Diversity of typical foods in Nordic countries
R.-L. Heiniö1, A. Åström2, L. Jeppesen3, E. Martinsdottir4, A. Nilsen5, K. Roininen1 and M. Rødbotten5
on behalf of the Nordic Workshop Network
1) VTT (FI),
2) SIK (SE),
3) Danish Technological Institute (DK),
4) Icelandic Fisheries Laboratory (IS) and
5) Matforsk Norwegian Food Research Institute (N); asgeir.nilsen@matforsk.no
Each country has some typical foods and drinks, that are their own specialities and characteristic to just that nationality. In this respect the Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – are often regarded as one uniform area by other European countries. However, significant variety can be observed in these five countries as regards to their typical foods.
The neighbouring Nordic countries seem to know surprisingly little about the typical food and drink items of the others. This was demonstrated in the 11th Nordic Workshop organised in May 2006 in Norway, where typical foods in each Nordic country were nominated by the 90 Workshop participants. The participants were asked to focus especially on typical everyday food items and meals, and discard traditional or typical feast foods. As a result of the moderated group discussions, typical foods (in English and in the native language) suggested by participants from other Nordic countries as well as the truth of typical foods in each country will be presented. Examples of the diversity representing typical foods included the Danish open sandwich and beer (smörrebröd, öl) for Denmark, rye bread or Karelian pasty (ruisleipä, karjalanpiirakka) for Finland, fish, lamb and the dairy product (skyr) for Iceland, gravy, potatoes, meat and vegetables all mixed together (lapskaus) for Norway, and rotten-flavoured, sour Baltic herring (surströmning) for Sweden. In fact, some of these foods represent principally traditional foods.
These certain stereotypies were repeated in the groups, and the suggestions were often very far from the truth. The descriptions of typical foods and drinks in the Nordic countries were usually based on foods served to foreign guests on banquets, or to own nationals in special occasions, such as Christmas, Easter or other feasts. Thus, they described maybe more the traditional foods in the Nordic countries, and were not necessarily representing the typical, everyday foods, which nowadays tend to approach universal European taste preferences: e.g. pizza, pasta or foods from oriental kitchens. The results of this pre-test encourage us to study the topic more detailed in the future.