This is a short ”trip report” from a visit to Flor & Fjære outside Stavanger. Flor & Fjære is a small garden located on the island of Sør-Hidle outside Stavanger. On the island you get a tour of the garden with useful info on how to keep your lawn perfect, how to maintain your apple trees etc. and afterwards you get a dinner at the restaurant. I have been there several times over the years so this report will be a summary of all the visits. The name Flor og Fjære is a wordplay between Flor to indicate the flora on the island and Fjære (which means area where the ocean meet land in Norwegian) to indicated the maritime environment on the island. The creation of Flor & Fjære came about when Åsmund Bryn from Stavanger bought the land a while back as a recreational area for the family. After many years he became sick and he used the place to relax from the stress of the city but I guess he was one of those people that can’t sit still :-) So as he was a gardener he planted trees and created a garden and they started using the place to bring out business associates and in 1995 they started opening the place to the public. As a reader you are probably wondering “why should I pay money to see a garden on an island in Norway”. Well, to fully appreciate the garden one has to keep in mind that Stavanger is located at about 59 degrees north which is equivalent to Alaska. And the small islands around here on the west coast of Norway are often windswept islands where only short bushes can survive. The first time I came to Flor & Fjære was back in 1996 if I’m not mistaken. Back then everything was pretty basic. Sure, the garden was there but the whole package was not as commercial as it is today and the food was pretty basic. Over the years I have been there 4-5 times and I have seen the place expand and it is still growing. The last time I went there was in the end of July 2008.Together with my family I went out there on a perfect afternoon as the sun was shining from a blue sky. After a couple of drinks at “the place to be when the sun is out in Stavanger” Hansenhjørna, we got on the Flor & Fjære boat at the Skagen side of the Stavanger harbour at 5 PM. The boat trip to Sør-Hidle takes less then 20 minutes but on the way out of Stavanger you get a chance to see places like the oil museum from the sea side :-) When you arrive at the island you should be able to see the contrasts. As you reach the island of Sør-Hidle you can tell there is not much vegetation there to start with when you pull up to the quay at Flor & Fjære it looks like you have reached a place located on a more southern latitude. The first thing you notice is the huge company logo made out of flowers and palm trees. Earlier on they used the slogan “a break from reality” and that is what it feels like to come here as you are met by palm trees in the garden. We were met by Olav and Siri who runs the place and were led to the wonderful garden where we got a tour of the place. The key to getting things to grow on the island are the trees that were planted here by Åsmund many years ago. Not many of the several thousand trees survived the harsh environment but the ones that did now acts as a shield to the wind and keeps the temperature is the garden higher than in e.g. Stavanger. And due to the proximity to the ocean it seldom gets very cold (or very warm) there. The tour takes you through a bit of the history, tips on how they keep their lawn perfect, how you can get palm trees to survive, how you can get lemon trees to carry fruits etc. The atmosphere in the garden is wonderful as you get the amazing smell of blooming flowers and tranquillity of nature. The new section that has been opened this year has been named Tuscany and it features olive trees, Tuscan cypresses etc. After the tour in the garden we went over to the restaurant where we had big windows facing the fjord ensuring a great view. The food is buffet style and we got a selection of creamy fish soup, flounder fish, chicken with cous cous, leg of lamb and various salads. For the kids they had burgers and hot dogs if I’m not mistaken. To round it of we had some sort of cheese cake with ice cream on the side and berries from the garden. The chef André has been around on the island for some years now and he pulled of some of his old jokes before dinner was ready :-) He also celebrated his birthday the day we were there and we all sang “Happy birthday” to him. After dinner we still had some time to look around the garden and take some picture before the boat took us back to Stavanger at 10.30 PM as the sun was setting in the ocean. I really enjoy Flor & Fjære even if I’m not much of a garden person and I have recommended this to a lot of people over the years. As you can see from the pictures it is a beautiful place. But I’m starting to loose a bit of faith in the concept and it is first of all related to the overall cost. When we went out there we came out on a “summer special deal” and each ticket was 740 kroner (about 145 USD with the current exchange rate). For this you get the transport out there, the tour of the garden and the buffet. 145 USD is quite a lot of money and the food is really not that great. Don’t get me wrong, the food is good but it is buffet style and I’m not sure that it is worth the money. Note that if you want something to drink to go along with the food you have to pay extra for this. We had a bottle of Chianti Classico wine and that cost us close to 500 kroner (about 100 USD)!. I understand that they charge for this but if felt a bit ridiculous when we had to buy water at 25 kroner per bottle (about 5 USD). Note that we had the summer special and that the regular price is 970 kroner for evenings (about 190 USD). I know that Norway is expensive but this felt even expensive for us as Norwegians. I guess the fact that the Queen of Norway, Sonja, celebrated her 70th birthday at Flor & Fjære last year has given the place a lot of publicity and visitors are just pouring in. As I have been there a few times already I would have appreciated if I could drop the tour of the garden and pay less but that does not seem to be a part of the concept. I also have to add that the food has not really changed much over the years. Maybe it is time to consider a change of chef and/or menu? My conclusion is that Flor & Fjære is a truly beautiful place to visit on a nice summer day or evening in Stavanger. If you are interested in gardening I think you will be impressed by the garden, flowers and trees that they have there and how they are able to get it to grow this in an environment like this. But if you are a foodie there are many restaurants in town where you can get far better food for the price that Flor & Fjære charges. Please check the homepage for more details: http://www.florogfjare.no/

Just a few pictures of my friends and the crowds out and about on National day.

