Edible souvenir

I've stopped buying decorative souvenirs for years now. Even the usable ones are no longer in favour for me. What I'm interested in most is delicious food/snacks that are not available (or not nearly as good) in my home country (Canada) and give them as souvenir gifts. I will be going on a Norway cruise and would like to know what delicious goodies I can buy.

To share, here's a list of things I bought in past vacations:

Cadbury milk chocolate cake bars from UK

Stroopwafels from Netherlands

almendras rellenas from Spain

If you have any suggestions of great food/snacks from other countries, I'd like to know too. Thanks!

Pickled herring?

Aquavit

and KRUMKAKE!!

I just have to say that I would love FOREVER anyone who bought Stroopwafels as souvenirs. Freaking delicious.

Pickled herring?

Aquavit

 

and KRUMKAKE!!

Not sure if I could bring fish or meat back into Canada other than USA's. Aquavit? Never tried. I'll see if there's sample tasting on the ship. ;)

Not sure if I could bring fish or meat back into Canada other than USA's. Aquavit? Never tried. I'll see if there's sample tasting on the ship. ;)

It is allowed.

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/information-for-consumers/travellers/what-can-i-bring-into-canada-/eng/1389648337546/1389648516990#a2

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/information-for-consumers/travellers/canadian-resident/eng/1389642478386/1389642968095

Chocolates, Truffles or Marchpane (Lubecker Marzipan) from Germany - all of which are not expensive and "yummy"....

From Scotland: Shortbread , oatmeal cakes, Walker's biscuits...

The Netherlands: liquorice...

I agree that bringing back edible souvenirs ( as well as trying out local foods and sweets) is a really good idea - the only exception I personally make is finding something really small to remember a country or a special cruise by.

If you're sailing out of Denmark, rugbrød.

Ch_ca

Aquavit is similar to schnapps or grappa.

Norwegian knekkebrødperhaps? It is a bread that can be kept for a long period of time sine it won't start to mold.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispbread

And salty licorice, which I think is disgusting, but is loved by most of the locals!

We brought back some aqvavit from Norway. It's not cheap, but it was well received.

We bought some reindeer sausage from a grocery store in Iceland. You can bring meat back into Canada but you have to declare it. They will then inspect it. We almost didn't get ours in because the ingredients were written in Icelandic (d'oh!!). The nice customs lady let us have it, but she warned us that they need to know what's in it in order to know if it's allowable because some meats aren't. So make sure the ingredients on whatever you buy are in English. :)

We bring our daughter honey from wherever we are. Jams made from local fruits are also good and you can usually get them from grocery stores for less money than the souvenir shops.

We brought back some aqvavit from Norway. It's not cheap, but it was well received.

 

We bought some reindeer sausage from a grocery store in Iceland. You can bring meat back into Canada but

you have to declare it. They will then inspect it. We almost didn't get ours in because the ingredients were

written in Icelandic (d'oh!!). The nice customs lady let us have it, but she warned us that they need to know

what's in it in order to know if it's allowable because some meats aren't. So make sure the ingredients on

whatever you buy are in English. :)

 

We bring our daughter honey from wherever we are. Jams made from local fruits are also good and

you can usually get them from grocery stores for less money than the souvenir shops.

I think that hardly any products will have ingredients written in English since ingredients have to be

written in the native language of whatever country you visit.

Hope you find some lovely edible goodies in Norway. We are going there in June, and I want to try the local waffles filled we cream that we keep hearing about.

I also love your Canadian hard maple candy :)

Depending on your tastes, here are my suggestions (and things that I typically bring along as gifts)...

Sweets:

• Freia milk chocolate - the bars are easy to find in any grocery or kiosk. I really like the "Eventyrpose" (fairytale bag) that has small pieces in the shape of Scandinavian fairy tale characters, but I haven't seen it much lately.
  
• Smash - chocolate covered Bugles (conical corn crisps). It's a sweet + salty snack, which isn't to everyone's liking. And as a frequent traveler, their
  always made me chuckle.
  
• Licorice - intense Turkish Pepper for the true salmiak licorice fans. For the more mainstream, Skolekridt chalk licorice which has a crunchy sweet coating.
  
• Seigmenn - these gummy men are pretty standard gummy candies, but they're something of an institution. And tasty. The sour variant comes in the shape of the famous Angry Boy sculpture in Oslo's Vigelands Park.
  
• Non Stop - It's illegal to sell M&Ms in Norway, because they violate the copyright of Freia's "m" peanut candies. The local variant is called Non Stop and has a decidedly different taste. Additionally, each of the colored candy coatings has its own (very subtle) flavor.
  

Snacks:

• Lefse - this traditional flatbread is available in a wide variety of versions, but for easily-transported gifts, there is a packaged "Lefse Snack" version sold alongside tea cakes and cookies in the supermarkets that is pre-spread with butter and cinnamon sugar. It's often possible to find a smaller variation sold in sets of six, which is a great little snack size.
  
• Wasa sandwich - I grew up with wasa bread in the US, so aside from the quantity being consumed, knekkebrød doesn't seem terribly unusual to me. However, I have become a fan of the small snack-pack sandwiches with cream cheese and various flavors.
  

Foodstuffs:

• Cloudberry jam - this is a popular souvenir for people coming from southern climates where cloudberries are relatively uncommon. "Molte" is the Norwegian word for cloudberry, and it's readily available alongside the otehr jam flavors in any supermarket (much cheaper than the tourist-targeted souvenir varieties).
  
• Reindeer & moose sausage - dry sausage is quite common and often made from the meat of various northern ruminants. I don't know about Canada, but last time I tried, US customs disallowed meat from all ruminant animals in Norway as part of its sweeping mad-cow prevention measures. (The agent was less clear on whether whale meat sausage would be permitted.)
  
