’re softer and more pliable than the Belgian variety, making them easier to fold in the hand.

At Christmas they’re eaten on toasted buttered julecake — a festive cake flavored with cardamom and dotted with fruit and candied peel.

9. Reindeer and elk

Forget the Pepsi Challenge — visitors to Fenaknoken can sample dried elk and dried reindeer side by side.

“Elk is like a dry, more wild taste,” says Braek. Reindeer is a “much smaller animal so it’s much sweeter.”

Reindeer moss — so called because reindeer eat it — is a lichen found in Arctic tundra. “It’s very special to Norway,” explains Sloan. “This is where the reindeer get all their flavor from.”

It’s also sometimes used in the making of akvavit, the famous Scandinavian spirit.

MORE: The Dukha: Last of Mongolia’s reindeer people

10. Farikal

“This is a map of Norway,” explains Braek, holding a vacuum-packed leg of lamb and pointing out the west coast, where cuisine was influenced by the shipping trade and mixing cultures, and the isolated mountain-bound east.

“At Christmas I have about 1.5 tonnes of lamb ribs” hanging from the roof of the shop, he says, a welcome sight for homesick Norwegians returning home for the festive season.

“I have people stand here and cry. ‘I’m home!’”

Pinnejott — “stick meat” — is a festive dish of salted and dried lamb or mutton ribs, typical to the west and north.

The national dish, however is farikal, a lamb and cabbage casserole traditionally eaten in fall.

11. Cloudberries

Norway has a Willy Wonka-esque inventory of evocative berry names: cloudberries, crowberries … but sadly no snozzberries.

The ethereal cloudberry is golden-yellow and only found in the wild. Its rarity earns it the nickname Arctic gold.

They have a tart appleish flavor and are often made into jam. “If you find any, don’t tell anyone where you find them,” says Braek.

Crowberry is a black cold-climate berry found in northern Europe, Alaska, Canada, Greenland and beyond.

12. Lutefisk

If a gelatinous mix of dried fish and lye doesn’t sound appealing, you might not be alone.

When we visited the world’s only Lutefisk Museum, in Norway’s “Christmas town” of Drobok, on a sunny day in May the entire place was empty — a piscine Marie Celeste with no staff, no customers, but one forlorn pile of children’s letters to Santa.

Lutefisk is a festive specialty, made by air-drying fish, reconstituting it by soaking it in cold water for a week, then soaking it in caustic lye soda for two days.

Then, to get rid of the poisonous lye, it’s soaked in water for another couple of days.

It’s not eaten in the summertime, but out of season visitors can console themselves with a light and frothy fiskesuppe (fish soup) in the cherry blossom-shaded courtyard of the Skipperstuen restaurant opposite the Museum and Aquarium, overlooking the Oslofjord.

13. Salty liquorice

Yes, the Norwegians like salting everything so much, they even do it to their candy.

The controversial mouth-puckering treat is wildly popular in the Nordic countries and widely reviled elsewhere.

It’s an acquired taste, but if you like your aniseed strong, and your gustatory receptors tingling in tandem, it might just be the candy for you.

14. Torrfisk

Torrfisk, or stockfish, is unsalted air-dried fish, usually cod.

It’s been “made in Norway for, people say, about 1,000 years,” says Braek.

It’s mentioned in the 13th century Icelandic work “Egil’s Saga,” when a chieftain ships stockfish from Norway to Britain in 875 AD.

As such, it was Norway’s biggest export for centuries.

15. Rakfisk

Rakfisk is salted, fermented trout, and it packs a pungent — and delicious — punch.

It’s usually fermented for two to three months, but it can be up to a year.

It’s often eaten with flatbrod (Norwegian flat bread) or lefse (potato bread), onions and sour cream.

16. King Crab

Like the sound of a King Crab safari?

A number of tour operators offer trips to Kirkenes, on the border with Russia, to hunt the Arctic King Crab between the months of December and April.

The mighty crustaceans can grow to a leg span of 1.8 meters.

17. Seagull eggs

Seagulls are arguably the most thuggish of seabirds, raised — in the UK, at least — on a diet of ketchup, French fries and stolen sandwiches.

But in late April or early May in northern Norway, locals like to eat hard-boiled seagulls’ eggs washed down with a pilsner beer from Tromso’s Mack’s brewery.