We were so lucky with the weather in Stavanger. The sun shone which made it an even more special day.

One afternoon in April 2007 my friend Olav came into my office and asked me if I was up for some Thai food. Nikki and I was a bit skeptical as our trip to Thailand is coming up soon (see http://gardkarlsen.com/thailand2007.htm ) and we don’t want to get fed up of Thai food before we get there. But Olav convinced us and this time we went to check out Naree Thai in downtown Stavanger. Naree Thai is located near the Oil museum of Stavanger and there is room for 35 to 40 in the small restaurant. We came there pretty early (about 5 PM) and it was still possible to get the lunch menu. This means that you can get smaller dishes at a lower price…I guess it was this that lead us to go a bit overboard. We ended up getting two dishes each…plus the classical Tom Yam Goong (the spicy and sour shrimp soup) and a cold salad with clear noodles and shrimps. Apart from that we ordered chicken with ginger, chicken with hot basil, chicken in red coconut sauce, chicken in green coconut sauce, chicken with cashew nuts etc. Actually we ordered so much that I can’t remember all of it :-) We got the tom yam goong pretty fast and we were starving so we started digging in. The soup was good but different that the ones we are used to from other places. Normally this soup is pretty “clear” but at Naree Thai it seemed to be more…creamy I guess. The rest of the dishes came one by one and I guess I should have taken a picture of the entire table in the end as the table was all filled up with food. We shared all the various dishes and the food was quite good and we were all wondering why we had never tried this restaurant before. The different dishes were not really that spicy so I guess they have been toned down to suite the Norwegian palettes :-) The chicken in red chili and chicken in green chili was surprisingly similar….actually we had trouble telling which was which when the plates were shuffled around. But they were both very tasty. Conclusion: If you like Thai food then Naree Thai is an option when eating out in Stavanger. If you want to save a few kroner go before 6 PM and go for the lunch menu. The lunch menu has dishes where the price range from 65 kroner (11$) to 75 kroner (12,5$) and the dinner menu had dishes ranging from 130 kroner (22$) to 160 kroner (27$). Our bill was about 1000 kroner (167$) for the 4 of us. Check out the restaurant web site on http://www.nareethairestaurant.no/ and the menu on http://www.nareethairestaurant.no/Meny.doc . Regards Gard http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Hi. This is just a quick update of our planning.

We now have a website.  My brother put it together in a few days, for which i thank him very much.  The site is perfect for what we need. The address is....   www.loosechange4mali.com    

Why loose change?. Well, I always have coins lying around the house and little pots of old holiday money that cant be changed at the bank.  I thought that people would be more willing to give us this rather than open their wallets.  Only time will tell.

All money we raise is going directly to charity and we will be paying all personal expenses ourselves.

The last 2 weeks have been mentally tiring and I sometimes wonder what we have taken on.  It started out as a great adventure, but within a few days we started to realise how much the charitable ventures would take over.  We are now excited about seeing how much we can support the event.  I cant wait to get to our adopted village and hand our gifts over to the children.

We have paid our fee and are just waiting to receive our entry number. We  have the Mali and Mauritania visa applications, which we will send off next month.  I have made a million lists of things to do!!.  We have started the vehicle search and hope to buy it within the next week or so and get it over to Norway and start the preparation.  Hopefully we will have some pictures soon.

Thankyou for taking the time to read this.

January 2008

Hi to everyone. May I wish you all a happy new year and hope you all had a great Christmas.

I am ony 3 days away from setting off on our adventure.  I have been so busy and cant believe how much we have achieved in only 3 and half months.  I havn't had much chance to get on Trav Buddy but will try to update the blog as we go. 

After the set back of the jeep blowing up, we are hopefully now back on track. We have spent a lot of time rebuilding the engine, but hope it will be ok. There is still a strange tapping noise but I will do like most people and just turn up the stereo!!!

We have about 20 large boxes of clothes, toys, art equipment and classroom supplies. We will give half to a village on the way down and the rest to a school in Bamako that rescues street children as young as 6.

Thankyou so much to those of you that have offered amazing support. Especially Angela and Leah.

