Frozen pizza versus lutefisk: Which has been voted Norway’s least appetising food?
A recent ranking has compiled some of the worst-tasting dishes in the world, with two from Norway featuring. But which left more of a sour taste, a freezer staple or the traditional Norwegian delicacy?
Despite the success of its chefs on the world stage and the country’s catalogue of Michelin-starred restaurants, Norway doesn’t get a lot of love for its food.
A recent ranking from the food encyclopedia TasteAtlas ranked Norwegian cuisine the worst out of 95 countries in the world. Our own readers were also less than kind about Norwegian food, with a majority saying it deserved its lowly ranking.
TasteAtlas has since updated its ranking of the worst dishes in the world, with two (for different reasons) classics featured on the list.
READ MORE: What do foreign residents think of Norwegian food?
Luckily for the defenders of Norway’s culinary heritage, the two dishes weren’t featured near the business end of the list. Instead, they were ranked 22nd and 23rd, with a frozen fish cube salad from Russia, Indigirka salad, taking the top spot.
The two Norwegian dishes to suffer the ignominy of being named among the worst in the world were Grandiosa frozen pizzas and lutefisk.
Surprisingly, the frozen pizzas were ranked the 22nd worst dish in the world, one spot above lutefisk- a meal infamous around the globe for its means of preparation, smell and texture.
While some may wonder why frozen pizzas were classed as Norwegian, with pizza traditionally being associated with Italy, Grandiosa (the Norwegian brand which dominates the market and introduced the product to Norway) has shifted more than 600 million pies since 1980.
This works around to about ten pizzas for every person in Norway today. According to various figures floating around on the web (of varying provenance), the number of frozen pizzas Norwegians get through means they eat more pies than anyone else in the world per capita.
Such is the love for the freezer staple, the frozen pizza section is one of the few areas of the supermarket where locals will find any real variety or choice between products.
Loved and loathed in equal measure, it is somewhat surprising that the pizzas, as bland as they can be, have finished above the more polarising lutefisk.
For the uninitiated, lutefisk is a fish preserved in lye. The traditional Christmas food is infamous for turning stomachs due to its strong smell and gelatinous texture. It’s typically served with boiled potatoes, peas and bacon, meaning the sides do little to elevate the dish.
Compared to its Nordic neighbours, Norway got off relatively lightly. Two Danish dishes (stegte sild and gule ærter) were featured in the top ten, the Icelandic rotten shark dish of harkarl came in tenth, while the Swedish spettekake (a cake cooked on a spit) also featured.
Have your say
But are these two dishes actually the worst in Norway? Let us know in the survey below what you think both the best-tasting and worst-tasting Norwegian dishes are. We’ll try and include your answers in a future article.
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Despite the success of its chefs on the world stage and the country’s catalogue of Michelin-starred restaurants, Norway doesn’t get a lot of love for its food.
A recent ranking from the food encyclopedia TasteAtlas ranked Norwegian cuisine the worst out of 95 countries in the world. Our own readers were also less than kind about Norwegian food, with a majority saying it deserved its lowly ranking.
TasteAtlas has since updated its ranking of the worst dishes in the world, with two (for different reasons) classics featured on the list.
READ MORE: What do foreign residents think of Norwegian food?
Luckily for the defenders of Norway’s culinary heritage, the two dishes weren’t featured near the business end of the list. Instead, they were ranked 22nd and 23rd, with a frozen fish cube salad from Russia, Indigirka salad, taking the top spot.
The two Norwegian dishes to suffer the ignominy of being named among the worst in the world were Grandiosa frozen pizzas and lutefisk.
Surprisingly, the frozen pizzas were ranked the 22nd worst dish in the world, one spot above lutefisk- a meal infamous around the globe for its means of preparation, smell and texture.
While some may wonder why frozen pizzas were classed as Norwegian, with pizza traditionally being associated with Italy, Grandiosa (the Norwegian brand which dominates the market and introduced the product to Norway) has shifted more than 600 million pies since 1980.
This works around to about ten pizzas for every person in Norway today. According to various figures floating around on the web (of varying provenance), the number of frozen pizzas Norwegians get through means they eat more pies than anyone else in the world per capita.
Such is the love for the freezer staple, the frozen pizza section is one of the few areas of the supermarket where locals will find any real variety or choice between products.
Loved and loathed in equal measure, it is somewhat surprising that the pizzas, as bland as they can be, have finished above the more polarising lutefisk.
For the uninitiated, lutefisk is a fish preserved in lye. The traditional Christmas food is infamous for turning stomachs due to its strong smell and gelatinous texture. It’s typically served with boiled potatoes, peas and bacon, meaning the sides do little to elevate the dish.
Compared to its Nordic neighbours, Norway got off relatively lightly. Two Danish dishes (stegte sild and gule ærter) were featured in the top ten, the Icelandic rotten shark dish of harkarl came in tenth, while the Swedish spettekake (a cake cooked on a spit) also featured.
Have your say
But are these two dishes actually the worst in Norway? Let us know in the survey below what you think both the best-tasting and worst-tasting Norwegian dishes are. We’ll try and include your answers in a future article.
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