We don’t recommend you attempt to harvest any yourself — to protect the species, but also to protect yourself. Those gulls can be pretty handy when it comes to a fight.

18. Whale

Norway is one of only three countries still involved in the controversial practice of whaling, alongside Japan and Iceland.

For those who can stomach it, whale meat — or hvalkjott — is widely available and often marketed at curious tourists.

“I’ve tried whale and reindeer,” says Jen, a Canadian on a one-woman tour of Norway.

“Whale’s really good. I’m from the east coast, so we have a lot of fish but we don’t do whaling.”

As whales are mammals rather than fish, the taste is similar to a gamey meat such as venison.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/2017/05/27/18-norwegian-foods-youve-probably-never-heard-of/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2017/05/27/18-norwegian-foods-youve-probably-never-heard-of/

[adambstingus]

18 Norwegian foods you’ve probably never heard of

(CNN)“We have products, history here that you don’t find anywhere else in the world,” says Esben Holmboe Bang, the Danish head chef of Oslo’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant Maaemo.

“For me it was mind-blowing. I saw the way they preserved fish, meat and I just thought I’ve never seen this before.”

Norway’s distinctive cuisine has been shaped by its 100,000-kilometer coastline, by its long winters and brief summers, by the forests that cover a third of its surface, and by the mountains that cut west off from east.

Here are 18 of Norway’s greatest — and strangest — specialties.

MORE: Norway becomes first country to ban deforestation

1. Smalahove

“You have to try it once in your life. This is amazing thing,” says Eirik Braek, owner of Oslo deli Fenaknoken, holding up a whole sheep’s head.

Fenaknoken is an Aladdin’s cave of cured, dried and salted delicacies, with hams strung from the ceiling like chandeliers, and Braek is a charming and enthusiastic host, giving all visitors to his shop a tasting tour of Norwegian food history.

Smalahove — literally sheep’s head — is a Christmas treat in Western Norway.

“You start with the eyes,” says Braek, because the fatty areas taste better warm. “This one you have to serve hot.”

2. Great Scallop

JUST WATCHED

Part 2: In search of the Great Scallop

Replay

More Videos …

MUST WATCH

“The sea is something we live off now and it’s something that we lived on for centuries,” says Holmboe Bang. “There’s a strong belonging to the sea.”

The cold waters mean seafood takes longer to grow, making the flesh is extra plump and tender.

In the Norway episode of “Culinary Journeys,” Holmboe Bang and Maaemo’s diver Roderick Sloan feast on “salty, intensely sweet” Great Scallops, served in their shell with reindeer moss and juniper.

People love fish so much, says Braek, that they’ll drink Omega 3 at Christmas to line their stomachs pre-revelry: “Just a small scoop. You can have more alcohol, maybe.”

MORE: Culinary theater at the world’s most northerly Michelin-starred restaurant

3. Mahogany clam

The world’s oldest animal ever is said to be a sprightly little bivalve mollusk by the name of Ming, who was dredged off the coast of Iceland in 2006 and estimated to be 507 years old.

The ones found off Norway’s northern coast will usually have been chilling in the Arctic depths for 150 to 200 years.

Says Roderick Sloan: “My job is like going to the moon every day.

“When I’m on the bottom, I only have two sounds: the sound of my heart and the sound of my breath.”

4. Dried everything

“In Norway we dry everything, because we have to,” says Braek. “We did this to survive in the future. We salted and dried things.”

Holmboe Bang agrees.

Fermenting, pickling, salting, curing, smoking: “It’s all about trying to prolong summer, it’s about making the taste of summer last.

“We’ve developed these intensely special, completely different flavor profile than the produce has in the summer, but that’s for us the taste of winter.”

“People did this for thousands of years,” he adds.

“When you think about the way people had to survive, you had to preserve your fish, you had to think ‘I have to stock up my larder for the winter, otherwise me and my family are going to die’… We don’t have that mentality any more.

“I feel like now we live in a society where everything is available all the time, and that’s a blessing and a curse.”

5. Klippfisk

JUST WATCHED

Part 3: A celebration of Nordic hospitality

Replay

More Videos …

MUST WATCH

Klippfisk — literally “cliff fish” — is dried and salted cod, in a tradition dating back to the 17th century.

