Our rally took us through the entirety of Norway and what an amazingly beautiful country it is. We spent nights in Oslo, Trondheim, Fauske, Tromso and Nordkapp.
OSLO – As tended to be the norm on this rally, it was almost 9pm by the time we made it into the city to look for somewhere to eat. We saw a few Sushi places but as Sushi was the easy option we gave it a miss in an attempt to discover what other gluten free treats this city had to offer. Surely the world’s most expensive city would have something over priced to offer Coeliacs…
Gluten Free pizza at Peppes
Peppes Pizza is a pizza chain which can be found throughout Norway and they offer customers gluten free pizza. I’m not sure of the price but ‘regular’ pizza’s were £25-30. We weren’t looking to spend this much on dinner on this trip so we continued our gluten free search.
We found a small cafe called Deli De Luca (Torggata 8-10) which didn’t really look as though it would serve gluten free food but went in to check just in case. I was very happy to discover they had 3 different gluten free (Glutenfri) curries for take-away…tikka masala, vindaloo and chilli chicken. The price was 20kr(£2) per 100g and came with free rice so we ordered 2 boxes which came to 100kr (£10) for dinner for two…delicious!
Deli De Luca, Oslo
Gluten Free curries
Gluten Free signage
Norwegian gf bread
ride from the centre of Oslo. It was a nice place to stay and I was pleased at breakfast when I asked for gluten free bread and was given the remainder of the bag. Breakfast was included in the price of the hostel and was buffet style. There were a few naturally gluten free options to choose from (egg, salmon, cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, jam and honey) so I was able to make myself a tasty breakfast and packed lunch for the road.
FAUSKE is a small town just north of where the Arctic Circle begins. There weren’t many supermarkets open when we arrived but we did find a Spar not far from Fauske Camping, where we we staying for the night. The supermarket was small and my Norwegian was non existent so again I was looking for something naturally gluten free and safe for me to eat. I found that the store had a decent looking salad bar and decided this would probably be my best option after 8pm in a wee town like this. Not wishing to risk the dressings I bought a tub of natural yoghurt to dress the salad. Being Norway it cost around £10 for a medium bowl of salad and some yoghurt but I enjoyed eating it in our wee mountain chalet in the midst of the Arctic Circle!
ICA's GF section
Waking up in chilly Fauske, we went to
REMA 100 GF section
discover what some of the other supermarkets had to offer in the way of gluten free products. We visited ICA, which can be found all over Norway, where they have a section dedicated to gluten free (gluten fritt) products similar to what can be found in the UK…cereals, breads, flours, mixes, biscuits, pasta and snacks. CO-OP also had a similar section whilst REMA 100, another huge chain supermarket, didn’t have a specific section like ICA and CO-OP but stocked some gluten free products (mostly baking products) on the shelves next to similar normal foods.
Egon Restaurant
TROMSO is often referred to as ‘The Gateway to the Arctic’ and this medium sized Norwegian town hosts a few restaurants which do gluten free options. Peppes Pizza can be found here, as can Egon Restaurant, which also serves gluten free pizza at an additional cost of £4. What is it with Norwegian’s and gluten free pizza? Nice one! Again as we were on a budget and since tonight’s chalet had a stove we opted for buying dinner from a local supermarket. Chicken breasts, cheese, salad and natural yoghurt was tonight’s tasty meal.
Our accommodation in Tromso was Tromso Motel and Camping which again included a buffet breakfast. In the morning I asked whether they had any yoghurt or gluten free bread but they said they didn’t. To be fair I didn’t contact them ahead of time to ask as I wasn’t aware that breakfast was included here so perhaps they would have bought something gluten free in if I had prepared them. I drank a few glasses of the apple and orange juice, which was the only safe part of the buffet, and munched on my gluten free cereal and milk in the car once we got on the road…who knew cereal could taste ever better than usual when eaten from a paper coffee cup!
NORDKAPP is amazingly beautiful but very small and therefore not the kind of town where you can easily find somewhere to eat late on in the evening nevermind something gluten free. Again we headed for the local supermarket and this time found delicious tiger prawns to eat with our salad and yoghurt…tasty and healthy! Breakfast at our HI Hostel wasn’t the best but the woman who worked there was very sweet. When I had asked on checking in whether they had anything gluten free for breakfast, she had gone in search of gluten free bread. Unfortunately being a tiny town this was nowhere to be found. She bought rice cakes for me instead but unfortunately there wasn’t much I could eat with them as it was a selection of mostly processed looking meats. There was yoghurt but only flavoured stuff and I couldn’t be sure of the ingredients. I ate my rice cakes with jam, a boiled egg and some juicy orange slices. Not the most exciting of breakfasts but I have to give them points for trying.
