The lutefisk dinners are here! Time to head to Van Nuys for traditional fish, meatballs, aquavit

Los Angeles Times ^ | November 13, 2015 | Eddie Lin

[EveningStar]

With an unofficial slogan of Take the Risk, Try Lutefisk, it's a pretty safe assumption that dining on lutefisk is not your average meal. That's what's printed on the aprons at Sons of Norway, Norrona Lodge No. 50 in Van Nuys, and you can kind of see why.

A traditional Scandinavian dish of lye-treated whitefish, lutefisk is found most places where there's a decent-sized Scandinavian population, and it's part of the seasonal table: Thanksgiving to Christmas is considered lutefisk season.

Lucky for you, the dish is also available once a year at a lutefisk and meatball community dinner at the Sons of Norway lodge's Norrona chapter, where it's been dished up since the mid-1940s. One member has attended the dinners since 1951.

[EveningStar]

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[EveningStar]

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[Red Badger]

The aquavit is to kill the taste and the memory of the lutefisk.....................

[SuzyQue]

I guess the aquavit is necessary to get the lutefisk down?

[Organic Panic]

AWWW DARNIT... I have to wash my hair and can’t make it to a lutefisk feast.

[Snickering Hound]

No.

[bigbob]

Fish in lye almost makes that horrible tartar sauce look good

[Larry Lucido]

"What the hell is that??"

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Pass.

[Snickering Hound]

Oddly enough, it's easier to get lutefisk in communities here in the US with Scandinavian populations that in Scandinavia itself.

They're not so broke anymore that they have to eat fish preserved with lye, it's mostly served here on a dare...

[who_would_fardels_bear]

"They lie to the fish." -- Robert DuVall to Michael Douglas in Falling Down.

"Yes, we lye the fish." -- Sons of Norway

[dainbramaged]

Lutefisk with spuds, peas and a white sauce isn’t bad unless it’s been cooked into jelly. Slightly bitter finish but pretty bland otherwise, in my experience.

[al baby]

ES do you havea link to my storing of gasoline thread or a way of searching for it ?

[Jack Hydrazine]

[faithhopecharity]

“lutefisk,” the dining test of a real Viking... also known as ‘roofing shingles’

[AngelesCrestHighway]

There's a decent-sized Scandinavian population in Van Nuys...? Last time I went thru Van Nuysio it was not Scandinavian...Ole!

[umgud]

I went to Jr High in Van Nuys in the 60’s. Never had this fish.

[JimRed]

They're not so broke anymore that they have to eat fish preserved with lye, it's mostly served here on a dare...

Just as we no longer have to eat jerky, because we now have refrigeration to keep meat from spoiling. The lye killed the bacteria that would have caused decay and preserved the fish.

Now, jerky and lutefisk are specialty items instead of regular fare.

[niteowl77]

Many, many years ago, I went to a (Lutheran) church supper as the guest of an elderly neighbor whose own grandchildren could not attend. Not having any previous experience with the Swedish cuisine this particular congregation favored, I walked into that big old room woefully unprepared for what I found.

The kringle was good; the lefse was palatable; the lutefisk was...
"regrettable" (H/T to James Lileks).

All in all, I considered it to be a weird experience with bad food as the central theme. Fifty years later, I remain firm in that opinion.

Mr. niteowl77