Norwegian vs Indonesian food & cuisine

Everyday meals rely on simple, honest pairings – fish or lamb with potatoes; breads and crispbreads  topped with brunost, cured fish, cold cuts, lingonberries or cloudberries.

Indonesian, Malaysian, and Singaporean cuisines are often confused overseas due to their geographical proximity and overlapping rice, coconut milk, fermented products, seafood, chili, and spices; also, steaming, frying, and curry-making are staples in all three countries. Satay, rendang, nasi lemak, and laksa have versions in all three countries, leading to frequent cross-identification. Indonesian cuisine is distinct for its extensive regional diversity, with thousands of islands, and has a broader variety of flavors. Indonesians commonly use palm sugar, kecap manis, indigenous galangal, and candlenut. Unique to Indonesia are sambal varieties, more assertive flavors, and the rare use of wheat bread or buns.

Top everyday choices are loff, rugbrød, landbrød, rundstykker.

Flatbread (flatbrød), an unleavened staple of farmers, shepherds, and peasants, is dry, crisp, and water-free. It was once eaten with cured herring and boiled potatoes, along with sour cream and butter. In Norway, it pops up everywhere.

The Norwegians have a tradition of matpakke, a packed lunch of open-faced sandwiches with toppings like brunost cheese, cold cuts, liver paté or cod roe from tubes. It is now a symbol of Norwegian lunch culture.

Norway is an unexpected global leader in pizza consumption, especially frozen pizza. Annually, Norwegians consume 47 million frozen pizzas! It is about 11 pizzas per year – the highest per capita pizza consumption in the world. Frozen pizza is so ingrained that it’s even considered to be an unofficial national dish.

Although rice is not a long-living staple in Norwegian cuisine, its consumption in processed forms and Asian-inspired dishes is gaining traction. Similarly, while corn is minor, it is incorporated into snack foods and side dishes.

Nasi goreng, fried rice, is omnipresent in Indonesia and considered a national dish.

Noodles are a popular staple and comfort food across Indonesia, consumed at all times of day, as well as rice.

Wheat is not native to Indonesia; it got here through the Chinese and the Dutch. Indonesians acquired a taste for Chinese wheat noodles, Indian roti, and Dutch bread. Yet in Indonesia, rice is so ingrained in the culture that even noodles are often consumed with rice.

Norway has a short, cool summer, and local fruits have acidity and tanginess. Wild berries, apples, pears, plums, and rhubarb are readily available and used in sauces, jams, compotes, crumbles, and pies.  Norway also consumes many imported fruits.

There’s an increasing movement towards healthy eating in Norway, with people paying more attention to dietary balance. The awareness of pulses’ benefits is leading to slow but increasing consumption of lentils, beans, and chickpeas, even though they were never staples in Norway.

Though many iconic dishes use vegetables, data shows lower veggie consumption than the global average (which is ~200 g/day); quantities eaten daily are generally small. The plate is filled mainly with rice, and the rest is just a touch of vegetables and protein. Also, veggies are mixed with coconut, peanut sauce, sambal, or tempeh, so the flavor is strong, but the portion sizes of the vegetables can be modest. When consumed, water spinach, regular spinach, long beans, eggplant, chayote, cucumber, and bitter melons are frequent choices.

Starchy roots, though, are big in Indonesia, especially cassava and snacks, crackers, and flour-based street foods made of it. Cassava leaves are one of those everyday Indonesian foods that outsiders rarely notice.

Alongside cassava leaves, papaya leaves, melinjo leaves, katuk leaves, and sweet potato leaves are also widely consumed, usualy stir-fried with garlic or chilies.

Indonesia is unique as the birthplace of tempeh, a fermented soybean product, an affordable protein. It’s even higher in protein, fiber, and vitamins than tofu. Compared to meat, tempeh has a very low carbon footprint and is a great plant-based meat substitute.

Oncom is a lesser-known, also fermented Indonesian staple. It’s closely related to tempeh; both are fermented using mold, but oncom is made from the by-products of other foods: soy pulp remains from making tofu, peanut remains after the oil has been pressed out, and cassava tailings when extracting the starch. This makes oncom a very sustainable protein source.

Fenalår, cured or slightly smoked slices of salted and dried leg of lamb, like Spanish Serrano and Italian Parma hams, holds the status of a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) and is served as part of the cold buffet.

During the season, reindeer, moose, and elk are hunted. All three game meats are lean, require careful cooking to avoid drying out, and provide an intense “wild” flavor. Reindeer is less gamey than many expect, often described as falling somewhere between beef and venison. Moose is deeper and richer, with a robust, earthy taste; its texture is dense. Elk meat strikes a middle ground with a clean, sweet flavor that’s more complex than beef.

