Welcome to 25 for 25 my project to watch and eat my way around the world in 2025 with 25 movies from 25 countries matched with 25 country themed dinners. Today’s entry is Norway but you can see the full Masterlist to watch and cook along with me.

Country: Norway
Movie:  Salmer fra kjøkkenet [Kitchen Stories]
Director: Bent Hamer
Year: 2003
The Elevator Pitch: What’s the deal with men? In the 1950s the Home Research Institute of Sweden set out their goal to study Swedish women in the kitchen to make their lives better through efficiency via observational projects. Having maximized this task, they turn their attention to men and not just any men but Norwegian single men. This is how we meet our protagonist Folke (Tomas Norstrom) who is tasked with observing Isak (Joachim Calmeyer), a bitter old man living alone in the Norwegian countryside. The two men, one as supposed impartial observer and the other as an observed subject are not supposed to interact in order to not sully the experiment. Absolutely nothing can go wrong in this surreal satire.

How Was the Movie?: I absolutely adored this movie. I’m going to say a very weird thing but the vibe in this movie is so strange it reminded me of Toys (1992). It was something about the surreal images invoked by simple things or maybe the absurd directness that the characters have when interacting with each other. This movie is definitely about humans and their need to interact with each other, their innate desire to be human and to be curious but it is also extremely deeply about the relationship between Norway and Sweden post WW2 and how the experiences of occupation changed Norway and changed its relationship with its neighbors. The movie illustrates this beautifully from even the first scene after the intro where we see trucks being driven from Sweden to Norway, being narrowed down to one lane to cross into a country whose roads are on the opposite side of them. 

The movie is so interested in sociology, bureaucracy, humanity, connection, and alienation that even though I guessed the plot/outcome of the whole movie once Folke starts his job in Isak’s house, I didn’t find that a detractor at all. I was completely engrossed with the concept, the imagery, and the acting. I was here for the heart warming tale of two men who accidentally find themselves in a strange relationship of observed and observed (a theme more relevant in the modern day than ever) but I also came out of it with a lot of fanciful thoughts about the nature of our relationship to efficiency.

Also I love a good “old man” story. Make more movies about old men you cowards!

What was for Dinner?: 

I made a full plate dinner with some sauteed chicken sausage, Kålrabistappe (which is mashed rudabega), Raspeballer (a kind of potato dumpling ball) and some peas and zucchini quick sauteed for some healthy additional greens. I made also Bringebærsnurrer med Vaniljekrem, which is a twisted sweet bread roll with raspberries (I used lingonberries though, so really they’re tyttebærsnurrer) and topped with custard.

For some reason my rudabega did not want to mash and simply became oddly water logged after boiling but overall dinner was fine if a bit on the bland side. I feel like I made the raspeballer wrong because the taste was basically none and the texture wasn’t particularly nice either. I grated the raw potato on the smallest setting but the texture was still rough and oddly craggy. I prefer the German knödel which is a similar potato ball but with a smooth texture. We dunked the raspeballer in butter sauce and that was fine.

I really loved the tyttebærsnurrer and I loved eating all the leftover custard since I only needed a little for the buns. I’ve never had a bun with custard on it that is baked all together (usually a dessert served with custard has already been baked and then you pour/dunk a cooked item into custard). I’m not 100% sure baked custard on top worked and the texture really changed after 2 days because the had to be refrigerated but they’re sweet buns with a sour berry in them so they were delicious either way but way better fresh out of the oven.

That’s it for Norway, see you next in Italy!