This is just like Dutch lunch. Indeed, I'm not sure what's special about it. Definitely not limited to Norway.
My previous girlfriend was also Dutch and used to this kind of lunch. Her employer sent her to London for a month, and she got used to expensive lunches. Spending a couple of pounds everyday on lunch, hoo boy, that adds up.
I worked in the Netherlands on and off for several years, and the thing I never got used to was how appalling the lunches were. I did a presentation at KLM corporate headquarters, and at lunch asked the people I was presenting to - "How do you put up with this, day after day?" They all looked glum, and said "There is no alternative". And don't get me started on what passes as Chinese food in the Netherlands.
Most Dutch people just eat sandwiches for lunch. Typically just bread and something on it.
Some offices have cantines and many of them are terrible. I was a Dutch office worker for 10 years in different offices and ate all kinds of different things. Now I work from home and continue to eat sandwiches almost every day. I just like them.
As for the Chinese food. You need to go into a big city and eat it. Don't eat Dutch Chinese food in small villages or suburban areas. Both Rotterdam and Amsterdam have amazing Chinese food. And I bet you never even tried Surinamese food before..
> Most Dutch people just eat sandwiches for lunch.
And so did I when I worked there, but I made my own. If I forgot to do so, I nicked one of my Dutch colleagues sandwiches - they couldn't stand the cafeteria ones either.
Chinese food was in Utrecht and Amsterdam - it bore no resemblance to the food you get in London, and you never saw ethnic Chinese eating there, unlike in London.
I'm not trying to be racist about the Dutch people - I enjoyed working in the Netherlands very much. Except for the food.
> They all looked glum, and said "There is no alternative".
Most people that I know here in the Netherlands prepare lunch at home and bring it to work or school. I work from home now and still usually eat simple sandwiches for lunch so at least for me it's not about "no alternatives".
It gives me more time to go outside or stop working early - I honestly don't want to spend (at least) an hour going out just to have lunch and then a similar ritual in the evening for dinner.
I lived in suburban Amsterdam and the food truck that came at lunch specialized in those puffy-bread and single slice meat/cheese sandwiches. I usually bought two and combined the ingredients and tossed the second bread.
Might've been more palatable with better bread, but these were typical bad lunch sandwich bread buns.
That said, I can live on PB&J, especially with fresh PB and a good bit of toast.
What is wrong about our Chinese food? I quite like it but I can't compare with other countries. Do bear in mind that Dutch "Chinese" food is really a combination of Chinese and Indonesian food, it's not really a real thing that exists anywhere outside of NL.
I have noticed, um, great variation in "Chinese" food when I've travelled, and other than immigrants adapting to local tastes, I have wondered if different countries haven't had more immigrants from differing regions of China, thus affecting what "Chinese" food is like in these places. I the USA, in addition to the crazy sweet dishes (concocted to please the American palate), you also get a lot of quite spicy Szechuan influenced dishes. I found "Chinese" food in London to be shockingly bland and tasteless by contrast.
My experience living in London was that most of my colleagues were perfectly content picking up a sandwich from the nearest EAT or Waitrose or whatever. Every day a tired, boring sandwich for lunch. I just couldn't understand it. Some stores were just aisle after aisle of sandwiches, I'd never seen anything like it.
As an Australian I was very confused the first time I flew British Airways while I was on my way back home from the Netherlands to find that they proudly advertise their buy-on-board menu as the "Marks & Spencer on-board menu".
Having never been to M&S but having a vague awareness that they exist, I didn't know what to expect, other than to think that if I saw Qantas advertising a new menu "co-created with David Jones" I'd be rather suspicious. I've since been to a M&S and discovered their rather extensive food section which is rather better than the average Australian department store.
(Of course, BA, like all other European airlines I've experienced, is distinctly average at best, and having to pay for M&S prepacked sandwiches is definitely part of that.)
What couldn't you understand? Relatively affordable, and lots of variety (that's why there are "aisle after aisle" of them). And the same places sell salads, noodles and much other stuff.
If you're going to eat a plain, sliced-bread sandwich every day, why not make your own to bring from home? Not exactly hard, expensive, or time consuming. Always tastes better fresher. Why pay more for a shop bought cold sandwich that isn't fresh, hot, or luxurious?
A lot of people clearly like eating their lunch at their desk. I suspect it’s a cultural thing — while I enjoy the occasional meal away, most of the time I like eating at my desk.
My previous girlfriend was also Dutch and used to this kind of lunch. Her employer sent her to London for a month, and she got used to expensive lunches. Spending a couple of pounds everyday on lunch, hoo boy, that adds up.