5.9 - Taco and kebab

Norsk for Beginners vor 4 Jahren

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After World War II, people from different parts of the world
started to come to Norway. This had an impact on Norwegian
culture and food, as Norwegians were introduced to new food items
and dishes. In this episode, we will focus on taco and kebab.

Taco is a Mexican dish consisting of vegetables, sauce, beans and
meat all wrapped up in a tortilla. It was first popularized in
the US and industrialized by the fast-food chain Taco Bell in
1962. In Norway, Allert Middelthon, a grocer from Stavanger,
started to import taco items for the American immigrants in the
city. Most of the Americans worked in the oil sector and the
1960s saw the beginning of the Norwegian oil extraction. The
summer Olympics in Mexico in 1968 contributed to the popularity
of tacos in Norway, but it was still quite foreign to Norwegians.

It was first between 1986 and 1994 that taco would become a
common dish in Norway. In 1986, Mexico was the host of the World
Cup in football (or soccer), and in 1994, Norway played a world
cup game against Mexico. These events were both important for
popularizing tacos in Norway, and today it has become an integral
part of Norwegian food culture. 13 % of all Norwegians under the
age of 40 eat tacos every single Friday. This phenomenon has
created a new word in the Norwegian language: Friday tacos or
“fredagstaco” in Norwegian. 84 % of all Norwegians under the age
of 40 eat tacos at least once a month, clearly illustrating the
importance of the dish in Norway.

Another dish that has enjoyed great success in Norway is the
kebab. Kebab is a dish that consists of salad and special
kebab-meat which are wrapped in a wrap or a pita. It comes from
Turkey and is popular all around the Middle East. It came to
Norway via immigrants from the Middle East. The first store
selling kebabs was founded in Oslo in 1957, but it did not enjoy
much success. Frash Asmaro from northern Iraq is generally
considered as the father of the kebab in Norway. He set up a
kebab-store in Oslo in 1983. At this time, the kebab was already
quite popular in continental Europe, but we were a bit more
sceptic here up north. Nonetheless, the kebab became gradually
more popular. Today, kebab stores can be seen all around the
country, even in small towns. Actually, there is a lot of local
patriotism linked to the question about where the best kebab in
Norway can be found, illustrating how integrated it has become in
Norwegian food culture.