Thursday, December 17, 2009

For The Love Of Lefse

Lefse. If you're Norwegian (and I am - 100%), you love Lefse (pronounced Lef-suh). It's served at every holiday or event, or something's wrong. It, like a lot of Norwegian food, is beige and bland. I got a huge box of it on my doorstep today, sent by my loving and benevolent Mom, and I am STOKED. (Lefse and "Stoked" might never have been used together before, but here we are.)

In bragging to my friends today about the bounty I'd received, I mostly got blank stares and "What the heck is that?" type questions. So ... it's basically a Norwegian tortilla. It's made out of potatoes, smushed and flattened until it looks a lot like your basic flour tortilla, but way, way more delicious ... think flattened, grilled mashed potatoes. It's pretty intimidating to make, so luckily there are many fine establishments that do it for you. Just not in Los Angeles, that I know of. Once I was in the town of Carefree, Arizona (where the streets have names like "Ho Hum Avenue", "Just Chilling Street", and the like. OK, I made up the last one, but only because I'm blanking on all the other ones, but you get it.) where a LOT of Snowbird Minnesotans winter or retire, and the local grocery store had a whole Scandinavian food section for them, which I found adorable. Here in L.A. though, Lefse is like the most elusive truffle ... rare and precious.

You serve it plain, rolled up with butter if you're a purist like me. Others like it with butter and sugar - I do not. My brothers like it with turkey dinner leftovers, all of the best things rolled up inside. We just love it. And I now have a whole lot of it, so if you're curious about this Norwegian staple, now's your chance. Really, NOW. Because we're mad for it, and it's gonna go fast.

Viva Lefse!

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