
How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring lunch - ianmobbs
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/10/7/20887473/norway-norwegian-lunch-sandwich-matpakke
======
opdahl
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 process is that I'd rather be more productive during working hours
and go home early, than waste 2 hours in the middle of the day on a heavy
calorie lunch.

~~~
ChuckNorris89
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 the bistro for a warm lunch with
freshly cooked quality food, away form my desk is not only healthy but also
gives me a refreshing physical, mental and morale boost.

Sitting glued to my chair in front of the computer for 8 hours straight is not
only unhealthy but would just burn me out quickly.

~~~
GuiA
It’s kind of sad to see the meal culture eroding in other parts of the world.
The “quickly ingest some food at your desk so you can keep working” mentality
has taken hold. I’m French, and at my first office job - almost 15 years ago -
the entire office was empty from noon till 2p.

People would go get their kids at school, have lunch with them at home, and
bring them back before returning to work. Or child free people would go have a
nice lunch out together. I personally would go back to my apartment and cook
with my girlfriend. It was really nice. Adding to that, French companies have
to give you a “ticket restaurant” if they don’t provide you lunches, which is
essentially a 10 euro or so coupon that you can use at any restaurant, or even
to buy food in grocery stores, so you get a lot of flexibility.

It was all very pleasant. I haven’t worked in France in many years, and I hear
from friends that this culture is eroding, and places that still follow this
kind of pace are getting rarer and rarer.

In my current team (US), we all take an hour long lunch break all together
every day. That is a surprising thing to most other people at the company, and
I suspect we started doing that because many of us in the team are European.

~~~
thaumasiotes
> It’s kind of sad to see the meal culture eroding in other parts of the
> world. The “quickly ingest some food at your desk so you can keep working”
> mentality has taken hold.

I really preferred eating at my desk while clocked in to eating a slow,
luxurious lunch while clocked out. The slow lunch just means less time for the
things you actually want to do.

~~~
eafkuor
But taking a break with decent food is exactly one of the things I want to do

~~~
jplayer01
Yeah, but not everybody shares that preference. Either is good. Take a break
with decent lunch. Do it with colleagues if you want. It's fine. Or if you
want, stay at work and eat something simple while you keep working. That's
fine too _if that 's what you want to do_. But this criticizing people for
their preferences is just annoying and unnecessary.

------
mogadsheu
Former Norway resident here, 3yrs.

Their lunch traditions are definitely basic, as they were not a wealthy
country for hundreds of years before striking oil in the 60s.

The point to remember is that while the fare is basic, the quality is
typically very good. Their cheese is extra creamy and nutritious, as is the
bread. The same goes for the milk.

Many Europeans won’t drink the milk here in the States because the quality
tends to be much lower, due to feed/living conditions for livestock. Garbage
in = garbage out.

~~~
umeshunni
> as they were not a wealthy country for hundreds of years before striking oil
> in the 60s.

I was surprised by that statement and had to look it up and it was, of course,
false. Norway was a wealthy country back to the 1800s: sources:
[https://medium.com/@Jernfrost/no-norway-was-not-a-poor-
count...](https://medium.com/@Jernfrost/no-norway-was-not-a-poor-country-
before-oil-was-discovered-b58dd365e5) and [https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-
economic-history-of-norway/](https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-economic-history-
of-norway/)

~~~
vidarh
The second paragraph of the first link specifically makes it clear it is a
question of point of view and concedes Norway was poor relative to today.
Meanwhile the distribution of wealth was a bigger issue.

Even in my lifetime - I'm 44 - the growth in wealth in Norway has been
astounding.

Ironically, for example, whale meat is something I remember from my childhood
as a cheap meat substitute (but that is now an expensive "delicacy"; we never
saw it as a delicacy then - it is tough and oily) because my parents despite
both having good jobs could not often afford beef in the early 80s. Even then
we'd usually have it only once a week.

When I was a kid, a packed lunch was an economic necessity for many families.

This was also in some sense exacerbated by more income equality: eating out is
relatively expensive in Norway because serving staff are also paid reasonably
well.

But I think the main reason the matpakke has survived is basically that this
was much closer to the norm _a lot of places_ with low population density (~13
per square kilometer in Norway) berfore urbanization and well into early
industrialisation and that Norway also for a long time was very severely
lutheran, with a puritan streak. Even if you have money, showing it off is not
the done thing.

