You will be seen as a decent man/woman if you bring your packed lunch.
Buying lunch at work is considered a bit strange,
since the food is not good.
You also need to be careful about buying great food from somewhere outside work; this may be considered flamboyant and your colleagues may think
you believe you are “someone”.
It also goes against the unwritten law of bringing a matpakke.
On Friday, it is more acceptable to “kose deg” a bit more
and then a restaurant meal is acceptable.
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Matpakke is the Norwegian lunch pack.
It consists of two to four 3cm slices of dry bread with only one kind of “pålegg” (topping), usually 2mm Norvegia cheese or brown cheese.
It is wrapped in a white paper called («Matpakkepapir»).
It is important that the lunch has taken as little time as possible to make.
Norwegians love to bring the “matpakke”; to work, out in nature, travelling etc.
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This is one of the 100 Unwritten Norwegian Social Laws presented in our new book "The 100 Unwritten Norwegian Social Laws"
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Read more about our amazing Norwegian friends in our other Guidebooks to Norway written by Julien S. Bourrelle and Sean Percival.