The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The festival coming up in Minot that celebrates all things Scandinavian is a lot more than just a party to celebrate Norwegian heritage.
If you’ve never been there, you’re missing out on some of the best food you’ll ever taste. Numerous vendors have food items as you walk through the halls, but the Høstfest brings chefs in from Norway and Iceland to prepare signature dishes from those countries.
It’s a foodie’s paradise. If you don’t go there for any other reason, go for the food.
We often talk about how many of us attend the North Dakota State Fair for no other reason but to sample the food from various vendors.
The Høstfest food is a lot like that, but in my opinion is much more complex. You can find food items that are popular in all five of the Scandinavian countries, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Den-mark.
It should also be pointed out that knowing the Høstfest is only several days long, many of the vendors have options for you to “take out” for consumption later or to even freeze it for special occasions.
As an example, there’s Rømmegrøt, a Norwegian porridge that is eaten with butter and cinnamon. It is made of rice, salt and cream and is arguably the top-tasting food at the festival year after year.
Of course, you can’t mention Norwegian festival without mentioning lutefisk, which loosely translated, is lye fish in Norwegian.
Cod or pollock are placed in a lye brine, then soaked to remove any remaining caustic solution and then steamed until it flakes.
It seems to be a love-hate relationship. Either you really like it or you don’t. Being of Swiss heritage myself, I’m not sure I want to indulge in translucent fish.
These items, however, aren’t at the top of the list in Norway. There, the official national dish is mutton and cabbage stew.
Have you ever heard of Pönnuökur? This is an Icelandic pancake that’s a lot more delicious than any-thing you’ll find at IHOP.
Because the ingredients are heavy on the eggs, it is considered a hearty breakfast and usually is accompanied by some kind of fruit like strawberries, raspberries or even lingonberries.
Other Icelandic foods, not always available in Minot, include fish stew, smoked lamb, dried fish and Icelandic lobster.
Swedish meatballs can be found at the Høstfest also. Not quite as popular as Rømmegrøt, it remains a popular item year after year.
But Swedish tradition also offers numerous other food items that are usually available. They include pickled herring, pea soup and some desserts. But, if you don’t like pickled herring, you can go for fried herring.
Finland has some interesting food choices, most of which I doubt you’ll find at the Norsk Hostfest. They include salmon soup, sauteed reindeer, salty licorice and bread cheese.
One thing is certain, there’s a couple of companies that manufacture “Finnish” licorice that is always available at Høstfest.
From Denmark, the most obvious is, of course, the Danish, a pastry that is usually filled with a fruit filling of some type, often strawberry or blueberry. Pork roast, fish cakes and rye bread are also very popular Danish items.
And finally, it doesn’t matter what Scandinavian nationality you may be, any vendor representing a Scandinavian background will have chocolate, or heavily promote it. And there is a reason why. You may think German chocolate is the best, or chocolate from Belgium or France. I suggest you try Scandi-navian chocolate. You most likely will never go back to your old brand.