~~~
graeme
> The second paragraph of the first link specifically makes it clear it is a
> question of point of view and concedes Norway was poor relative to today.
> Meanwhile the distribution of wealth was a bigger issue.

Every rich country was once very poor relative to its current status though.
This doesn't change the fact that Norway was not poor relative to other
European countries at the time.

~~~
vidarh
Yes, but the _change_ was very rapid and very noticeable. My parents grew up
with very noticeable, very visible poverty around them. A lot of the habits
the post war generations grew up with, and that still affected society
throughout the 70's still permeates the culture.

~~~
graeme
Every european society had this kind of change though. Norway isn't unique.

Here's an Italian movie from the 1970s, showing a family in a large slum
around Italy.

[https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0074252/](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0074252/)

~~~
vidarh
While "everyone" has seen growth, Norways GDP per capita went from ~167% of
Italy in 1967 around the time of the start of the oil wealth to about 230%
that of Italy in 2017 (world bank numbers). The oil contributed substantially
to that.

------
christkv
I grew up with matpakke and the 1/4 of milk every day and I hated it. It was
depressing. Only good side was you got more time to play outside at school
since you just wolfed down the food to get it over with.

My kids go to a school in Spain and they get a 3 course meal every day for
about 5 EUR a day. As a parent its great because you know they've had a full
complete meal every day and you can just make a small evening meal.

~~~
simongray
I also grew up with a madpakke (I'm in Denmark) and also hated it. Was pretty
jealous of Swedish kids since I knew they got a hot school lunch and didn't
have to eat boring, open-faced sandwiches and room temperature milk. I guess
Norwegians have it just as bad as Danish kids.

~~~
oleks
I spent 17 years in Denmark, and now a couple years in Norway, and I can say
that the Danish lunch culture is far richer than the Norwegian one. I studied
at a Danish gymnasium and university. I now work at a Norwegian university.

For starters, Norwegians do not employ rye bread.

Furthermore, Norwegian open-faced sandwiches have not evolved into full-blown
smørrebrød - where stacking multiple ingredients is such essential part, that
you cannot eat the common smørrebrød without cutlery.

Case in point: [https://www.valdemarsro.dk/luksus-
stjerneskud/](https://www.valdemarsro.dk/luksus-stjerneskud/)

At my university, we would lunch in groups, building such works of art during
lunch-time from shared packs of ingredients.

It may be that Danish school children get a "boring" lunch, similar to the
Norwegian one. However, as Danes grow up, their lunches evolve in tastes and
complexity. It seems less so in Norway, and that's OK, but a tiny bit boring
:-P

------
kristofferR
I feel like this article somewhat undersells brødskriver. They can be
delicious.

Most important is good bread, which is super common here, despite it being
totally unavailable in most other countries. All ordinary grocery stores get
freshly baked bread every day, whole in paper bags of course.

For example - with a thick slice of butter, then some oven-baked liver paste
and two slices of gherkin on top and boom - you have something delicious in a
single minute.

~~~
davidweir
> Most important is good bread

Having lived in Norway for two years, and resorted to deep frozen baguettes
from Meny (an upscale supermarket chain) because the fresh bread was so bad,
I'm... not sure about this.

