I am soooo full! :)

yeah, yeah, yeah... I know it's been awhile since I've updated. But today I actually have something to update about!!! Today was the first day of the Trondelag Food Festival. An event I have been waiting for FOREVER..... or, at least since I found out about it last month. And, been the foodie that I am, my days this weekend are completely planned around what's going on at the festival.
First things first - MAN, these people know how to throw a festival!! This thing is huge!! I spent close to 6 hours (ok, quit making fun of me now) there today and i didn't make it to all of the tents. Or even half of them. Every different little mini-area or town in Trondelag has their own tent or group of tents with their local specialties. Tons of local cheeses, breads, meats, and bright colored produce. I was mesmorized! Where do I start? Samples of everything everywhere! Of course I tried everything I could. I consider it my duty... I mean, i'm suppose to "discover the culture", right? And how do you do that without diving head first into the local food?
I tried a lot of cheeses.. brown geitost (goat milk cheese), Rimmel cheese, and something called Gubb cheese. I still don't know what exactly the Gubb cheese was, except that it was some type of goat cheese. It was a light marbled brown color, but not sweet like the common brown cheeses around here. Very dry, and unlike anything I've every tasted.
Right on the side of a tent some folks were roasting a whole pig. Ham is very, very popular around here, and you can find 20 different kinds of ham and pork chops in any local grocery store (but don't bet on finding a steak). Very cool to watch.
The other meats at the festival were mainly cured sausages of all types. Norway has so many different types of sausages with different names i've lost track of them all - and sometimes I can't even tell what kind of meat it actually is (which, of course, i'm pretty good at all the norwegian words for foods.). A Sami tent was selling reindeer meat and a whole series of tents was devoted to seafood. Huge fish were on display - several feet long, and clams and mullosks that were as big as my hands. I even broke my no fish policy and tried some smoked salmon and some chili spiced smoked salmon, which were both really good and surprisingly non-fishy.
For lunch (all that other stuff was just appetizers!), I bought something called rommegrot. When I asked the woman selling it exactly what she was stirring in her big cast iron pot, she looked at me and said, "It's Rommegrot!" um, okay.... I think that was the extent of her English. She did manage to tell me it was very traditional, so i thought, "what the heck!" and i gave it a try. I figured it must be good from the line of people waiting for their portion. So she dished me up a bowl of white porridgey looking stuff and directed me to put some melted butter and cinnamon sugar on it. Voila! A proper Norwegian treat.
Turns out all those people are dead wrong. Not that rommegrot is completely disgusting. But its like eating raw pancake batter. But it is apparently very popular with the locals, considering how many folks asked me where i had gotten my rommegrot from while i was sitting on the sidewalk eating it. Maybe it's something you have to grow up with, like grits or cincinnati chili.
I went to several presentations on different topics - Dairy farms in Old Norway, The many things you can do with Lefse bread, and a Beer and Cheese tasting. And no, my Norwegian has not progressed to the fact that I can understand a word of what the presenters were saying. But I figured I may learn something anyway, and there was interesting food involved at the very least. Little did I know that the MC at the lefse presentation was going to bring the mike around to audience to ask them their opinions of each lefse dish we sampled. Yikes! I was trying to blend in , but for the sake of pictures, of course I sat right up front.. I went with the "If my mouth is full and I don't make eye contact he can't talk to me" approach. Things I may have very cautiously tasted went right down the hatch. (A girl's gotta save face.:) ) By the beer and cheese tasting, wayne and I were much more seasoned at "blending in"... we sat in the back and watched what our neighbors ate first and followed suit.
So out of all of the fabulous food i encountered today, what do I choose to bring home and savor? Oddly enough, Butter. Goat butter. But seriously, this is amazing butter. really. Stop laughing at me. stop it!! now!!
And after a very full day of sampling, I can honestly say that I don't think I could eat another bite. Until tomorrow, when i go back for more...:)