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[Kagus]

Don't worry he simply came down with a mild case of death. He'll be fine in a few days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGWwiqbBZzM

[Tack]

The camper she wanted me to pay for was so that if we have to leave our house before we can buy a house and move in, we can just live in the woods until we do.

Get married, start a new family.

[Kagus]

The camper she wanted me to pay for was so that if we have to leave our house before we can buy a house and move in, we can just live in the woods until we do.

Get married, start a new family.

With prostitutes and pinochle.


EDIT: They've done it. They've actually gone and done it.

With the recent "cuisine culture initiative" here prompting several restaurants to serve one of their dishes at a significant discount (a flat cost of $12, roughly 40-50% off normal price depending on the restaurant and dish in question), I've been reminded of the fact that I think a lot of modern upper-class food presentation is just a bit strange. "Deconstructed" foods in particular earn my confusion and disapproval. For however aesthetically pleasing it may be, it doesn't tend to make things easier to eat; and in some cases can even be a bit intimidating. You order the soup of the day, and receive a rectangular platter containing the broth, which has been aligned into rows. Accompanying this is a trapezoidal plate containing the meat, tastefully arranged into an artist's interpretation of a scrap heap. A single 12-carat salt crystal lies underneath. A glass of wine arrives, and the waiter explains that it's courtesy of the young lady at the bar. You look over and see the potato, peel only barely hugging its shoulders. You feel mixed emotions.


I thought I was just being an old grump who was extrapolating snippiness from a limited number of actual experiences, but now... Now I feel vindicated.

One of the local restaurants has channeled their inner Black Books and is serving a traditional Hungarian stew served in a little tower.

Spoiler: No, Really (click to show/hide)

[Jopax]

Why does that plate have skidmarks, ewww

[JoshuaFH]

"A little tower"? I think you mean they allowed it to congeal in the can and then extruded it onto the plate like how you'd serve a can of dog food. I kid, it probably tastes good.

[scourge728]

I just learned about Jontrons.... interesting views.... I don't know what to do about that, on the one hand, his views are awful, on the other, his videos are funny

[Egan_BW]

Uh. Your restaurants sound overpriced. And distressingly "high class". Places you go to show off your wealth rather than to appreciate food.

Don't you have any like, cosy little diners and family restaurants? Or at least some place which respects food enough to not chop it up into modern art?

[Kagus]

Uh. Your restaurants sound overpriced. And distressingly "high class". Places you go to show off your wealth rather than to appreciate food.

Don't you have any like, cosy little diners and family restaurants? Or at least some place which respects food enough to not chop it up into modern art?

Thing is, food is just generally expensive in Norway, and eating out is triply so. Most eateries split up into either "High class snobbery" or "We deliver until 3 AM" because there's no culture for dining out; people just can't afford it. Like, $12 for a one-person dish? That's cheap. A small kebab-in-pita out on the town costs about 9-10 dollars, no drink. Oh, yeah, want a glass of wine to go with dinner? That's gonna be about 6-7 dollars per glass if it's the house white, or you could just pay $50 for a .75l bottle of something basic.

Most places around here are actually multipurpose, as in restaurant/café or restaurant/café/bar. If someplace is a dedicated restaurant, they're going to charge prices that make up for the other 300 days a year when they don't have any customers, because nobody eats out. Places are expensive because nobody eats out, and nobody eats out because it's so expensive... There are other reasons that restaurants are expensive though, such as a legal framework that enforces an actual living wage for everyone working there, plus heavy licensing fees for selling alcohol.

There is actually a tiny little Vietnamese hole-in-the-wall just across the bridge, which with their two 2-seater tables probably qualifies as "cozy", and is family-run... However, you're still paying $18+ for a bowl of soup. And also the whole family is actually on vacation right now, so they're closed until March 3rd.


This week with its $12 special was supposed to encourage people to go out and actually eat food at places that aren't McDonald's. It's a nice change of pace, even with the limited selection, but things are still going to crash completely as soon as the special is over and those dishes go back to being $20+ a pop. Even just ordering out from the grubby little fast food places will set you back about $16 for a large pizza, with an extra $4 if you want dressing... But then at least you're going to feel full afterwards, and might even have some leftovers for breakfast.

[JoshuaFH]

Come on! It's a modern first world country isn't it? How are people supposed to get morbidly obese if fast food is so prohibitive?!

[Egan_BW]

Oof, sounds terrible. I live in the US where we eat way too much and my city has an active restaurant culture, so $12 could probably get you a massive plate of something.

I mean, there's places where you pay $80 to have tiny amounts of artistically arranged freeze dried cubes, but fuck those places. Fuck them. Even if I had a lot of money I would not spend it on something like that.
My opinion is that when it comes to restaurants the normal class structure got turned around so that low class people get the good stuff while higher class people are forced by their status to have an absolutely miserable time and pay extra for it.

[scourge728]

Good, let them feel what that's like for a change

[Kagus]

I feel ya. And yeah, I used to live in the states, including a good few years in California. Not San Francisco specifically, but still plenty of good eats... That's more or less the big thing I miss about living there, the food culture is just so much better.

Chinese food effectively does not exist in Norway. There's the "Dynasty Restaurant" just down the way which is the most central, but should really be called "Kikkoman II: The Soy Saucening" and it mainly caters to drunk old white people. Across the bridge there's a place that's slightly more family-oriented, but not only do I generally distrust the authenticity of a place that offers salmon and boiled potatoes as one of their signature dishes, but the most "Chinese" thing on their menu was chop suey... Which, well, yeah.

You want tofu? F u.


But! I'm going to Poland for a few days in July! I intend to eat as much as I can and fill up my gastrobatteries a bit.

[NJW2000]

I mean, different things are expensive in the US. In 'Murrica, the government actually subsidises artery-clogging poison rather than greens (three cheers for lobbying), and in a lot of places to get healthy stuff that actually tastes good, you have to spend middle-class money on food.

The rich may look ridiculous on occasion, but the poor always get screwed.

[JoshuaFH]

I feel ya. And yeah, I used to live in the states, including a good few years in California. Not San Francisco specifically, but still plenty of good eats... That's more or less the big thing I miss about living there, the food culture is just so much better.

Chinese food effectively does not exist in Norway. There's the "Dynasty Restaurant" just down the way which is the most central, but should really be called "Kikkoman II: The Soy Saucening" and it mainly caters to drunk old white people. Across the bridge there's a place that's slightly more family-oriented, but not only do I generally distrust the authenticity of a place that offers salmon and boiled potatoes as one of their signature dishes, but the most "Chinese" thing on their menu was chop suey... Which, well, yeah.

You want tofu? F u.


But! I'm going to Poland for a few days in July! I intend to eat as much as I can and fill up my gastrobatteries a bit.

Question: regarding that massive influx of Middle Easterners that happened a while back into all of Europe, has there sprung up overnight a lot of "Authentic Middle Eastern Food" kinda restaurants?

[Kagus]

Not really, no. Not here, at least. There's an authentic Turkish restaurant down the way, but most places don't even bother and just go straight for "Yeah, just get your generic mystery kebabs here bro".

"Middle Eastern Food" is way, waaay too adventurous for your average whitebread Norskie... I am stunned that sushi has actually managed to latch onto a niche of the market in the last decade or so. I mean, sure, there aren't any authentic sushi bars around, but "uncooked fish with rice and maybe some soy sauce" as a concept has still somehow managed to insert itself into this coastal country with its proud fishing traditions. Only weirdo hipsters like me and weebs actually eat the ginger or wasabi, though.

But, you want something with pulses or vegetables that are not potato? You want herbs and spices? No, that's strange and I don't like it.