FEBRUARY 5, 1992
The homemade tomato soup was like mothers used to make, when mothers stayed home and made soup for lunch. The potato dumplings were dense and hearty and flavored with bits of ham.
The bread pudding was like something out of the past. It is soul food for children of the Depression.
In the interest of research, we each bought two or three different items when I had lunch Friday with Marijo Shide (MS) and Barbara Lander (BL) at Bit of Norway. Then, one by one, we sampled the food. Before we had time to set our trays aside, we were nodding our approval.
“This is not the kind of food you make by mixing water and stirring,” MS said. We laughed because we know that Elizabeth Anderson, who runs the little shop in City Center Mall, is not the quick-mix, fast-food type of person.
Of all the items we sampled, riskrem was probably the standout. It’s a light, fluffy rice pudding with raspberry sauce on top. BL was impressed with the quality of the tomato soup. Coffee, which is good, is 35 cents a cup here.
You place your order at a window when you go to Bit of Norway. Inside, you can see the lineup:
Riskrem, 50 cents. Rommegrot, 50 cents. Bread pudding, 75 cents. Muffin, 30 cents. Caramel roll, 60 cents. Apple pie, $1.50. Soup, $1.25. Lefse, $1 a sheet. Potato dumplings, $1.25.
There are touches that make this food outlet in a mall rather unique. In the first place, it is strictly Norwegian fare. No hamburgers or pizza. In the second place, it has flowers painted on the napkin holders and flowers painted on the listing of items on the wall. And it is clean. Spanking clean.
It’s obvious that Bit of Norway has a following already. People seem excited to have a place where they can buy Norwegian food. The Rev. Tim Johnson of United Lutheran Church was there, finishing off a lunch of tomato soup and caramel roll. As he was getting ready to leave, he said, “I will eat caramel rolls wherever and whenever they are served.”
Alice Boen was having an afternoon snack and said she stops by often. “I like the vegetable soup when she has it. Her German chocolate cake is out of this world.” Another customer, Glenn Rudrud, said he likes the dumplings.
Bit of Norway opened Jan. 8, and so far, so good, Anderson says. For her, it’s a new experience to run a food business. She is trying to get better organized. But, she says, “We are busier every day, and that’s good.”
For Anderson, Bit of Norway is a longtime dream—or at least the beginning of a dream. She would like to have a separate shop, where she could have music from Norway and books about Norway. A native of Beltrami, Minn., she is of mostly Norwegian background. She is active in the Sons of Norway. She feels strongly about preserving Norwegian culture and cuisine in this area where so many Scandinavians settled.