I always thought that Norway had the most really “out there” food dishes.
Most of you know about lutefisk, codfish filets sun dried on wooden racks sitting atop of knolls by the sea. The meat shrivels up, to be reconstituted by soaking the dried cod fish in lye, making the meat swell back up, then rinsed in many, many (cannot rinse it enough) fresh water baths, then boiled and served with stewed peas and crisp bacon.
If you ever partake in a lutefisk supper, just make sure there is a clear path to the bathroom.
One of the other fish “delicacies” is the famous or infamous rakfisk. It’s a very old dish and the first record of the term rakfisk dates back to 1348. It is fermented fish. Usually fresh trout that is gutted, rinsed and placed in a bucket with salt and some sugar sprinkled in to boost the fermentation. A tight-sealing lid is placed on the bucket which is then cooled to five degrees Celsius, and stored for at least three months or longer, and then the fish is ready to be served.
The Norskies have another strange fish dish, and maybe there is something fishy about all this. The dish is called gravlaks and it came to be in the middle ages. It’s a salmon dish. The fish is gutted, cleaned and rinsed. The salmon is then split in half and deboned. Each side is rubbed with coarse salt, sugar and dill. Add a couple of drops of akevitt. Press the sides together, wrap in Saranwrap, place between a couple of flat plates, add some light pressure and let sit for about a week in the fridge and serve.
Then there is the Norwegian dish called smalahove. It’s a sheep’s head where the skin and fleece of the head is torched, and the head is salted, smoked and dried. Then the head is boiled or steamed for three to four hours, and served. Akevitt is traditionally consumed while dining on a smalahove. Personally, I would have to consume copious amounts of akevitt before I would even try to look at, never mind eat some of the sheep’s head.
It was in Canada that I first heard about rolled oats. It initially conjured up a vision in my mind where bales of oats where rolling across a field. I realized, of course, that there must be some other way of creating rolled oats, so I thought perhaps the oat kernels would somehow roll and split in half. I have researched how to make rolled oats, and have come to the conclusion that the farmer delivers the oats at one end of the mill, and somehow it comes out as rolled oats at the other end.
I have always wondered how they make pulled pork. Does the slaughterhouse pull the meat from the pig carcasses? Does the butcher use his hands instead of knives? Perhaps the butcher pulls the leftover meat off the bones? However, I found out that it is the tough cuts of meat that are cooked slowly at low temperatures, causing the meat to become tender so it can be easily pulled into individual pieces. I’m not pulling your leg.
The people of Iceland have created a dish that might outdo any Norwegian dish as far as being gross. They serve up hakari, a rotten Greenland shark, fermented and decayed. Ugh! The rotting carcass of a Greenland (somniosidae) shark, commonly known as the sleeper shark, is buried underground in a shallow pit, pressed down with stones, causing the poisonous internal fluids allowing it to live in the cold water, to be drained out, making the meat safe to eat. Then it’s hung out to dry before cutting the meat into strips and served. When served, it gives off a putrid aroma of ammonia mixed with rotten fish odour. I’d say that this beats Lutefisk all to heck.
The Scots created a foul and disgusting dish in an effort to keep the marauding Vikings at bay. It’s called haggis. It is celebrated as a Scottish national dish, probably because no other nation, Norway included, would make claim to such a dish. The Scots grabbed it because it was free.
It is described as a savoury pudding containing ground sheep’s tongue, heart, liver and lungs and minced onions, oatmeal, suet, dried herbs and salt, all mixed with sheep stock and encased in a sheep’s stomach. Boiled for at least three hours on high heat, it is then served. Ugh!
The most dangerous dish is found in Asia and people are actually dying for it. It’s called birds’ nest soup. It’s supposedly a delicacy made from the nest of the swiftlet bird, which instead of collecting twigs for a nest, creates a nest out of its own gummy saliva, which turns hard when exposed to air. The bird usually nests high up on cliff faces, making the harvest of the nests a very dangerous business, and many people fall to their deaths every year. The nest is dissolved in heated chicken stock with herbs, spices and a diced chicken breast. The soup takes about two to three hours to make. No thanks!
Our local grocery store installed new systems to entice buyers: an automatic watering system for fresh fruit and veggies. Before water is sprayed, you hear thunder and enjoy the smell of summer rain. The dairy section provides us with cows lowing and a whiff of fresh cut hay. There are sounds of clucking hens in the egg section, accompanied by aroma of fried eggs and bacon. However, we don’t buy toilet paper there anymore.
