Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 To: StBedes@list.via-caritas.org From: "Edith" Subject: Aquavit and Lutefisk To understand the relationship between aquavit (a fairly strong anise liqueur) and lutefisk (a Norwegian "delicacy"), here's an experiment you can do at home. In addition to aquavit, you will need a slice of lemon, a cracker, a dishtowel, ketchup, a piece of lettuce, some caviar, and a Kit-Kat candy bar. 1. Take a shot aquavit -- drink it. 2. Take two. (They're small.) 3. Put a bit of caviar on a bit of lettuce. 4. Put the lettuce on a cracker. 5. Squeeze some lemon juice on the caviar. 6. Pour some ketchup on the Kit-Kat bar. 7. Tie the dishtowel around your eyes. If you can taste the difference between caviar on a cracker and ketchup on a Kit-Kat while blindfolded, you have not had enough aquavit to be ready for lutefisk. Return to step one. Lutefisk is definitely an acquired taste. It is best eaten after consuming a very hot cup of glog. The hot glog will burn off all your taste buds making it safe to eat the lutefisk. Lutefisk: Fish jello with an attitude. The peace of cod which passes all understanding ------------------------------ From: "Stephen C. Secaur" Edith, this is truly wonderful. I hope I have your permission to share it with some of my Lutepisc friends. Uncle Kracker ------------------------------ From: MaryRobin Ah, gloog --- the only time I EVER remember getting a contact high was at the Santa. Lucia party of my friends the Nordstroms at which glog was served. Then, again, they also served lutefisk..... Keep the faith, Mary Sicilia Puddle City, OR - where they think lutefisk is a reed instrument ------------------------------ From: "Stephen C. Secaur" I have often wondered if Scandihoovians and Italians could celebrate Santa Lucia together. By the way, at our annual party for the vestry at Chez Secaur last weekend, I made the famous 18 hour sauce that Mary and I bragged about cyberwise a few months back. I added chopped red peppers (not chilis) to it and it was the absolutely best sauce I have ever made in 30 years of cooking it. I also put more of the red wine into me while cooking than into the sauce which made the cooking extra enjoyable. I led the vestry in a chorus of Santa Lucia before we ate. Some of them didn't get it. Quel dommage. Uncle Fabio Kracker ------------------------------ From: MaryRobin Steve writes: << have often wondered if Scandihoovians and Italians could celebrate Santa Lucia together. >> MY questions about the Scandinavian observation of Santa Lucia has always been: what WAS a good Italian girl DOING wandering the northern wastes of Europe???? Glad "The Sauce" turned out, but I suspect that the wine downed by the chef had as much to do with that as the original recipe! Keep the faith, Mary Sicilia ------------------------------ From: Cantor03 Actually it might be better to eat some Lutefisk to turn the taste buds off for "Hot Glog". I can't imagine an alcoholic beverage with more of a taste challenge than Glog, although I think the Greek wine called "Retzina" might give it a run for the money. But, then, anything with ethanol in is a challenge for me, so much so that I've left it alone for twenty years now. David Strang. ------------------------------ From: "Stephen C. Secaur" >MY questions about the Scandinavian observation of Santa Lucia has always >been: what WAS a good Italian girl DOING wandering the northern wastes of >Europe???? And, with lit candles stuck in her hair as well !!! As a good Italian girl, I am sure she NEVER ate lutefisk. Fabio, wine-bibber ------------------------------ From: MaryRobin << As a good Italian girl, I am sure she NEVER ate lutefisk. >> Not as such, but surely you have heard of bucala?????? NOT this Italian girl's favorite dish, I'll tell you that! Keep the faith, Mary Sicilia Puddle City, OR ------------------------------ From: "Andrew H. Auld" > I can't imagine an alcoholic beverage with more of a taste challenge than > Glog, although I think the Greek wine called "Retzina" might give it > a run for the money. Ahhhhhh......Retsina, or, as we more affectionately called it: "Janitor in a Drum".....the trick is to get it cold enough you can't tell how bad it is before you're drunk enough not to care. - pax - Andrew H. Auld ------------------------------ From: "Andrew H. Auld" << As a good Italian girl, I am sure she NEVER ate lutefisk.>> AH! Thanks for reminding me, I must renew my friendship with the one girl I know that makes it for Christmas! - pax - Andrew H. Cod ------------------------------ From: "grbarr1 >>>Ahhhhhh......Retsina, or, as we more affectionately called it: "Janitor in a Drum>>> Retsina tastes the way I imagine Absorbine Jr. muscle rub would taste if consumed as a beverage. Not that I've ever sampled A.jr. But I've smelled it, and I've tasted Retsina. Once. Gillian ------------------------------ From: Rod/Hazel Peterson My sweetheart's auntie always makes lutefisk around Christmas time. One of my kids complained about going over to her house on lutefisk day "because she always makes that stuff that smells like diapers boiled in cod liver oil". For ghastly drinks - has anyone tried the Hungarian stuff that comes in a bottle shaped like an old fashioned bomb? I'm not sure which of the words on the bottle it goes by: UNICOM or ZWACK - presumably one is the drink, the other the maker. My sister swears it is the world's best hangover remedy. Hazel ------------------------------ From: John Dornheim I found that