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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

#91

Post by ajdlinux »

Symbiote wrote: post #25
mstade wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As an Australian I was very confused the first time I flew British Airways while I was on my way back home from the Netherlands to find that they proudly advertise their buy-on-board menu as the "Marks & Spencer on-board menu".

Having never been to M&S but having a vague awareness that they exist, I didn't know what to expect, other than to think that if I saw Qantas advertising a new menu "co-created with David Jones" I'd be rather suspicious. I've since been to a M&S and discovered their rather extensive food section which is rather better than the average Australian department store.

(Of course, BA, like all other European airlines I've experienced, is distinctly average at best, and having to pay for M&S prepacked sandwiches is definitely part of that.)

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

#92

Post by crazygringo »

Serious question: how is this enough calories for lunch?

Assume you need 2,500 calories/day. Suppose you need a third of those at lunch, that's 830. (And given the traditional light continental breakfast, I'd expect an even larger lunch to compensate, so probably closer to 1,000.)

A single sandwich with three layers of bread and three single layers of cheese or meat, can't be over 400 calories.

I'd be starving and unproductive all afternoon. What's the secret?

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

#93

Post by atombender »

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #32
Symbiote wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I think a lot of America will argue with this.

Norwegian living the U.S. here. It's pretty different when you consider the average supermarket.

The breads you get in your average American supermarket (Giant, Safeway, Shoprite and so on) are either the pre-sliced, packaged kind, which are largely flavourless and full of preservatives and sugar, or the stuff in the bakery section, which tend to be Italian-style white bread rolls, bagels and so on. You can find better bread — and sometimes very, very good bread — in many bakeries, or in high-end grocery stores like Whole Food, at farmer's markets, and so on. But it's not the norm.

Scandinavian supermarkets generally don't have separate bread and bakery sections. There's just a bread section [1], where you'll find all freshly made bread. The whole grain content is very high, and the breads feel rustic and wholesome overall. You'll be able to find plain wheat bread and French baguettes, but these are the exception. You'll also find some pre-packaged breads, but they are typically sold specifically for their longevity.

While I can get great bread in the U.S. if I seek it out, I still miss the easy availability of good bread, and I feel bad for all those who think that pre-sliced package bread is all there is.

[1] https://bdn-norge.no/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/grovhet.png

[2] https://www.polarbrod.se/no/vare-brod/havre/

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

#94

Post by richk449 »

As an American who has eaten two pieces of cheese with two pieces of bread And a piece of fruit for lunch for at least a decade now, I was happy when I saw an article on this a few years ago. I started telling people I wasn’t weird, I was just Scandinavian.

After the fifteenth article on the same topic, I’m sick of it. I didn’t even read this one.

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

#95

Post by andrepd »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #50
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…

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…

I feel the same (e.g. student's lunch in the uni cafeteria is 2.40€ with soup, proper main dish with salad, and a piece of fruit), but then again like someone else points out they also eat that way when they don't have work, which indicates it's not just to save time for your employer (which I'm sure is also part of it, and kind of sad, but still). I'll chalk it up to cultural differences, in part, and also in part to the generally stressful, time-pressed modern life, which only seems to get worse each passing year, as the demands of growth capitalism get ever more cutthroat.

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

#96

Post by adventured »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #50
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…

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…

> No offense, but honestly your lunch sounds depressing as hell.

I don't know about the preferences of the parent you're replying to, however the description in this article - and what others here have said - sounds depressing as hell.

You're being strongly downvoted because you're not allowed to say anything negative about Scandinavian culture.

If this food story were about the US, it would be held up as an example of how Americans are tortured in their food choices (read any popular thread on HN about American food); and in your example, in their work habits (sit there and eat your sad little sandwich, worker robot). Since it's Norway, it's an extraordinary shared cultural culinary experience in its wisely barren, enlightened simplicity of nothingness. As the article comically exclaims: it's unexpectedly genius.

No, it's perfectly fair to call it out for what it actually is: depressing, a sad tradition of mediocre sandwich lunches.

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

#97

Post by StudentStuff »

atombender wrote: post #87
StudentStuff wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UHT Milk is not normal in the USA outside the grab & go bottle sizes (1/2 liter): https://www.fredmeyer.com/search?query=milk What is concerning is the high fructose corn syrup, kelp & skim milk blend that Darigold, Kroger and other US milk producers are advertising as Fat Free Half n Half: https://www.fredmeyer.com/search?query=fat%20free%20half&sea...

All the milk that are sold at my grocery store, no matter the size, is ultra-pasteurized. It's not unusual at all, in my experience. They sell common East Coast brands like Organic Valley. (According to various sources I can find when googling this, there's no difference between ultra-pasteurized and UHT.)

Perhaps ultra-pasteurized is common on the East Coast? Its definitely not common for 1 gallon or half gallons in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Idaho or Michigan (in my experience).

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

#98

Post by enz »

Symbiote wrote: post #25
mstade wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

When I lived and worked in France, I was pretty happy with Monoprix’s high-end fresh sandwiches. It was around €5-6 if I remember correctly.

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

#99

Post by manigandham »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #50
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…

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…

Everyone's different. I prefer small simple meals and really don't care for the whole experience, regardless of whether I'm working or not. Healthy and efficient are my priorities.

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

#100

Post by shantly »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #37
thawaway1837 wrote: post #34

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.

“People don’t usually buy it” is a different claim to “it is totally unavailable”.

A baguette in my Midwestern city close to as good as a standard Parisian corner store baguette is like $6. You can get some that are "good" but in fact way worse than the real deal for $4-5. Approach the 2 Euro baguette in price and we're talking something that's so much worse it's unrecognizable. Pastries have a similar ~2x markup and are still usually not quite as good as the norm there even at the high end of the price range. IDK what it is that makes decent baked goods so expensive here. We grow all the wheat, FFS. Apparently kinda halfway knowing how to produce a plain-ass croissant that is somewhat reminiscent of an actual croissant is rare and expensive knowledge around here. We flat-out cannot produce affordable baked goods & bread that aren't fairly bad, it seems—simply not-bad is luxury priced here, and you may have to drive a ways to get it.

[EDIT] and this bleeds over into anything requiring bread, like a sandwich. If you buy one out and it's not quite expensive, it will for sure be using pretty bad bread and there'll be a fairly low cap on how good it might be.

[EDIT EDIT] toss in the fact that decent or better cheese is more expensive here, and the sandwich situation is downright dire.

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