• Brown cheese - a caramel flavored whey cheese that Norwegians love to eat on bread for breakfast or lunch. It's also a popular waffle topping. Even Australia let this one through, so I doubt it would be an issue at customs!
  

Alcohol:

• Aquavit - as mentioned before.
  
• Turkish Pepper - they make a Turkish Pepper liquor, typically served as shots. Unlike the intense salty licorice of its namesake, this stuff is sickeningly sweet. In case you need a (literal) gag gift!
  
• Microbrew beers - thanks to a rare lightening of Norway's strict alcohol laws, there has been a boom in microbreweries and craft beer sales. The most widely available are the long-standing Nøgne and Håndbryggeriet, followed by Ægir (based in Flåm), but it's becoming every easier to buy many of the others both in the groceries (ABV <4.75%) and the local Vinmonopolet (wine monopoly).
  

I think that hardly any products will have ingredients written in English since ingredients have to be

written in the native language of whatever country you visit.

Norway, although not a full EU member is part of the EEA which has free trade with EU. These days, most products bought in supermarkets from EU countries have ingredients/ and or instructions in most, if not all EU languages.

These days, most products bought in supermarkets from EU countries have ingredients/ and or instructions in most, if not all EU languages.

They have not.

I did a quick survey in my own kitchen* and everything except the Lipton tea and the müsli were Swedish text only,

The tea had text in many languages, the müsli had ingredients/nutrition values in the Scandinavian languages and in Finnish.

Anything made for a specific market will only have text in the language of that market. That is why the tea have

text in many languages while the rest is Swedish only or Swedish/+one or more of the Nordic languages.

• Canned ham (from Denmark)
  
• turkey bacon (from Denmark)
  
• Salt
  
• strawberry jam
  
• blueberry müsli
  
• Lipton black currant tea (UK)
  
• waffle mix
  
• black currant jelly
  
• cheese
  
• milk
  
• toast bread
  

They have not.

Anything made for a specific market will only have text in the language of that market. That is why the tea have

text in many languages while the rest is Swedish only or Swedish/+one or more of the Nordic languages.

 

I can second this. Most food in Denmark has the ingredients list in Danish, some things also have it in Finnish, Swedish, and/or Norwegian. It's rare that the ingredients are in English, which is why I'm so well-versed in food-related Danish words. They're one of the first bits of language I learned as a vegetarian living in a foreign country.

OMG! Food! :p I'll wait a bit longer and print this out to bring it along! Please keep them coming! Thanks!!!

In England I always go to Fortnum & Mason's in London to buy tea both for myself and as gifts. They have a wonderful selection and it is light weight. Harrods has various food products as well and a lot of people here in the States love getting the gifts with the Harrods logo on it. In either store, I usually buy the tins of tea so the recipient can reuse the tin if he/she wishes.

In Iceland I have brought back local chocolate bars from the grocery stores there. They have cool packaging with interesting Icelandic writing on them and are relatively inexpensive.

Several years ago I discovered Douwe Egbert decaf coffee on a river cruise down the Danube and have been obsessed with it ever since. Only once have I seen it for purchase in the U. S..

Where would be a good place to look for it in Europe? This will be my bestest souvenir ever if I could find a supply to bring home.

Several years ago I discovered Douwe Egbert decaf coffee on a river cruise down the Danube and have been obsessed with it ever since. Only once have I seen it for purchase in the U. S..

 

Where would be a good place to look for it in Europe? This will be my bestest souvenir ever if I could find a supply to bring home.

Is this it?

https://www.amazon.com/Douwe-Egberts-Instant-Coffee-3-5-Ounce/dp/B0072BHX6Y

Several years ago I discovered Douwe Egbert decaf coffee on a river cruise down the Danube and have been obsessed with it ever since. Only once have I seen it for purchase in the U. S..

 

Where would be a good place to look for it in Europe? This will be my bestest souvenir ever if I could find a supply to bring home.

I don't drink instant coffee, but I imagine they sell it in most supermarkets throughout Europe. It is a fairly common brand.

Like London Towner said, it should be available in most supermarkets in Europe. I found this on Sainsbury's site:

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchDisplayView?msg=&catalogId=10241&langId=44&storeId=10151&krypto=bpl%2BU6LwztjBoHLTp83G8SIrvPMDm%2Bnihckzy%2FSKWdSTnwB%2B%2B5mWW8X9WF7WlbgIW%2FvzKHDQMchwAwuGuWw3%2FtKPH9pLNgVPVVakzP%2BVYttesFA2%2BL014ARNFQN6Aoe5EEtX24PIcLXvLB1XCNWUj%2Fv7uFXBrNma9fTikH3iZiZTXDbxWk8zV7KE2%2FNSxFZtA2iVPv9pHdb9rfpXXYJUBA%3D%3D#langId=44&storeId=10151&catalogId=10241&categoryId=&parent_category_rn=&top_category=&pageSize=36&orderBy=RELEVANCE&searchTerm=Douwe%20Egberts%20decaf&beginIndex=0&hideFilters=true&categoryFacetId1=

CH ca,

That's It! Wonderful.

Thanks to all of you!

I used to make an effort to buy local food items as souvenirs when I traveled, but these days you can find so many items fairly easily in the U.S., often for less money, and I don't have to haul it back in my luggage. Someone mentioned stroopwafels; I just saw those at my local discount Grocery Outlet store last week, along with Walker's shortbread. I'm sure there are some items that are harder to find and are more unique and worth buying overseas, but I'd suggest doing a bit of research.