Lutefisk. Given that I had heard stories about how it was one of the worst foods on earth, I figured I was in for a harrowing journey into culinary hell. You take salt cod (which is cod that has been dehydrated and heavily salted, to the point where it resembles wood more than fish), pickle it in lye (the stuff you use to burn out clogs in pipes), then rinse the lye off and cook it. Sounds awful and dangerous, right? Nah, turns out it's pretty boring. I've had plenty of salt cod before (baccalá to Nan, bacalhau to Marissa's nan), and loved it. It turns out lutefisk is just salt cod with no texture whatsoever. Just baccalá-jelly. Not gross, just boring.
Blood sausage (swedish style). Been curious for years as to what it could taste like. I read a blog post where it was described as:
Instead of tasting like hemoglobin, it tastes like some sort of strange gingerbread... breakfasty... sausage... bread... But not metallic or anything that would make you think blood.
Exactly right.
It's something I'd want to eat on christmas morning, surprisingly sweet, rich texture. Totally awesome with jam.
My guy at the sausage shop (whose name I have to find out, lets just call him János) says he only makes them around the holidays. This is apparently why. I'll have to buy some.
Speaking of János, he's got entire legs worth of proscuitto hanging up. I think I might buy one and hang it in the closet. I'll keep you all posted.
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