One of the pitfalls of travelling with a dilligent blogger is that it shows just how slack I am. Sorry!

As Andy has written about, to give us a real Norsk experience, his brother Tim took us on a three day trek through Norway’s beautiful wilderness area called Trollsheim (home of the Trolls). For the record, I have never been on a three day trek in my life, and before setting off wondered guiltily whether my fitness tapering program should have been more active in preparation.

On the second day we climbed a mountain, walked through snow, spotted reindeer, and tramped through fertile valleys filled with silver birch, rushing streams, and mires. We had come 34km - the longest distance of my life. I was beat!

Thankfully, Norway has an amazing network of100s of communal huts, managed by the Norwegian Tourist organisation. As we trudged up to Trollheimshytte, a two storey buidlinging with a smaller cottage came into view. I thought gratefully of how nice it would be to cook a quick dinner, then wrap up in my sleeping bag and go to bed.

To my surprise, the main hut had just opened for the season. This meant we weren’t allowed to self-cater. Instead, we had to stay in the main hut, be treated to a three course meal for dinner, and have a hot shower. It was like discovering paradise in a remote stretch of Norway - with chocolate.

The remoteness of the location (the wilderness area we trekked in is not accessible to cars) meant that supplies in the hut were finite. Despite this, the hut happily agreed to make us a three course vegetarian meal with just one hour’s notice. There are restaurants in Sydney that would buck at this challenge.

Dinner was served in a communal dining room at long, polished wooden tables. For entree, we had tomato soup with noodles.

For mains, a steaming bowl of boiled potatoes with butter and parsley came out, followed by a bowl of buttered cabbage. The vegetarian piece de resistance was a platter of barley patties, with a creamy mushroom sauce. The barley made the patties juicy and soft, while the outside was crunchy and fried. They were so good we complimented the chef afterwards, and she kindly agreed to give us the recipe and let me post it on the blog. Thanks Camilla! I will put it up as soon asI confirm the translation with Tim.

Dessert was strawberry jelly with creamy custard, followed by coffee and slice.

The goodness didn’t end with dinner. Breakfast the next morning was a smorgasbord of cheese (jarlsberg - which is Norwegian, and brunost - a thick, butter-like, brown cheese made from goats milk, also Norwegian) bread, biscuits, cold meats, pickled vegetables and coleslaw, along with mueslis and milk.

It’s traditional for trekkers to pack a lunch using the leftover breakfast food. Each table had a packet of thin squares of greasproof paper. The idea is to take a slice of bread, layer it with your choice of topping, then cover it with greasproof paper and start again. When you’re done, you wrap it up in thick paper bags with “Food with a view” written on the side.

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