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

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

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of America will argue with this.

The bread in America is garbage compared to Europe.

Best not to conflate all bread in America with Wonder Bread. We have bakeries that actually choose to make a quality product, and it's available in (edit: grocery stores in) most cities. Many Americans simply choose to optimize for cost.

The bread in Copenhagen was fantastic, though.

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

#52
Australian here: Cheese and Vegemite (yeast extract) sandwiches are what a lot of people grew up having for their school lunches. My kids like it because it's quick to eat.

For the Norwegians, is Jarlsberg your typical cheese in a matpakke? Probably my favourite sandwich cheese!

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

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of America will argue with this.

The majority of Americans get their bread from the grocery store, and by the time they eat it it’s probably several days if not weeks old. It is true that you can get extremely high quality fresh bread from a bakery (or even bakeries inside grocery stores) but that isn’t really part of the culture and good quality bread is usually considered an occasional treat.

> The majority of Americans get their bread from the grocery store, and by the time they eat it it’s probably several days if not weeks old.

Every grocery store near me has giant signs advertising fresh baked bread. Buying bread in plastic bags isn't necessary.

Heck when I was a poor college student I'd buy fresh baked 6 inch sandwich rolls, IIRC they were 6 for $2 or $3.

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

#54
post #52

Australian here: Cheese and Vegemite (yeast extract) sandwiches are what a lot of people grew up having for their school lunches. My kids like it because it's quick to eat. For the Norwegians, is Jarlsberg your typical cheese in a matpakke? Probably my favourite sandwich cheese!

The most common one is Norvegia, which has a rounder, milder taste. But Jarlsberg is more or less #2, and my favorite (especially the aged one).

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

#55
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…

No offense, but honestly your lunch sounds depressing as hell. I never understood this nordic lifestyle I saw in Scandinavia, Benelux and Northern Germany where people refuse to take a proper lunch break and just eat some random cold food in front of their computer for the sake of productivity for their employer. It's just depressing to see and unhealthy in the long term. In southern Europe(Austria) having a walk to…

It’s kind of sad to see the meal culture eroding in other parts of the world. The “quickly ingest some food at your desk so you can keep working” mentality has taken hold. I’m French, and at my first office job - almost 15 years ago - the entire office was empty from noon till 2p.

People would go get their kids at school, have lunch with them at home, and bring them back before returning to work. Or child free people would go have a nice lunch out together. I personally would go back to my apartment and cook with my girlfriend. It was really nice. Adding to that, French companies have to give you a “ticket restaurant” if they don’t provide you lunches, which is essentially a 10 euro or so coupon that you can use at any restaurant, or even to buy food in grocery stores, so you get a lot of flexibility.

It was all very pleasant. I haven’t worked in France in many years, and I hear from friends that this culture is eroding, and places that still follow this kind of pace are getting rarer and rarer.

In my current team (US), we all take an hour long lunch break all together every day. That is a surprising thing to most other people at the company, and I suspect we started doing that because many of us in the team are European.

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

#56
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!

Yeah, if you look at the calories in the ingredients (3 slices of buttered bread each with a slice of cheese, liver paste, or peanut butter) you're looking at something that at best has the same amount of calories as a quarter pounder with cheese, and likely significantly more than that.

A lot of people seem to be under the wrong impression that simple foods are low in calories. Compared to other sandwiches the Norwegian sandwich seems to substitute protein (less meat and cheese) for more saturated fat and carbs (an extra slice of bread, butter on the bread).

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

#57
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense, but honestly your lunch sounds depressing as hell. I never understood this nordic lifestyle I saw in Scandinavia, Benelux and Northern Germany where people refuse to take a proper lunch break and just eat some random cold food in front of their computer for the sake of productivity for their employer. It's just depressing to see and unhealthy in the long term. In southern Europe(Austria) having a walk to…

It’s kind of sad to see the meal culture eroding in other parts of the world. The “quickly ingest some food at your desk so you can keep working” mentality has taken hold. I’m French, and at my first office job - almost 15 years ago - the entire office was empty from noon till 2p. People would go get their kids at school, have lunch with them at home, and bring them back before returning to work. Or child free people…

The meal culture is probably eroding because of economical reasons.

We're now under the constant reminder from our employers that there's always a bunch of people outside ready to do your work without lunch break for less money.

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

#58
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The majority of Americans get their bread from the grocery store, and by the time they eat it it’s probably several days if not weeks old. It is true that you can get extremely high quality fresh bread from a bakery (or even bakeries inside grocery stores) but that isn’t really part of the culture and good quality bread is usually considered an occasional treat.

> The majority of Americans get their bread from the grocery store, and by the time they eat it it’s probably several days if not weeks old. Every grocery store near me has giant signs advertising fresh baked bread. Buying bread in plastic bags isn't necessary. Heck when I was a poor college student I'd buy fresh baked 6 inch sandwich rolls, IIRC they were 6 for $2 or $3.

Is it bake-off or real bread baked at the store?

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

#59
post #52

Australian here: Cheese and Vegemite (yeast extract) sandwiches are what a lot of people grew up having for their school lunches. My kids like it because it's quick to eat. For the Norwegians, is Jarlsberg your typical cheese in a matpakke? Probably my favourite sandwich cheese!

I still generally eat a vegemite sandwich for lunch every day, but these days it's nicer bread with vegemite, cheese, avocado, and tomato. While not as basic as the Norwegian one, I like having a simple lunch that's the same most days. Stops me pigging out on random convenient crap, but is enough to get through the day.

My kids are vegemite fiends too, and despite us giving them plenty of options, they'll nearly always choose a vegemite/cheese sandwich for lunch.

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