Glad to be back in Finland where the bread is good (seriously!) and the
lunches are substantial, healthy, warm and filling.

~~~
l0b0
IMO you can't get good bread in grocery stores in any Western country, Norway
included. Good bread has about 2-3 times the density of store bread, for one
thing, which would make it 2-3 times more expensive to make (2-3 times more
raw ingredients + more time & energy in the oven). That takes the price into
ridiculous territory, so it's just not reasonable for supermarkets to stock
them.

My recommendation: get a decent bread baking machine. What's decent? One where
the bread, container and rotor all come out of the machine after baking, so
they can be easily washed. It takes about 2 minutes to mix in everything, and
the quality is honestly pretty indistinguishable from hand made (as long as I
remember to put the rotor back in after cleaning it :).

Dwarf bread refined over decades: 400g wheat flour (coarse if you can get a
hold of it), 300ml water, 1ts salt, 50ml olive oil and ½ts dry yeast, which
goes in a separate compartment in the machine to be dropped in when ready. To
this you can add up to 200g or so of goodies - pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds,
walnuts or grated carrot.

~~~
jotm
The built in bakeries in Lidl and other stores have great bread imo.

------
rejschaap
It seems there are three types of people based on what they deem most
important regarding the meals they consume. There are people who primarily eat
for sustanance, there are people who eat for pleasure and there are Americans.

I'm solidly in the sustance camp, I tend to go for quick, easy and nutritious.
Occasionally I will splurge and eat out at a good restaurant and enjoy it a
lot. My wife is in the pleasure camp and doesn't want to waste any opportunity
to have a delicious meal and even hates to have a simple breakfast or lunch.
My three year old son might be an American, he just wants to eat McDondalds
three times per day.

~~~
yoz-y
If you skip the fries and take a drink without sugar then McDonald's fits the
first category quite well.

~~~
daveslash
I was unemployed in my early 20s for over 2 months during the 2008-09
recession. My bank account was overdrawn and my credit cards were maxed out. 2
$20 McDonald's gift cards from the "random stuff" drawer was a God-Send.
Double cheeseburgers were still 99 cents then, and had nearly 500 calories.
I'd get 1 a day and supplement that with some flour-water mixture I pressed
into a cookie sheet to make hardtack
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardtack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardtack).

------
tambarskjelve
Another Norwegian here. If you don't find the matpakke boring enough, I am
happy to tell you that we have an even more boring culinary tradition for
breakfast, namely oatmeal. Preferably water boiled with a dab of butter. Crazy
Norwegians might use milk instead of water, and sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar
on top. On the weekend, it is allowed to use a little cinnamon as well, but
only sparingly.

~~~
marvin
You _boil_ yours? I take my oatmeal raw, with milk and a light sprinkling of
sugar.

~~~
jfengel
In Norway, the oatmeal is often steel-cut oats, which you really can't eat
raw. If you're eating them with milk, you've probably got rolled oats, which
are already cooked.

~~~
marvin
Yes. I am aware of this, but it's a distinction that I've never really seen in
everyday use of the Norwegian language. Basically, there's two common versions
of the product, they have the same name, but one of them is pre-cooked. I've
always used the pre-cooked one for oatmeal though. Which might not quite make
it the common American oatmeal, I don't know :P

A common theme, the language often doesn't make subtle distinctions when it
comes to food.

------
diehunde
In Chile, eating this kind of sandwich is also very common. Not so much for
lunch but for dinner. Sometimes even just bread and butter. I feel in the US
people are obsessed with eating "nice and flavorful" stuff instead of eating
something because you actually need to eat.

~~~
cerberusss
This is just like Dutch lunch. Indeed, I'm not sure what's special about it.
Definitely not limited to Norway.

My previous girlfriend was also Dutch and used to this kind of lunch. Her
employer sent her to London for a month, and she got used to expensive
lunches. Spending a couple of pounds everyday on lunch, hoo boy, that adds up.

~~~
zabzonk
I worked in the Netherlands on and off for several years, and the thing I
never got used to was how appalling the lunches were. I did a presentation at
KLM corporate headquarters, and at lunch asked the people I was presenting to
- "How do you put up with this, day after day?" They all looked glum, and said
"There is no alternative". And don't get me started on what passes as Chinese
food in the Netherlands.

