Looks like crap, smells like crap, but tastes not that bad!
Johnny Tong
28/01/2019
Individual Blog#1
Surströmming museum "Fiskevistet"
Last winter, I was on a trip to travel all the Nordics,to eat all the food, to see all the snow, to flirt all the girls, kinda feel like Anthony Bourdain. But besides all the boring schnitzels, meatballs and gravlax, something evil was long awaited for me kind of innocent tourist... Well, to be fair, I kinda deserved it. I was wandering in some small town where google didn't really help. So I asked a local mom if she had any authentic scandinavian food recommendation. With some help and good luck (or bad luck), I got to the little house up there, with full of unreadable swedish. The only readable sentence on a red can "MUST NOT OPEN INDOOR" simply reminded me what this devil I once saw on TV was...
Surströmming, the (in)famous swedish stinky fish. Photo courtesy: Wikipedia
Just like Hong Kong people, or Vietnameses, fishermen in Scandinavia share the same conventional wisdom in old days: using salt for fish preservation. Simply by storing the herrings in a bunch of salt and water without contact with air for a mouth or two, and let the enzymes and anaerobic bacteria do the rest (fermentation, autolysis), you then get the food with strongest and most disgusting smell (from hydrogen sulphide and acidic byproducts of metabolism) in the world. How strong was that you might ask. Well it was like diving your head in the sewer, with one single breathe, that garbage like acidic stink can enter your brain and linger for days. I was even warned not to take pictures with my cellphone. I am so glad I listened, coz my coat simply soaked with that unwashable stink, as if I havn't taken a shower for a year. And look at the fish themselves! They were literally rotting that you could see some bubbles were coming out!
But, a wiseman once said, don't judge a book with its cover. So despite of that shitty smell (pun intended), I still put a tiny bit of that in my mouth and started hopelessly chewing it. What the f... wait it's not that bad!? It was really salty but it was not bad at all! It tasted kinda like a mix of fermented bean curd (腐乳) and preserved salt fish (鹹魚), both taste-wise and texture-wise. It worked even better when I ate it with my nose pressed, all I felt was only the saltiness but the stinks. No wonder people say 80% of flavour come from smells!
The museum guide told me, they usually serve Surströmming with potato salad to further reduce the saltiness, together with crispy flat bread and beers. From his ambiguous smile, I knew he knew we both wanted some more. So with no further interruption, we cracked some more beers, ate more Surströmming with more mixed feelings, and talked about everything! And did I tell you about me being thought as a drunk and stinky hobo on my way back? Well thats another story for another day...
Cheers!
28/01/2019
Individual Blog#1
Surströmming museum "Fiskevistet"
Last winter, I was on a trip to travel all the Nordics,to eat all the food, to see all the snow, to flirt all the girls, kinda feel like Anthony Bourdain. But besides all the boring schnitzels, meatballs and gravlax, something evil was long awaited for me kind of innocent tourist... Well, to be fair, I kinda deserved it. I was wandering in some small town where google didn't really help. So I asked a local mom if she had any authentic scandinavian food recommendation. With some help and good luck (or bad luck), I got to the little house up there, with full of unreadable swedish. The only readable sentence on a red can "MUST NOT OPEN INDOOR" simply reminded me what this devil I once saw on TV was...
Surströmming, the (in)famous swedish stinky fish. Photo courtesy: Wikipedia
Just like Hong Kong people, or Vietnameses, fishermen in Scandinavia share the same conventional wisdom in old days: using salt for fish preservation. Simply by storing the herrings in a bunch of salt and water without contact with air for a mouth or two, and let the enzymes and anaerobic bacteria do the rest (fermentation, autolysis), you then get the food with strongest and most disgusting smell (from hydrogen sulphide and acidic byproducts of metabolism) in the world. How strong was that you might ask. Well it was like diving your head in the sewer, with one single breathe, that garbage like acidic stink can enter your brain and linger for days. I was even warned not to take pictures with my cellphone. I am so glad I listened, coz my coat simply soaked with that unwashable stink, as if I havn't taken a shower for a year. And look at the fish themselves! They were literally rotting that you could see some bubbles were coming out!
But, a wiseman once said, don't judge a book with its cover. So despite of that shitty smell (pun intended), I still put a tiny bit of that in my mouth and started hopelessly chewing it. What the f... wait it's not that bad!? It was really salty but it was not bad at all! It tasted kinda like a mix of fermented bean curd (腐乳) and preserved salt fish (鹹魚), both taste-wise and texture-wise. It worked even better when I ate it with my nose pressed, all I felt was only the saltiness but the stinks. No wonder people say 80% of flavour come from smells!
The museum guide told me, they usually serve Surströmming with potato salad to further reduce the saltiness, together with crispy flat bread and beers. From his ambiguous smile, I knew he knew we both wanted some more. So with no further interruption, we cracked some more beers, ate more Surströmming with more mixed feelings, and talked about everything! And did I tell you about me being thought as a drunk and stinky hobo on my way back? Well thats another story for another day...
Cheers!
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