It’s my last Monday in Poland, as one week from today I’ll be in Uppsala, Sweden talking about my research on speciation in fruit flies. It will be fun—so long as my hosts don’t make me eat Surströmming! Today we’re all going to Włocławek for shopping and diverse tasks, so posting may be light. Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili shows an unusual degree of empathy for a cat:
Jerry: Why are you sad?
Hili: Because you are going to travel somewhere and who will take care of you?
In Polish:
Jerry: Czemu jesteś smutna?
Hili: Bo znowu gdzieś pojedziesz i kto się będzie tobą opiekował?
They’ve probably imported some hákarl especially for you. If they could get the weapons-import permit organised in time.
With some salmiak salt-liquorice for dessert?
And washed down with some of that fine Norwegian akkavit which comes in the plastic bottles and proudly proclaims itself to be “fusel-frei” (I have run my own stills and learned my lessons. It really is important to get your procedures right to get rid of the fusel oils, because they taste really, really foul. Unfortunately, their absence isn’t a good marker of safety, since methanol has a much weaker taste per mole. You still don’t want to drink “mit fusel” akkavit either. Except possibly to singe away the taste of the hákarl. Seeing this stuff on sale in the duty-free shop, and understanding it’s proud advertising claims, made it’s purchase unavoidable, bizarre though the concept of buying liquor in Norway at Norwegian prices may sound.)
Incidentally, now that I run through a compendium of Scandanavian food “horrors”, I recall grabbing a tub of liquorice “drops” in Bergen a differnt time we were diverted there, and while peculiar, astringent and [haaargh!]strong[!], they weren’t actually unpleasant. I’m now wondering if they were a variant of the salmiak. The wife loathes them, and I ration their sugar content carefully, but they’re still in the cupboard at home and get a nibble on occasions.
There’s a culinary challenge looming there, along the lines of the infamous (and probably apocryphal) “Endangered Species Club”).
Salt licorice is delicious but I think no one does it better than the Dutch with their DZ!
My Cloggy colleague in the coring cabin agrees with you – and it seems that the Norwegian stuff I recall is indeed a variant of “salt liquorice”. Which I can resist, but is definitely an interesting flavour.
My friend got me some of that when he went to Norway. It’s ok but no DZ.
I shall add “DZ” to the to-do list for next time I am in the Land of Clog. Along with the Escher Museum.
Retired guy giving a talk at a meeting about his work. There is something I am missing here?
Interesting how dots over o, u and a get mixed up. It’s surströmming, with the dots over the o, to indicate that the vowel is pronounced as in “her” and not as in “john”.
The various Nordic countries have their different specialties in food with extreme taste. The hakarl is cured shark from Iceland. I can well remember when our Icelandic host took us to the place where it’s made (there is only one, nowadays). When the owner, Hildebrandur, showed us around, his grandchildren, age 5-6,came running, knowing there was a treat to be had. They feasted on big chunks, whereas we Swedish visitors could hardly manage a small sliver, if at all. As our Icelandic host had well foreseen. In the evening we returned to his home and had the most delicious wild duck.
Jerry rejoices, it’s not Surströmming! Yay!
Gets Lutefisk instead. 😉
NO WAY I’M EATING LUTEFISK; I know about that too!
Isn’t lutefisk that stuff that you find on the beach that d*gs love to roll in?
b&
Skipp the surströmming, and the lutfisk, both are inedible imho. But make sure you are treated to some other delicious Scandinavian foods. My personal favourite is cheesecake from Småland. Served with whipped cream and cloudberry jam it’s heavenly. Pickled herring in various flavours together with a cold beer and a glass of flavoured vodka is a great treat as well.