~~~
Smithalicious
What is wrong about our Chinese food? I quite like it but I can't compare with
other countries. Do bear in mind that Dutch "Chinese" food is really a
combination of Chinese and Indonesian food, it's not really a real thing that
exists anywhere outside of NL.

~~~
Vrondi
I have noticed, um, great variation in "Chinese" food when I've travelled, and
other than immigrants adapting to local tastes, I have wondered if different
countries haven't had more immigrants from differing regions of China, thus
affecting what "Chinese" food is like in these places. I the USA, in addition
to the crazy sweet dishes (concocted to please the American palate), you also
get a lot of quite spicy Szechuan influenced dishes. I found "Chinese" food in
London to be shockingly bland and tasteless by contrast.

------
Nisse3
The worst part isn't really that they eat poor sandwiches for lunch all their
life, the worst part I'd say is that they often think it's the most healthy
way to eat, and have no idea about good nutrition!

(I'm Swedish born and raised, moved to Norway at age 20 and have lived here
for 10 years.)

I have had some arguments with colleagues about food during my years here. I
have mostly worked at places with a canteen, with the option of eating a real,
hot lunch for the same price as the bread.

The most common thing is that many Norwegians think that their simple bread
(almost never wholegrain) with a slice of cheese is a healthy lunch. People
argue and think that eating two hot meals a day makes you fat. They think they
gain weight because they eat a hot meal for lunch, and that the solution is
switching back to bread again. To no-ones surprise, they don't lose any weight
by doing the switch.

------
librish
It's kind of a bummer to see so many comments going straight for the
judgmental angle. I think you will be happier as a person if you try to take
on a more curiosity driven mindset. There are a bunch of pros to eating like
this, and there are a bunch of cons.

It would be equally silly to have a thread about long Spanish lunches,
socializing, and siestas being filled with comments about how it's a "waste of
time".

------
dwd
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!

~~~
Sendotsh
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 always choose a vegemite/cheese sandwich for lunch.

~~~
naravara
I notice all the people I know who naturally stay in good shape tend to eat
really simple lunches most of the time. I’m not sure if it’s just less
temptation to overeat when you have the same stuff every day or if they’re
just wired to get less enjoyment out of food and are less prone to overeating
as a result.

~~~
Sendotsh
I see it as a form of self-control. I actively enjoy the simple foods I eat,
and I'm not someone who gets sick of eating the same thing lots (as long as I
like it in the first place), so it stops me eating random stuff and over-
eating without realising it. It's also easier than trying to count/track
macros/calories/etc with everything you eat, because you just have set things
you always eat.

People also regularly bring up the "food enjoyment" thing, as though eating
the same few things means it's not enjoyable, but I personally very much enjoy
the routine things I eat, and that's why I made them routine. I'd much prefer
to eat my regular lunch that I know for a fact I'll enjoy, than some random
cafe/takeaway/pub lunch that will be hit or miss.

I think maybe some people are just wired to get bored of eating the same
thing, and others aren't, because some of my friends think I must hate food to
eat the same things all the time, but I see it as quite the opposite. Just
like these comments here are full of people who think the Norwegians are
insane and boring, and others "get it" and do the same or similar.

------
oxfordmale
This is not unique to Norway. In the Netherlands I was basically raised on a
"Norwegian" sandwich lunch, although peanut butter could be used as a topping
as well.

~~~
konschubert
As a German, I’m confused why this article was written. Doesn’t the rest of
the world eat bread with cheese on it?

> They typically consist of two or three slices of bread, smeared lightly with
> butter, each topped with a single slice of cheese or meat, or perhaps a thin
> layer of jam, liver paste, or tubed caviar.

~~~
holstvoogd
I'm pretty sure it is written for Americans, they eat for lunch what I would
call dinner a lot it seems?

------
gorgoiler
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.

~~~
jay_kyburz
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.

~~~
dominicr
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.

------
Animats
The British version is the plowman's lunch. Without the add-ons one sees
today.

