Sunday, February 9, 2014

Lutefisk Dinner

I had dinner at a Norwegian Lutheran church.  This is unusual because I am neither Norwegian nor Lutheran.  But friends of mine are, so I bought tickets from them because it meant a lot to them that I enjoy their church's big annual event.

It was a lutefisk dinner.  Lutefisk.  Cod preserved with lye, then decades later reconstituted, rinsed many times and cooked into a fish-flavored mess that has the texture of Jell-O.  Fish flavored Jell-O.

Here's a platter of yummy lutefisk.


Mmmmm boy, that's some mighty fine lutefisk, Sven.

There were maybe five hundred diners in the church's dining hall.  I dragged along Mrs. Haz, and a niece and nephew who have a foreign exchange student from Norway living with them.    It turns out the foreign exchange student, although a certified Norwegian, had never eaten Lutefisk.  Phone calls made to her parents earlier in the day resulted in warnings that she not try it.  There was trepidation on her face.

Dinner was served family style.  Platters of lutefisk, meatballs, carrots, potatoes, lefse and other things were passed around.  And bowls of melted butter and hot white sauce as well.  The butter and white sauce were used to drown the lutefisk.    I smuggled in a shaker of cracked red peppers and another shaker of chipotle peppers.  They were passed around with glee.

Norwegian prayers were said.  They were mostly "ferdie fuddie merdie langheotie dubutie" or something.  Our guest had perfect Norwegian diction, noted by the other Norwegian wannabes who long ago forgot most of the language their grandparents spoke.

So how vas it?  Actually......not bad.  Drowned in butter, white sauce, chipotle and crushed peppers, it was pretty good.  I had seconds.  As did my Norwegian guest.  It was okay.  No one died, as far as I know.

Dinner was cleared and trays of desserts were brought around.  Dainty, yummy Norwegian thingamajigs with powdered sugar and fruit and lingonberry jam.  Delicious. 

The dinner was nice.  Happy conversation with strangers and with people I knew.  Lots of sweaters with reindeer on them.  Happy church members, their faces flush form a long day of hard work in the kitchen.

I told them you'll be there next year.

20 comments:

Synova said...

I've been Norwegian all my life and I have NEVER had lutefisk.

To the tune of Oh Tanenbaum.

Oh lutefisk, oh lutefisk, how fragrant your aroma.

Oh lutefisk, oh lutefisk, you put me in a coma.

(for got the next couple stanzas)

Oh lutefisk, come Saturday, I think I'll eat you anyway.

Vs. 2

Oh lutefisk, oh lutefisk, I put you by the doorvay.

I wanted you to ripen up, just like they do in Norway.

A dog came by and sprinkled you. I hit him vid and army shoe.

Oh, lutefisk, now I suppose, I'll eat you while I hold my nose.

Calypso Facto said...

First, and only, time I had the Lute was right after completion of the Lutefisk Triathlon in Osseo. They wouldn't give me a beer 'til I tried it. Salty fish taste is my recollection. No need to suffer through it in this age of refrigeration!

Titus said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Trooper York said...

Cleanup on aisle sixty nine.

bagoh20 said...

A beautifully executed triple of hate, racism and violent bigoted fantasy without even the slightest splash of compassion. I give it a 10. Titus is our resident angry racist bigot,... and a fag. That's an ugly combination, isn't it? I guess simply being a decent man was too much of a reach, huh? Hell, you're basically anonymous, so why not give it try? On the internet you can be whoever you want, and you chose asshole? That's not really very special and far from fab. Try again.

rcocean said...

I came here to make a nice comment on Lutefisk, which Garrison Keillor has turned into a profitable joke, and I encounter HATE!!!

So, I'll be interested if this thread goes anywhere, or just dies.

rcocean said...

It's going into a Lutheran church for Sunday service and encountering some crazy person shouting that "God is Dead"

bagoh20 said...

Well, a lot of people do HATE lutefisk, so once the hate is rolling, you got to expect spillover.

bagoh20 said...

""God is Dead" "

"He who believes in me shall have everlasting life."

So the question is: Is God a believer?

ndspinelli said...

Titus is so Althousian and Ingaish. Sad.

Chip Ahoy said...

That whole time aren't you thinking what can be done with regular cod fish.

It's almost the perfect nothing fish. Tofu fish.

And yet it is sturdy.

I like it lightly breaded, as fish and chips, but in tempura form.

cod tempura 1

cod tempura 2

But this far inland all cod comes frozen and that changes things. Looking back I see the idea lodged to process it to fibers and mix with mashed potato and fry the combined mixture.

cod and potato

cod and potato (fried balls)

cod with thick strawberry sauce

The best way is virgin. That means do not mess with it. Not messing with it means drowning it in loose tomato sauce. But only barely drowned, that is slain but not murdered barely cooked. Cooked and watched so carefully it is lifted off at the moment the innermost flake denatures at low temperature, like egg, poached in liquid that is not even boiling.

AllenS said...

I went to a Norwegian lutefisk dinner at my girlfriends relatives once. My first lutefisk encounter. I knew there was going to be trouble when we sat down at the table and she had a piece of lutefisk about the size of a quarter.

Yes, the potatoes, butter and everything else is served to mash it up with the lutefisk so you can eat it. It's not like a piece of steak where you chew it to enjoy the flavor. I also noticed that the eat really fast.

An enormous amount of wegians around here and they can fill up any church when they serve it.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

A man had a family of raccoons under his deck and could not get rid of them. His neighbor said to put some lutefisk under there and that will drive them out.

A few weeks later the neighbor asked how it worked.

Great he said, the raccoons left right away. The problem is a family of Norwegians moved in.

AllenS said...

That's an old joke, but still funny to hear it. LOL

AllenS said...

And when I say about the size of a quarter, I mean thickness and circumference.

deborah said...

Nick:
"Titus is so Althousian..."

I find it meaningful that after the Great Schism she made a shout-out post to him, essentially inviting him back. On the other hand, I don't know the meaning.

JAL said...

I was confused by Bagho @ 11:26, but then realized some comment beyond the pale which had been removed was his target.

Keep it clean so I can pass this post along to my Norwegians legal immigrant friends (the wife arrived with $38 in her pocket and worked her fanny off as an au pair to start. He became a builder. They became quite successful. Great American success story) and a couple of second generation Minnesotans who immigrated out of the great snowy north.

We are taking bets here to see who has eaten it -- 50 /50 we think.

Trooper York said...

The Evil Blogger Lady loves her trolls. So much so that she married one.

Trooper York said...

Usually they keep that under wraps.

That is why you never met Elphaba Thropp's hubby.

MamaM said...

The Evil Blogger Lady loves her trolls...

For all anyone knows, she too might have thought of him as her "Dear Titi".