Getting My Norskie On
Next Thursday, Jim and I are going to visit my parents in Minot, ND. For those who didn’t know, that’s where I grew up, although I left in 1989. We haven’t been out that way since 2001; my folks have either visited us or we’ve met up in other cities. It will be interesting to see how Minot and the surrounding area have changed in the past 12 years, especially given the devastating flooding in 2011 and the impact (not entirely positive, based on some of my ND friends’ Facebook posts) of the local oil boom. Since I’m part Norwegian, I also hope we can visit the Scandinavian Heritage Park, which is home to a replica of the Gol Stave Church, the original of which is located in Oslo, Norway.
The park also features a 25-foot (or 30-foot, depending on which online source you believe) Swedish Dala horse. Usually, such horses are much smaller; the originals were intended as children’s toys. I’ve always loved “Roadside America”-type attractions, so this is right up my alley.
Dining in Minot certainly has changed since our last visit – among other things, I understand there’s now a Japanese restaurant in town, complete with sushi bar, and have it on good authority that their food is tasty, so we’ll definitely be checking that out. Wonder if they serve walleye maki?
I’m also planning to eat a bit of lefse while I’m there. Okay, maybe a lot of lefse. If you’re thinking, lef-what?, I am very, very sorry for you. Lefse is a round potato bread, rather like a tortilla, but thinner. In my family, we always cut the rounds in half, then buttered them, sprinkled sugar on the butter, and folded them up a la pizza slices. My Grandma Esther’s lefse was the best I’ve ever tasted, and I will forever regret not asking her to teach me how to make it. My parents send me store-bought lefse every Christmas, and while tasty, it’s not quite the same. That said, every year, I go through the whole package – Jim likes the stuff, but doesn’t crave it as I do. Given that Baltimore is a lefse-less city, but one can apparently still buy it in the grocery store in Minot, something tells me we’re going to be doing a lot of running on this trip!
More information about Scandinavian Heritage Park is available here:
Tags:Dala horse, flooding, Gol Stave Church, lefse, Minot, North Dakota, Norwegian, Oslo, Scandinavian Heritage Park, sushi
