mie

yesterday, i celebrated potato day! early morning, a text message ticked in from food writer and friend andreas, who invited us for potato tastings and all kinds of potato fun at the potato day celebration that supposedly was taking place in oslo that day.

walking around oslo sunday morning, i was resembled with a goat by my dear better half. robert explained to me how it "really makes a lot of sense" to do so - i eat everything, i am mostly happy but incredibly stubborn. all of this, because i was trying my hardest to focus on finding our way to a potato tasting in time. and i was nowhere near convinced he actually knew the way better than myself. who never went to that particular place before. but robert knows his way around oslo, and we actually made it.

the other part of the context is that the UN has named 2008 for international year of the potato. oh yes. potato events are organized all over the world, and this weekend it was oslo's turn to celebrate and be educated about this product. the fact is, that every year for generations has been the year of the potato in norway. in my family, for instance, it is eaten pretty much 365 days a year. to be noted: not instead of, but along with spaghetti. it has been like that since the spaghetti was cooked by my great grandmother along with cloudberry jam, potato and pretty much any kind of game. also for preserved fish dishes, as fish pudding. yum. but who knew that this event would showcase more than 100 potato varietals? we could also cheer in the semi finals before the norwegian potato peeling championship next weekend or attend potato tastings. a selection of potato varietals made up a flight with about 20 different to taste - boiled to perfection and served with salt. from the sweet and mellom "beate" to the almost acidic and stringent "blue congolese". most varietals had too difficult names to remember, there were princesses ("cinderella", "anastacia") and other nobleness ("lady claire", "lady felicia") and old classics ("kerrs pink") and many more.

we also got to discuss potato farming with simen volden who along with his wife grows around 200 different varietals of potatoes. unfortunately, as far as i could understand, there is no market for these varietals here - and they are therefore not sold outside the farm. celebrating or not.