The Susanne

Growing up, I never knew that whaling was seen as anything but normal anywhere in the world. In my world, whaling was an important part of my country’s history, and whale steak was a former ‘cheap meat’ turned delicacy that took great care to prepare properly. It was not until I was a little older that I realised how most countries disagree with Norway’s policies when it comes to whaling. When I first arrived in Sydney for my student exchange on my second year of high school, people at school knew mainly two things about Norway: that whaling is practised (against the demands of many countries), and that the captain of a ship (the MV Tampa) which had recently picked up fugitives at sea and brought them to Australia, was Norwegian. Luckily no one asked me if Norway is the capital of Sweden or if we have to watch out for polar bears when we leave the house, but one lady who was the co-worker of my first host mother did think English is the official language in Norway. That assumption was based on my fluency so I was quite chuffed at the time, but seriously!) I wondered that they all knew so little of my home country, but then I didn’t know much about Australia until just before I went.

I remember once when I was very young, up north in grandma’s cabin, we had whale steaks and I couldn’t quite get my head around the fact that it was fish, but it wasn’t fish, and it was meat, but it wasn’t meat. My conclusion was that it was good food and I liked it.

When I went to the supermarket today I was amazed by the unusually well stocked fish counter. It was simply packed! There was fresh cod, salted cod, whole salmon, salmon fillets, trout fillets, mackerel, halibut, pollock.. all very fresh and very inviting. My eye was immediately drawn to the trout, but then I spotted the whale. It’s been years since I last had it and as we had salmon last night at Anders and Stefanie’s, I decided tonight was to be a whale night. I also cast a few longing glances at the fresh mussels, the crab and the lobster, but managed to refrain from buying any of it. My poor little student housing refrigerator isn’t one I like to trust with the keeping of fresh seafood, so I’m planning to go back tomorrow and get some mussels to make Cozze alla Marinara!

Today, though, I made whale steaks. The girl at the fish counter said a portion size is about 200-250g so I bought half a kilo.  It was much more than I’d pictured getting, but timid little girl that I am I didn’t ask questions, simply followed her suggestion.

The thing about whale meat is if you over cook it, chances are you’ll end up with an awful taste of tran (fish liver oil). My solution was cooking it at a high heat for only about a minute or so on each side and then letting it rest (wrapped in tin foil) for about 15 minutes before eating. This left it very red in the middle, or should I say raw, but it was warm and lovely and incredibly tender. I’d rubbed it liberally with salt, pepper, fresh rosemary and garlic and left it in the fridge for a few hours before eating, which gave it a brilliant flavour.

The Boyfriend finished off his whole steak but I could only manage about 1/3 of mine. So I guess it’s not always a good idea to listen to sales people when it comes to what quantity to buy…

Conclusion: I still love whale meat. If you don’t, then — you’re missing out!

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