“It’s… Tatertot Hotdish. The recipe is already written into every Norwegian’s blood”. I’ve never seen a tatertot in all of Norway.

41 comments

  1. This is very common where I am from. In the Midwest where a lot of Norwegian settlers moved the Lutheran churches followed, they created cookbook (the ladies from the church) and this was in one of them. It became a cult classic of Midwest Scandinavians and then the dish caught on and is made by a lot of people. It’s really good actually.

  2. I don’t recall seeing a single tater-tot in Norway, but this dish is ubiquitous in the northern USA, where there was widespread Scandinavian migration. Everyone has their own twist on how it should be done. If you’re ever near Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, come on over, I’ll make one. A Norwegian dish? Definitely not. A Scandinavian-American dish? Absolutely.

  5. I have no idea what that is. Is it something that the Norwegian Americans make?

    Though I want to be clear. Norwegian Americans are Norwegians. If that’s your culture then it’s also my culture. Alas I have no idea what that dish is nor how to make it. A recipe would be much appreciated.

    (I live in Bergen and I had a “difficult youth” so I am a felon and may never be allowed into the USA. But I do love the culture and the dish looks lovely. So if anyone has a recipe please do share. I have potatoes available and a frying pan.)

  8. This isn’t Norwegian. Tatertots are not a thing here and neither is cream of mushroom soup.

    This is an American Midwestern dish. This guy is probably a descended from Norwegian immigrants. Probably lives in Minnesota or Wisconsin.

  11. Lefse is really the only thing here i can imagine Norwegians are actually familiar with. Lutefisk maybe.

    Idk about tatertots thats just a popular dish in MN.

  13. As ashamed as I am as an American by Midwesterners I can’t even imagine how Norwegians feel about Midwesterners calling themselves Norwegian.

  19. it’s hard to describe the culture in america around ethnicities. i would start out by saying that america treats immigrants like trash, not just in a systemic way, but literally individuals can be verbally abusive to people on the street. this means they tend to stick together, particularly with immigrants from the same country. this is why in new york, there’s such large populations of italians and jewish people, this is what happened in the midwest and the north with scandinavian culture. a sense of community forms and with that their own interpretation comes and somethings get lost or modified in translation and it only gets worse with each generation. your family becomes long attached to being “norwegian” even though what they associate with being norwegian probably would seem very bizarre from someone actually from norway. that’s why in america, if someone tells you they are norwegian, you can bet good money they’ve never even been to norway and their last ancestor who lived in norway is 5 generations back. they know aren’t actually norwegian but they identify with the word “norwegian” and what that has come to mean in america and to them.

    i will say, however, it is very unfortunate actual norwegians will never experience the absolute euphoria of eating a tater tot slathered in ketchup :’)

  22. Come on, guys. Tatertots is obviously a very American dish and has nothing to do with Norway or Norwegians. But when you are an American of Norwegian descent and you post in your local Minnesota sub, you probably say “Norwegian” as in American Norwegian. Not actual Norwegian.

    Americans seem to be obsessed with where their great grandparents were from and they identify as Italian and Irish etc even though they know nothing of Italy or Ireland.

    I think it is cool that there are people living in other parts of the world that have lived in their country for generations, but they still feel they have a connection to our tiny country Norway and that they have developed their own Norwegian based traditions.

    I would love to try some tatertots one day 🙂

  23. How can it be written into every Norwegian`s blood, if I have never heard of it?

    I would try it, but this is an American dish…

  24. I am Norwegian, and never heard of this. As mentioned earlier, and in Wikipedia:

    “Tater tots were invented in 1953 when American frozen food company Ore-Ida founders F. Nephi Grigg and Golden Grigg were trying to figure out what to do with leftover slivers of cut-up potatoes.”

  25. Americans do that shit all the time, its kinda weird, i am a full blown *Insert nationality* but they don’t speak the language, never been there, don’t have a single clue of the customs and culture, and the only thing linking then to certain nationality is that one of his ancestors were a immigrant form there.

  26. When I took Norwegian in college, we had to keep a journal of our everyday activities including food we ate. One day I had gotten tater tots when I was eating on campus, so the next time the class met, I asked for the translation. Our Norwegian professor had no idea what I was talking about. She was also worried that what I was saying sounded a lot like some kind of slur (though she did not explain what it was).

    This was right before Covid became a thing, so the next time the class met I brought a few orders of tater tots for everyone to eat. (There were only 3 other students and the professor in the class, so not too many people. But even now it seems crazy that we would just all eat from the same giant pile of tater tots.)

  31. Someone in my family once told a story about how she visited some distant relatives in America, and to celebrate her arrival they made komle (raspeball, kompe/klubb- whatever you call it in your corner of the country) and boiled it in a pot of white wine, stock, bay leaves, while pepper and garlic.

    I mean, all the luck to em, but wtf is that!?

  33. I apologize for the behavior of Minnesotans, this dish has nothing to do with Norway. But it is very yummy and I ate it all the time growing up

  39. Oh for fucks sake people…

    When a Norwegian-American says they’re “Norwegian”, they don’t mean “born and bred Norwegian from Norway”, they mean “Norwegian-***American”.*** Including the *American* part is pointless when everyone around them is also American, and all Americans understand what is meant when they say they’re [insert nationality here]. When they say this dish is in “every Norwegian’s DNA” they mean “every Norwegian-American’s DNA”.

    Europeans having conniptions over this is just the dumbest fucking thing. You accuse Americans of being ignorant based on your own ignorance of American culture. Give it a rest.

  40. You do get tater tots in Norway now. Hoff sells them as sprø kubber.

    Also, I’ve been doing this thing for the past couple of years where every Sunday during the fall, as I watch the NFL, I’ll try to make a dish from the region of one of the teams playing. So two years ago I made hotdish for a Minnesota game and I thought it was really great! Definitely one of the best regional American dishes I’ve had. So while it’s true that hotdish is virtually unheard of here in Norway, its taste was certainly appealing to this Norwegian.

  41. Amercan norwegian.. really? I mean we are expected to say Africans are Norwegians when they are born here.. Guess that makes the people in the States Americans? 😜

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