Good luck to everyone in 2008. I hope your dreams come true. I feel like mine are already :))

Jans mat og vinhus is a kind of institution in the restaurant environment in Stavanger. They have kept it going for many years and most people in town know about the place. When I grew up I thought that I would never have the money to eat there as it is a nice and expensive restaurant. But over the years most people have gotten more money and we can afford to eat there on special occasions :-) Well, let us talk about the dining experience. We arrived at 7.30 PM and the place is very cosy even if it is some kind of basement. There were candles on the tables and soft music in the background. This was a company dinner by the way and we were out with clients. We decided to go for the 8 course meal (about 500 kroner/80$) and the wine package to go along with it (635 kroner/100$) We started with a Kir Royal but the first course arrived pretty fast. We started with foie gras served with some sort of apple "jam" and with beetroot syrup. We got a pretty sweet white wine to go along with this (Marc Tempé Tokay-Pinot Gris Vendage Tardives ’99). I don't think that I have had a sweet wine like this for a starter before (normally you get the sweet wine for the desserts) but it worked surprisingly good. Foie gras can be a bit overwhelming but in small portions and together with the acidic apples and sweet wine it was very good. We continues with a soup based on cauliflower and truffles. The truffle taste can be a bit too much but in this soup it was just right :-) We went over to more traditional white wine now...Rieffel Riesling Brandluft ’2004. In the description of the dish it said that the soup would also contain ”chicken mousse and parma ham...”. I have no idea where this chicken was but I think I found a tiny piece of meat in the soup that might have been the parma ham :-) But the soup was good in any case. We continued with the same wine and the next course was fried scallop. Scallops are not my favorite but having one like this is pretty good. I'm not quite sure I know what we got served on the side for this dish. The description said ”beurre noisette”? and I guess you have to check out Wikipedia if you want to find out what it is :-). Next dish in line was the traditional Norwegian klippfisk (salted and dried cod). This was a klippfisk tempura with pepper coulisse og saffron vinaigrette. I know...it sounds very fancy but I didn't find it to be great. It just tasted like deep fried something with a sweet and sour sauce. The fish was OK but it didn't really taste like klippfisk in my opinion...some might say that is positive :-) The wine to go along with this dish was José Michel Carte Blanche. And then we started on the first main dish of the day...fish of the day. In our case this was cod with leek, spinach and anchovies mayonnaise. The fish was excellent and it was quite nice to get a red wine to this dish...we had a Terreno Chianti Classico ’2004. Maybe it was the food that influenced my taste buds but this wine didn't taste like a Chianti...but it was good and I think it went very good to the cod. The second main course was lamb carré with polenta, small onions and tomato based demi glace. Once again an excellent plate and the wine was Chateau des Sarrins Rouge ’2002. The wine was OK...when I say OK I guess you have to take into account that I have not developed a taste for French wines yet...until now my favorites are Spanish and Italian red wines. On the menu it said ”Pina Colada” for the next dish. We thought that we would get a cocktail drink but it turned out to be a small dessert where small pieces of pineapple was topped with a sweet whipped cream with coconut taste. This was a very good dessert and it was refreshing. I have to admit that I have no idea what wine we got for this dish...maybe this shows that I had had too much wine already :-) The last dish was chocolate nemesis, some sort of eclaire with custard and a raspberry and champagne sorbet. The small chocolate cake was fantastic and it tasted like they had used dark, dark, dark chocolate to make it. And it was nice and fresh with the sorbet to go along with this. All in all this was a very good meal. But this is a top restaurant so I would also like to mention some things that were not perfect. - When we ordered the aperitifs it didn't look like they had control over who was getting what. The result was that we got more Kir Royals than we wanted. - In the beginning of the meal I asked for the menu so that we could keep track of what we were eating. They said that they were going to bring it but I never got it. - On the toilet they had little towels to dry of the hands. When I went there they had run out of clean towels so I had to use toilet paper - When they were bringing out the main dish they had forgotten to take out the plates from the previous course and that created a bit of chaos :-) - the music was soft in the background...but it is the same CD they used when I went there last year. Maybe it is time to change? - The more experienced waiters served the ladies first. The not so experienced waiters didn't seem to care about this. - they were a bit stingy with the wine. But when I got up at 7 AM the next day I was kinda happy that they didn't give us too much :-) As you can see this is just details and it did not ruin the experience in any way. My conclusion: I recommend that you try out Jans mat og vinhus. Bring someone you love and go for the whole package with wine and food. It is a great experience. Here is the review of the restaurant in the local newspaper RA: http://www.rogalandsavis.no/bruland/article2561379.ece - only in Norwegian I'm afraid. And here is a link to the restaurants homepage http://www.jans.no Regards Gard http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

So where do you go to find the best coffee in Stavanger? I have tested out some of the joints in town and in my opinion you can find the best coffee in town in the small cafe Charlie Brown in Stavanger Storsenter. I have gotten feedback from people that I shouldn't recommend a place that is located in a shopping mall...but if you are looking for good coffee this is the place to go. Here is a short review of the place. Charlie Brown is located on the second floor of the shopping mall Stavanger Storsenter. There are about 6 tables with a view and a few more in a room behind the place....here you will also find a few PC's if you need to get on the internet. We normally drop in on Saturdays when we are in town and we enjoy to have a chicken or tuna fish salad. But Charlie Brown also offers sandwiches, ice cream, cakes but it is the coffee that is the specialty. Personally I enjoy the caffe mocca with whipped cream but it is more of a dessert really. They also have a very good cappuccino and if you want some more coffee taste why not try the cortado. I have also tried ice coffee here in the summer time and that is also quite delicious. The conclusion is that this may not be the cosiest place in town as it is located in a shopping mall. But if you are looking for some great coffee this is the place to go. By the way...if you go there on a Saturday please leave a couple of salads for us :-) I would love to here other suggestions to places that can compete for the title "Best coffee in town"....I'm always willing to try out new places :-)

