For years I have tried to raise international awareness of the menace of Surströmming, fermented herring. Now, Swedish police has faced the reality of Surströmming terror. The police closed off a whole street after hearing reports of a gas leak only to find a stash of fermented herring.
An army of police, fire trucks and an “emergency gas leak team” descended upon the on the Södermalm building only to find Swedish surströmmingsskiva, their name for Surströmming.
It is described as as a “decidedly non-piquant shark odor . . . resembling “a well fermented urinal on a hot summer’s day.” People first smell it and then, in a rejection of decades of rational actor theory, eat it.
This would make for an interesting nuisance lawsuit when the very smell of your food is making people ill. It certainly diminishes the use and enjoyment of one’s property though the manufacturer could claim that the food is a national tradition and touchstone of Swedish culture. The question is whether the manufacturer should have to use a closed manufacturing system to contain the Surströmming. For private makers of Surströmming, the creation of this dish may be best left to factories in remote locations like the top of Kebnekaise mountain.
As a general rule, I find foods that pass for major gas leaks to be best left on the “do not eat list.” It also explains the failure of those fastfood “Surströmming Shacks” that tried to open around the country.
Source: Register
wow, what wonderful memories you have!
I remember going in to Reginas…many times we would wait in a line that wrapped around the corner and it was more than worth it….real brick oven (over coals maybe?) and I swear the magic ingredient was the very best olive oil anyone could get….That Pizza is still my personal reference and nothing has ever come close…even in Italy!
I loved the North end…the best cannolis too! 😉
Cook the bean soup on lowest heat setting for at least sixteen hours.
Cholent: Take a little beef (tough cut, or even just FAT!) and red kidney beans, potatoes, barley, garlic, onion, black pepper, salt, gunk, cook it on very slow heat like 225 degrees for something like 12 hours! OMG! Then you try to eat it! I mean, the ingredients are fine if you were to cook them, but when you put them in a pot and punish them for 12 or more hours, I mean ugh… 🙁
I knew a Polish girl in Lake Forest. She said she wanted to go back to Turin. Don’t know why. Told her she should probably apply for her green card. She didn’t. Then 9/11 happened. The HR people told her she wasn’t going to be allowed to go back to Europe.
Blouise,
I agree with Gurl as to boring, but don’t miss my favorites, have found substitutes, just not always Swedish. Eating Levain bread, olive oil of better class and real parmagiano just now.
Jusr to bore you, it is nature’s rule. Fewer food stuffs survive in polar climes, so the cuisine is impoveríshed. The norwegians eat whale meat. We don’t. We both love group sex! More variation than the food. Some things taste better than salmon, although smoked is nice.
Wootsy and ID, Baccala is a simple, peasant dish. Salt dried cod, hand crushed tomatoes, capers, pepper flakes and a little mint if you like. Wootsy, Pizzaria Regina in the North End is tough to beat. My brother was a chef @ Mama Maria in the North End back in the 90’s. It’s a very small, superb restaurant. Many celebrities in town would dine there. His favorite was the late, great Raul Julia. Now, my brother has pedestrian tastes in movies, so when Raul burst into to kitchen singing to thank my brother for a great meal all my bro could say was, “Wow..Gomez Adams!” It turns out Raul’s family were restaurant owners in Puerto Rico. He, my brother and the kitchen staff talked food and drank[on Raul..he and his party were the last diners] till 2AM. This wonderful man died a couple years later.
They don’t know how to do it properly. You have to ferment it slowly, then dilute it and filter it through activated carbon.
Woosty,
Yes!! (Vikings disguised as sheep … love it)
LillyHammer!
“Glad this came up. Will try some this year. It might be as good as I say it is. ” (id707)
lol
Gurl from Seattle remarked on one of the past threads that the food in Sweden was boring.
You and she are the only ones I know who live in Sweden so that is the extent of my knowledge. I know Steve Van Zandt but he talks about Norwegian food and I know better than to get the two confused … maybe.
Nick,
You give me few opportunities to comment on food, you know more—-BUT!
It is Norway which air drys cod filets, deboned and deskinned. They get hard as nails, iron ones. The
italians buy it from Norway and make baccala.
