1936 On the Continent

filling. One main dish and a sweet of some sort. Vegetables are always served with a thick sauce. The main dish may be anything from reindeer steak or pork cutlets to one of many forms of finely chopped or minced meat. In summer cranberries are collected and preserved. They form an adjunct to nearly all the more solid meat dishes, and are delicious, as well as being a most valuable digestive agent.
    Aftens
is a light evening meal, taken any time between eight and ten. Here
smörrebröd
figures again, but such is the infinite variety of this item of Norwegian fare that one never tires of it.
    A Norwegian dish that is popular all over the country, and with foreigners who visit it, is
stekt rype
—roast willow-grouse. The willow-grouse abounds on all the upland moors of Norway, and he makes a wonderful meal. The feathers of the birds become snow-white in winter.
    Among the drinks of Norway beer is dominant, though big quantities of spirits are also consumed. There are threekinds of beer.
Pils
is a light drink of the pilsener order.
Bayer
is heavier and darker.
Bok
is very nearly a stout.
    One needs to be careful when saying “yes” to a whisky and soda. The whisky measure is a full third of the glass, the rest soda.
Aquavit
, a schnapps made from rye and caraway seed, is a favourite “short one.” Sipped alternately with
pils
it is very soothing—though it sounds horrible. A glass of
aquavit
is called a
dram
.
    Beer can be obtained in any restaurant at any time. But there are various restrictions in regard to the sale of spirits. And bottled spirits and wines can only be purchased through the State monopoly stores known as
Vinmonopolet
.
    Fish, of course, plays a big part in Norwegian food. Boiled cod, a dreary dish in England, has unimagined gourmet qualities fresh from the sea in Norway. And smoked salmon, a costly delicacy in London, is a common spread for
smörrebröd
. In the summer one gets tired of salmon, so plentiful is it.
    Wherever you go in Norway you will eat well, and table appointments are always utterly clean.
Bergen
    The fastest steamer of the B. & N. Line reaches Bergen in twenty-one hours from Newcastle. The approach to the town from the sea lies up the Korsfjord between bare rocky islands, and later through the narrowing Byfjord.
    Bergen stands magnificently amid its seven mountains, with the giant shape of Ulrikken mounting to the sky in a huge gable behind the roofs of the city.
    The centre of Bergen is the Fisketorvet—the Fish Market Square. The market stalls are ranged down a big concreted space at the head of the Vaagen arm of the harbour. The boats tie up within a few feet of the market and unload their live catches into big salt-water tanks. You can choose your fish as it swims about. A large scaly-handed fellow in sea-boots knocks it on the head for you, and you carry it home.
    Across the road from the market there is a very pleasant little café whose windows look out upon the harbour and the thronged market stalls. It is called the Kaffistova, which is peasant dialect for Coffee Room. Its clients are largely drawn from members of the different peasantassociations, and there is a comfort and homeliness about the little place that make it particularly attractive. The waitresses wear the red bodice, white blouse and black skirt of the local peasant dress.
    The great fire of 1916 destroyed all the centre of Bergen, and much of the old timber architecture disappeared in the blaze. This part of the city is now almost completely re-erected in modern style, and there are some fine buildings in the grey granite of the district.
    To see the wooden houses of the Bergen of past days one must wander through the lesser streets, notably those in the direction of Sandviken, to the north of the Vaagen, and through the narrow alleys at the far end of the Strandgate, where the Nordnes peninsula juts out into the fjord. The houses are nearly all painted white, with the window frames lined in bright colours; and every window has its array of cacti or begonias or geraniums.
The Flöien
    Bergen, like Oslo, has its Grand Café. The café terrace faces the Ole Bull Plads, where a statue of the famous violinist forms the centre of a miniature, fountained garden. Across the Olav Kyrresgate, the main shopping street of Bergen, is a small park—the Byparken—which extends beyond another road to form a rim of gardens round the Lille Lungegårdsvand lake.
    But the most charming of all Bergen restaurants is the