The Japanese version is Calorie Mate Balanced Food Block, from Otsuka
Pharmaceutical Company. Available in convenience stores and vending machines.

~~~
cjrp
Fun fact: the ploughman's lunch dates back to the 1950s when cheese companies
promoted it in order to sell more cheese.

~~~
Animats
The cheese mafia has gotten completely out of control. Over half of Dunkin
(formerly Dunkin' Donuts) items now include cheese. Every lunchbox at
Starbucks includes cheese.

------
reaperducer
"why must everything we consume be happy and exciting?"

Because life is short.

~~~
lonelappde
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).

------
JoeAltmaier
The saddest thing in the world. To waste 20,000 opportunities to enjoy good
food is squandering a significant part of life.

------
koffiekop
Clearly the author has never been to the Netherlands.

------
donmatito
There are people who eat to work, and other who work to eat.

I can totally see the need for simple, sandwich lunch, especially in rush
periods. But sandwiches can be SO GOOD with the right bread and the right
ingredients. Why waste an opportunity for a nice lunch, even if you cannot
take a long lunch break ?

------
request_id
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](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18830186)

~~~
lonelappde
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".

------
BooneJS
3rd generation American, 100% Norwegian decent. This looks like my school cold
lunch in the 80’s. I’ve eaten the brown cheese, braunschweiger, head cheese,
and venison summer sausage. Some toppings were better than others.

------
pierot
This is almost exactly like in Belgium. We do have similar word for på leg
which is ‘beleg’ or ‘toespijs’. And we also pack it in the morning, 3 or 4
slices. It is not as beautifully wrapped in paper with in-between papers,
though.

Moreover, we have decent bread in Belgium. And it doesn’t come in a plastic
bag. It’s more similar to the bread described in the article about bread in
the UK seen on HN frontpage some days ago.

I’ve seen people stating in the comments that this is heavy on calories. But
that’s entirely not true. The butter is probably soja based, the cheese and
meat are thinly spread.

------
tylerjwilk00
> Plus, it might help cut down on the dreaded decision fatigue faced by
> workers every time lunch rolls around during the week.

> “Maybe then you realize how simply eliminating the decisions on your weekly
> lunches gives you more mental clarity during the day, the week, the month.”

I didn't know this was common. I struggled with this so much years ago that I
created a simple tool [1] so I wouldn't have to make the decision everyday.

[1] [https://easydecisionmaker.com/](https://easydecisionmaker.com/)

------
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?

~~~
rypskar
Supper/dinner is normally larger and not late in the evening. Many make it
right after getting home from work at 16-17. Your body is adaptive and get
used to when you eat and how much you eat at any meal. Try to skip a meal and
you will notice that the hunger feeling goes away around 1 hour after your
normal meal time

~~~
kristofferR
Yeah, and we often eat the additional meal "kveldsmat" (evening food) right
before bedtime, which is often just another pair of brødskiver or left-overs.

------
sunstone
That makes my go to peanut butter and banana look gourmet. :)

~~~
mxcrossb
It seems like this is the us equivalent to me. The nice thing about this
approach is you don’t have to use so much wrapping paper like in the linked
article’s video. Both the banana and sandwich come in their own case.

------
hasbot
"With the exception of employees at some large companies that offer hot
lunches, he adds, traditionally everyone from the lowest-level worker to upper
management would eat their own individually wrapped, brought-from-home
matpakke."

Virtually no one eating lunch at cafes has a big impact on the economy.
Imagine how many cafes, food carts, etc in the US would close down if everyone
stopped eating lunch out.

------
ericdykstra
This seems pretty good to me! One of my most vivid memories from visiting the
Netherlands as a child was the simple, but delicious breakfasts that consisted
of a choice between a variety of delicious breads, and a few cheeses or other
toppings to choose from to top it.

Certainly a more enjoyable and healthier way to have a utilitarian meal than
Soylent, which is honestly just degrading.

------
peteretep
Whenever anyone says that local traditions should be respected, they tend to
gloss over the fact that most traditions are like this.

------
l0b0
By the definition in this article, Italian cooking would be the most boring
thing you could possibly eat.