The Swedes have it to Christmas as a way with cooked grean peas to without fat round off the fatty meal. It is soaked in a weak lye solution to soften it up before cooking.
Not sure how the italians do. That is your area. !!!!! Don’t the Spaniards do it similarly?
Let us say it is less odiferous than sursträmming, but without taste, ne pas a mon gout.
Ma a lish, hee hee!
What is the basic ingredient of cholent? And where did the folks come from. Might want to visit!!!
Chacun a son gout, indeed!
nick spinelli
1, September 13, 2012 at 10:20 am
Norwegians have lutefisk..cod dried in LYE!! Now, many cultures dry fish. Italians dry cod and make baccala, a traditional Christmas Eve entree where Italians eat 7 fish entrees. But we dry cod in salt..NOT POISON! You should smell this lutefisk, you would stick your head in a dirty diaper hamper to clear the olfactory senses.
——————————
The North End in Boston has some of the most G*D awful fish stinkiest places on earth….and stacks of those dried Cod on the sidewalks on market day….I have never had it but I understand it makes a lovely tasty dish. And there is also the absolute best Pizza in the Woild….
Someone called my name.
What can I add to such humor and misunderstandings? Hope Gurl get here and hopefully has experienced it as I have.
I guess you want the humor. The drunken Swedes who open a can on the way to USA flight 007.
Those stupid enough to open the can indoors.
However surströmming is serious until the drinking begins.
It is of course a variant of using bacteria to conserve and change the odor of a food. Small strömming are plentiful in June/July in the Baltic. They are put in a weak salt solution and canned with or without conservation is unclear—probagly without.
A year later the can is opened, the solution poured away, and the fish are carefully filetted and put on crispy flat bread open face style, are made with raw chopped onion, and a little boiled potato pieces, dill fronds etc.
Delicious with schappes/vodka. Ice cold. And strong beer. Songs obligatory.
Songs and schnappes are the only way to get Swedes to loosen up, and they need it often with this climate.
Glad this came up. Will try some this year. It might be as good as I say it is. My East Europeans friends can try it with my as my guests.
I was feeling fine until I read this smelly story!
Norwegians have lutefisk..cod dried in LYE!! Now, many cultures dry fish. Italians dry cod and make baccala, a traditional Christmas Eve entree where Italians eat 7 fish entrees. But we dry cod in salt..NOT POISON! You should smell this lutefisk, you would stick your head in a dirty diaper hamper to clear the olfactory senses.
Wait — what city? It can’t just be “downtown Sweden” can it?
BTW, the “big sugary drinks” issue has NY all ears, and there was a sizeable segment on that on the radio (“Radio Free non-New Yorkers channel”) this morning about it. Looks like it will actually pass — but 7-11 is exempt and Starbucks can serve big big lattes, too.
Idealist, Justagurl, are you two OK? Were you near the fish when they smelled bad?
Years back my mother was entertaining friends and she wanted me to cook for them (she was handicapped at that time). I phoned them and asked what their favorite food was — they were elderly Jews who had gotten out of Europe just in time before WWII — and they said “cholent.” This was pre-Internet. I did some research and located a recipe for “cholent.” I had to buy a slow cooker to make it. I followed the recipe. The house filled up with the worst odor you can imagine; mom and I were aghast, because the guests would arrive in an hour and that was all there was to serve for dinner and the house could not be aired out so we just pretended everything was OK and I prepared to make an elaborate apology and run out to bring in a pizza or something. They arrived; the doorbell rang; we answered; the two of them stood there and inhaled and looks of transcendant delight settled on their faces and they were overjoyed and they said it was “just like home” and they ate every bit of that gluey repulsive mess! I managed to shove a bit of it down just to be polite and my mom claimed a serious stomach upset and sipped on tea, looking pale.
Chacun a son gout (forgive misspelling) —
One man’s Mede is another man’s Persian —
I’m pretty sure that stuff is banned by one of the Geneva conventions. If you have not experienced my advice would be to continue that.
calling id707 … come in id707
Well…….yuck….