Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring lunch

vox.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 372 posts

Re: How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring lunch

#21

Post by AndyMcConachie »

zabzonk wrote: post #9
cerberusss wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just like Dutch lunch. Indeed, I'm not sure what's special about it. Definitely not limited to Norway. My previous girlfriend was also Dutch and used to this kind of lunch. Her employer sent her to London for a month, and she got used to expensive lunches. Spending a couple of pounds everyday on lunch, hoo boy, that adds up.

I worked in the Netherlands on and off for several years, and the thing I never got used to was how appalling the lunches were. I did a presentation at KLM corporate headquarters, and at lunch asked the people I was presenting to - "How do you put up with this, day after day?" They all looked glum, and said "There is no alternative". And don't get me started on what passes as Chinese food in the Netherlands.

Most Dutch people just eat sandwiches for lunch. Typically just bread and something on it.

Some offices have cantines and many of them are terrible. I was a Dutch office worker for 10 years in different offices and ate all kinds of different things. Now I work from home and continue to eat sandwiches almost every day. I just like them.

As for the Chinese food. You need to go into a big city and eat it. Don't eat Dutch Chinese food in small villages or suburban areas. Both Rotterdam and Amsterdam have amazing Chinese food. And I bet you never even tried Surinamese food before..

Re: How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring lunch

#22

Post by Symbiote »

kristofferR wrote: post #14

I feel like this article somewhat undersells brødskriver. They can be delicious. Most important is good bread, which is super common here, despite it being totally unavailable in most other countries. All ordinary grocery stores get freshly baked bread every day, whole in paper bags of course. For example - with a thick slice of butter, then some oven-baked liver paste and two slices of gherkin on top and boom - you…

> Most important is good bread, which is super common here, despite it being totally unavailable in most other countries.

I think the rest of Europe will argue with this.

Re: How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring lunch

#23

Post by notJim »

diehunde wrote: post #2

In Chile, eating this kind of sandwich is also very common. Not so much for lunch but for dinner. Sometimes even just bread and butter. I feel in the US people are obsessed with eating "nice and flavorful" stuff instead of eating something because you actually need to eat.

In Germany, the typical dinner seemed to be bread with butter and cheeses and cured meats like ham or sausages. It was "simple" of course, but also delicious because of the quality of all of the ingredients. However, they did eat a larger cooked meal in the early afternoon.

Re: How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring lunch

#25

Post by Symbiote »

mstade wrote: post #5
cerberusss wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just like Dutch lunch. Indeed, I'm not sure what's special about it. Definitely not limited to Norway. My previous girlfriend was also Dutch and used to this kind of lunch. Her employer sent her to London for a month, and she got used to expensive lunches. Spending a couple of pounds everyday on lunch, hoo boy, that adds up.

My experience living in London was that most of my colleagues were perfectly content picking up a sandwich from the nearest EAT or Waitrose or whatever. Every day a tired, boring sandwich for lunch. I just couldn't understand it. Some stores were just aisle after aisle of sandwiches, I'd never seen anything like it.

Prepared, packaged food in Britain, especially London, is much better than most of Europe.

In Germany or France, a sandwich from a supermarket isn't fresh, isn't good, and isn't interesting. In Britain, it's at least some of these things.

In France or Germany, you can go to a bakery and buy a sandwich, but that's slower and dearer.

Re: How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring lunch

#27

Post by zabzonk »

AndyMcConachie wrote: post #21
zabzonk wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked in the Netherlands on and off for several years, and the thing I never got used to was how appalling the lunches were. I did a presentation at KLM corporate headquarters, and at lunch asked the people I was presenting to - "How do you put up with this, day after day?" They all looked glum, and said "There is no alternative". And don't get me started on what passes as Chinese food in the Netherlands.

Most Dutch people just eat sandwiches for lunch. Typically just bread and something on it. Some offices have cantines and many of them are terrible. I was a Dutch office worker for 10 years in different offices and ate all kinds of different things. Now I work from home and continue to eat sandwiches almost every day. I just like them. As for the Chinese food. You need to go into a big city and eat it. Don't eat Dutc…

> Most Dutch people just eat sandwiches for lunch.

And so did I when I worked there, but I made my own. If I forgot to do so, I nicked one of my Dutch colleagues sandwiches - they couldn't stand the cafeteria ones either.

Chinese food was in Utrecht and Amsterdam - it bore no resemblance to the food you get in London, and you never saw ethnic Chinese eating there, unlike in London.

I'm not trying to be racist about the Dutch people - I enjoyed working in the Netherlands very much. Except for the food.

Re: How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring lunch

#28

Post by Symbiote »

gnud wrote: post #13

Well, unlike the US we usually have tasty bread here. That helps :)

The first time I went to the US, the waitress brought over extra bread, "I know you Europeans like bread, so I brought you extra".

It was awful. Like ecological packaging pellets. I didn't want to offend her, so I hid the extra rolls in my bag.

(We had other meals that were excellent. The quality of meals was very erratic, and had little relation to the price.)

Re: How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring lunch

#29

Post by magicalhippo »

combatentropy wrote: post #24

Is this the only thing they eat between breakfast and dinner? I think I would be hungry again in 2-3 hours.

Our bread contains a lot of whole grain flour. Don't underestimate how that effects how full you feel.

When losing weight I found I could easily get away with skipping lunch entirely, just two or three slices of bread as a late breakfast. But only if the bread had sufficiently high amount of whole grain flour (>90%). The days I only got hold of 50-60% whole grain bread I had to top up with a small lunch.

Re: How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring lunch

#30

Post by chrisseaton »

opdahl wrote: post #16

I'm a Norwegian, and where I work I have the option of eating a big warm lunch, but I very rarely do. I've noticed that eating a big lunch makes the following hour extremely unproductive, so for the last year I have made a matpakke with 3 slices of bread. Normal _pålegg_ is liver paste, cheese or peanut butter. I can easily go through my lunch in just few minutes, and even while working at the same time. My thought p…

> 3 slices of bread ... liver paste, cheese or peanut butter ... waste 2 hours in the middle of the day on a heavy calorie lunch

How many calories are in your sandwich though?! Sounds extremely calorie dense!

Post reply on HN