The Food at Barnehagen
My son’s palette is becoming more Norwegian
It’s becoming more and more apparent that my son’s palette is growing more Norwegian each week. He is also speaking more Norwegian and bringing it home, especially at meal and snack time, asking for particular foods that I am not familiar with, or I am just not understanding the words he uses. With his growing palette and language skills, I decided it was time to do a deeper dive into the foods of barnehage (kindergarten or daycare) and learn more about what he is eating when he is not home.
The first thing I had to know was why he comes home with a rather peculiar smell, a fishy odor but I can’t quite put my finger on it. I knew it had to be something related to barnehage because he never acquires the same aroma while playing at home all day. In a recent Norwegian language class, we discussed food words, and this is how I made the connection. We were talking about popular Norwegian snacks and caviar came up. This is not the fancy caviar you’re used to, but fish eggs can come in a squeeze tube here in Norway, and apparently young children go wild over it. My “norskkurs” teacher mentioned, “for those of you with children in barnehage, have you noticed them coming home with a certain stench you can quite pinpoint?...that’s the caviar they are snacking on in the afternoon.” The lightbulb went off for me, and I realized that was it. It turns out one of his favorite barnehage snacks is knekkebrød med kaviar (crackers with caviar). I’ve been avoiding this product at the grocery store, but how can I do that now? I have to taste it. If I don’t like it, at least I know there’s a two-year-old at home that goes wild for it.
From what I’ve gathered, we are lucky in that our son gets served breakfast every day at barnehage along with lunch and an afternoon snack. Every day breakfast is grøt, warm porridge made from oats, barley, or rice, topped with cinnamon and shredded apples or pears. Lunch consists of three days with hot meals, one day with brød med pålegg, and the final day of the week with leftovers and more brød med pålegg. Brød is bread and pålegg is a topping for a slice of bread including things like deli meats, cheese slices, leverpostei (liver pate), jams, and tubed cheese. I’ve been told by multiple teachers that my son is not a fan of the leverpostei, and I can’t say I blame him. The bread is usually homemade, which I really like to hear.
We generally receive a weekly menu showing what they are serving for lunch. The hot meals usually consist of a homemade vegetable heavy soup with bread or a grain one day, a pasta dish or rice casserole filled with vegetables the second day, and baked fish with cooked vegetables the third day. The afternoon snacks tend to vary based on what is available. They will serve knekkebrød med kaviar, fresh fruit, yogurt, or more brød med pålegg.
I have read many kindergartens do not provide this type of meal service, so I feel lucky that this is what our son is receiving. Many parents complain about the highly processed foods that are served to the youngest children of society in daycare. Not every barnehage receives hot meals, so those children are eating brød med pålegg on a much more frequent basis. I recently read that constipation is a big issue among small children here in Norway, and they point to daycare food as being one reason why. Most daycares do not serve enough fruits and vegetables. Also, many of the daycares around the country do not offer as many meals as ours does, meaning parents may have to pack their child’s breakfast, lunch, or snack for the day. We live in a smaller community with fewer numbers of children at the daycares, so I assume this is what leads to the benefit of the warm meals and all meals and snacks being provided. It would be much harder to provide this type of service in larger communities and metropolitan areas.
As our son’s palette grows more Norwegian, we have started to experiment with these types of meals and snacks at home. For example, when I am making a dinner that is new for my son, or I know he won’t like, I will include some fiskekaker (fish cakes) on the side. This is a very different food from what we are used to in the states, but our son loves them. He was introduced to them at barnehage, and I decided to buy them at the store when I realized he recognized them and asked for them at meal times.
Pølse, sausage or hot dogs, are ubiquitous here and an easy sell to our toddler when in need of grabbing something quick to eat while out and about. He also enjoys meatballs, but getting him to eat a standard chicken nugget is more of a challenge. It seems like no matter where you live, children love berries, and our son is no different. However, he has learned how to pick them straight off the bush and pop them in his mouth during his forest walks at barnehage, so we have to keep a close eye on him when we’re near nature.
Knekkebrød is a particular type of cracker, so I’ve made an effort to buy more of these to bring home for snack time. He particularly enjoys them with brunost, brown cheese, and as I’ve recently learned caviar. I haven’t started buying the tubes of fish eggs just yet, but maybe I’ll cave in the near future and it will become a staple in our house as well. We are learning what the go-to meals and snacks for a Norwegian child’s palette are and starting to adapt our grocery lists accordingly. Wish us luck as we explore new and unusual to us foods!
