discussing Norwegian goodies.

This is a goodie package that Alice (a.k.a. Drift) sent me from Norway, in return for Tim-Tams, Vegemite and Fruchocs. Actually, it's a picture of said goodie package.

Clockwise, from top-left we have:

Risen-grot: A kind of sweet-salty Norwegian rice porridge. This is the instant variety, so I imagine it approximates the original (which takes hours to make) in the same way that Maggi noodles approximate real chicken-noodle soup. So the fact that I kind-of liked this, probably means I'll love the real thing.

Smash!: Original + bar form. The requested item. See further detail below.

Salt Sild: Nasty nasty nasty salty licorice. The only person I found who liked it was my brother. It was definitely good value though, for the horrible expressions on people's faces when I made them try one. I still have some left if you're in the neighbourhood and a masochist. Or just really like salt.

Troika: Chocolate bar with 'truffle' (like Milky Way filling), marzipan and turkish delight. Better than expected given I don't like the latter two ingredients.

Firklover: Milk chocolate with Hazlenut bar. Kind of like a Ferrero Rocher in bar form. Yum!

Daim: Chocolate-covered toffee bar. Like a crunchy Curly-wurly.

Kvikk-Lunsj: How's your Norwegian? Can you guess what this is called? It was kind of a chocolately wafer thing.

Extra: Flavoured in true Norwegian style this is salty licorice gum.

Nugatti: Norwegian Nutella in a tube.

Bringebaer Syltetoy: I actually haven't tried this yet! But I'm guessing it's raspberry jam. I'll let you know if I'm wrong.

Not pictured: an accompanying postcard of a Viking on a mountain. Or at least a man dressed up like a viking on a mountain - complete with wooly hat, horned hat and gratuitous beard.

Anyway. The reason that Drift sent me all of these lovely goodies, was because I'd specifically asked her to send me some Smash!, which I'd read about here, after I'd sourced, tried and loved the gjetost brown cheese also mentioned. Smash! are cone shaped corn chips covered in chocolate. I thought that this combination must be good, because it sounds so nasty that otherwise it wouldn't sell. I probably should've considered the fact that actually, outside of Norway, it doesn't sell. All in all they're actually pretty good - in very small doses. The sweet-salty thing actually seems to work in this context, and I decided it was more the execution that failed. The thick chocolate coating was a little overwhelming, overshadowing the crunchy cornchip inside, and making it impossible to eat too many (hmm, maybe it's not such a bad thing...). Therefore, I decided to try to make some myself, a fact which I'd forgotten all about until I read Drift's most recent post. And thus a weekend project was born. I'll let you know how it goes. Maggie Beer, eat your heart out.