Reinsdyrstek

Had the privilege of being invited to yet another lovely Norwegian home for dinner. It was very kind of the couple to include me in the invitation to the table. Had time to chill out with wine and a great view of the city. Admired the roses in full bloom in the garden, spotted a rainbow among the rainclouds moving across from east to west, and watched the sun set.

The hosts roasted a traditional meat of reindeer as our main course. I've had reindeer meat. It's not game-y if you spice it well. Sure, it's not my first choice of meats. No meat is my first choice of food, but like I said, all dietary preferences have been suspended in Oslo. When invited to a heartfelt homecooked meal, I'm sure as heck eating everything on the table.

This reinsdyrstek was wonderfully tender and whatever that had been done in the kitchen resulted in rather delicious slices of meat on my plate. It had a touch of complexity to its usual flat (as compared to beef or lamb) flavors. Reindeer meat is superbly lean and if you're eating it for health, it's as good as fish, as long as we don't slather a ton of aioli atop. The hosts had picked mushrooms from their walk in the woods earlier, as well as lingonberries. They made those into sauces to go with the reindeer meat. Lightly caramelized, the sauces complemented the meats so well. Love how the tyttebærsaus (lingonberry sauce) rolled around the tongue. I'm definitely buying and freezing a chunk of reindeer meat and tyttebærsaus to take them home. The man will figure out what to do with them. Heeeeeee.

There were also sides of a salad and blanched vegetables. The corn, carrots and cauliflower were kept crunchy and so sweet. The potatoes were grilled and salted, and I ate so much of that. I love potatoes and whatever species of potatoes available here are so good that I can't help asking for potatoes every day. Hurhurhur. Dinner was finished off with a homebaked apple pie using apples from the hosts' garden. Not much sugar was used. I love apple pie (when it's not sickeningly sweet) and merrily had seconds. What a treat.