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

281–290 of 372 posts

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

#281

Post by [deleted] »

jplayer01 wrote: post #218
azinman2 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s really 2-3 open face sandwiches, each being one slice of bread, butter, and exactly one topping of meat or cheese. No condiments. Rarely any veg or any extra flavor. And that’s it. If this isn’t a boring lunch, I have no idea what is.

> If this isn’t a boring lunch The qualification seems unnecessary to me. It's lunch (well, to me, it's breakfast). It's no wonder people are depressed eating it when everybody keeps calling it boring. It's bread with a topping. It's fine. It tastes good. Does every meal need to be akin to a sushi buffet?

[deleted]

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

#282

Post by golergka »

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…

Option C: remember that it's 21 century and turn the AC on. Lived in Israel for a few years with the same temperatures, never seen anything close to a siesta (except the shabbat, of course, but that's a completely different thing).

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

#283

Post by cylinder »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #276
dagw wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood this nordic lifestyle I saw in Scandinavia Norway and Sweden are completely different. In Sweden most people either go out to a restaurant for a warm a lunch or eat a warm lunch they brought with from home. An hour lunch break, while not official sanctioned, is hardly uncommon. And even when I worked in Norway where many people just ate sandwiches for lunch, almost everybody ate lunch in the lunchr…

Is the workday 6 hours in Norway? When I was there it was 8. What you said makes no sense to me.

I'm highly sceptical of this meme online that office workers in Scandinavia, Germany etc quickly get their work done and focus on productivity and leave as early as they can each day instead of waiting till 1730 or whatever. I know better now that this doesn't actually exist anymore these days.

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

#284

Post by Viker »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #276
dagw wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood this nordic lifestyle I saw in Scandinavia Norway and Sweden are completely different. In Sweden most people either go out to a restaurant for a warm a lunch or eat a warm lunch they brought with from home. An hour lunch break, while not official sanctioned, is hardly uncommon. And even when I worked in Norway where many people just ate sandwiches for lunch, almost everybody ate lunch in the lunchr…

Is the workday 6 hours in Norway? When I was there it was 8. What you said makes no sense to me.

Yes. For most Norwegians in IT and Government.

Is job done? Nop...

Actually it is between 8:45 and 16:05

Here is some proof:

https://www.dn.no/arbeidsliv/nav/tre-milliarder-til-ett-sels...

That is when Accenture billed 350 MILLION USD... for miscellaneous it services.

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

#285

Post by kristofferR »

tallanvor wrote: post #191
atombender wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 bett…

I just want to point out that you can get very horrible bread in Norway as well. In the image you link to, you have Loff at the bottom left of the screen. That stuff is even more tasteless than the average American bread. It also gets more prominent placement, at least from what I've seen in Oslo grocery stores.

To be fair, the point of loaf is exactly that, to be unhealthy, white and tasteless. It's great for pan-fried toast with cheese and kids who only want to taste the jam.

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

#286

Post by dominicr »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #213
gorgoiler wrote: post #181

Small pieces of wax paper, precut for packing sandwiches together? Wonderful! I would love for my own culture to adopt such a convenience! So much better than cling film or foil.

I thought that looked kind of wasteful, here in Australia we just put the two buttered sides together with the filling in between. Then you put that in your reusable luchbox that you take to work everyday.

Ah, but in Norway slices of bread must be eaten individually. So if you did this you'd need to peel them apart, which ends up with one slice having more of the topping than the other. Especially so with the pate toppings.

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

#287

Post by bonesss »

regularfry wrote: post #160
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…

I suffered from this until I cut out simple carbs at lunch. Bread, pasta, potatoes, and rice all send me to sleep if I have them. Salads and meat I can pig out on without problems.

I started intermittent fasting, eating all my calories at home at night, and the result is no blood sugar dip or post-lunch fatigue at work.

When you add up the meal prep and time eating every week (for what are generally low quality calories), it's a tremendous time saver, in addition to the productivity boost.

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

#288

Post by mikkom »

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…

IMHO the drowsiness has nothing to do with calories, it's the carbs and the related blood insulin spike causing drowsiness.

My hint: Experiment with a meal without or with very minimal amount of carbs (for example eat a salad with meat or something like that) - that keeps you full of energy and doesn't drive your productivity down or that is at least how it works for me.

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

#289

Post by dannyw »

greggman2 wrote: post #269
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…

my thought process is that I enjoy work and my co-workers and that spending an hour a day eating and socializing together makes work and my life more enjoyable. If feel that tech companies' free lunchs work against this since lunch ends up only taking 20-30 mins instead of an hour. And no they don't get more work out of me, I just leave 30 mins earlier. That great if you want to get home as quick as possible. I'd pre…

I usually follow up a 20-30 minute lunch with a 20-30 minute coffee walk, or bubble walk. It’s great to go outside and soak in the sun (weather permitting).

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

#290

Post by mikkom »

9nGQluzmnq3M wrote: post #36
chrisseaton wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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!

It's a single slice of cheese or meat. American deli-style sandwiches where there is more filling than bread are not a thing in Scandinavia. Also, if you were wondering what's up with "caviar" as a topping, it's this stuff made from cod roe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalles_Kaviar

> American deli-style sandwiches where there is more filling than bread are not a thing in Scandinavia

Denmark disagrees with you https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sm%C3%B8rrebr%C3%B8d

Post reply on HN