Well, Folks, you know it's THAT time of year again. The time when you have to resurrect your World War I gas mask when you go by the fish counter in the grocery store, or hold your breath as you drive very swiftly by the local churches that are holding their annual lutefisk suppers. All the GOOD ScandihOOvians are rubbing their tummies and salivating to the point of needing bibs in anticipation of this wonderful delicacy being served during the coming holidays. Me? I'm definitely NOT a good Scandihoovian. I can't stand the stuff. And Ole, being a Finn, doesn't hold with that kind of nonsense either.
Lutefisk starts out by hanging on racks in the dry, cool air of the ScandihOOvian countries. We lived in Iceland for several years, and fishing being the mainstay of their economy, we saw lots of the beginning stages of lutefisk.
After the fish have hung on the racks for about a year - I'm NOT Kidding - a full year, it's so dry that it tinkles in the wind and sounds like wind chimes. That's about the ONLY nice thing about lutefisk. Then it's shipped off to other countries where the good ole' Swedes and Norwegians have emigrated to, snapped up by these folks and brought home with great anticipation.
In order to reconstitute the fish it has to be soaked in lye water for an extended period of time, then it's rinsed and rinsed and rinsed. How many times have you ever been eating fish and you say, "You know what this fish needs? Lye!" Me neither.
Do you remember the green slime that used to come in an egg-shaped container? Crack open that container and let the slime run and that gives you a pretty good sense of the overall feel of lutefisk. It's one of the few COOKED fish dishes that could be described as slippery.
Every Christmas my Mother dutifully shopped and shopped for the best lutefisk she could find, and on Christmas Eve would boil it, which would spread the "aroma" throughout the house. My brother and I would run to the farthest point away from the kitchen and cover our heads with layers of blankets trying to avoid the "scent." My sister, on the other hand, along with my parents practically inhaled the stuff.
Swedish food generally isn't known for being real edible, and lutefisk is awful even by those low standards. The pickled herring isn't bad, in fact I kind of like that on occasion. But among other things there's Glog, which is a purple that doesn't occur in nature, requires an open flame and tastes suspiciously like Nyquil. I truly suspect that lutefisk is what drove the Vikings to look for Canada.
Take a look at the video below entitled What is Lutefisk, and you'll see some really silly Swedes and Norwegians that need to have their heads examined!!
Rock on, you non-ScandihOOvians. See what you're missing?
You can stop the music if you want when you play the video. There is sound on the video so it might get a wee bit confusing otherwise.
11 comments:
My band used to play for a lutefisk dinner every year at a church in Saint Paul. I must admit, I could not WAIT for set break so I could go outside and breathe. Sorry. I hope you understand. Yeeee!
Let's have some haggis and headcheese with the lutefisk!
And how about some blood sausage to go along with hte haggis and head cheese!
I've always wondered about lutefisk. I used to live in a Norwegian town in Washington; our Rotary Club was the Sons of Norway. The churches and the Sons of Norway would hold their lutefisk dinners, and it would be advertised in the newspaper. Also we had a store downtown that sold all kinds of Scandinavian-pride stuff, and a lot of it mentioned lutefisk.
Never having had it, I think I'll take a pass. ;o)
purple chai/oldewoman:
I wonder if I can get some at Ikea?
A few years back some friends of ours invited us for a "special" dinner of lutefisk. I had no clue what lutefisk was, but when she told me it was cod I thought hey I love cod so I took a nice size helping. OMG! The first bite I chewed and seriously thought she must have made a mistake and added a wrong ingredient. The second bite (I was trying to be polite) basically just slid down my throat. I watched the hostess take her first bite hoping she would react in embarrassment and swiftly remove the fish. Well she never made a face. Thankfully her husband commented to me that he couldn't believe I liked lutefisk and that he tasted it once & never would again. I took my out and told them that lutefisk would never pass my lips again.
Not all Scandahoovian food is so bad. You left out lefse, krumkake, rosettes {my favorite, leave it to the Swedes to deep fry a cookie}, sandbakles, fattigman, frukake, frutsoppe, even the occasional rumegrot, to say nothing of Torsk, or lingonberries. Can you tell I have sugar issues. hehehe.
So basically lutefisk is year old fish left out in the weather to dry that you try to bring back to life with sodium hydroxide (lye). Add to that the slime factor. Meh. I'd have to at least try it once. But geez, I wonder why fried chicken left out for a few hours can kill ya and this stuff doesn't?
That was highly educational. There is a woman from Minnesota that I talk to once a week on the phone at my job. She said that this time of year, all of Minnesota smells like lutefisk. Sometimes I wonder what makes certain cultures eat the stuff they eat and love it....like my slovakian ancestors loved cabbage. I do like me some Swedish meatballs though.
My grandfather loved the stuff! (Crazy German.) Instead of boiling it, my aunt started to bake it instead. Me, personally, won't touch the stuff. I do like some of the traditional foods, but that is one I will not touch. I tried it once and that was enough for me.
wow really? ick! I had no idea! I have never tryed the stuff and certain won't now. :)
Lefsa now that is good.
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