Svolvær guided tours

Tuesday, we planned to go on a guided tour of the famous fjord, Trollfijord, but the guide group rescheduled to a few days from now, due to weather. We are hopeful the rescheduled date is acceptable weather for the unique opportunity.

The same evening, we planned to go on a guided Northern Lights tour, and due to the 100% cloud cover, that tour is getting rescheduled as well. It doesn’t look like the lights will be as strong in the coming days, so that tour might not end up happening for us. Fingers crossed, we get to see the aurora borealis!

Svolvær is larger than some of the other towns in the area, so we wandered around and hopped into souvenirs shops and clothing stores and by some hygge cafes.

Nordic cuisine

I was intrigued by the Stockfish which is an unsalted cod that is preserved by air drying. It is the world’s oldest method of preserving food and apparently a “must try” food when in the North of Norway. From February to May, the fish are hung to dry by the sea, and they are available to eat year-round.

So, I decided to order the Stockfish fillet for dinner.

I really did not like it. The texture was understandably dry. It wasn’t tough like an overcooked fish. It was perfectly cooked and very flakey, but each individual flake of the fish was dry and chewy. It was served with a creamy bacon sauce, but even with that, I needed a large amount of water to consume the very dry fish. No false advertising on the Stockfish; it was exactly as described. If you find yourself in the North of Norway, I recommend you try it, but perhaps just a bite and split it among your group.

I took so many bites, but it looks like the fish multiplied as I ate it.

I separated each flake in hopes that it would soak up more of the sauce. Maybe I’d like stockfish if it was boiled in broth for 10 hours and essentially rehydrated. What a curious food. They have a stew here with stockfish in it called bacalao. Maybe in a couple days I will be brave and order it.