Fish Market, Bergen

Bergen is the second most important city in Norway. However, it does have the biggest port in the whole world: Brygen Port. It's also the most famous port in Norway, because it's an obligatory stop for all those who come to the country via cruise (like it was in my case). This port maintains its antiquated features despite being burnt in a fire that devastated most of the city. The port was entirely made out of wood and it was reconstructed in the same way, maintaining the aesthetic of what it looked like at the time it was built.

It's a city that I would recommend visiting if you're ever in Norway. Passing through the Brygen area, with its little houses and wooden floors, is an absolute pleasure.

The guide of our tour told us that the entirety of this zone is actually sinking very slowly. And to help with this, the architecture students are going to be people in charge of lifting the area and putting next wooden structure underneath the water to stop the sinking.

Although Norway isn't a member of the European Union, it belongs to the European Economic Area. This is why I talk about Norway in the European travels part of my blog.

Although I have already spoken to you on other occasions about some parts of Bergen, in this entry I'm only going to talk about the Fish Market. I want to tell you a little bit about this market in general first of all, and I will also give you some recommendations so you have all the necessary information when you're here.

FISH MARKET - BERGEN

The first thing I want to tell you about is that if you have any sort of problem, there are a lot of Spanish employees in the Fish Market, and they are all very friendly. So, if any kind of doubt or worry springs upon you, I'm sure that they would love to help you. Also, the tourist office is right next to the market.

The fish market is one of the main touristic attractions of the city. Also, I'm sure that if you go at a specific meal time you can stay there to eat. We went with the idea of eating in a restaurant in the city that we had been recommended, but when we went into the market area, our idea changed completely.

There are loads of stalls where, apart from buying or eating traditional products, you can taste them. Although, I'm positive that you'll finish buying at least something because the stuff there is irresistibly good.

What can we find in the Fish Market of Bergen?

The market offers so many products, both fresh and pre-packed. The majority of the fresh products, although I guess that the local people take their fish home to cook, there are some that you can buy and they cook it for you on the grills of the stalls. Now I'll tell you about what we ate. But firstly, I'll tell you about what you can find on the stalls if you only decided to walk through the market.

The first and most common thing that you'll find is salmon. But just because you're in Norway, it doesn't mean you're going to get cheap salmon or anything like that. On the majority of stalls, traditional wild smoked Norwegian salmon costs around €100 per kilo. But it is delicious. It has the very characteristic smoked flavour and we liked it so much that we brought a good piece back to Spain. (Can you imagine the stench in the airport?! When we went through security they made us open one of the sealed bags, so you couldn't smell it, and we had to open it so they could see inside).

Anyway, even if you haven't thought about buying any, try some. They will definitely offer you some to taste on one of the stalls.

Another thing they sell, although it isn't affordable for everyone, is the caviar. That's delicious as well. And the trout spawn that we tried on the same stall, just exquisite. For example, a variety pack of 6 cans of mixed caviar and spawn can cost around €150.

One of the things you cannot leave without trying at Bergen Fish Market is... the whale! Don't be reluctant to try it, a lot of people come here just to eat it. Although it's not the biggest delicacy that you'll try when you're here, but it's not bad at all. Also if they didn't tell you that it was whale, I'm sure you'd try it because it looks like normal, common meat. Well, if you're weak stomached, it might make you feel a bit weird because of the dark colour of the meat.

Cold meats... they have them! But they're mostly moose meat. It'll seem like you're eating a spicy Spanish sausage from your hometown because the seasoning is very similar, and it doesn't have any characteristic taste.

The price of the cold meats isn't as expensive as the seafood or fish. It's more expensive than Spain, but everything is in Norway. (Just to give you an idea, a beer could cost around €8).

Now, about the fruit stalls that you'll find in the market. We went directly there because apart from a good Norwegian pint, they told us that Norwegian strawberries are delicious as well. Despite not being very big, it was like an explosion of flavour because they were more concentrated... They were great. But I wouldn't go to Norway just to buy strawberries. The same goes for the red berries in general, they were tasty but nothing more than that. Nothing that you couldn't find anywhere else.

As you can imagine, with the quantity of stalls there are, they have infinite products. Also, there's a stall that sells hot dogs (with moose sausages, by the way).

But now, I want to tell you how my experience of eating fresh fish and seafood was at the Fish Market of Bergen.

The first bit of information, is that you can make your own beer. Ah! And they don't have alcohol free ones. The truth is that the beer they have isn't very strong. It only has 2. 5% of alcohol and has a very characteristic flavour. They also have soft drinks and water, of course.

To eat there, the best thing to do is ask one of the waiters to advise you, who will surely serve you in Spanish, and they can direct you to the places which are a little bit cheaper. Because there are some products that are fairly expensive. I'll tell you what we ordered.

We ordered the big trays of smoked fish. On them there was smoked salmon in different forms, another one was spiced, one in slices, another in tacos... and also smoked whale came with it.

Another of the trays we ordered was grilled, and it came with grilled salmon, cod, and kebabs. Our kebabs were prawn and scallop. The scallops were exquistive.

We also ate mussels, which were very, very tasty. Something else we really liked was the whole grilled trout we ordered.

Finally we ordered real crabs legs, which were incredibly big! You can see in the photo.

These legs were on all of the stalls, meaning that they're almost the most typical thing you'll find apart from the salmon. They're very, very tasty and they're really meaty. But, each leg costs around €40. But we couldn't leave there without trying them.

For dessert, we ate a few little pots of strawberries and red berries that we bought at the little stall opposite. As I've told you they were scrumptious, yes, but not noteworthy for Norway.

I hope that you've found this entry interesting! And if you go to Bergen, you cannot miss this market. I'm sure you'll love it!

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