Whale Anyone?

Sunday we were invited to Carolyn's house for dinner. I think they decided we were adventurous eaters because she told me whale was on the menu. To be honest, I really didn't care what we ate I was just looking forward to hanging out with them again. We took the bus to Bekkestua, outside of Oslo where they live. It was a short ride, maybe 15 minutes? She met us at the bus stop and we walked for about 10 minutes to her house. There are many different types of homes in Bekkestua. Carolyn said this was where people built country homes years ago. They have a very cozy house; I like it....

First she served shrimp cocktail and the shrimp weren't from Norway! I think she said they were from somewhere like Thailand??? Was she joking? Well, they were tasty wherever they came from. She had us sample two different local cheeses after we mentioned how we miss cheddar cheese. (It is $20 for a small block. Oh, how I miss Tilamook.) We tried Ridder and Sno friske. We enjoyed both. Maybe now we can branch out from Swiss.

They also invited a friend Paul, who coincidentally has been doing Aikido for 21 years. He was very chatty and friendly. Kent will eventually make it to a class if I have to drag him.

Christian prepared whale and caribou. He is quite fond of whale. We told KJ caribou is a very distant cousin to reindeer. She has repeatedly mentioned that she will not eat Rudolph. She enjoyed the caribou enough to have two pieces. He also made plenty of delicious veggies. Carolyn made lava cake for dessert which was nice and chocolatey. I had some chai tea from Twinings and it was really good. In fact I bought some of my own that I found at my neighborhood ICA.

Carolyn has lived in Norway for about 10 years and has been super nice since we've met. It's been great having someone in Oslo who is so helpful and fun. Hard to believe, I had to go all the way to Norway to meet her.

Oh, I didn't say anything about the whale and it was even in the title of my post. It was fun to try and we'll leave it at that. We want to have them over for dinner however they may need to travel to Portland for a proper dinner from us. Kent makes a mean paella. I can't imagine how much it would cost to prepare here?