In the “Culinary Journeys” video above, Holmboe Bang is schooled in the method by Nordskot expert Erling Heckneby.

6. Cod tongues

The season for fresh fish is January to April, says Braek.

Skrei — or cod — is one of Norway’s greatest exports but one specialty that hasn’t been such a hit abroad is cod tongue.

The cut is less the actual tongue than the underside of the cod chin, should you find “cod chin” sounds more appealing.

The best way to wrap your lips round some cod tongue is to toss them in seasoned flour and fry them in butter.

7. Gamalost

Gamalost means “old cheese” — and this is one that was actually eaten by Vikings.

It’s a hard, crumbly brownish-yellow cheese with a sharp, intense flavor and a pungent scent to match.

“Some people love it, some people hate it,” says Braek.

Those who really love it can join the annual Gamalost Festival held in Vik in May.

“This cheese we can keep forever. This never gets old,” adds Braek, explaining that it was a Norwegian staple in the days before refrigeration.

Production is very labor-intensive, so it’s rare to find gamalost for sale outside Norway.

MORE: Best country in the world to live? Still Norway, according to the U.N.

8. Brunost

Much easier to find than gamalost, brunost is the sweet-savory brown cheese that delights Norwegians and surprises foreigners.

It’s a goat’s cheese made from caramelized whey — giving it a sharp, sweet-sour dulce de leche taste — and its fat and sugar content is such that a truck of the stuff burnt for five days when it caught fire in a Norwegian tunnel in 2013.

Norwegians eat it on toast, with crispbread, with jam and at breakfast — though any meal will do.

A classic combo is sliced brunost on top of one of Norway’s sweetly heart-shaped waffles. They’re softer and more pliable than the Belgian variety, making them easier to fold in the hand.

At Christmas they’re eaten on toasted buttered julecake — a festive cake flavored with cardamom and dotted with fruit and candied peel.

9. Reindeer and elk

Forget the Pepsi Challenge — visitors to Fenaknoken can sample dried elk and dried reindeer side by side.

“Elk is like a dry, more wild taste,” says Braek. Reindeer is a “much smaller animal so it’s much sweeter.”

Reindeer moss — so called because reindeer eat it — is a lichen found in Arctic tundra. “It’s very special to Norway,” explains Sloan. “This is where the reindeer get all their flavor from.”

It’s also sometimes used in the making of akvavit, the famous Scandinavian spirit.

MORE: The Dukha: Last of Mongolia’s reindeer people

10. Farikal

“This is a map of Norway,” explains Braek, holding a vacuum-packed leg of lamb and pointing out the west coast, where cuisine was influenced by the shipping trade and mixing cultures, and the isolated mountain-bound east.

“At Christmas I have about 1.5 tonnes of lamb ribs” hanging from the roof of the shop, he says, a welcome sight for homesick Norwegians returning home for the festive season.

“I have people stand here and cry. ‘I’m home!‘”

Pinnejott — “stick meat” — is a festive dish of salted and dried lamb or mutton ribs, typical to the west and north.

The national dish, however is farikal, a lamb and cabbage casserole traditionally eaten in fall.

11. Cloudberries

Norway has a Willy Wonka-esque inventory of evocative berry names: cloudberries, crowberries … but sadly no snozzberries.

The ethereal cloudberry is golden-yellow and only found in the wild. Its rarity earns it the nickname Arctic gold.

They have a tart appleish flavor and are often made into jam. “If you find any, don’t tell anyone where you find them,” says Braek.

Crowberry is a black cold-climate berry found in northern Europe, Alaska, Canada, Greenland and beyond.

12. Lutefisk

If a gelatinous mix of dried fish and lye doesn’t sound appealing, you might not be alone.

When we visited the world’s only Lutefisk Museum, in Norway’s “Christmas town” of Drobok, on a sunny day in May the entire place was empty — a piscine Marie Celeste with no staff, no customers, but one forlorn pile of children’s letters to Santa.

Lutefisk is a festive specialty, made by air-drying fish, reconstituting it by soaking it in cold water for a week, then soaking it in caustic lye soda for two days.

Then, to get rid of the poisonous lye, it’s soaked in water for another couple of days.