We stopped by Simones to get some food before going to the movies in April 2007. We have been to Simones 1 time before and back then we were not blown away by the food but we wanted to try it out again. Simones is located in the middle of Klubbgata close to the coffee bar Steam and it only has about 20 seats. There is a huge glass door that leads into the place and once you open the door you are in the middle of the restaurant. This is a problem in the winter time where there is a cold draft every time someone opens the door to go in or out. As a remedy they have put up heaters but it was still uncomfortable and not very cosy when we were there on a Friday night. We came in right after a group of 8 had come in and our waiter informed us that it would take a while to get our food as there was only once chef in the kitchen and he would make the food as the orders came in. The kitchen and the restaurant is only separated by a half-wall so it was possible to see the progress in the kitchen. Due to this large group several other people chose to leave the restaurant to find a new place to eat as it would take to long to get the food. The place has brick walls so it is pretty rustic and on the one wall there was a huge 42” TV screen showing an Italian TV show and the atmosphere is pretty informal…we had three different chairs at our table to it does not look like they have a focus on the interior. This is an Italian place and on some forum they claimed that Simones has the best pizza in town. We decided to do it the Italian way by having a starter and then a main meal. Nikki went for steamed mussels with pesto, I decided to go for a plate of tapas and my friend Olav wanted a sandwich. My tapas was not bad but pretty standard with olives, grissini, ham, chorizo, cheese etc. I asked the waiter what kind of red wine they served by the glass but there was only 1 kind by the glass…but I think they had 5-10 to choose from if you wanted a full bottle. The sandwich that Olav got was way too big as a starter in my opinion and I think they should have cut down on the portions and made them cheaper. I think I had to pay about 140 kroner (23$) for my tapas dish. For the main meal Olav went for the spaghetti Carbonara while Nikki and I went for the pizza. There is quite a selection of different pizzas on the menu and I went for one with ham, rocket, parmesan and mushrooms. The pizzas were typically Italian style….flat and not that much topping. Normally this kind of pizza is pretty good but the ones we got at Simones was pretty…ehh…well, boring. Olav didn’t say that much about the spaghetti and I didn’t think much of it as he is normally pretty quiet. But he didn’t finish the meal and when we walked away from the place he was like “that spaghetti was not good at all”. Conclusion: The waiter we had did a very good job…he was polite, informed us about the delay and did the job with a smile. But unfortunately this was not enough to save the day as it took a while to get the food, the food was mediocre and we sat in a cold draft every time someone opened the door. We ended up paying about 850 kroner (about 140$) for the three of us. The pizzas were about 140 kroner I think. You can read a bit more on http://www.simones.as but the menu is not published here I’m afraid. My recommendation is: if you want good Italian food go to Allegro instead. Regards Gard http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

