Lutefisk Dinner

I had dinner at a Norwegian Lutheran church.  This is unusual because I am neither Norwegian nor Lutheran.  But friends of mine are, so I bought tickets from them because it meant a lot to them that I enjoy their church's big annual event.

It was a lutefisk dinner.  Lutefisk.  Cod preserved with lye, then decades later reconstituted, rinsed many times and cooked into a fish-flavored mess that has the texture of Jell-O.  Fish flavored Jell-O.

Here's a platter of yummy lutefisk.

Mmmmm boy, that's some mighty fine lutefisk, Sven.

There were maybe five hundred diners in the church's dining hall.  I dragged along Mrs. Haz, and a niece and nephew who have a foreign exchange student from Norway living with them.    It turns out the foreign exchange student, although a certified Norwegian, had never eaten Lutefisk.  Phone calls made to her parents earlier in the day resulted in warnings that she not try it.  There was trepidation on her face.

Dinner was served family style.  Platters of lutefisk, meatballs, carrots, potatoes, lefse and other things were passed around.  And bowls of melted butter and hot white sauce as well.  The butter and white sauce were used to drown the lutefisk.    I smuggled in a shaker of cracked red peppers and another shaker of chipotle peppers.  They were passed around with glee.

Norwegian prayers were said.  They were mostly "ferdie fuddie merdie langheotie dubutie" or something.  Our guest had perfect Norwegian diction, noted by the other Norwegian wannabes who long ago forgot most of the language their grandparents spoke.

So how vas it?  Actually......not bad.  Drowned in butter, white sauce, chipotle and crushed peppers, it was pretty good.  I had seconds.  As did my Norwegian guest.  It was okay.  No one died, as far as I know.

Dinner was cleared and trays of desserts were brought around.  Dainty, yummy Norwegian thingamajigs with powdered sugar and fruit and lingonberry jam.  Delicious. 

The dinner was nice.  Happy conversation with strangers and with people I knew.  Lots of sweaters with reindeer on them.  Happy church members, their faces flush form a long day of hard work in the kitchen.

I told them you'll be there next year.