It's a single slice of cheese or meat. American deli-style sandwiches where there is more filling than bread are not a thing in Scandinavia.

Also, if you were wondering what's up with "caviar" as a topping, it's this stuff made from cod roe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalles_Kaviar

Warning, Kalles Kaviar actually contains sugar and lots of it. It's horrible, and I'm swedish. They actually make ads on the TV with people from other cultures trying to eat it. It's not as bad as surströmming but ew...

12% sugar isn't that bad given that you don't use much. Messmör, on the other hand, is something that should be avoided.

I can believe they have those ads!

To be fair, though: My spouse, the resident Norwegian, really likes it. Soetimes with a sliced, hard-boiled egg. But he's also been eating it since he was a child as it is a cheap and easy thing to make children. It is more akin to American children with peanut butter.

I, however, being the import to Norway, find it fairly disgusting.

As a Norwegian, I agree with you it's disgusting.

Dare I ask your opinion of Matjes?

That said, I've heard a some dissent from younger swedes about surströmming but not about Kalles heh.

> American deli-style sandwiches where there is more filling than bread are not a thing in Scandinavia

Denmark disagrees with you https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sm%C3%B8rrebr%C3%B8d

Yes I'm European as well. Still seems like an extremely hefty sandwich from the video...

British slices of bread are usually far larger than Norwegian ones.

Its an incredibly small sandwich.

I love Kalles! I've eaten it since I was a kid.

I make regular trips to IKEA just to buy it, apparently they're one of the US's largest importers of Swedish food.

But yes, its very different than what most Americans think of Caviar; This is very much un-fancy.

> IKEA

Also, gooseberry jam.

The filling is not what adds to the calories though, it's the bread.

Yeah, if you look at the calories in the ingredients (3 slices of buttered bread each with a slice of cheese, liver paste, or peanut butter) you're looking at something that at best has the same amount of calories as a quarter pounder with cheese, and likely significantly more than that.

A lot of people seem to be under the wrong impression that simple foods are low in calories. Compared to other sandwiches the Norwegian sandwich seems to substitute protein (less meat and cheese) for more saturated fat and carbs (an extra slice of bread, butter on the bread).

Around 500kcals sounds about right. I wouldn't really call a single QP a big meal.

I think your comparison to other subs is off thought. Depending on the meat of the sub you might be reducing protein, but the Norwegian sandwich definitely has less fat (less cheese, less calories in the butter than mayo or other sauce, less fatty meats). Usually the bread preferred also has more whole grain and fibers than what's used in the US.

> the Norwegian sandwich definitely has less fat (less cheese, less calories in the butter than mayo or other sauce, less fatty meats)

Butter is much higher in saturated fat and calories than mayo, and you're putting butter on 3 slices whereas you usually only but mayo on one (per the article). One tablespoon of butter is 100 calories and 7 grams of saturated fat, one tablespoon of mayo has 60 calories and 1.5 grams of saturated fat.

If I look at the nutritional information for Kalles Kavier (which someone suggested as a topping), it seems to also be pretty high in calories with a lot coming from extra carbs (sugar).

Having eaten both the quantities really are that different. A typical American sub has much more sauce than a Norwegian sandwich has butter. Kalle's is so flavorful that you don't need a lot of it, but I agree it would be the most unhealthy choice of the ones listed.

> an extra slice of bread

A Norwegian "sandwich" has one slice of bread. The picture at the top of the article shows 3 stacked open-face sandwiches.

Sometimes people will do "British-style" sandwiches when putting on things like jam to avoid making a mess, but open-face sandwiches is most traditional.

Read the above post, this is the meal we're discussing:

> last year I have made a matpakke with 3 slices of bread

Which also aligns with what's said in the article. If you eat three of these in a meal, you're getting one more slice of bread than you'd get from a meal consisting of a single sandwich.

Yes, but the comparison in the comment I replied to talks about "the Norwegian sandwich":

> Compared to other sandwiches the Norwegian sandwich seems to substitute protein (less meat and cheese) for more saturated fat and carbs (an extra slice of bread, butter on the bread).

It's meaningless to compare to a "single sandwich" anyway, because e.g. the bread size will vary dramatically depending on country. I live in the UK now, and the slices used for sandwiches here are often 50% or more larger than what I'm used to from Norway.

But especially if talking about the amount of protein relative to carbs or fats, I don't think it's very different - each of those three slices of bread gets their own slice of meat or cheese. And not by any means everyone will use butter, while you'll get plenty of sandwiches elsewhere (e.g. UK) that are buttered.