How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring lunch • Hacker News Board

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

#311

Post by dwd » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 1:00 PM UTC

Sendotsh wrote: post #59

dwd wrote: 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 alwa…

As far as buying lunch my weakness is Japanese curry. There's something addictive about it I just can't pinpoint.

Otherwise a loaf of bread, a block of cheese and fresh ground black pepper and I'm done for the whole week. I'll mix it up occasionally with tomato.

My kids love their avo and will often make their own eggs and avocado on toast for breakfast.

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

#312

Post by lonelappde » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 1:04 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #74

"why must everything we consume be happy and exciting?" Because life is short.

Life is short, so we should focus on what's important, not on distractions. Look at Google where they got so obsessed with eating gourmet meals all day and fighting about perceived drops in qualt that they have 100K people just churning 15 year old products (while a few create new meaningful things).

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

#313

Post by lonelappde » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 1:08 PM UTC

request_id wrote: post #60

It is amazing how similar the comments on today's article, are from a HN thread about matpakke 9 months ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18830186

It's amazing how HN has a tradition of every day I'm+ making the same tired comments on the same topics (matpakke, Apple, Google, China, Java,...) including mockery of other bland repetitive traditions like matpakke lunch. Over on Reddit they call this "self-awarewolves".

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

#314

Post by lonelappde » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 1:10 PM UTC

jyriand wrote: post #240

Question to matpakker's out here. Don't you feel hungry after eating only few slices of bread?

Your theory is that tens of thousands of people are hungry after eating lunch every day and didn't notice they aren't eating enough?

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

#315

Post by lonelappde » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 1:11 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #106

iikoolpp wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Assume you need 2,500 calories/day Well, your first mistake is there

As a 6'1" male who goes to the gym regularly, I need 2,800 calories/day just to maintain my weight which is in the middle of the range for normal-weight BMI. (If I'm trying to build strength, I need a bit more.) So enough with the snark, please. 2,500 cal/day is well-known as the average male guideline, while 2,000 cal/day is the average female guideline. None of this changes my original point. Obviously nobody's hea…

It's not about you, it's about Norwegians.

The snark started with you insinuating that somehow a time-tested diet is not possible, because it's different from yours.

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

#316

Post by sidpatil » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 1:15 PM UTC

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #243

swarnie_ wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked in Italy a few times and i just can't get my head around it. One sleepy little town basically shut down between 12:30 and 14:30 every day. Everyone went home for lunch but also the majority of the local shops shut too. How do you get anything done??

In the Mediterranean, where we pretty much all have a variant of the siesta, it gets very hot [1] around the middle of the day. At that point, you have two options: a) You can stay on and try to work in the heat. b) You can go home, have lunch, take a little nap and return in the evening when it's cooler. Option (a) means you spend the next three or four hours in a zombie-like state with your brain addled by the heat…

> when the glycaemic spike would hit (often just from a bit of salad, but with lots of olive oil)

Hmm, what other ingredients did you have in your salad? I would think the relatively low-carb (mostly leaves) and high-fat (olive oil) meal would cause a very minimal blood sugar spike, if one at all.

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

#317

Post by swarnie_ » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 1:22 PM UTC

lostjohnny wrote: post #237

swarnie_ wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked in Italy a few times and i just can't get my head around it. One sleepy little town basically shut down between 12:30 and 14:30 every day. Everyone went home for lunch but also the majority of the local shops shut too. How do you get anything done??

> One sleepy little town basically shut down between 12:30 and 14:30 every day That's not been true since the 80s. You're probably confused by the fact that some services shut down at lunch time (service facing offices like banks) for historical reason, we in Italy have a very rigid system of contracts that regulate each category of work in a very precis way, including work hours. If banks want to stay open at lunch…

> That's not been true since the 80s.

I'm sorry my person experience doesn't match with your statement?

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

#318

Post by brosinante » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 1:33 PM UTC

drinfinity wrote: post #297

brosinante wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on your definition of "getting things done". I have no illusions about the work ethic of meditteraneans (being one myself, and with the caveat that work ethic is probably the wrong word to use here). This might be just me growing slightly older - but i tend to side more and more on the med side. Nowdays I wish I could take a 2 hour break to go hang out at home, cook my own meal and listen to some music ins…

It actually means the same thing to everyone except that, as an Italian, you redefine what productivity means as to include "being non-productive".

I'm not Italian, but that's besides the point - if your definition of being productive is punching a card twice a day in 8 hour intervals then go for it. But permit me to be highly critical of you being the arbiter of what the definition of productive is.

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

#319

Post by Graham24 » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 1:35 PM UTC

marvin wrote: post #248

camillomiller wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Italian, I am profoundly offended by this statement and most of the comments in this thread :D

Just wait until I tell you that the Norwegian word for 'cheese' also encompasses boiled whey products that are hardened and shaped into brown blocks. I've lost count over the times this discussion has shown up with my French relatives.

I love that cheese, Gjetost.

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

#320

Post by vidarh » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 1:57 PM UTC

Chathamization wrote: post #306

vidarh wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> an extra slice of bread A Norwegian "sandwich" has one slice of bread. The picture at the top of the article shows 3 stacked open-face sandwiches. Sometimes people will do "British-style" sandwiches when putting on things like jam to avoid making a mess, but open-face sandwiches is most traditional.

Read the above post, this is the meal we're discussing: > last year I have made a matpakke with 3 slices of bread Which also aligns with what's said in the article. If you eat three of these in a meal, you're getting one more slice of bread than you'd get from a meal consisting of a single sandwich.

Yes, but the comparison in the comment I replied to talks about "the Norwegian sandwich":

> 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).

It's meaningless to compare to a "single sandwich" anyway, because e.g. the bread size will vary dramatically depending on country. I live in the UK now, and the slices used for sandwiches here are often 50% or more larger than what I'm used to from Norway.

But especially if talking about the amount of protein relative to carbs or fats, I don't think it's very different - each of those three slices of bread gets their own slice of meat or cheese. And not by any means everyone will use butter, while you'll get plenty of sandwiches elsewhere (e.g. UK) that are buttered.