Norwegian vs Moroccan 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.

Moroccans usually share food in a communal style while sitting on the floor; however, here, this communal way of eating is not called meze, which is more associated with Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines. Food is scooped from a shared bowl using only the right hand, and leftover juices are soaked out with bread. Moroccans usually eat at home; should they eat out, most locals would eat street foods rather than go to restaurants.

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.

An essential wheat product is warqa pastry, resembling Eastern Mediterranean phyllo, made from leaf-thin dough, stretched out into sheets.

Couscous grains are made from steamed balls of semolina – the hardest part of durum wheat, which resists grinding. Couscous dishes vary: served with lamb, chicken, fish and are accompanied by a medley of vegetables and endless combinations of spices. Usually couscous is eaten on Fridays, the Muslim holy day.

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.

Fruit choice is wide, from local Mediterranean natives to tropical ones. Main meals are concluded with fresh fruits and assorted nuts: platters of fresh oranges, figs, dates, and melons, sometimes sprinkled with cinnamon. When fresh fruits are out of season, dried fruits take their place.

Dried dates, apricots, figs, and raisins are the signature of Moroccan cooking. Preserved lemons, or leems, are a crucial condiment to tagines.

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.

Morocco stands out for its sophisticated approach to organ meats, particularly met in street food culture. Moroccans have many offal dishes, like couch (grilled liver skewers), boulfaf, where lamb liver is carefully wrapped in caul fat before grilling; tkalia, a complex stew incorporating tripe, lungs, and heart.

One of the most iconic Moroccan dishes, a tagine, refers both to the conical clay cooking vessel and the stew cooked in it. Lamb, beef, or chicken are slow-cooked with a medley of spices, dried fruits, vegetables. The slow cooking process in the tagine’s unique shape allows meat to become exceptionally tender.

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.

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.

Milk and dairy are not central  – fresh milk is rarely consumed. Leben, a fermented milk drink similar to buttermilk, is preferred. Raib is homemade fresh yogurt, creamy and smooth, enjoyed as a dessert or a snack. While not as central as in some other cuisines, fresh cheese jben arabi is common, served with bread and olives.

A distinctive ingredient of North African cuisine is smen – a salted, fermented butter, similar to ghee and niter kibbeh (Ethiopian clarified butter), but has a characteristically strong, rancid, and cheesy taste and smell. Smen can be fermented for over 20 years, perhaps even more.

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.

Nuts are used in many desserts. Almonds, pistachios, and walnuts fill traditional pastries. Ground nuts are used in dips and spreads, for example, amlou, a Moroccan dip made with almonds, argan oil, and honey, and served with bread. Almonds and pine nuts are added to tagines and couscouses for texture and flavor.