Lapskous (1947) and Lapskous Boulevard (1969)

Mon Jun 13 00:44:20 UTC 2005

LAPSKAUS--13,900 Google hits, 433 Google Groups hits
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_http://www.barrypopik.com/artic
le/1021/lapskaus-boulevard-eighth-avenue-bay-ridge_ 
(http://www.barrypopik.com/article/1021/lapskaus-boulevard-eighth-avenue-bay-ridge) 
_http://www.barrypopik.com/article/1020/norwegian-american-day-parade_ 
(http://www.barrypopik.com/article/1020/norwegian-american-day-parade) 
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I just added about 20 entries to my web page today, from "Lapskaus" to  
"Mermaid Parade" and "Gothamland."
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"Lapskaus" is not, of course, in the OED ("miserable on food"). This is  part 
of my effort to solve every problem from every place and every culture  
around the world for free in my spare time, when I'm not adjudicating parking  
tickets ten hours a day in a room with no air conditioning or even air..
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_http://www.scandinavian-museum.org/about/about.htm_ 
(http://www.scandinavian-museum.org/about/about.htm)   
Many people remember the days when Trinity Lutheran  Church on 46th St. and 
4th Ave.in Brooklyn had 1,000 children in their Sunday  School. Many people 
regret the loss of Eighth Avenue as the main Norwegian  thoroughfare, known as 
"Lapskaus Boulevard", which thronged with Norwegian  stores and restaurants. A 
Scandinavian community has existed in the Sunset Park,  Bay Ridge and Dyker 
Park communities for over 300 years. The Norwegians  physically and spiritually 
built these communities and built them to  last.      
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_http://www.norway-times.com/2004_Main_Stories/Main_story_13.html_ 
(http://www.norway-times.com/2004_Main_Stories/Main_story_13.html) 

Issue 13, March 31,  2004:
The Last of the Norwegians
on  Lapskaus Boulevard
The lilt of Norwegian, taste of  fish cakes, and sight of Norwegian seamen 
strolling along Eighth Avenue, have  been replaced by the high-pitch of Chinese, 
taste of egg cakes and sight of  thousands of Chinese shoppers scurrying to 
gather their groceries. 

By VICTORIA HOFMO
8th Avenue, Brooklyn
Eighth Avenue, once known colloquially as Lapskaus Boulevard (a Norwegian 
salted beef stew), due to its high concentration of Norwegians, is losing its 
last vestige of the old neighborhood. Signy’s Imports, an Scandinavian 
specialty shop, is closing. 
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_http://www.brooklynsoc.org/revealingpictures/KRASE01.html_ 
(http://www.brooklynsoc.org/revealingpictures/KRASE01.html) 
A few decades ago this part of Sunset Park, now considered "Brooklyn's 
Chinatown," was an old Scandinavian (Norwegian) neighborhood and was referred to 
by locals as Lapskaus Boulevard. Lapskaus is a Norwegian beef stew. Today one 
has to search very hard to find signs of their eighty-year long dominance. One 
 ethnic fossil is a small variety store on Eight Avenue that has a lute fisk 
sign in the window. On field trips to the neighborhood, I had to explain to 
my students that lute fisk is a dish, served especially during the Christmas 
holidays, that is made from salted dried cod. Other signs of this senior 
ethnic group are the Protestant (Lutheran) churches in the neighborhood that, now 
in Chinese characters or en Espanol, announce religious and other services. 
In a few instances, students also found Scandinavian names such as "Larsen" 
displayed in the front of neatly landscaped single-family houses on some of the 
side streets. 
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_http://niaexhibit.com/heritagehall.html_ 
(http://niaexhibit.com/heritagehall.html) 
HERITAGE HALL is located in a wing of the Norwegian Christian Home & Health 
Center, recently remodeled to a state-of-the-art facility. If interested, you 
will be able to have a guided tour of this beautiful complex. As you go 
home, you can drive along 8th Avenue (called Lapskaus Boulevard* by 
Norwegian-Americans), to see how it has changed from a totally Norwegian population to one 
almost entirely Chinese!
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23 August 1947, Chicago Daily Tribune, pg. 13:
A Recipe for Lapskaus,
a Norwegian Goulash
"Lapskous" is a favorite Norwegian dish, similar to a goulash, and before 
some Norwegian cook writes to tell me this recipe isn't the right one, let me 
say that it was sent to me a few years back by the Royal Norwegian Information 
service, which should make it authentic!

Lapskaus [a Norwegian goulash]
[Sox servings]
1 1/2 pounds boneless beef, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
3/4 cup fat
2 pounds potatoes, pared and diced
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
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30 April 1948, Los Angeles Times, pg. A5:
There were steaming bowls of Lapskaus, a Norwegian stew, also.
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29 October 1969, New York Times, "The Question in Bay Ridge: Who Will 
Get the Anti-Lindsay Vote?" by Michael T. Kaufman, pg. 50;
There are said to be more Norwegians here than in Oslo, most of them living 
near Eighth Avenue, which is sometimes called Lapskaus Boulevard after a 
Norwegian beef stew. The Norwegians are the smallest of the major ethnic groups.
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17 March 1991, New York Times, pg. 36:
In Brooklyn, Wontons, Not Lapskaus
By ANDREW L. YARROW
(...)
For years, the Atlantic was the hub of a stretch of Eighth Avenue between 
45th and 60th Streets that was dotted with dozens of Norwegian bars, bakeries 
and restaurants. But in the 1980's, a Chinese and Arab immigrants moved in, 
Chinese restaurants and meat markets supplanted almost all the Norwegian 
businesses along the street that was popularly known as Lapskaus Boulevard, a 
reference to a meat-and-potatoes stew that was a staple of the Norwegian worker's 
diet.
(...)