It's A Fork-Off: Tasting The World's Foulest Food

I've had surströmming. Twice. And it's not that bad. There's this pattern of people NOT RINSING it.

First: You're supposed to open the can, submerged in a bucket of water. That'll avoid the spilling AND rinse the fish.

Second: You're supposed to eat it with other stuff. The traditional swedish way is: wrapped in soft bread (think swedish wheat tortillas), with lots of sour cream, mashed potatoes, chopped red onion, ...

Consumed that way, the fish is surprisingly good (it's still a bit.. intensive.. but I'm sure that I'd love it, given enough time). It's the blue cheese of fish.

When I visited Sweden I spoke with a friend there who had been born and raised way up in the north of Sweden. He said the people there would bury and ferment all sorts of things, including seal meat, whale blubber, and birds sewn into seal skins. I can understand how such a tradition would arise, as an effective way to store food in the wild safe from predators, though it's hard to imagine digging that up after six months and chowing down on it.

I enjoyed reading this. Reminds me of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy describing the worst poetry.

Would be funny to use either as a snack on a plane.