"Keeping Norway Alive, one Kjottkaker at a Time" by Alex Grunde

While there are many foods and products that may seem odd in Nordic Delicacies to those unfamiliar with Norway, one of the first is not any product name on the shelves and walls. Rather, it is the walls and shelves themselves. While most stores in Brooklyn are covered in tiles, linoleum, and metal shelves, here the architecture is wood. The floors have been stained a deep, dark brown, while the walls have a reddish tone to them. It’s just one of the many features of Nordic Delicacies that evokes Norway, where most houses are entirely wood, both for those who’ve never been, and those who once called it home.

The owner of this is Helene Bakke, who opened the store to fill a gap in Bay Ridge. “There wasn’t any more left. They all left, more or less, the Norwegian stores,” she says. Opening Nordic Delicacies was her way of trying “to keep the tradition alive,” of homemade foods and authentic Norwegian products. The tradition has a strong defender in Bakke, an immigrant in Norway who came over in 1958. She said immigrating was a pleasant experience, due in part to her family already lived in Bay Ridge. “My brothers were here, they were born here,” she says, “My parents used to be here years ago.”

In appearance, she has many common traits of Norwegian women: short blonde hair, a rounded, warm face with blue eyes. While the signs of middle age have come to her, they do nothing to diminish her Nordic heartiness. Her speech is infused with the Norwegian accent, but not overpowered with it. She speaks in a paced tempo, letting thoughts come before speech.

Most mornings, one can find her in the back of the store, with her daughter Arleen and the store’s handful of employees preparing homemade dishes that are one of the specialties of the store. Here, one can choose from a cornucopia of dishes from her homeland: Norwegian meatballs (“Kjottkaker” in Norwegian), fish pudding, fish cakes, Komper potato dumplings, all dishes that Bakke consider important parts of Norwegian cuisine. This feature is one of the essentials of Nordic Delicacies’ success. It’s not always the cheapest place to get things; Tine’s Ekte Gjetost, a brand of goat cheese, goes for $10.95 at Nordic Delicacies; on 5^th avenue, a store named Mejlander & Mulgannon sells it for $8.99. But the second name in the store betrays the disadvantage; it’s a combination Irish/Nordic deli, and most of what they sell is standard deli fare. Nordic Delicacies is uncompromisingly Nordic.

Their shelves are filled with a wide of array of goods with names that may sound intimidating to the uninitiated: Gjetost, Fiskekaker, Lingonberries, Freia. Of course, many of these are common items; Freia is just a brand of chocolate. Bakke says that the pre-packaged goods are quite popular, especially the ones from across the pond.

“People come in from out of town to buy all the jams and stuff like that, and syrups, sardines, all those things,” said Bakke. She takes an annual trip to Norway, where she researches new products.

Another important part of Nordic Delicacies is the mail-order business. Having shipped to as far away as Hawaii and Alaska, the mail-order becomes especially busy around Christmas. “During the holiday, it’s more than half,” Bakke notes about the mail-order side of the business. “We have some meats, that is a very big [holiday] seller. Lamb that’s been dried and salted, that’s a very big item.” A classic Christmas-time sweet also does well in the winter months: “The homemade cookies are really a really big seller.”

Along with the assortment of food, Norwegian pride is also on full display in the store. A large Norwegian flag stands outside next to an American one. Hanging inside is a sign that reads “Parking for Norwegians only, all others will be towed.” A framed Hagar comic sits next to the cash register. In it, Hagar’s son asks if he should tell people he’s Norwegian; Hagar responds “No, that would be bragging.” The store once had a T-shirt hanging in the window proclaiming that Leif Ericson, not Columbus, discovered America. “The Vikings?” Bakke says when asked what Norwegian culture’s biggest contribution is to America, followed by a good laugh. Politics is what she sees as the biggest Norwegian influence on America. “There’s a lot of Norwegians in the government, if you look at the names. President Washington was half-Norwegian.”