Beef is another staple in Norwegian kitchens, frequently grilled as steaks, minced for meatballs called kjøttkaker, and stews.

Indonesians breed free-range chickens in the villages. Compared to mass-farmed chickens, these village chickens are thinner, and their meat is firmer.  About 60% of chicken production is concentrated in Java.

Various fried and grilled chicken recipes exist throughout the country. Chicken feet are enjoyed in many countries, but they are particularly popular here as a street staple.

When most people think of curry, they’re picturing Thai green curry or Indian curries. Indonesian meat curries represent a different approach – they’re not about balancing heat and cooling (like Thai), building layers of spices (like Indian), or showcasing fresh herbs (like Vietnamese), but about transformation. Indonesian cooks don’t just add coconut milk – they reduce it. This reduction, called pecah minyak – oil breaking, is fundamental and creates this rich, almost creamy texture without any dairy.

Satay is a dish of grilled skewers and peanut sauce that spread widely, first across Indonesia and then Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. Indonesian satay uses beef or goat due to the Muslim majority, and is a quintessential street food in many Southeast Asian countries. Indonesia alone has over 250 different recipes.

Lutefisk, another cod dish, takes the concept of “acquired taste” to a whole new level. Dried cod is soaked in water and lye (the same lye used in batteries and soap) till it gains a gelatinous texture. With a very distinctive smell and texture, it polarizes people – you either love it or find it quite off-putting.

Over time, Norway’s dominant seafood export transitioned from cod to farm-raised salmon, a product of modern aquaculture. The one traditional Norse dish is smoked salmon røkelaks – the most important Scandinavian contribution to modern international cuisine. Gravlax, a salt, sugar, and dill-cured salmon, is also popular in Norway, though it’s originally more associated with Sweden.

Beyond cod and salmon, Norwegians also cook with herring, halibut, sardines, mackerel, freshwater trout, and char. Seafood is consumed fresh, smoked, salted, or pickled. Herring is particularly popular preserved in salt, named spekesild, but also in many other marinades and pickles. Creamed seafood soups are common along the coastline.

Cold waters of Norway are home to luxurious crustaceans: king crabs, prawns, shrimps, lobsters, langoustines, sea urchins, and scallops. Atlantic shrimp is a staple in many homes – served cold with mayonnaise and dill.

Popular seafood in Indonesian cuisine includes skipjack tuna, tuna, mackerel, pomfret, wahoo, milkfish, trevally, rabbitfish, abalistes, amberjacks, rastrelliger, yellowtail scad, nemipterus japonicus, John Dory, garoupa, red snapper, anchovy, swordfish, shark, stingray, squid or cuttlefish, shrimp, crab, blue crab, and mussel.

Another Norway’s gastronomic identity is the sweet brunost, a brown cheese product made from whey, milk, and cream, but it is not an actual cheese. The distinctive brown color is from caramelizing the sugars in milk during the boiling process. It has a sweet, nutty flavor and pairs well with flatbreads, waffles, or on its own.

More sophisticated, traditional gamalost, an ‘old cheese’, is firm, moist, coarse, and granular. It is not produced in sufficient quantities for mass export, and it is rare to find this cheese outside of Norway.

Pultost is a soft, mature sour milk cheese with caraway seeds, very low in fat, and available in both spreadable and grainy forms.

Scandinavian countries have a tradition of using sweet and sour cream in their cuisine, balancing richness with acidity. Creamy sauces are common in pasta, meatballs, fish, and vegetable dishes.

Fresh dairy milk consumption is limited; Indonesia is not known for mass dairy farming. Several unique traditional dairy products exist, mostly from water buffalo milk: minyak samin, a butter-like product similar to ghee; dadih, a yogurt-like fermented milk product from West Sumatra; bagot ni horbo, cheese-like products from North Sumatra made from coagulated buffalo milk. In cooking, coconut milk is much more prominent than dairy milk.

Modern Norwegian eating patterns increasingly incorporate nuts – especially almonds and walnuts – into snacks, bakery toppings, and salads, aligning with  dietary guidance that promotes a daily handful of nuts for health.

Another unique feature is the prevalence of glutinous rice and chewy, sticky, and luscious textures. Pandan leaves for flavor and color also distinguish Indonesian sweets.

Thin, thick, coconut milk, and coconut cream largely fulfill the dairy role. Candlenuts are a distinctive ingredient of Indonesia, which integrates seamlessly and enriches the mouthfeel. They are important in making rempah (wet spice pastes). Candlenuts are never eaten raw and are never used as snacks; their use is strictly culinary.