Surstr\u00f6mmingpremi\u00e4ren<\/strong> takes place traditionally on the third Thursday in August (like today), and I wasn\u2019t joking in the sentence above. Today is really the official day when we know for sure that the fish is finally fermented enough.<\/p>\n What? The words \u201cfish\u201d and \u201cfermented\u201d in the same sentence make you nervous? And they should, oh yes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Those who know what surstr\u00f6mming<\/strong> is can go now and look for some clothes pegs to clip on their noses while I tell the others about this dreadful thing.<\/p>\n “Sur<\/strong>” means sour, and \u201cstr\u00f6mming<\/strong>\u201d is a small fish that lives in the Baltic sea, a type of herring, if I remember correctly. The fish is caught sometime in spring, and then, innards and all, fermented in big barrels for a couple of months. After this initial fermentation, the fish is packed into cans. The fermentation process happily continues in those cans, and you can see them in supermarkets, all nicely round and bulging. There are urban legends about those cans exploding, and many airlines even ban them as dangerous materials for that very reason, but seriously, I\u2019ve never heard of it actually happening. I don\u2019t think the airlines are worried about surstr\u00f6mming<\/strong> exploding, I think they\u2019re more concerned about a leaking can and the smell.<\/p>\n Oh yes, the smell. Or rather, the stink. This vile product is normally eaten with potatoes, or wrapped in tunnbr\u00f6d<\/strong> (thin flatbread) sandwich-style. If you manage to brave the stench and bite into it, it\u2019s actually not that bad. Just salty. Not very sour, at least not to my taste.<\/p>\n Here is a typical reaction of a foreigner exposed to surstr\u00f6mming<\/strong> for the very first time.<\/p>\n Bravely opening the can. I even provided plastic gloves, see what a caring friend I am?<\/em><\/p>\n
\nSurstr\u00f6mming<\/strong> smells<\/span> stinks like nothing else on the planet. The stench can slay buffalo and make flies drop dead in mid-flight. And yet some people actually eat it. Needless to say, this rotten fish<\/strong> is mostly eaten outdoors, and you can smell a surstr\u00f6mming<\/strong> party long before you reach one.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2008\/08\/sur-1.jpg\")
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