It’s a culture that’s rapidly shrinking in Bay Ridge. In the early part of the 20th century, the area was packed full of Norwegians. Bakke isn’t sure why they swarmed to Bay Ridge, but her own reason for moving there seems rather typical of immigrants in general. “When I came, all the Norwegians lived here, so I guess that’s why they settled here,” she says. Now though, the presence seems more like a lingering trace. Bakke attributes this to Norway’s natural resources: “They have so much money in Norway, they don’t need to come here. They went back, with the oil, they’ve got a lot of [oil] riches over there. They’re an oil country now.”

Norwegians have been immigrating to New York City since 1825, but the earliest significant Norwegian presences in New York City were U.S. offices of Norwegian organizations that aided Norwegian sailors. From there, the first big Norwegian icon of Bay Ridge was the Lutheran Medical Center on 55^th street, which opened in 1885. Another big development came in 1889, when the Norwegian Lutheran Trinity Church opened on 46th street, marking the first Norwegian church that catered to immigrants, not sailor. Norwegian pride and visibility in Brooklyn peaked in the 1920’s, in what Norwegian historian David C. Mauk describes as the “first golden age” of the Norwegian-American Community. But by the 1970’s, a general loss of connection to European heritage in America, and the blossoming Norwegian oil industry, had eaten away at the Norwegian community.

As to why Bay Ridge was so attractive to Norwegians in the first place, Bakke says she doesn’t know, although her own reasons for moving here says something to the reason: “When I came, all the Norwegians lived here, so I guess that’s why they settled here.” She didn’t experience much trouble adjusting to her new country, saying “It’s fairly the same [Norway and Brooklyn], nothing much different from Norway, only it’s the language that’s different. Here, you can blend in, whoever you are.”

While the Norwegian presence in Bay Ridge may have shrunk, the presence of Nordic Delicacies is expanding. Recently, the Food Network show “Road Tasted” shot a segment in the store. “They had found us on the internet. I think they were going around and doing different ethnic groups,” says Bakke of how they found out about her store. The show has done many spots on New York City eateries, including an italian grocery store in Little Italy and a Greek dessert maker in Queens. The show’s producers decided to have Bakke make potato dumplings, although that was not her first choice: “I would not have taken what they wanted to have.” Filming took about 4 to 5 hours, and Bakke has nothing but good words for the hosts. “They were very, very nice. Very nice boys. They couldn’t have been nicer,” she says of Bobby and Jamie Deen, the show’s hosts and the sons of Paula Deen, famous southern-style chef and longtime Food Network personality.

If you’re feeling brave enough to try out some Norwegian food, Bakke has some suggestions, although the Wal-mart of Scandinavian shopping, Ikea, is not one of them. She dismisses them because “they don’t have any homemade stuff.” Rather, she recommends the Norwegian meatballs, because “that would be something that would be a little familiar to people.” She also recommends the large selection of Norwegian cheeses and cakes. Her personal favorite, she says, is “My homemade whole wheat rolls. I have to say that’s my favorite, with a norwegian cheese on.”

In April, Nordic Delicacies will celebrate its 20^th anniversary. When asked why her store has lasted so long, she says “We’re stubborn, we don’t give up,” followed by laughter, although stubbornness is an quality commonly attributed to Norwegian women. She thinks the universal appeal helps the store. “We have a lot of Americans walk in,” she says, many for home-cooked meals: “We sell dinners here. It’s not typical Norwegian, we sell dinners every day.”

Along with the Norwegian population in Brooklyn, Bakke sees another Norwegian quality declining in recent years. “Honesty; it used to be honesty,” she says of the best thing about Norwegians, “I don’t know anymore. I think they’ve become like the rest of the world. You could always trust them years ago. I’m not so sure anymore.” But there is at least one Norwegian left, keeping an honest taste of Norway fresh in Brooklyn.