Whale in Norway

[Stigand]

An earlier thread on eating whale-meat in Japan prompted me to describe my experiences with whale-meat in Norway. (Disclaimer: my post doesn't address the ethical issues around fishing or eating whales; I hope that I don't cause offence, and apologise in advance if I do. )

I've eaten whale in two forms: smoked and pan-fried. In both cases, I assume the whale in question was minke whale, although this wasn't specified when I bought it.

The smoked whale was sold thinly-sliced and vacuum-packed. It was dark brown in colour. The overwhelming taste was of strongly smoked, gamey beef, but the most remarkable thing about it was the texture. It was hard to describe, so perhaps I'll be forgiven by evoking the texture by saying what it wasn't like. It's said that good prosciutto should be eaten by hand, and that the nature of the its fat will cause it tear in exactly the 'right' place. Smoked whale's texture was the opposite of this - it didn't tear at all, and had an unfamiliar and almost artificial mouthfeel. The internal fat was evenly distributed all through the meat in tiny dots, as if long veins of fat ran through the meat perpendicular to the direction of the slicing. It gave the meat a processed feel that I found unpleasant.

The pan-fried whale was bought from Fisketorget in Bergen. The steak looked like an intensely dark, bloody piece of tuna. It was cooked in a fairly traditional Norwegian way - peppered and pan-fried medium in butter, and served with crispy fried onions and vegetables. The strong, beefy taste present in the smoked whale was there again, but was more appealing without the smoked-ness. It tasted like a flavourful, cheaper cut of steak. The texture was, again, interesting. It was certainly close to the tenderness of, say beef sirloin. The fact that the fat seemed to permeate the meat in fine threads (as opposed to more distinct marbling of a beef-steak) noticeable again: it gave something of a tuna-like consistency to the bite. However, it lacked the delicious butteriness of really good beef fat.

I probably wouldn't hurry to have smoked whale again. I would have the steak again if offered (ethical issues aside); it might benefit from the creaminess of a sauce au poivre. I've heard that whale sashimi is extremely good, but have not tried this, and would be interested to hear if anyone has.

[The Viking]

As a child I was often served "whale stroganoff" which was in a sense tasteful, but the meat does not profit from prolonge cooking, so it was rather tough to chew.

Sushi bars in Norway often have whale as a part of their mixed sushis, served with at wee bit of scallions and minced garlic on top, veeerrry nice...

[Stigand]

Thanks, The Viking. Are there any particular sushi bars in Norway you would recommend for whale sushi?

[The Viking]

The Oslo area is probably where you'll find the best concentration of decent sushi bars..

For sushi incorporating whale I'd go for the now very popular "Alex Sushi" downtown, although they in general tend to make the pieces a little too large for me, not quite your average nibbble size..

Benny's sushi restaurant is probably THE place for high quality sushi when it comes to more specialized ingredients like hamashi, toro and sakè toro, and if ordered in advance, they'll serve you perfect whale in both sushi and maki combinations..

Mmm, now I really got hungry...

[Schneier]

Just two days ago, I saw whale on the menu at a waterfront restaurant in Bergen. I didn't order it, which in retrospect was a mistake.

B

[ned]

I've eaten whale sushi at Alex Sushi a couple of times. At the time I remember my impression being that it was like beef infused with fish oil. Very interesting. Another great thing to get at Alex is kveitfett sushi--halibut fat sushi. The fat is chopped with scallions and wrapped like uni sushi. Now that was really something.