International Potluck Dinner

In direct response to the prohibitively expensive cost of restaurants in Tromsø, the group of international students I hang out with has quickly mastered the potluck game. By gathering at one person’s apartment and each bringing a dish to share, we have an affordable culinary adventure at least once every few weeks.

Two weeks ago, the theme of the potluck was “international,” and each person brought a dish that is representative of his or her home country. For my dish, I decided to bring apple pie, because I couldn’t think of anything that was much more American than that. However, I quickly learned two things: 1) Almost every culture has their own delicious baked apple treat – the Dutch have apple turnovers, the British have apple crumble, the German have apple strudel, etc. etc. So maybe apple pie isn’t as “uniquely” American as I originally thought. And 2) While most countries may have delicious apple treats, pies are a fairly American invention, and despite looking in multiple grocery stores, I couldn’t find frozen pie crusts anywhere.

So what’s an American girl trying to make an apple pie in Norway to do? Ask her French friend Pierre for his pastry recipe, of course. And while I am fully aware of the irony of using a Frenchman’s pastry recipe for a dish meant to represent America, the recipe was easy and the two pies I made came out great. The highest praise I received was from Clemens, who told me “I can’t decide which is better, this pie or the chili you made in Senja!” Therein lies the other great thing about potlucks – since everyone only makes one dish, you don’t actually have to be good at making many things – just pick the recipe that is your shining star and everyone will be wholly impressed, even if it’s the only thing you can make well.

Food at the international potluck, with my apple pie in the foreground.

There was an overabundance of delicious food at the potluck – cheese spaetzl and home-made soft pretzels from Germany, scones and shortbread from the UK, pancakes and Tim Horton’s coffee from Canada, frikadeller (a kind of meatball) from Denmark, deviled eggs also from the U.S., quiche and cheese puffs from France, chocolate cake from Austria, and poppy-seed filled pastries and potato pancakes from the Czech Republic. When my Czech friend showed up with potato pancakes, I said “Oh! They’re latkes! Do you know what latkes are?” He said “No.” I told him, “We eat them on Hanukkah. Do you know what Hanukkah is?” He said “No.” I wonder how many other cultures and traditions share similar traditional foods without realizing it!

 
Everyone digging in!

Home-made German pretzels – for Octoberfest! Arguably the most photogenic food at the potluck. 

Pictures, unsurprisingly, stolen from Clemens.

08 Oct This entry was published on October 8, 2014 at 2:59 pm. It’s filed under International, Potluck and tagged International, potluck. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.