Nordic Deli

Nordic Deli
6909 3rd Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11209

My knowledge of Norway is limited to those facts that only serve their usefulness on Tuesday trivia nights: the country's prowess at the biathlon, the descent of famous American singer Peggy Lee (born as Norma Egstrom), the birth country of the ostensible paper clip inventor (Johan Vaaler) and ignominiously, that country next to Sweden.

After being prodded by ignorance of this Scandinavian country and a well-written profile in a Winter 2011 issue of Edible Brooklyn [1], I decided to take the R train to specialty food store in Bay Ridge.

Neither a deli nor a bodega for Vikings, Nordic Deli had served the Scandinavian population that used to live in the neighborhood. Now it seems like an outdated curiosity amid the Mexican, Middle Eastern, and Chinese stores that line 3rd Avenue.

Like the specialty food section of the Red Hook IKEA, Nordic Deli carries your traditional Wasa rye crisps, lingonberry preserves, gingersnap cookies, and the infamous meatballs (kjottkaker). There's also an assortment of herring and mackerel filets, Norwegian chocolates, and caramelized goat cheeses (gjestost), which are very spreadable on a bagel or an English muffin.

Specialty Norwegian desserts include a larger, fatter version of a hot cross bun spiced with cardamom (boller), a thinner, spicier version of a Belgian waffle (vaffel), and a delicate, fragile, ice-cream cone shaped cookie (krumkakker) that looks like a fatter, bluntier version of its Italian counterpart. All were half-eaten by the end of my subway ride home.








[1]: http://www.ediblebrooklyn.com/winter-2011/a-bodega-for-vikings.htm