I went to NB Sørensen 2. etage in Stavanger in the beginning of May 2007 on a work related dinner. I had to leave for South Africa the next day and then to Thailand (see http://gardkarlsen.com/thailand2007.htm ) so I’m afraid that I can’t recall in detail how all the different meals tasted. But I’ll do my best :-) At the moment NB Sørensen is regarded to be one of the best restaurants in Stavanger (see the review from the local newspaper http://www.rogalandsavis.no/bruland/article2609317.ece(only in Norwegian)) so we knew that we were in for a treat when we went there. I would just like to say that there is a lot of difference between the NB Sørensen located on the ground floor and the NB Sørensen located on the first floor. The one of the ground floor serves “standard” restaurant food and I have had very mixed experienced there. The restaurant on the first floor on the other had is a gourmet type restaurant and it is popular so be sure to book in advance if you want to check it out. The whole restaurant is located in an old house used in the fishing industry in the old days. I guess it is a reminder that Stavanger was once an important town for fishing and canning…just like it now is for the oil and gas industry. We started out in the rustic bar on the ground floor where I went for Kir Royale as usual. It was a bit funny when the waitress asked if I wanted to have it with champagne as she seemed a bit reluctant to open a new bottle. But as far as I know the Kir Royale is with champagne and Kir is with white wine. At 8 PM we went upstairs to the restaurant and I was once again a bit surprised to see how tiny the place is. We were 8 in our party and were places on a table next to another party and there was just enough room for the waitresses to walk past us. We had booked in advance that we wanted to go for the 8 course menu and as one expressed “it is a good thing that I eat fish” as there was quite a lot of fish on the menu. After we had tasted a bit of starters (e.g. homemade potato chips), we started out with our first course for the evening. It was blackened trout with ginger, avocado and oyster. The trout could have been more blackened if it was up to me but it was really interesting with the tiny oyster vinaigrette seen in the four corners of the plate. I’m not much of an oyster person but in small doses they do have a great taste. We continued with something I have never tasted before: Kamtsjatka crab (or also known as king crab). This huge crab has been spreading down the Norwegian coast from the Russian border and it has been a bit of a pest. But it has also been discovered that it tastes pretty good and hence it is being used in nice restaurants. We got it served together with Swedish caviar and it was a good meal. The next course was also fish…this time Monk fish with mussel cavatelli, grape fruit and mussel foam. I’m not sure what cavatelli is but monk fish is my favorite fish and this was not a let down in any way. It was easy to smell and taste that saffron had been used in this dish and I guess that also gives it its yellow colour. We continued with more fish… cod with brandade, fried anchovies and lobster sauce. Once again a great course and the fish were just right. What is brandade by the way? By this time we had been through many courses and with a glass of wine for each dish. So I was getting a bit tipsy and I hate to admit that I forgot to take a picture of the main meal this evening which was lamb with sausage, risotto croquette and rosemary sauce. It was nice to get some meat but what I remember best from this course was the wine. I think we had a Ch. Vieux Bonneau 2004, Montagne-Saint Émilion, Bordeaux. I like red wines that are a bit different and this was certainly different from the red wines that I’m used to :-) After a plate of cheese we rounded of the evening with a dessert: Dark chocolate cake with oranges. The combination of dark chocolate and oranges is good and the dark chocolate cake was very tasty. At this point we were all stuffed and no one could even make room for a coffee. Conclusion: I agree with the newspaper review recently. NB Sørensen is one of the better restaurants in town and we had a lovely evening here. It doesn’t come cheap by the way…we had to pay about 750 Norwegian kroner for the 8 course meal and I suspect that we had to pay something similar for the wine that went along with the different courses. But if you want a dining experience you should try out NB Sørensen 2. etage. Regards Gard http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

It is not always easy to get a table on short notice in Stavanger. I noticed that when I tried to book a table for a Thursday evening and I started calling on Thursday afternoon. But when I called City Bistro it was not a problem getting a table. In my impression City Bistro is first of all a good choice near Christmas when they serve stuff like smalahove and lutefisk (cod in lye…don’t ask :-)). The place is located a bit outside Stavanger so it is not a place that you just run into…but it is only like 10 minutes walk outside downtown Stavanger. We went there at about 7 pm and the place was empty when we came there. I had a Kir Royal as usual to start with and all the others joined in as most had not tried it before. The Kir Royal was very good by the way…I should have paid attention to the champagne that was being used. We decided to go for the pre-set 4 course menu…aka “Asparagus menu”. Each year when the asparagus are on the market they make a big fuzz about this at City Bistro. I have never really had a thing for asparagus so I had really never had the urge to visit the place due to this. Before we got the first dish we got a small appetizer. We got a soup and can you take a wild guess which soup? Asparagus of course :-) The soup was good and it was great to get started as we were getting hungry. The first dish we got was scallops, creamed chevre and asparagus. Scallops are pretty standard at restaurants and to be honest I’m getting a bit tired of this as a starter. Before I continue I also have to mention that I had just come home from Thailand when I went to City Bistro and I was coming down with a cold and I was a bit jetlagged so maybe this is influencing this review. The menu that we got had 4 wine recommendations but we got another wine. The young lady that had served us Kir Royal in the bar was also the waitress and she was very quiet and she had a hard time getting the attention when presenting the wine. The next dish was trout served with asparagus flan, vanilla and lemongrass sauce. The trout was good but I have to admit that it was a bit strange to get this flan as a side dish. But it OK and I guess it is good to get some unusual combinations from time to time. The main dish of the evening was chicken breast with white asparagus, potatoes and truffle hollandaise. The main dish was a bit larger compared to the main dish you get when you have a 7/8 course dinner. The chicken was good. I guess the strangest dish of the evening was the dessert. This was the asparagus menu so the dessert was asparagus ice cream with liquorish syrup, strawberry and rhubarb salad. The ice cream didn’t taste that much asparagus but at least it sounded very exotic. The food was 565 Kroner (95$) per person and the wine package was 375 Kroner per person(60$). Conclusion: I think I was influenced by my cold because this was not a very exciting meal in my opinion. Or maybe my taste buds were still in shock after having lots of good food in Thailand :-). City Bistro is not in the same league as places like Jans, Craigs, NB Sørensen etc but I will probably try it out again in the future…at least towards Christmas time when I can get smalahove. Regards Gard http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

