Add Loads Of Flavor To Your Hot Dogs By Making Them Norwegian-Style

In America, there are many ways to dress up a classic hot dog, from a simple squirt of mustard to the loaded-up versions from Chicago and West Virginia, where hot dogs are covered in chili and slaw. But you may not have experienced the wonder that is the Norwegian-style hot dog. Come hungry, as you'll need quite an appetite to finish one of these fully loaded Scandinavian snacks.

To make one, first pølse (Norwegian for "sausage") is wrapped in a lompe instead of a bun. Lompe looks like a round tortilla and is made with a mix of potato and wheat flour. The pølse is either fried in a pan, grilled on a barbecue, or slowly boiled in water. Toppings include mustard, ketchup, fried onions, raw onions, potato salad, and shrimp salad, all of which you can easily access or make in the U.S.

Now, if you have a hard time envisioning this pile of food on top of a hot dog, don't worry; not every Norwegian eats their pølse with all six of these toppings at the same time. Most simply choose one of the two types of onions, then one of the two salads (but, admit it, you're curious how it would taste all together). If you want to go super-authentic at home, you might need to order the Norwegian hot dogs and lompe from a website, but if that's not such a concern, you can certainly use large tortillas and your favorite high-quality brand of frankfurter.

While Norway has its own unique and delicious-looking hot dog with up to a whopping six toppings, its foodie may have never created such a dish had it not been for America. It's worth noting that Norwegians have been eating sausages for over a thousand years; in fact, Vikings apparently had an affinity for the tubular meats. But the American style of serving a weenie in bread with toppings (called pølse med brød) became en vogue around the 1950s. Following the end of World War II, many American trends and goods became popular in the country, including hot dogs. Today, they are still incredibly common and are often served at event venues, street kiosks, convenience stores, and festivals ... much like where they are found in America.

And, like in the U.S., there are regional hot dog preferences in Norway as well. Around the capital city of Oslo, in the southern part of the country, many people prefer wienerpølse, a type of hot dog that is slowly heated in hot water and is known for its snappy texture. In the central and western parts of Norway, grillpølse is the overall preference; that's hot dogs grilled or fried in a pan. What's interesting is that the two types cannot be substituted for each other, as grilling a wienerpølse would ruin the texture and vice versa. Additionally, you can find all kinds of pølse nowadays in the Land of the Midnight Sun, including plant-based chilipølse (made with chili peppers), baconpølse (wrapped in bacon), and ostepølse (cheese sausage).