the loaves and the fishes
Went to a Norwegian brunch recently with Jen K. and hubby Scott at a Norwegian church on 51st street on the Upper East. Jen and Scott are always finding interesting things to do. It's exhausting. I really don't know how they do it. You can see their exploits here. Check out the Big Map. If you live in NYC, chances are they've been to your neighborhood.
Anyway, the brunch interesting. During the meal, the head of the church congretation or whoever came up to and greeted us. Very friendly. After a little ceremony to honor an elderly Norwegian writer, which featured many glowing testimonials from the mostly elderly Norwegian crowd, the head dude came up to us again. "Can I ask you a qvestion?" he asked. Scandinavian accents are weird. I think they're the easiest to cover up. At worst, if a Scandinavian person can speak English, the accent just sounds like a mild stutter. It sounds more like a style of speech than an accent. Anyway, he wanted to ask me the "question of the week" for the Norwegian Times, a local Norwegian paper that keeps the Norwegian community abreast of what's going on that's of local Norwegian interest. So I says "Sure." So he asks ,"Whvat does dee 'Advent' mean to you?" Of course, I have no idea what to say. I didn't want to make a mockery of it since the entire affair was very pleasant. He said "Whvatever it means to you, that's ok." So I said "Um...I don't know... those little calendars full of chocolates?" He was very accepting. Then he took my picture. He took a second one, because I looked terrified and confused in the first one. I guess it'll end up in their paper. I'm thinking he only asked me because I was one of the few non-norwegians there that actually looked non-Norwegian. Jen is tall and blonde and could easily pass for a norwegian. So perhaps I was racially profiled by a norwegian minister. Hard to say. Anyway, the food in general was delicious.
The setup was modest. This is the cold food table. You eat the cold first, then come back for the hot food. The hot food was underwhelming. Basically meat and cabbage.
The cold food was more inspiring. Mostly smoked fishes. Some of the herring looked like chum.
The elderly Norwegian crowd. Very nice people in general. And why shouldn't they be?
Anyway, the brunch interesting. During the meal, the head of the church congretation or whoever came up to and greeted us. Very friendly. After a little ceremony to honor an elderly Norwegian writer, which featured many glowing testimonials from the mostly elderly Norwegian crowd, the head dude came up to us again. "Can I ask you a qvestion?" he asked. Scandinavian accents are weird. I think they're the easiest to cover up. At worst, if a Scandinavian person can speak English, the accent just sounds like a mild stutter. It sounds more like a style of speech than an accent. Anyway, he wanted to ask me the "question of the week" for the Norwegian Times, a local Norwegian paper that keeps the Norwegian community abreast of what's going on that's of local Norwegian interest. So I says "Sure." So he asks ,"Whvat does dee 'Advent' mean to you?" Of course, I have no idea what to say. I didn't want to make a mockery of it since the entire affair was very pleasant. He said "Whvatever it means to you, that's ok." So I said "Um...I don't know... those little calendars full of chocolates?" He was very accepting. Then he took my picture. He took a second one, because I looked terrified and confused in the first one. I guess it'll end up in their paper. I'm thinking he only asked me because I was one of the few non-norwegians there that actually looked non-Norwegian. Jen is tall and blonde and could easily pass for a norwegian. So perhaps I was racially profiled by a norwegian minister. Hard to say. Anyway, the food in general was delicious.
The setup was modest. This is the cold food table. You eat the cold first, then come back for the hot food. The hot food was underwhelming. Basically meat and cabbage.
The cold food was more inspiring. Mostly smoked fishes. Some of the herring looked like chum.
The elderly Norwegian crowd. Very nice people in general. And why shouldn't they be?
posted by Greg at 10:52 PM
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