In the continuing saga of "Gard's testing out places to eat in Stavanger" we have reached the small tapas restaurant Soleado. I visited this in the middle of June and I figured that it would be worth trying after the place got a very positive review in the local newspaper a few weeks back. Soleado is located right in the middle of town...next to the cinema and library in the place called Sølvberget. It is a pretty small place and in the past I have had the impression that there has been focus on the bar...but now it seems like they are focusing on the food. We arrived at about 8 PM and I was planning to have a Kir Royal as usual...but unfortunately they didn't have the stuff needed so I ended up having sparkling wine instead. We had an English speaking guest with us so it was disappointing to find that the menu was only in Norwegian. But I translated the menu together with the waitress so it was not a big problem. We went for the 8 course dinner that cost 469 kroner per person (about 80$). While we were waiting to get started we got a bit of snack...almonds, homemade chips, aioli, misc bread, big and excellent green olives etc. Make sure that you don't get full before the first course arrives :-) First course was salt marinated mackerel with apple and apple foam. It was a strange combination but as I have mentioned before it is nice to get exciting combination and this worked out pretty good in a strange way. We also ordered wine to go along with the food. I was hoping to get different wines for each course but this did not seem to be possible. So we bought a bottle of white wine to start with and a red wine later on. Back to the meal...the second dish was marinated raw shrimp with mustard flowers! I'm not that fond of raw seafood and I didn't really think this dish was that good. But there were some exciting flavors from the flowers...and you don't get flowers for dinner every day (literary speaking of course). Next dish was crab ”cornet” with mango and avocado. When we got the dish we were a bit uncertain about the meal. We got to bowls of lentils and it were 6 little cones. It turned out that there were 2 cones each and the lentils were not to be eaten :-) The small crab cones were quite tasty and the combination of crab and mango/avocado was exciting. We were now ready for the main meals. The first was halibut with cauliflower, capers and a lovely sauce. I also think there was some mashed potato underneath the fish. The white fish was excellent and the sauce was to die for....I don't think they used any diet margarine in this sauce :-) The highlight of the evening for me came with the next dish...veal meat with bread and a foam of some sort. The meat was just unbelievable tender and the dark glazing on the meat was beyond excellent. We continued with more meat in the next course....chicken with ecological mashed carrot. The chicken was OK but when it was served after the highlight of the evening it didn't quite stand the test. The next dish was just served in a tiny bottle with a straw....limonchello Soleado. I guess it was just lemon lemonade :-) The first real dessert was cardamom cream with rhubarb jam. I guess the cream was just standard egg cream with some cardamom added and it was lovely. And I was also surprised by the rhubarb jam...my childhood memory of rhubarb is that it was always very sour. We ended the evening with foam of coco with "fried" pine apple and cinnamon crumbles. The pineapple was "fried" at the table by our waitress by pouring flaming cognac over the pineapple. Conclusion: Soleado is informal compared to some of the best restaurants in Stavanger (like NB Sørensen, Jans Mat og Vinhus etc) . But this 8 course menu was exciting and had some nice highlights :-) But it would have been even better if we had gotten different wines for the different food. So if you want a nice evening with some exciting food and combinations that you didn't know was possible, you should try Soleado...I can recommended. I guess I'll call it gourmet-light :-) The meal ended up costing about ca 2500 kroner (about 410$) for the 3 of us. It was the two bottles of wine that drove up the price :-( Regards Gard http://gardkarlsen.com/ - trip reports and pictures

