Bizarre Food in Sweden

(Reposting from an old WordPress post )

Summer is meant for picnics in the park! In Sweden, that means there will definitely be some potatos and some herring. Swedes are all about pickled herring but it's not for everyone. We've tried many different types of herring and it's not bad with a cracker and maybe some cream cheese. 

Pickled herring or 'sill' at a Christmas buffet comes in many varieties.

Often people back home ask me what the weirdest thing I've eaten in Sweden is. I'd say pickled herring was one of the things. Maybe the tube caviar 'Kalles' as well. But really, after traveling in Asia, pickled herring or sill (in Swedish) is not too bizarre.

Kalles, caviar in a tube.

Surströmming, however, is herring that has been fermented and canned. There are apparently 2 types you can eat - one is from last year (it has a slimy texture) and the other is 'new' prepared (canned) in August which is more firm. Usually it's more of a tradition in the North of Sweden and many Swedes who live elsewhere haven't even tried it!

Yes, there are a few videos of people trying surströmming and even puking it out, which is gross. When I heard that a Swedish guy was having a picnic to try it, I had to tag along.

This was my first introduction to Surströmming and that was enough. We were fortunate to miss the opening of the can - apparently the smell was 10x worse, but even when we got there a bit afterwards, there was still an odor. Actually it was only after the wind started blowing in our direction that we were all like..."What is that stinky smell?!?" It smelled a bit like the garbage room actually. And we were told they had even rinsed the fish in water after opening the can haha...

That rotten, stinky fish they call Surströmming!! This one is 'new' prepared in August. This type you need to remove the fish bones and skin before eating. There was a surströmming 'expert' at the picnic who showed us how to do that (She was from the North of Sweden).

Removing the bones while trying not to touch the fish, otherwise your hands will smell...

When you remove the bones and the skin, there isn't really much 'meat' which was great for us since we really just wanted to try a tiny bit.

Time for a bite!

"It's so oniony"

The tradition is to put the surströmming on a cracker with a ton of other things - honestly if you have to eat something covered by so many other things, you know something's wrong. This cracker or tunnbröd was covered in boiled potato, creme fraiche, tomato, chives, red onion and of course bits of surströmming.

We also tried it by itself and it really was NOT something I need to try again haha. It wasn't the texture really, it was more the combination of the smell with the flavors of saltiness, and strong onion that wasn't very pleasant. But hey, we were willing to try it and I'm proud of how adventurous we are. It's just something you have to do when you are in a different culture - try different things that may seem strange and bizarre to us :) and who knows maybe sometimes you might enjoy it (not the case with the surströmming though).

Don't forget your snacks!