Misc: September 2008 Archives

Last night I was invited to Sunday dinner to try fårikål, Norway's national dish.  It is not something I would likely have tried on my own since you won't find it in many restaurants.

Fårikål translates to 'sheep in cabbage', and is just that.  Sheep and cabbage stewed with whole black pepper for several hours and served with boiled potatoes.  It is traditionally served around this time of year, as this was the time of the year when they would slaughter young lambs.

I'm told it's actually best on the third day, once the sheep, cabbage, and pepper flavors have had a chance to fully meld, but I found it to be pretty good even on the first day.

Would I make fårikål myself?  I'm not sure.  --Not because it isn't good, but because I don't think I could resist the urge to dress it up, even though it doesn't really need it.  If nothing else, it does make make me want to cook up a big batch of stew, and I really am glad I got a chance to try it! 


Photo credit: Alf Børjesson

I have a post about the American Embassy thought out and I now have pictures to go along with it, and I expect to have it up by Wednesday.  I have a photo for a post about the city hall, but I have some research to do before it gets written, so hopefully I can have it ready by Sunday or Monday.  Oh, and since my trials and tribulations regarding my DSL line are over, I need to write up something about that as well.

But, for anyone reading this, is there anything you'd like to hear about?  About Oslo, or even London or Europe in general?  Or should I come back to U.S. politics at some point (ok, with the elections two months away, I'm sure I'll post something political).  I am going to try and start reading up more on Norwegian politics - the pension scandal around former members of the government, including a former Prime Minister might be a bit interesting, and Americans probably haven't heard much about it.

Please, feel free to leave suggestions in the comments.

I do have several ideas of things to write about:

• SAS Economy Plus Seats
• Embassies
• Public Transportation
• Washing clothes (don't laugh, it's important!)

Well, that's a few of them, anyway, not in any particular order, though.

But I'm sort of holding off on them while I try to redesign things.  This site feels dark and heavy.  I know (more or less) what I want the site to look like, but wrestling with the css in order to get it to look that way is another matter entirely.  That's what I get for having stopped doing any real web work before css and other modern ideas took off.  First there were frames, then tables (I liked tables. Tables worked), and now you do everything in css.  What's the world coming to?

Right, I expect I'll have a real post around the end of the week.  At least this way everyone knows I haven't abandoned the site.