HAPPY MEMORIES OF SURSTROMMING. A Swedish friend writes in response to Sven Grundberg’s article:
“This is real Viking food.
I have great memories of eating surströmming with my … Swedish family. At least two cans, bulging at the seams, boiled potatoes, goat cheese, flat Norwegian bread, onion, beer and lots and lots and lots of brännvin (akavit) which we used to distill ourselves (in the sauna) before Sweden joined the EU and booze got cheaper.
Drink first to get the courage.
Then take the fish and remove the bones and add all the ingredients above to make an open-faced sandwich. Hold your nose. Eat.
You gotta eat to be part of the dinner and to give proof that you are not a wuss. But two was usually enough.
Then you can watch the piles of bones grow. My Dad’s so high you hardly see him behind the bones and my brother … not far behind.
Me, I would just continue to drink.
A time to remember …..”