May 9, 2025

We have sailed through the Norwegian fjords toward the town of Eidfjord, Norway.

Eidfjord, Norway is a small town. Really small. It takes about 10 minutes to walk the entire town. We are at the first of four ports that we will visit in Norway as we make our way up the Arctic Circle toward Iceland and Greenland. We are now in the Northern Pole of our Pole-to-Pole World Cruise and perhaps the most interesting and adventurious part of our journey awaits us. We will face 100+ hours of only daylight, frigid temperatures, icebergs, and unpredictable seas. But oh, the views!

There is a lot I need to learn about Norway so I thought I would take the Anthony Boudain approach and try to learn about the people through their food.

To be honest “Bruoff” (brown cheese) was a shock at first. It looks like caramel, it slices like fudge, and it tastes like if toast and condensed milk had a baby. Now take that and age it in a smelly hiking sock for about six months! It helps locals get through the long cold winters and the best part is that it wasn’t even supposed to exist.

Bruoff is made from whey that is leftover after the traditional cheese making process. And most countries do throw that away. But Norway turned it into a national treasure.

When whey and milk are mixed together and the whey and milk are boiled down the natural sugar caramelizes, and you are left with a sticky block of something. It does not fit into any category, but it is distinctly Norwegian.

It is the flavor of thrift, of care, of not wasting what others discard. And the locals love it! They store these golden bricks and daily they will go out to the garden shed and they will slice off that day’s daily ration of (to them) delicious, salty, brown cheese. They don’t need to pay for refrigeration because it is cold enough to just use the shed. The spirit of “Want Not-Waste Not” runs deep in the Norwegian culture. It is just not in the cheese, it’s in the cabin warmed by a pot belly stove, the lunch taken in a brown paper bag and making sure to bring the bag back home with you. It is the feeling that you don’t need more to be content. You just need to make the most of what you already have.

I like that philosophy. It is a certain way of seeing the world. You don’t take more than what you need. You don’t throw things away because they are a little bit bruised. You find a use. You make cheese.

I think I have a lot to learn from Norway, and I can’t wait to share that knowledge with you.

It was more than fitting with endless sunlight approaching in the next few days as we officially cross the Artic Circle that we would be blessed with a beautiful sunset as we left Eidfjord.

Thanks for traveling with us.