Viking Magazine - October 2014 - 16

of pretention and
fussiness. That's why
we like Scandinavian
food right now. It's
about people who
eat perfectly with
the seasons and
who forage a lot of
their fare. And how
every Scandinavian
household has a
grandmother that
knows how to bake
from scratch and
culture their own
creams and butters.
They're connected to
the farm.
little broth. It was an
amazing meal, but it
was very simple, very
spare. Quite frankly
it's how we eat at
home in my house.
V: What do you
think are some of the
hallmarks of Nordic
cuisine? I always
think of very
clean food.
AZ: When I was in
Finland two years
ago, I had several
family meals and lived
with families for a
day or two at a time.
We were in a small
coastal community
V: Because you have
a Scandinavian homelife!
AZ:
I married a
Minnesotan, Rishia
[née Haas], and her
mother's side of
the family is part
Norwegian. There are
other Scandinavian
family members,
too. Uncle Kenny
wants to talk about
Norway with me all
the time. He travels
there, brings members
of the family here
to hang out, and
he's as NorwegianMinnesotan
as
they get.
Wardrobe
provided by
Martin Patrick 3
in the north, just below Lapland in the middle of late
winter. We went for a walk on the beach, and the wind was
blowing with sand and spray, which made everything look
foggy. I turned to my videographer and I said, " This is what
Scandinavian impressionism would look like in a painting. "
And in a way, that's what the food is like, too.
We went back and had lunch with a grandmother who,
among other things, put butter and bread on the table she
made herself. There was a dish that had dill and steamed
potatoes in it with some roasted haddock. She had literally
just put the fish in a pan with some butter, salt and slid it in
an oven. The idea was to have this really hearty lunch. Then
about halfway through our meal, she gave us a broth made
from the bones and the dill-all the stuff came off the fish
and the potato scraps she had boiled. She had thrown a little
bit of carrot and onion in there. She just created this perfect
In my own
Scandinavian family,
there's this sense of
just a hard working,
blistering respect for
old-fashioned values. In my wife's family, the men work hard
and don't expect a clap on the back. They spend all their
spare time with the family unless it's fishing season. They do
chores non-stop at the house on weekends. I think I'm the
hardest-working person I know, and I feel like a lazy bones
whenever I'm around these guys. There's a selflessness and a
reliability to it that I really admire.
V: Speaking of family, how old is your son, Noah, now? Is he
picking up on Scandinavian values?
AZ: He's nine. He'll spend weekends with grandpa
hammering siding on the new garage, cutting wood and
doing chores. I said to my wife the other day, thank God for
grandpa. Who wouldn't want their kid to embrace values of
hard work? I want my kid to do that!
16 VIKING OCTOBER 2014 sonsofnorway.com
http://www.sonsofnorway.com
Viking Magazine - October 2014

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