Taco Norway: The History of a National Dish

Abstract

Over the last 20 years or so, Taco has become an iconic staple in Norway. My thesis looks at how and why the dish has come to hold such an integral part of Norwegian eating habits and food culture. My main argument is that the popularity of the dish is ultimately tied to the rapid commercialization, mediazation and globalization of our world in which agency, culture and identity become exceedingly complex. I further argue that it is due to its perceived values that the taco has become a national identity marker. To Norwegians the taco holds ideals of community and egalitarianism; the exact values they cherish in themselves as a society. It has evolved from foreign to familiar sustenance into a national tradition in the matter of approximately fifty short years. To understand food mobility in the 20th and 21st century, one needs to look at these intersections between what happened practically and emotionally. What underlying currents and complex realities has shaped the choices made by individuals and by communities? My thesis is thus a contribution that addresses questions of “food mobility” and “food and identity”.