Office Christmas Gifts

The last few years Sverre's take home gifts from the office have been rather sub-par. You see, companies tend to go all out with Christmas gifts for their employees round these parts. The last couple of years, there have been a few chicken breasts, shrimp, pickled herring... The, Gee thanks, when are we going to eat this? gifts. (Answer: If you're a really traditional Norwegian you'd love that stuff.)

This year, his office went all out. A few bottles of local brewery Christmas beer, and a box of:

• salmon pâté
• two types of smoked salmon
• three types of gourmet caviar
• two bottles of wine
• a jar of shrimp (can't escape that)
• a tin of anchovies (gag, but Norwegians love that)
• cured slices of lamb
• cured duck breast
• two gourmet chicken breasts and a thigh piece
• duck sausages
• a large reindeer tenderloin (!)
• good balsalmic vinegar
  
• a beautiful bottle of olive oil
• two vanilla pods (mmm)
• three plates of delicious chocolate
• and a partridge in a pear--no, actually a jar of fig jam. No poultry there.
  

Quite the come through, right? And then, to top it all off, Sverre came home this evening with yet another gift, this time from Spanish associates:


'Tis the season for culinary jolliness...

American companies, consider the gauntlet thrown.