It’s not eaten in the summertime, but out of season visitors can console themselves with a light and frothy fiskesuppe (fish soup) in the cherry blossom-shaded courtyard of the Skipperstuen restaurant opposite the Museum and Aquarium, overlooking the Oslofjord.

13. Salty liquorice

Yes, the Norwegians like salting everything so much, they even do it to their candy.

The controversial mouth-puckering treat is wildly popular in the Nordic countries and widely reviled elsewhere.

It’s an acquired taste, but if you like your aniseed strong, and your gustatory receptors tingling in tandem, it might just be the candy for you.

14. Torrfisk

Torrfisk, or stockfish, is unsalted air-dried fish, usually cod.

It’s been “made in Norway for, people say, about 1,000 years,” says Braek.

It’s mentioned in the 13th century Icelandic work “Egil’s Saga,” when a chieftain ships stockfish from Norway to Britain in 875 AD.

As such, it was Norway’s biggest export for centuries.

15. Rakfisk

Rakfisk is salted, fermented trout, and it packs a pungent — and delicious — punch.

It’s usually fermented for two to three months, but it can be up to a year.

It’s often eaten with flatbrod (Norwegian flat bread) or lefse (potato bread), onions and sour cream.

16. King Crab

Like the sound of a King Crab safari?

A number of tour operators offer trips to Kirkenes, on the border with Russia, to hunt the Arctic King Crab between the months of December and April.

The mighty crustaceans can grow to a leg span of 1.8 meters.

17. Seagull eggs

Seagulls are arguably the most thuggish of seabirds, raised — in the UK, at least — on a diet of ketchup, French fries and stolen sandwiches.

But in late April or early May in northern Norway, locals like to eat hard-boiled seagulls’ eggs washed down with a pilsner beer from Tromso’s Mack’s brewery.

We don’t recommend you attempt to harvest any yourself — to protect the species, but also to protect yourself. Those gulls can be pretty handy when it comes to a fight.

18. Whale

Norway is one of only three countries still involved in the controversial practice of whaling, alongside Japan and Iceland.

For those who can stomach it, whale meat — or hvalkjott — is widely available and often marketed at curious tourists.

“I’ve tried whale and reindeer,” says Jen, a Canadian on a one-woman tour of Norway.

“Whale’s really good. I’m from the east coast, so we have a lot of fish but we don’t do whaling.”

As whales are mammals rather than fish, the taste is similar to a gamey meat such as venison.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/05/27/18-norwegian-foods-youve-probably-never-heard-of/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/161120493437

[allofbeercom]

18 Norwegian foods you’ve probably never heard of

(CNN)“We have products, history here that you don’t find anywhere else in the world,” says Esben Holmboe Bang, the Danish head chef of Oslo’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant Maaemo.

“For me it was mind-blowing. I saw the way they preserved fish, meat and I just thought I’ve never seen this before.”

Norway’s distinctive cuisine has been shaped by its 100,000-kilometer coastline, by its long winters and brief summers, by the forests that cover a third of its surface, and by the mountains that cut west off from east.

Here are 18 of Norway’s greatest — and strangest — specialties.

MORE: Norway becomes first country to ban deforestation

1. Smalahove

“You have to try it once in your life. This is amazing thing,” says Eirik Braek, owner of Oslo deli Fenaknoken, holding up a whole sheep’s head.

Fenaknoken is an Aladdin’s cave of cured, dried and salted delicacies, with hams strung from the ceiling like chandeliers, and Braek is a charming and enthusiastic host, giving all visitors to his shop a tasting tour of Norwegian food history.

Smalahove — literally sheep’s head — is a Christmas treat in Western Norway.

“You start with the eyes,” says Braek, because the fatty areas taste better warm. “This one you have to serve hot.”

2. Great Scallop

JUST WATCHED

Part 2: In search of the Great Scallop

Replay

More Videos …

MUST WATCH

“The sea is something we live off now and it’s something that we lived on for centuries,” says Holmboe Bang. “There’s a strong belonging to the sea.”

The cold waters mean seafood takes longer to grow, making the flesh is extra plump and tender.

