Bila Orang Tak Selalu Blog, Blog!

Just off of Oslo into the fjord and the islands laid one they called the Museum Island. My hunch is that it's conveniently been made into a part of Oslo that's concentrated with numerous museums; accessible by the public ferry from Aker Brygge and also by bus around the west of Oslo Central.

One very popular attraction is the Open Museum; showcasing different regions of Norway, folks Norwegian lifestyle architecture and well,(what ALWAYS attracts me most unsurprisingly) a delightful little hut housing a hot burner open "oven", a very hot-looking pan and maids in Norwegian dresses making pastry dough from rough dusty wheat flour with light sweat trickling down their foreheads.

What is it they were doing? It's called Lefser. I mean, Norwegians speak really good English but they somehow give the worst signposting and descriptions (worst being- NO INGLES!) So all they had to say about this hut is "Making Traditional Lefser".

So she flattens out this dough roughly:

... Lays it down seemingly effortlessly...

... Turns it...

...Dusts the excess flour off...

...and takes it off of the pan: all in (I promise) 2 minutes flat!

The result is this heavy bread, almost the thickness of a flat pizza base, lightly sweetened and somewhat milky. You put butter on it, which melts almost instantly- but not absorbed by the bread.

Excuse the blurry pics, the butter got onto my lenses. I can be too excited sometimes!

I just can't get enough of the fact that Lofoten calls itself a Fish Restaurant; I think it's cute- since on my side of the world we usually use the word seafood.
Sigh; thinking about my side of the world and the fish there and all the good times I had eating fish there (fish and fishy-like friends= seafood) this can never compare, can it?
Here are pictures from my my main course at Lofoten (you can judge it for yourself)

This seabass, succulent and fresh and still vein-y didn't had a fishy taste at all to it, I can tell it's just been caught.
This Ovnsbakt Havvabor (Oven Baked seabass) came on a bed of pureed potato, lemon beurre blanc and capponata (a ratatouille-like concoction), which somehow complemented the cream based sauce topped with herb salad with hints of lemon zest.


Most of Oslo restauranters go to the dock where a massive fishing centre, commonly popular for "professionals" (namely, restauranters) get their fish here everyday. The massive centre, just on the Vippetangen docks (where public ferries run towards Oslo Fjord), becomes the daily marketplace for fishermen alike showcasing their catch of the day.
I think this is where my fish came from.

I am not proud of the fact that this lunch could probably feed a family living under the poverty line for an entire week, maybe month. But I promise to try to keep this the most expensive dish I eat on this blog. :( I mean I don't always do this. I think. *ngeee*

I want to start by saying seafood are the best things in the world (next to a good Tiramisu, and urmm ginger and urmm.. MeeHoon kicap (Vermicelli in Soy sauce) and urmm well loads of other things in life *ngeee*) BUT ANYWAYS, I can tell you it's even more amazing when it's prepared professionally (well).

Should I start with soup or Sea Bass?

Ooooh ok so I couldn't live with the fact that everything was so expensive in Oslo (I had Kebabs, can you believe it? KEBAB! the first 2 days) that I convinced myself I'll be alright converting that extra Pounds I had into Kroner and treat my senses the way it at the very least deserve to be treated 0n this nordic and fish-intensive land.

The restaurant guide deemed the Lofoten Fiskerestaurant the best seafood restaurant in Norway, hence easily the best in Europe (given Noway and the its fish-intensive-ness).

For the heck of it I ordered 2 courses; starting with soup. I wouldn't EVER say anything less about this soup. Easily the best one I've ever had. It was cream based but tasted herby and well a bit like grass at times. But the Basil was so fresh that never had anything complimented fish and a variety of it, so damn well!






Luscious2 seafood- calamari, salmon, crab meat, scallop, mussels, prawn in a bubby cream- blended basil based soup topped with foam milk (Now who would of thought of that?)

I love the detail so much, I wouldn't want to spare you any. Here are some more pictures:




*Sigh* I'll just talk about the main course in another post. I just couldn't bear the limelight being stolen from my fish soup. lol. (Because it would if I had it in this post!)

Anyway, this post isn't about her; it's about her buns. Since I set my eyes on the oldest house in Bath, a restaurant and museum that houses these buns I had it at the back of my head all the time and knew I had to make an effort somehow to get myself there again to taste them.
So, my 3rd (or is it 4th?) time in Bath (I had to drag Joey along from one of my trips to Bristol) I finally got the chance.

I wouldn't exactly use disappointing to describe my experience with Sally Lunn and her buns but there were a couple of things that stole the show.

The bread indeed was light and delightful with the traditional, homemade Tispberry Rasberry jam, butter (salted I think) and their own house specialty clotted cream. I mean how can you ever go wrong with butter, bread, cream and jam?



That was Joey's though. I wanted to be adventurous and ordered the cinnamon butter. There were still amazing, just that I personally didn't particularly enjoy the fact that it was melted butter. So, although the fact that it was cinnamon flavored was AMAZING3, the texture basically made me feel like I was eating a greasy half bun (These buns were huge so they came in halves). The fact that the cinnamon made it black/ dark-brown-y didn't help. Slice of orange gave an acidic hint to the buttery sweet cinnamon taste. I liked that.



It came as part of a Cream Tea and having not have traditional English Tea; with brown sugar cubes, milk and things, I thought it was second to none. The same can't be said about the service unfortunately. French maid getups is not enough to win the heart's of customers I'm afraid. :(


WHO IS Judith Calmers anyway?