I have been to the restaurant Bølgen & Moi a couple of times this year. This time I went to Bølgen & Moi due to some family celebration and we went there on a Friday night in the end of August 2007. The last time I went there I was very happy with the food and service but I was not that happy this time and I will get back to the details in this review. We arrived at the restaurant at 7 PM and we had booked a table in advance. We got a nice table with a great view of the harbor in Stavanger and for once this summer there was nice weather :-) But after we had sat down it took a long time before we got further follow up...we did not get any question about having a aperitif and it took about half an hour before we got the menu! The menu was only "Menu for the evening" that consisted of 5 courses. We asked if it was possible to order from the a la carte menu but we got told that this was not possible as the restaurant was full. I'm not sure that this is a good answer but we ordered from the evening menu and waited in anticipation. To start with we got a small asparagus soup that was very good...and the focaccia bread also finally came to the table and this was served with a nice aioli. The first real dish for me was the pan fried monk fish served with carrot candy, fennel and lime beurre blanc. The fish was pretty good and the same goes for the Lois wine from Austria. Two of us had monk fish for starter and two others had saffron poached halibut ....but the halibut was not served until after we had finished the monk fish. This seemed to be a typical problem this evening...it just seemed like they had too much to do in the restaurant and they struggled with the timing the entire evening. The main dish that night was entrecôte of veal with a puree and broccoli and asparagus and morel sauce. One of the members of the party had only ordered this main dish and dessert and normally the size of the portions varies according to how many dished you have. But here it seemed like we all got the same portion. We started eating the meat and after about 5 minutes the waiter all of a sudden brought in some potatoes. We were well into the meat and we didn't know that we would get potatoes as he didn't inform us about this...another evidence on the timing problem that I have mentioned. It turned out that the potatoes were quite dry so it didn't really matter if they were served a bit late. The veal was good but not as tender as I had hoped it would be and it would also be nice to have it a bit more fried. But the wine, a Chianti Classico from Felsina, was pretty good :-) Two of the members of the party went for a cheese platter as well and this was served together with some dark bread and some sweet syrup. We got a brie de meaux, a blue veined cheese and another French cheese that I can't remember the name of. The cheese was very good and so was the dark bread that came with it. The wine was a Symphonie de Novembre. The dessert of the evening was only described as Chocolate on the menu. When the waiter cleared away the cheese platter we asked if we could get some coffee to go along with the dessert and he said no problem. But it turned out to not be that easy...the coffee was served 5-10 minutes before the dessert and with no sugar and cream on the table. So we were more or less done with the coffee before the dessert was served...and before the sugar and cream was brought to the table. The dessert was excellent and was a nice combination of a really dark chocolate cake, a fruit cocktail and vanilla ice cream. I wouldn't mind having the recipe for the chocolate cake as it was pure candy. The wine for the dessert was Recioto Della Valpolicella, a sweet red wine and that was excellent to the dessert. Conclusion: The last time I went to Bølgen & Moi I was very happy with both service and food but this time they struggled with the timing and that led to a bit of waiting. The food this time was good but not excellent but the annoyance was the waiting...not getting the starters at the same time, it took us 30 minutes to get the menu, they didn't manage to serve the coffee at the same time as dessert, we had to wait to get more wine etc. I hope that they will focus on improving this in the future. We paid about 3900 kroner (about 660USD) for 5 people . Here are the prices of the various menus (with and without wine) 3 course : 465 kroner (80 USD) / 765 kroner (130 USD) 4 course : 525 kroner (90USD) / 925 kroner (160 USD) 5 course 595 kroner (100 USD) / 1180 kroner (200 USD) Regards Gard http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Akropolis is the only Greek restaurant in Stavanger to my knowledge and is has been around for quite some time. Nikki and I went to visit the place on a Sunday afternoon in the beginning of August 2007. to test out their Sunday buffet table. I think you can get the buffet table until about 6 PM. We did not have a problem getting a table when we went there but it can be pretty busy at times so it might be a good idea to book a table in advance. One of the advantages with the buffet table is that you don't have to wait...it is just a matter of digging in :-) The selection in the buffet includes a very good Greek salad with feta cheese on the side so that you can get the right ratio between salad and cheese :-) Apart from that you can also get lamb chops, great sausages with lots of herbs and garlic, potatoes, rice, regular and boring hot dogs and french fries for the kids, onion rings, meat balls, proper pieces of chicken meat, moussaka, bread, olives, soup, etc. All in all I would say that the selection is pretty good. There is not really that much more to say about the place. It will ccst you 149 kroner (about 25 USD) for the buffet and that is really cheap if you compare it with regular restaurant prices here in Norway. The only problem with the buffet is that you get tempted to take at least one portion too much and you end up leaving the place pretty stuffed :-) But if you are able to limit yourself this is a pretty good place for a Sunday dinner. You will find Akropolis at Sølvberggata not to far from the library and cinema in Stavanger. The restaurant has a homepage http://www.akropolis-stavanger.com/ but at the moment it does not really contain any useful information.