retsina was an acquired taste and better with the appropriate Greek meals than just by itself or with something else. Aquavit, with its distinctive caraway flavor, takes a little getting used to and, IIRC, was best consumed truly ice cold. I don't recall if I ever mixed it with anything as I haven't had any for almost 20 years. John Dornheim ------------------------------ From: Deborah Griffin Bly >Aquavit, was best consumed truly ice cold. Amen re Acquavit needing to be ice cold. In this house we have a tradition of freezing a bottle of Aalborg in an empty waxed milk carton. We put the bottle in, stuff holly and evergreens around the bottle, then fill with water and freeze. Then we peel the box off and have a beautiful icy "bottle" of acquavit to serve from to small crystal glasses, and then tossed back quickly. Makes guests say "Yeep yeep" a lot, for some reason. In Denmark (the true home of Acquavit) folks alternate shots of Acquavit with beer. They get extremely drunk in Denmark, at any time of year. And at any time of day too, now that I think about it. But as to the dreaded lutefisk: Yoost say Ne. I won't eat it. Luckily my mother has always hated it, so we didn't have to eat it either. My grandparents and my uncles actually liked the stuff... my uncle still does and is horrified that I have let this essential element of my heritage fall away. Mom always said she would not eat any food that moves all by itself. I do get hungry for rollepolse,lefse, aebleskiivers, and -- above all -- for krumkake at Christmas time. A bit of herring as well (but not much). Some of these I can find in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn at the very few Norski stores which remain.... and I do still make krumkake with my "Maid of Scandinavia" iron. But NEVER lutefisk.... that shivering jelly mess, oh no -- will not go there -- I was forced to confess to my aunt and uncle (who live in Federal Way, Washington state) that I would again not be eating lutefisk this Christmas Eve or any other time. They both said "Fi skam a deg!" (i.e. "Shame on you!") Christmas Eve we go to a party/dinner (after services) at the home of the wonderful Pastor of the Lutheran Church (ELCA) for which Bill and I both sing (the Rev. Martin Hauser, gentleman and scholar is Pastor). It's the most elegant party we ever go to.... cold salmon with dill sauce, filet mignon, prawns, pat=E9, champagne.... food goes on and on.... And we don't get home til 3, then back for a.m. service. Ufda. I blame John Dornheim+ (hullo sweetie!) for this gustatory wallowing... All your fault! I did tell you I started out Lut'ran, didn't I? Baptized at Phinney Ridge Lutheran in Seattle, Washington. And now, Episcopalian as I am, I make mistakes all the time during the Lutheran service -- for the words are so similar I just forget to look at the pages in the Lutheran Book of Worship. So few differences... And we're having incense... I feel totally at home. Church is Home. love Deb I love Ouzo, but can't stand Italian anisette (Sambuca, etc.). Too sweet. Ouzo much more satisfying, imo. Deborah Griffin Bly nyc ny usa ------------------------------ From: "Andrew H. Auld" > I found that retsina was an acquired taste and better with the > appropriate Greek meals than just by itself or with something else. Definite yes. My immediate thoughts when it was mentioned were of a little Greek place in North Vancouver, BC, with immense piles of sauteed squid and onions....that and a small touch of the girl that was then, and forever will be, the light of my dim little life. When in Greece, we consumed vast amounts of Domestica, IIRC (which is actually rather doubtful), in both red and white variety... and ate lamb, goat and rabbit this and that with potatoes fried in olive oil. Since olive oil has a lower cooking temperature than most oils, well, every thing eventually became saturated and you could just slide in and out of your clothes mainly. At any rate, upon returning to NA, we discovered that Domestica was not $.50 a bottle, after all...... - pax - Andrew H. Auld ------------------------------ From: John Dornheim >At any rate, upon returning to NA, we discovered that Domestica >was not $.50 a bottle, after all...... No, it's not. However, that was the price of admission at the Daphni wine festival where you drink all you wanted. IIRC, just a short busride from Athens. Nevertheless, Demestica is a decent little wine to go with Greek dishes. John Dornheim ------------------------------ From: Robert Leduc I had the adventure of living in Grand Forks, ND, for several years, where lutefisk is regarded with a certain mixture of awe and nostalgia. The funniest headline I ever saw in the Grand Forks Herald read as follows: "Inventor of Lutefisk T.V. Dinner Indicted" It was for mail fraud, not the invention. Could have fooled me. Rob ------------------------------ From: "James David Walley" > But as to the dreaded lutefisk: Yoost say Ne. According to Garrison Keillor, lutefisk was the fish used in the feeding of the multitudes. Only two fish were provided, everyone ate as much as they wanted, and twelve baskets were left over... ------------------------------ From: PWWhalon << Amen re Acquavit needing to be ice cold. I remember reading about the best aquavit being from a shipment on a freighter sunk to the bottom of the North Sea during the war. There it lay in freezing depths for decades. When it was raised, it was found to be the finest ever tasted. Death and resurrection...why am I not surprised? Pierre