The dangers of being self-obsessed and clicking selfies is that you don’t really know what’s lurking around you. After a tour of Holmenkollbakken, a high ski-jumping arena in Oslo, as I approach the car, I hear loud rustling in the bushes. But I continue clicking pictures and when I look up from my phone, I find myself face-to-face with something that has antlers, a shiny black nose and a pair of rapidly-blinking shifty eyes. I recoil in horror and the animal leaps behind a hedge. “Never seen an elk before? Oslo, especially the outskirts, is teeming with them,” laughs a local as he walks past and adds, “Haven’t you tried one yet?” Elk or moose meat is apparently a delicacy in Norway. So that night, as we walk through the city centre, we look for restaurants serving elk meat. My cousins are repulsed by the idea and settle for delicious smoked salmon and bowlfuls of stew. Determined to try Norwegian delicacies, I count my options. There’s smalahove, (cooked sheep’s head, yes sometimes its made with the brain inside it; I pass), reindeer meat (no I do not want to tuck my fork into Santa’s helpers), gamalost (it means old cheese and is yellowish in colour with a sharp taste and strange pungent smell; the Vikings snacked on them), fiskeboller (small balls of shredded fish that look like cheese and are served with potato and normally with bechamel sauce)... compared to these my order of elk steak sounds rather tame. The steak arrives, medium rare, cooked in brandy and served with a portion of mushrooms and mashed potatoes. Mildly chewy, it tastes a lot like beef and goes perfectly well with my glass of whisky.
If you’re tempted to try out elk meat but still not courageous to order a steak or a roast, start out with elk sausages or sandwiches, and once the taste grows on you, go on indulge in a larger serving.