This summer I went to Tuscany and Florence and I enjoyed the food, wine and scenery there (check out the trip report on http://gardkarlsen.com/florence_italy_travelogue.htm ). When we got home the annual food festival had started in Stavanger and I was thrilled to see that there was a new stand called Restaurant Nero there. I asked them where they were located and the daily manager Cato Ødemark had to admit that they had not opened yet but they would soon. And finally in the beginning of October 2007 the new restaurant opened in the same place where the good restaurant Cartellet once was located. As I’m a sucker for good food and a sucker for Italian food it didn’t take long before I got to try out this restaurant. So in the middle of October I was ready to check it out and I came there a bit early and I got a tour of the place by Cato Ødemark himself. I was the first one there and it did take long before I got a Kir Royale to start with and freshly made grissini…still warm from the oven it was delicious :-) The restaurant is not that big and I think we are only talking about 40-50 seats at the moment. Cato says that even without any advertising, people still seem to be finding the way to the restaurant so they are satisfied with the opening weeks. I never did get to try Cartellet so I’m not sure how it looked back then but Cato explained that they had kept the original layout and the facilities looks quite stylish with a combination of brick walls, old rock foundation, red tiles on the floor, stylish art and last but not least….some funky looking furniture made in Italy of course. Inside the restaurant there is also a small cooler and the idea is to sell Italian products like pecorino, sausages etc but according to Cato they have just been to busy to prioritize this part so far. This dinner was a company dinner and it didn’t take long before the rest of the guest arrived and we decided to go for a 4 course menu. But we all got to order aperitifs to start with and we also got a plate of snacks…grissini wrapped in parma ham, olives from Puglia, aged parmesan cheese, Italian sausages etc. When we sat down at the table we got a complimentary snack/starter and the most interesting thing on the plate was the panna cotta with mashed cauliflower and fried onion. I thought that panna cotta was only used for dessert :-) Other things on the plate were the classic mozzarella and tomato, prune in parma ham and shrimp. We got another complimentary snack after this and it was a small soup. It was good but I’m actually not sure which kind of soup it was. It was just a little bit; just enough really as we were going through lots of food. The first primi was salmon in two different ways served with fennel and citrus fruits. Again it was a pretty exciting combination. I don’t think I have been served salmon this way before but it was both refreshing and delicious. The next primi was the classical risotto alla Milanese…risotto with saffron. The risotto was as it should be and this is one of my favorites. On the side we got parmesan cheese and once again I have to admit that I have never had that before. It was weird to eat the cold ice cream and still taste the distinctive taste of parmesan cheese. It worked very well with the risotto and it is fun to see that Nero tried to re-invent the different classical dishes :-) We were seated in the “chambre séparée” (I think that what it is called when you are separated from the rest of the restaurant) and as there is room for about 14 in there we had some space to ourselves and we had a direct view to the stylish blue lights in the wine “cellar”. The wine selection seemed to be a bit limited at the moment but according to Cato they are still working on installing the cooling system in the wine cellar and after that they will fill it up with good Italian wine :-) Before we got the main meal of the evening we got a crushed ice and apple “sorbet” to freshen up the pallet. Our main dish this evening was a tenderloin I think served with fois gras and polenta. The combination of the meat and the fois gras was great and the polenta was piping hot so it was clearly fresh out of the oven. The fois gras it always interesting....it is great in smaller portions. I’m sorry to say that I can’t really give details about the wine selection this evening as we just asked the waiter to recommend new wines for each course. It is a pretty international staff at Nero: Cato is Norwegian, his partner Sebastien is from Italy, our waitress was from Poland etc. Our waitress seemed to be a bit nervous by the way and she was having a bit of trouble opening some of the wines, she seemed a bit nervous when introducing the meals etc. But all in all she did a good job. To round of the evening we had a chocolate fondant with rosemary ice cream on the side if I’m not mistaken. The taste was great but I would have enjoyed having the muffin even softer in the middle. And together with the dessert we had a delicious sweet red wine. Conclusion We had a lovely evening at Nero this night and I certainly hope to go there again soon. The food was delicious; we got great service, the wine good etc. The restaurant is stylish and it seems to be a nice place both for a business dinner and for a romantic date. The meal cost us about 1000 Norwegian kroner (about 185$) per person including aperitifs, a 4 course meal (with various complimentary snacks in between), wine…so actually the price was not bad compared to other fancy places in town. If you like Italian food and you want to try it with a “twist” this seems to be the place to go. If you do go there send my regards to Cato and Sebastien :-) Check out the restaurant homepage http://www.restaurant-nero.no/ for more information. The restaurant is located in the “basement” of Victoria hotel in the middle of Stavanger so it should be easy to find.

If you want to go out in Stavanger for a glass of beer you should consider Cardinal. The place is located near the harbor in Stavanger (right behind Hansenhjørna) and in the middle of the "bar district". I went there last year with a couple of friends and I was surprised to see the selection of beer on offer. Cardinal is a place that has been around for a long time and it is pub of the old type. Back in the old days when people was allowed to smoke in the pubs it was more or less impossible to breath in the place...that has improved a lot after the new laws about smoking came along :-) We started with a trip down memory lane by having a glass of Tiger beer. We had quite a lot of this when we went to Malaysia last year (see http://gardkarlsen.com/malaysia_kuala_lumpur.htm ) but I think the beer is originally from Singapore. We continued with a Sapporo beer from Japan. We didn't have too much of this when we went to Japan in 2005 (see http://gardkarlsen.com/japan_tokyo.htm )...we stuck to Asahi when we went to Japan...but they have that too at Cardinal :-) . After that we "returned to Europe" by having a Leffe from Belgium...the Leffe Blonde was horrible by the way. By this time it was time to move on already :-( Conclusion: If you are looking for an excellent selection of beer you should check out Cardinal. You can choose between 250 different types of beer and they claim it is the best selection in Norway. Having such a selection is really quite amazing at least for Stavanger...at bars here there are normally just a few beers to choose from...like Heineken, Carlsberg and local beer types. A bottle of beer will typically cost you from 60 to 90 kroner (10$ to 15$). You can read more about this pub on and see the entire menu of beer on http://www.cardinal.no/ . If you want to try out a Norwegian brand that is a bit different try out Nøgne Ø (see http://www.nogne-o.no/ ) .

When we arrived in Stavanger there was a beach volleyball tournament in the port.  From the top of the ship you could see part of the court and the action.  At the time I watched twoo brazilian guys were playing.  I do not remember against whom.

We went to several interesting places, there is a reconstructed iron age farm in Ullandhaug.  It consists of three wooden buildings with roofs made of peat and bark. The exterior walls were covered with stones to keep out the cold. 

We also went to a place where a monument to the battle of Hafrsfjord  that lead to Norway's unification is located.  The monument is three enormous bronze swords planted in the solid rock. The swords can be found at Møllebukta which is a bay area on the southern shore of Hafrsfjord. Where the battle took place in the year 872. 

Strolling throug the city, we  found a flag of Puerto Rico in one of the buildings.