Forget Tuesday: Norwegian-Style Tacos Are Cheap And Easy (And Always Served On This Day)

From Canada's adoration of butter chicken to Hawaii's historic love affair with Spam, there are many examples of nations eagerly embracing foreign cuisines markedly different from their own. One major example of how culinary open-mindedness can pay off big is Norway, and its people have such a passion for tacos that hundreds of thousands of them sit down to cheap, easy, Norwegian-style tacos on the same day every week (and no, it isn't Tuesday).

For many Norwegians, Friday is tacofredag, or "taco Friday" — a long-standing custom in which friends and family will sit down together and assemble their own tacos. By 2012, tacos had become the most popular pre-weekend dinner in the country; according to a VG study from that year, per the Norwegian American, 400,000 Norwegians opted for tacos every single Friday. The tradition is similar to the Swedish custom of fredagsmys, or "cozy Friday," during which Swedes will also often eat tacos, which they adore just as much as their Norwegian neighbors. While the taco was introduced to Sweden by 1990s marketing campaigns, however, Norway fell in love with the dish several decades earlier via a fruitful, cross-cultural collision.

When Norway began oil-drilling in the North Sea in the 1960s, it sought the guidance of Texan oil workers and consultants, who introduced their Norwegian counterparts to classic Tex-Mex cuisine (which differs from Mexican cuisine). Soon thereafter, a shopkeeper in the Norwegian city of Stavanger started importing the ingredients necessary to make the recipes these Americans brought with them, and in the following decades, the popularity of Tex-Mex food exploded throughout Norway.

Today, many Norwegian supermarkets stock taco kits from brands like Old El Paso and Santa Maria. Norway's enthusiasm for taco kits is not merely due to their convenience, but because the build-your-own-taco approach they facilitate make this Friday meal both communal and adaptable. Those attending a typical tacofredag can expect hard-shelled tacos filled with cooked ground beef, with garnishes of cheese, lettuce, and sour cream — not what some would consider representative of authentic Mexican tacos, but arguably no less so than many popular fast food tacos (15 of which we've ranked from best to worst). 

That said, over the years, Norway's affinity for tacos has met with Scandinavian flavors and ingredients to produce some intriguing fusion recipes. These include tacos with reinskav, or shaved reindeer meat, wrapped in the potato flatbread potetkaker and spread with lingonberry cream, and tacos featuring gjetost, a distinctive, sweet-tasting Norwegian brown cheese with a fudge-like consistency. If all this has you hungering for some variety in your own tacos, whether on Friday, Tuesday, or any other day of the week, you'd do well to check out Tasting Table's best taco recipes, which range from duck confit tacos to choco taco-inspired ice cream sandwiches.