~~~
collyw
Personally I find Italian food pretty boring and very overrated. Most people
seem to disagree with me when I say that though.

------
combatentropy
Is this the only thing they eat between breakfast and dinner? I think I would
be hungry again in 2-3 hours.

~~~
magicalhippo
Our bread contains a lot of whole grain flour. Don't underestimate how that
effects how full you feel.

When losing weight I found I could easily get away with skipping lunch
entirely, just two or three slices of bread as a late breakfast. But only if
the bread had sufficiently high amount of whole grain flour (>90%). The days I
only got hold of 50-60% whole grain bread I had to top up with a small lunch.

~~~
luminiferous
It's probably the fiber content, if I had to guess. Fiber is really good at
making you feel full, which is why psyllium husk is sold as a dietary
supplement.

------
mcv
Still fancier than a Dutch sandwich, which is just two slices of buttered
bread with some cheese or something in between. Or just one slice which is
folded.

(Although in recent years a lot of Dutch workers have discovered the fancier
lunches from foreign traditions.)

------
prpl
This isn’t so different than once in Chile, except that comes later. Typically
once is marraqueta or hallulla and tomatoes, avocado (palta), or chicken and
mayonnaise. It is almost always with tea (it is a form of high tea) and served
after a big lunch.

~~~
Vrondi
What you describe is completely different from the bland food shown in the
article.

------
holografix
Could this also be correlated to a very long dark winter? I’d find a little
sad to eat bread every day and not something warm and hearty but if I could
get out of work maybe an hour earlier and that meant it wouldn’t already be
dark outside...

------
sverige
This is the lunch I grew up eating in the U.S. Personally, I much prefer it
over all the crap most people eat for lunch. But then again, my family is
Swedish, so no surprise I guess.

~~~
einr
Interestingly, Sweden and Norway differ _a lot_ when it comes to lunch
culture. Here, people generally bring leftovers of yesterday's dinner in boxes
to heat up at work or they go out to a lunch restaurant. Almost invariably
proper, hot meals. If you bring just a sandwich or two to work people will
kind of look at you funny like "that's not REAL food"

------
eitland
Only partially related but still somewhat interesting IMO: First time I
randomly enter into a site supported by scroll.com after I got an account.

------
GrumpyNl
Whats with the obsession with Norwegian food and lunches. Feels like we are
entering this subject on a regular basis.

------
magicalhippo
As a positive aside from the short lunch breaks is that you get home earlier.
I'd hate having an hour+ lunch break.

------
_pmf_
> The typical Norwegian workday lunch break is only about 30 minutes.

That's also pretty much the way it is in Germany.

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

~~~
tyfon
I'm pretty stuffed after eating two slices of bread with "pålegg". The bread
is not a sugary white bread but it has whole grains and much more fiber.

In general I don't think I'm a big eater though, most food servings I get
outside of home are huuge.. I might be able to eat a 160g cheeseburger if I'm
really hungry but that's without any side dishes.

------
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.

------
sakopov
Popular in Russia as well and known as buterbrod (butter bread).

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j7ake
Where are Norwegians getting their vegetable intake?

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pjc50
Best served with a Kvikk Lunsj chocolate bar!

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bigred100
Sounds pretty good to me.

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gnud
Well, unlike the US we usually have tasty bread here. That helps :)

~~~
Symbiote
The first time I went to the US, the waitress brought over extra bread, "I
know you Europeans like bread, so I brought you extra".

It was awful. Like ecological packaging pellets. I didn't want to offend her,
so I hid the extra rolls in my bag.

(We had other meals that were excellent. The quality of meals was very
erratic, and had little relation to the price.)

~~~
drstewart
I feel in Europe people are obsessed with eating "nice and flavorful" stuff
instead of eating something because you actually need to eat.

Oh wait, that's what someone was criticizing the US for earlier in this
thread. Weird. So is that the case or not?

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lonelappde
9 months ago, 137 comments, with a less obnoxious title:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18830186](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18830186)

