Syttende Mai: Viking Soul

Swedish meatballs, pickled herring, aebleskiver, blotkake.
Lingonberries, pressgurka, fattigmann, Finnish pinwheels,
lefse....
yes, these are a few of my favorite things
(at least when it comes to Scandinavian foods)!

Recently,
I was craving some Nordic goodness
and was totally delighted when I found
a listing for a food cart in Portland that specializes in lefse...

LEFSE?
In Portland?
Not far from the Norse Hall where we were going?
In one of my favorite areas of Portland--the Belmont District?
Oh yea, count me in!

BTW for those of you who may not be familiar with lefse,

and we all have been in your shoes at one time,

it is a thin, delicate flatbread made from potatoes.

You can eat them plain, with butter and cinnamon-sugar or

with almost any filling you like.  

Now, I've had lefse from grocery stores and bought some at Nordic festivals-

though all were good,

some were definitely better than others.

Based on the great reviews, I had very high hopes for Viking Soul's lefse...

Would they really be as great as I had read?
I really, really hoped so---I was hungry for some GOOD lefse:)

We found the place with no problem and parking close by

(and as a bonus even got to drive by my favorite Victorian house in this area).

After chatting a bit with the delightful owners--

Megan and Jeremy--

and another nice lady who was there,

we proceeded to place our order...

I chose a vegetarian lefse that sounded particularly delicious

and also ordered a lingonberry ice tea

(because I adore lingonberries).

I was not disappointed...

the ice tea was absolutely fabulous.

In fact, as I am typing this, I am remembering just how DELICIOUS it was!

And then the lefse wraps were ready to go....

my vegetarian, a rhubarb one for my friend,
and as an added blessing,

the owners kindly gave us a free lingonberry wrap:)

Here are the finished lefse--

(how I wish this photo had turned out better;

it can be very difficult to hold 3 lefse wraps in a car and take a good photo...LOL).

Now remember how I said "though all were good, some are definitely better..."

these lefse fall in the latter category;

in fact these surpass all the ones I had prior to then.

The lefse were really thin and

of the most delicate texture!

They were perfection...

And the vegetarian filling?

(see photo #3 for the ingredients)

Oh...my goodness, talk about heavenly!

A while later,

after the vegetarian lefse

(hereafter known as the heavenly lefse--

at least by me),

blotkake at Norse Hall,

touring the Hall,

and some other things...

I found myself waiting for the Syttende Mai parade to begin...

and I decided that would be a good time to consume the final lefse---

This time a sweet one filled with a combination of lingonberry preserves

(oh yes!)

and

the owners' own cream cheese.

Verdict: again a heavenly medley of flavors.

So did Viking Soul satisfy?

Did they live up to their reputation?

Totally!

Am I eager to go back?

So eager!

Have I already decided what lefse to order?

Oh yea...

Blessings,

Aimee

Info:

For more information on this wonderful Portland, OR food cart see this link

http://www.vikingsoulfood.com/Viking_Soul_Food/Home.html

Note:

A BIG thank you to the owners of Viking Soul for allowing me to take photos of their food cart, Gudrun, and post them here on my blog! TY also for the free lingonberry lefse--it was beyond delicious and I am already craving another:)

As per my usual disclaimer--I am not associated with Viking Soul in any way.