One food you have never had... but are curious

[W0GWT]

New to this thread, but one thing that intrigues me is lutefisk. Im sure its been said here before, but I had to toss that in.

sorry for the potato....

You're in MN, how hard could it be to find lutefisk?

You can order it online too.

 

[BrewerBrad82]

There are a ton of Nordic folk around these parts, but it is not something that is available on your every day restaurant menu. I guess I have never made a point of seeking it out, but now Im going to.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Check with the Lutheran churches in your area, often they'll have a "Nordic supper" as a fundraiser once a year. You can sample lutefisk & many other traditional Norwegian, Swedish, Danish & sometimes Finnish delicacies & standard fare. You might also look & see if "the Sons Of Norway have a chapter in your area, or check to see if WASA does; they'll sometimes have a shindig that's open to the public & features traditional Scandinavian foods.
Regards, GF.

 

[podz]

New to this thread, but one thing that intrigues me is lutefisk.

Called "lipeäkala" in Finnish. It literally means "lye fish", as it's made with lye and turned into a huge gelatinous jiggling mess. I tried it once on a smorgasbord at a company christmas party and it sucked. You can find it on offer traditionally at christmas time, but I don't personally know one person who actually likes the stuff.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Ya, for most people lutefisk is a "love it or hate it" type of food. For me, I don't make it at home, but I eat it once a year at the Lutheran church fundraiser. It's the only time I set foot in a church these days. I like it better with mustard/dill sauce than I do with the traditional butter, but the old timers seem to prefer it swimming in butter. I like to think eating lutefisk helps to keep me in touch with my ancestors. Eating herring just makes me happy.
Regards, GF.

 

[BrewerBrad82]

Eating herring just makes me happy.

I am a HUGE sucker for pickled herring. Gotta get it in the wine sauce, the sour cream sauce is not nearly as good.

 

[dinnerstick]

dutch salt herring!! yum. super fishy smell, a bit of gag reflex if you dangle it down your throat, but amazing texture and just delicious. straight up, or in a soft roll with onions if that's your thing. got to get it prepared fresh from a street vendor.

not that i don't love pickled herring. cream and vinegar, or vinegar and juniper, not bad at all.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Herring with juniper? Never had it that way, but it sounds awesome! I do enjoy juniper beers & I love herring. I've been to Holland twice, once to Amsterdam & once to Rotterdam; but I don't remember seeing any street vendors selling herring. I certainly would've tried it. Maybe I did see them & thought they were hot dog carts. If I ever make it back there again, I'll have a mission to find one & try their salt herring. I like the pickled in wine sauce the best, but it's all good: fresh, smoked, pickled in wine sauce, cream sauce, spiced, canned, roll mops, fried, though I haven't tried surstomming yet, I'd certainly try it. I might not like it, but I'd give it a shot.
Regards, GF.

 

[dinnerstick]

it's a bit of a big deal here, something to do with the annual cycle of plankton or whatever in the north sea, that when the herring get their highest fat content in late spring early summer, but before they make too much roe, the first 'official' harvest is made, salted, and then in june/july the first barrel of salted herring is ceremonially opened and the date recorded for posterity. immediately all the fish sellers hang up 'hollandse nieuwe' (basically holland's new herring) banners, meaning they have the 'new' prime catch of this year's spring. then they leave the banners up until it all becomes meaningless. most town centers have a little fish cart on saturdays, and the center of amsterdam has several along the canals by the train station, they always fly a dutch flag but other than that indeed look like a hot dog cart or food trailer. you order with or without onions, then they pull one fish from the salt, pick out the remaining organs, scrape the scales and trim the fins, and give it to you on a little cardboard thingy, and you whack it down your face in one go. jenever (gin) optional, but the carts tend not to sell it.
there is a list of the legal requirements for herring to be hollandse nieuwe on the wiki page, you can translate for an odd approximation of the dutch. kind of funny how specific it is.
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollandse_Nieuwe

pickled herring with juniper must be scandanavian, i have only had it from jars with swedish labels. very nice. with crunchy onions that also go pickled.

 

[ChefRex]

"You whack it down your face in one go."


Really? One bit like this?

While I would love to try itI'd need to take it a little slower on my first time

 

[dinnerstick]

yep. it's famous for triggering the reappearance of the evening's beer tally.

