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With a distinctive odor and gelatinous texture, lutefisk is definitely an acquired taste. Unlike salmon and tuna, you can't actually go out fishing for lutefisk, because it's not a specific fish itself; rather, it's a form of whitefish (traditionally cod) that is air dried until hard. Then, the fish is softened by soaking it in water and lye before consuming. The word lutefisk itself translates roughly to "lye fish," says Smithsonian Magazine. Considered peasant food, this method was used to preserve any leftover fish that wasn't sold or cooked. While it originated in Scandinavia (particularly Sweden and Norway), lutefisk...

LUTEFISK DAY On December 9th, Lutefisk Day reminds residents in Norway, Finland, and Sweden to begin preparing their lutefisk for Christmas. The day is also referred to as Anna’s Day. In case you’re not Scandinavian, lutefisk is basically cod that gets soaked in lye. After the cod is caught, it’s dried to the point of becoming firm and leathery. To tenderize the fish and bring it back to its former condition, it gets soaked in lye. Once it’s nice and tender, the lutefisk is skinned and boned. Finally, the fish is boiled until it reaches a gelatinous consistency. Another way...

National Lutefisk Day! YA YA VE SKAL HA LUTEFISK N LEFSA

Earlier this month, Swedish Minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson delivered her maiden speech as head of the Swedish Social Democratic Party... “If you are young,” she said, “you must obtain a high school diploma and go on to get a job or higher education.” If you receive financial aid from the state, “you must learn Swedish and work a certain number of hours a week.” The Social Democrats now deploy the harsh language only far-right nativists of the Sweden Democrats party used in 2015... all major parties today stand for a restrictive migration policy with a strong focus on law...

Norway has decided to prohibit the selling of all gasoline-powered cars by 2025, according to Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv. The ban, which has received support from political parties on the left and the right, is pegged to be the most aggressive anti-gasoline energy policies of its kind in the world – the irony, of course, is that Norway is one of the largest producers of fossil fuels in the entire world. Norwegians produced and exported in 2013 more than 1.2 million barrels of oil, placing it 14th overall on a list of exporting countries, just below Qatar and Mexico. India...

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...

Chris Dorff, president of Olsen Fish Co. in Minneapolis, holds pieces of dried ling cod from Norway before it is made into lutefisk. While America’s foodie culture has inspired a new generation of chefs who have created gourmet delicacies from ethnic food traditions, lutefisk — a dried white cod reconstituted in caustic chemicals — is one heritage dish that has remained stubbornly unimproved.(Associated Press) LITCHFIELD, Minn. — Dozens of Minnesota Scandinavians and the people who love them flock to the VFW Club in Litchfield every Thursday from November through January, where $20 will get you a big steaming hunk of...

It's the moment nosy Norwegian neighbors have been waiting for — the release of official records showing the annual income and overall wealth of nearly every taxpayer in the Scandinavian country. In a move that would be unthinkable elsewhere, tax authorities in Norway have issued the "skatteliste," or "tax list," for 2008 to the media under a law designed to uphold the country's tradition of transparency. It's Norwegians' way of keeping up with the Johansens — from fishermen on the western fjords and Sami reindeer herders in the north to members of the committee that awarded President Barack Obama the...

STOCKHOLM (AP) - First he thought it was a piece of plastic floating near the shoreline. When he got closer, 73-year-old Kurt Ove Eriksson realized the 12-foot (3.65-meter) serpent-like object was a rare creature from the depths of the ocean. Marine biologists later determined Eriksson had found a Giant Oarfish — the world's largest bony fish — last seen in Swedish waters about 130 years ago. "It was very long and shiny," Eriksson told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "It also had whiskers, even though it looked like they had been broken off. And a strange light-pink dorsal fin." A...

Bismarck, N.D. - BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Former White House political adviser Karl Rove says he has an appreciation for all things Norse. Except lutefisk. "Any food that's key element is lye takes an acquired taste," Rove said of the dried cod dish that is reconstituted by soaking it in the alkaline solution. Lutefisk aside, the top strategist for former President George W. Bush said Tuesday that his Scandinavian roots run deep. His stepfather was of Norwegian ancestry, he said. "I have a brother, uncle and great-uncle named Olaf," Rove said. Rove is to North Dakota to be inducted into...

