Dinner at Dyna Fyr

Pictures by Craig Morrison, with thanks.

DINNER LAST NIGHT:
on the boat out: Cava. Masia Perelada Brut.
STARTER:
Pancooked foie gras with cumquat marmelade & elderflower sorbet.
Vin: Fritz Risling Gunderloch, Rheinhessen.
MAIN:
pancooked halibut with apple celery puré, wild mushrooms and apple redwine sauce. Vin: Cotes du Rhone Domaine Grands Bois 2008
DESSERT
.Chocolate and peanut butter pie with Leffe beer sorbet.
Vin: Capricho de Goya..

We had a wonderful evening out last night, a dinner at Dyna Fyr, this little lighthouse out in the Olso fjord. They pick you up by boat and take you out, on the boat you get an apertif (Cava) to sip while you enjoy the views. Luckily it wasn't too chilly. I was worried I'd freeze in my silk dress, but I was warm enough in the breezes.

The lighthouse was built in 1874 and has had 4 lighthouse keepers. One was a family with 4 kids (it's a tiny lighthouse) and there were some fun stories about how they lived. Like, the mom couldn't swim, so when her kids were learning how, she tied a rope around them and let them go out and if they ran into trouble, she just reeled them in from the balcony of the light house! Clever! And the kids had to walk across the ice fjord in winter to get to school. Sometimes the ice wasn't quite frozen solid, so they had to walk with long sticks kept lengthwise under their arms, so that if they fell through, the sticks would fall on either side of them and keep them from falling down into the water and they could hoist themselves out. Wow, I'll never complain about that mile i had to walk to go to school in Houston again.

The lighthouse is very charming, and the staff there are incredible. Norwegians are some of the most generous hosts in the world, and this was no exception. They nicely spoke in English for the little history lesson about the lighthouse ( there were only about 6 of us English speakers and 20 Norwegians, so they were very nice in letting us hijack their evening with our language). The people we sat with (it was just long tables) were very friendly and fun. (The one guy to our left worked for Nidar chocolate, which Dave should especially like as he is a straight line to SMASH, the crack of chocolate treats. We're gonna try to work a deal with him so that I can take a SMASH bath. Mmmm Smash.....)


Of course the food was excellent, the starter, for me, being the most exciting part. That foie gras and the mixture of elderflower sorbet and marmelade was exquisite, the flavors were incredible together. And the red wine with fish was an interesting pairing, they basically treated the fish as if it were red meat, and it really worked. That wine we had with the main was SO good. The refills came fast and furious (Norwegians are also very generous with the alcohol) and I was well hammered by dessert. The dessert was fabulous too, a chocolate peanut butter pie with a Leffe beer sorbet. Nom Nom.

We staggered on to the boat back to Oslo proper after dinner, happy, a bit red faced, and definitely sated. I'll remember that meal for a looong time. (Thanks to my friend Elaina for organizing for us! She's our Cruise Director, she is, always finding fun stuff for us to do.)