 

[jdm61]

Here in Florida, small stinky fish like herring=bait.

 

[podz]

We have about 150 different flavors of jarred baltic herring with sauce here on the shelves year round. I usually eat it for breakfast.

 

[jdm61]

We have about 150 different flavors of jarred baltic herring with sauce here on the shelves year round. I usually eat it for breakfast.

Over here where I live, fish on your breakfast plate is something that your so called friends do to you when you are hung over. But I understand why you guys have so much,. Those giant schools of herring along with cod have been a major food source for people in your part of the world for ages. Down here in the warmer part of he Atlantic, we don't have any cod and we tend to eat the fishy predators that eat our herring, sardines, etc. We have some smoked medium to large sized fish that some consider semi nasty in their raw state like mullet, amberjack or mackerel, but we have access to fresh fish year round, so there was never really much of a need to preserve it.

 

[W0GWT]

I usually eat it for breakfast.

Same for me.
Great on toast bread; I prefer it in oil though. This is the one I buy:



I eat it every once and a while for lunch, but I make Bismarckbrötchen in that case.

 

[jdm61]

Same for me.
Great on toast bread; I prefer it in oil though. This is the one I buy:

View attachment 216548

I eat it every once and a while for lunch, but I make Bismarckbrötchen in that case.

Are those "cooked" just by the action of the salt like salt cod and then reconstituted in the oil?

 

[paulshe]

too lazy to read thru it all..... And not true to the OP subject (since I've had it), Ox Penis Soup.

Yeah, tastes like chicken. But the Pigs blood that goes with it, ouch.

 

[jdm61]

"You whack it down your face in one go."


Really? One bit like this?

While I would love to try itI'd need to take it a little slower on my first time

That would be a big bite!!!! Is that rock salt or onion clogging to the fish? Funky regional foods are fun. I wonder how the Scandinavians would react to folks cutting up a tuna on the back of the boat and eating it raw with soy sauce and wasabi or cleaning out a spiny lobster's bunghole using his own antenna?

 

[jdm61]

Are there any foods from your hometown or region that you have never had any inerest in trying? For me, that would have to be lamb fries from the state of my birth, Kentucky. For those who do not know what they are, they are sheep's tesicles sliced, breaded and fried. To make it even funnier/more gorse, they are typical served with white cream gravy. I'll pass. With that said, I have never tried a couple of the other Kentucky dishes, burgoo and mutton BBQ and would like to.

 

[unionrdr]

I like to dry rub a lag of lamb & smoke it a few hours with ash wood in my pit. Add a ham & you've got Easter dinner. My family loves it!

 

[jdm61]

I like to dry rub a lag of lamb & smoke it a few hours with ash wood in my pit. Add a ham & you've got Easter dinner. My family loves it!

I have had lamb prepared in a goodly number of ways, but never mutton. BBQ'ing lamb might be considered cheating because it tends to be a high quality meat that does not need hours of flavor and tenderness enhancing abuse.

 

[podz]

I like to dry rub a lag of lamb & smoke it a few hours with ash wood in my pit. Add a ham & you've got Easter dinner. My family loves it!

I grilled boneless leg of lamb twice already this week. Outstanding flavor, cooked to rare - medium-rare. In fact, I just cut up about 20 pounds of the stuff in to small pieces, removing fat and gristle, for use in making curries during the winter. My freezer is a bit packed now!

 

[unionrdr]

Lamb is also a lean meat with the fat on the outer carcass, like a deer. So it can dry out if ill-prepared. Low & slow just adds more tenderness & layers of flavor.

 

[dinnerstick]

yeah... lamb/mutton shank, slow cooked on the bone....

 

[Jacob_Marley]

scousers

 

[Jacob_Marley]

When I get lamb it is usually for making the gyros meat (donar/schwarma) for making homemade souvlakis.

Actually I have a leg of lamb in the freezer right now that I've been procrastinating on making. Soon.

 

[dinnerstick]

scousers

err... liverpudlians?

 

[Jacob_Marley]

err... liverpudlians?

yeah ... actually the lamb stew they are named for (scouse).

 

[Jacob_Marley]

... while I'm at it ... scousers ... (ok, a bit silly ... but here it is anyway)
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBYlXfjKru4[/ame]

(apologies for being so OT)

 

[dinnerstick]

ah- i know it as lobscouse! gotcha