It’s a typical northern Minnesota midwinter morning. It’s cold with just a few clouds scattered in the sky. In one of my posts last week, I commented on how we are more like from country to country than we are different. I used an example from my life about the expression of grief. There are even more essential elements in our lives. We need to eat is an example. Yet, we might see someone eating something that’s strange or even revolting to us. We all need to eat, but we just disagree on what to eat.
There is a winter food that the Scandinavian settlers to this part of the country felt was needed to make a complete Christmas season. That food is lutefisk. It starts its life as dried and salt cod. Dried and salted cod was a major export for the Scandinavian countries. Almost all of the Western European countries have recipes for dried and salted cod. Scandinavian’s Christmas recipe calls for the dried and salted cod to be soaked in a lye solution for some days before being prepared as part of the Christmas feast. These feasts have different names. From Wikipedia, “Norwegian julebord and Swedish julbord, as well as the similar Finnish joulupöytä.” The cooking process yields a strong odor of fish. That and the fact that fish becomes gelatinous in texture turns most people off from even trying it.
The strangest of foods in most countries are found in celebrations. However, they are still just food. Lutefisk smells strongly of fish, and in your mouth, it feels like Jell-O. Clearly, those two characteristics make it’s something that someone not of Scandinavian heritage would even be willing to try. The Lutheran Church recognized that fact and made it a lutefisk or Swedish meatball dinner they hold each year around Christmas time. The Lutheran Church can serve as an example. They recognize lutefisk is not for everyone. However, they still want everyone to celebrate Christmas with them. People who come to these Christmas dinners gently tease the Scandinavians for eating “stinking jellied fish.” If only we could do the same with religions, our skin color, or 100 different other things, it would be a better world.
One Response
Indeed!