In the Norway episode of “Culinary Journeys,” Holmboe Bang and Maaemo’s diver Roderick Sloan feast on “salty, intensely sweet” Great Scallops, served in their shell with reindeer moss and juniper.

People love fish so much, says Braek, that they’ll drink Omega 3 at Christmas to line their stomachs pre-revelry: “Just a small scoop. You can have more alcohol, maybe.”

MORE: Culinary theater at the world’s most northerly Michelin-starred restaurant

3. Mahogany clam

The world’s oldest animal ever is said to be a sprightly little bivalve mollusk by the name of Ming, who was dredged off the coast of Iceland in 2006 and estimated to be 507 years old.

The ones found off Norway’s northern coast will usually have been chilling in the Arctic depths for 150 to 200 years.

Says Roderick Sloan: “My job is like going to the moon every day.

“When I’m on the bottom, I only have two sounds: the sound of my heart and the sound of my breath.”

4. Dried everything

“In Norway we dry everything, because we have to,” says Braek. “We did this to survive in the future. We salted and dried things.”

Holmboe Bang agrees.

Fermenting, pickling, salting, curing, smoking: “It’s all about trying to prolong summer, it’s about making the taste of summer last.

“We’ve developed these intensely special, completely different flavor profile than the produce has in the summer, but that’s for us the taste of winter.”

“People did this for thousands of years,” he adds.

“When you think about the way people had to survive, you had to preserve your fish, you had to think ‘I have to stock up my larder for the winter, otherwise me and my family are going to die’… We don’t have that mentality any more.

“I feel like now we live in a society where everything is available all the time, and that’s a blessing and a curse.”

5. Klippfisk

JUST WATCHED

Part 3: A celebration of Nordic hospitality

Replay

More Videos …

MUST WATCH

Klippfisk — literally “cliff fish” — is dried and salted cod, in a tradition dating back to the 17th century.

In the “Culinary Journeys” video above, Holmboe Bang is schooled in the method by Nordskot expert Erling Heckneby.

6. Cod tongues

The season for fresh fish is January to April, says Braek.

Skrei — or cod — is one of Norway’s greatest exports but one specialty that hasn’t been such a hit abroad is cod tongue.

The cut is less the actual tongue than the underside of the cod chin, should you find “cod chin” sounds more appealing.

The best way to wrap your lips round some cod tongue is to toss them in seasoned flour and fry them in butter.

7. Gamalost

Gamalost means “old cheese” — and this is one that was actually eaten by Vikings.

It’s a hard, crumbly brownish-yellow cheese with a sharp, intense flavor and a pungent scent to match.

“Some people love it, some people hate it,” says Braek.

Those who really love it can join the annual Gamalost Festival held in Vik in May.

“This cheese we can keep forever. This never gets old,” adds Braek, explaining that it was a Norwegian staple in the days before refrigeration.

Production is very labor-intensive, so it’s rare to find gamalost for sale outside Norway.

MORE: Best country in the world to live? Still Norway, according to the U.N.

8. Brunost

Much easier to find than gamalost, brunost is the sweet-savory brown cheese that delights Norwegians and surprises foreigners.

It’s a goat’s cheese made from caramelized whey — giving it a sharp, sweet-sour dulce de leche taste — and its fat and sugar content is such that a truck of the stuff burnt for five days when it caught fire in a Norwegian tunnel in 2013.

Norwegians eat it on toast, with crispbread, with jam and at breakfast — though any meal will do.

A classic combo is sliced brunost on top of one of Norway’s sweetly heart-shaped waffles. They’re softer and more pliable than the Belgian variety, making them easier to fold in the hand.

At Christmas they’re eaten on toasted buttered julecake — a festive cake flavored with cardamom and dotted with fruit and candied peel.

9. Reindeer and elk

Forget the Pepsi Challenge — visitors to Fenaknoken can sample dried elk and dried reindeer side by side.

“Elk is like a dry, more wild taste,” says Braek. Reindeer is a “much smaller animal so it’s much sweeter.”

Reindeer moss — so called because reindeer eat it — is a lichen found in Arctic tundra. “It’s very special to Norway,” explains Sloan. “This is where the reindeer get all their flavor from.”

It’s also sometimes used in the making of akvavit, the famous Scandinavian spirit.