Fringe Foods: Lutefisk dinner at Lakeview Lutheran Church in MadisonScandinavians concoct a blessedly rare congregation of whitefish and lyeKyle Nabilcy on Monday 11/10/2008 2:30 pm, (1) Comment, (22) Recommendations Lefse, cole slaw, cranberries, and lutefisk make for a smörgåsbord of goodness at Lakeview Lutheran.Credit:Kyle Nabilcy Article Tools: Read more Fringe Foods itemsEmail this articleEmail the author Leave it to the descendants of the Vikings to celebrate a food prepared with a caustic and highly dangerous substance. Those were some bad-ass guys. Sure, you can get some bad French cheese that'll make you sick, or a spoiled hunk of Italian ham....

Attendees at the recent "Rocky Horror" theater production in Middleton showed up in leather and fishnets, but for "Church Basement Ladies" at Overture Center, the costumes in the audience were just a little different. Mary Ann Jarred donned a light blue apron and vintage hat with a metal whisk and plastic measuring cups dangling from her belt. In her purse she carried several Lutheran church cookbooks, including one with a salad recipe that called for a can of shoestring beets, horseradish and lemon Jell-O. Nancy Pike and her mother, Doreen Davidson, sported aprons, hats and brightly patterned purses made from...

Just as Norwegian delegates to the UN's conference on climate change started heading home from Bali, came news that Norway's own carbon emissions rose 80 percent from 1990 to 2004. Statoil's refinery at Mongstad is the biggest contributor. Environmental group Zero has made a list of the 25 largest generators of emissions in Norway. Not surprisingly, the country's oil and gas industry figures heavily on the list. The Mongstad refinery on Norway's west coast spews out the most carbon, followed by the new gas power plant Naturkraft at Kårstø in Rogaland County. Then comes the Statfjord oil platform in the...

A potential collaboration between Telenor and Telia could result in extremely high speed broadband for 1.8 million Swedish households. Computer Sweden magazine reports that Telenor has invited Telia for talks about the new vdsl2 technology. The cost of developing a vdsl2 network in Sweden is estimated at 10 billion kronor ($1.5 billion). "The best thing would be for Telia, Telenor and Tele 2 to reach an agreement on how best to finance the investment," Telenor's Swedish CEO Johan Lindgren told Computer Sweden. If implemented, the system is expected to grant almost two million Swedish households access to a broadband capacity...

Controversy simmered in Poulsbo, Washington, a US town founded by Norwegian immigrants in the late 1800s, after this year's Miss Viking turned out to be untraditional. Jasmine Campbell, 17, won the honor on the strength of a combination of talent and a successful audition, but her blend of African and Latin American blood caused some temperatures to rise. The pageant organizers decided to go public after receiving a series of offensive, racist e-mails in reaction to Campbell's appointment, including sentiments like 'How dare you put an African American in there?'. The incident attracted attention after it was publicized by the...

Increasing numbers of foreign women are being dumped by their Norwegian husbands before they become eligible for permanent residency. That often means the women get sent out of the country, or have already left and can't return.In Pakistan, the situation has become so dramatic that the Norwegian embassy in Islamabad has sent a warning to Norwegian authorities back home.The warning noted that embassy officials have been contacted by more and more women who view themselves as being dumped in Pakistan, after having married an ethnic Pakistani man with Norwegian residence. Newspaper VG referred to parts of the warning in Tuesday's...

and will I die if I do?

With the below average temperatures we have been having this past week there are a few fish houses starting to show up on the lakes. We must remind ourselves that although the air temperature is low there may be safety hazards because of the snow cover that we had on the ice before the below-average temperatures arrived. Proceeding onto the newly formed ice with caution is a must. Watching for pockets of thin ice hidden under a layer of snow is a good way to prevent a dangerous situation and keep you from being a statistic. As we near the...

Decorah, IA - The debris-strewn streets of this remote Midwestern hamlet remain under a tense 24-hour curfew tonight, following weekend demonstrations by rock- and figurine-throwing Lutheran farm wives that left over 200 people injured and leveled the Whippy Dip dairy freeze. The rioting appeared to be prompted, in part, by a report in Newsweek magazine claiming military guards at Spirit Lake’s notorious Okoboji internment center had flushed lutefisk down prison toilets. Newsweek’s late announcement of a retraction seems to have done little to quell the inflamed passions of Lutheran insurgents in the region, as outbreaks of violent mailbox bashings and...

Scrapping looms for veteran linerTime seems to be running out for the venerable SS Norway. The former liner that helped launch Norwegian shipowners' venture into the cruise industry will reportedly be scrapped if no buyer steps forward by next week.The vessel continues to be owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL), but hasn't sailed since an explosion in its boiler room in 2003. The explosion and fire killed several crew members.Vastly in need of expensive renovation, the vessel has since been berthed at Bremerhaven in Germany. NCL initially announced plans to repair the vessel, but the Associated Press reported Friday that...