rundstykke

You wouldn't things would change this fast, but food in Norway has dramatically improved since I lived there in 1997-98. The staples are still delicious - those folks know their way around the meat, fish, and potatoes. But when I was there before, "salad" meant sliced Chinese cabbage with canned corn. I kid you not. Iceberg would've been a major step forward. So imagine my surprise when I got this here rundstykke (= "round piece" = "roll with stuff on it")...

...and it was totally delicious. I've had a lot of rundstykker in my day, and they were generally like, here, have a hard piece of bread with too much butter/mayonnaise and a piece of sandwich meat. But this was pretty much a taste explosion. I got it at the little concession stand at the folk competition, where various members of the local dance group were selling soup, hot dogs, rundstykker, cake, and whatnot. I mean, look at this - green onions! Lettuce! Etc.! On another day, I had a salad with some kind of spring mix thing! Crazy, I tell you!