MORE: The Dukha: Last of Mongolia’s reindeer people

10. Farikal

“This is a map of Norway,” explains Braek, holding a vacuum-packed leg of lamb and pointing out the west coast, where cuisine was influenced by the shipping trade and mixing cultures, and the isolated mountain-bound east.

“At Christmas I have about 1.5 tonnes of lamb ribs” hanging from the roof of the shop, he says, a welcome sight for homesick Norwegians returning home for the festive season.

“I have people stand here and cry. ‘I’m home!'”

Pinnejott — “stick meat” — is a festive dish of salted and dried lamb or mutton ribs, typical to the west and north.

The national dish, however is farikal, a lamb and cabbage casserole traditionally eaten in fall.

11. Cloudberries

Norway has a Willy Wonka-esque inventory of evocative berry names: cloudberries, crowberries … but sadly no snozzberries.

The ethereal cloudberry is golden-yellow and only found in the wild. Its rarity earns it the nickname Arctic gold.

They have a tart appleish flavor and are often made into jam. “If you find any, don’t tell anyone where you find them,” says Braek.

Crowberry is a black cold-climate berry found in northern Europe, Alaska, Canada, Greenland and beyond.

12. Lutefisk

If a gelatinous mix of dried fish and lye doesn’t sound appealing, you might not be alone.

When we visited the world’s only Lutefisk Museum, in Norway’s “Christmas town” of Drobok, on a sunny day in May the entire place was empty — a piscine Marie Celeste with no staff, no customers, but one forlorn pile of children’s letters to Santa.

Lutefisk is a festive specialty, made by air-drying fish, reconstituting it by soaking it in cold water for a week, then soaking it in caustic lye soda for two days.

Then, to get rid of the poisonous lye, it’s soaked in water for another couple of days.

It’s not eaten in the summertime, but out of season visitors can console themselves with a light and frothy fiskesuppe (fish soup) in the cherry blossom-shaded courtyard of the Skipperstuen restaurant opposite the Museum and Aquarium, overlooking the Oslofjord.

13. Salty liquorice

Yes, the Norwegians like salting everything so much, they even do it to their candy.

The controversial mouth-puckering treat is wildly popular in the Nordic countries and widely reviled elsewhere.

It’s an acquired taste, but if you like your aniseed strong, and your gustatory receptors tingling in tandem, it might just be the candy for you.

14. Torrfisk

Torrfisk, or stockfish, is unsalted air-dried fish, usually cod.

It’s been “made in Norway for, people say, about 1,000 years,” says Braek.

It’s mentioned in the 13th century Icelandic work “Egil’s Saga,” when a chieftain ships stockfish from Norway to Britain in 875 AD.

As such, it was Norway’s biggest export for centuries.

15. Rakfisk

Rakfisk is salted, fermented trout, and it packs a pungent — and delicious — punch.

It’s usually fermented for two to three months, but it can be up to a year.

It’s often eaten with flatbrod (Norwegian flat bread) or lefse (potato bread), onions and sour cream.

16. King Crab

Like the sound of a King Crab safari?

A number of tour operators offer trips to Kirkenes, on the border with Russia, to hunt the Arctic King Crab between the months of December and April.

The mighty crustaceans can grow to a leg span of 1.8 meters.

17. Seagull eggs

Seagulls are arguably the most thuggish of seabirds, raised — in the UK, at least — on a diet of ketchup, French fries and stolen sandwiches.

But in late April or early May in northern Norway, locals like to eat hard-boiled seagulls’ eggs washed down with a pilsner beer from Tromso’s Mack’s brewery.

We don’t recommend you attempt to harvest any yourself — to protect the species, but also to protect yourself. Those gulls can be pretty handy when it comes to a fight.

18. Whale

Norway is one of only three countries still involved in the controversial practice of whaling, alongside Japan and Iceland.

For those who can stomach it, whale meat — or hvalkjott — is widely available and often marketed at curious tourists.

“I’ve tried whale and reindeer,” says Jen, a Canadian on a one-woman tour of Norway.

“Whale’s really good. I’m from the east coast, so we have a lot of fish but we don’t do whaling.”

As whales are mammals rather than fish, the taste is similar to a gamey meat such as venison.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/05/27/18-norwegian-foods-youve-probably-never-heard-of/