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My mom is from Denmark so I can give you some advice on more traditional Danish food. one of the items that is pretty popular in the states now is æbleskiver which are these little circular pancakes that you dip in applesauce, jam or powdered sugar. weinerbrød are everywhere-they are basically like pastries. my mom always made us eat smørrebrød which are open faced sandwiches topped with a variety of ingredients. Traditionally they are made with this really dense dark rye bread. I love them with cream cheese and cucumber, or some kind of smoked fish which is really popular. another topping that used to make me groan as a kid but is really traditional is leverpostej (liver pate). My mom always made frikkadeller which are meatballs and another favorite meal was pork with fried onions. A really popular food is pickled herring, although I could never bring myself to eat it. For christmas as a kid we always had flæsketeg which is like a roast pork with lots of crispy fat, red cabbage, and potatoes cooked in butter and brown sugar. for desert it had to be rice pudding or risalamande with some kind of cherry or fruit sauce. You hide a peeled almond in the pudding and whoever finds the almond gets a prize. These are traditional christmas eats, though.

The best advice I can give is drink as much Carlsberg as you can. It tastes infinitely better there. Hope that helps!

There are lots of traditional Norwegian dishes, but probably not all of them you're going to want to run out and try. There are many different preparations of lamb, some of which (like får i kål, 'lamb in cabbage') are hearty and easy to love, and some of which (pinnekjøtt - dried lambs ribs steamed with birch twigs) are a bit odder. Fish in Norway is plentiful and can be wonderful, but a lot of it is farmed. Trout (ørret) is ubiquitous. The variety that you get in Norway is a bit like salmon, but more delicate. Cod is also everywhere, as is a fish called 'sei,' which I think is called 'coley' in English. Fishballs ('fiskekarbonader') are basic, good fare, made with potato flour so that they have a slightly rubbery texture. The salmon that you get in Norway will probably not be of as high a quality as you expect - at least, that has been my experience. It's still delicious, though. In the summer it's often served cold.

There are some odd foods that you might like to try, just to say you've tried them. Gammelost is 'old cheese'. I've never tried it, but it's about as Norwegian as it gets. Rakfisk is fisk (often trout) that has been fermented for several months. I've never tried that either. Tørfisk is dried fish, eaten as a snack. I have tried that, and it's oddly moreish, although it leaves an odd taste in your mouth. Whale meat is available in the supermarket, and also in lots of restaurants. My boyfriend says it's good, but he grew up with it and has a typically Norwegian indifference to its environmental implications.

Definitely make sure to try cloudberries. If you can find them fresh, great. If not, frozen also work (actually, Norwegians eat plenty of frozen cloudberries). As far as things you'd find in a supermarket (do go to a supermarket, by the way, and marvel and all of the quite basic things that it doesn't have): flatbrød - a kind of flat, crispy bread. Soured cream - Norwegian dairy products in general are very clean-tasting, but Norwegians are especially passionate about soured cream and there are several different varieties. Mustard - Norwegian mustard is very sweet. Idunn is a good brand. Mackerel in tomato is yummy and healthy. Leverpostej is worth a try also, if you like that sort of thing.

Now, Norwegian chocolate! Freia milk chocolate is really good, especially Firkløver, which has nuts in it. There are also lots of great candy bars. Troika bars have three layers: chocolate, jelly and marzipan. Yum. Mandelstang bars have chocolate, chopped almonds, and a sweet, minty sort of filling. Smørbukk are soft caramels, very good. Anthon Berg is Danish marzipan and cannot be recommended highly enough. There is also plenty of liquorice, most of it quite salty. If you like liquorice, buy some Turkisk Peppar, Swedish hard candies which are used to make an absolutely lethal flavoured vodka. Basically, you get a bottle of vodka and funnel the crushed candies into it, then run it through the dishwasher so that the candies melt and presto: salty liquorice vodka.

Oh my, just realised how long this is. If you have any specific questions then please post them. I moved to Norway in December, but I also lived in Denmark when I was a teenager, and could say a lot about that cuisine as well.