Most Unusual Food You've Ever Eaten

[WarBlade]

Beef Tartare sounds great. I must try it if/when I ever visit wherever it is they serve it(Denmark?)

Yes. Or in my case every once in a while through my involvement with The Danish Society (inc.) Auckland.

The smørrebrød is a traditional open faced sandwich style of food preparation starting with a dark bread base with various selections of foods piled high on top . . . yummy :) The first course is an entree of sild (marinated herrings), which is available in three main styles I know of. The national drink being a potato-based alcohol we call snaps (Akvavit is the official name - similar to vodka) stands ready at the side for the frequent toasting. Then comes all the rest of the smørrebrød selections and more imbibing of alcohol.

The toasting BTW maintains culteral elements that have existed since pre-Viking times.

Another Scandinavian food I've tried is surströmming. Surströmming is something available in Sweden and had it origins in very cold weather of a bygone era. The people combined two methods of preserving food, chilling and salting, to preserve fish. They'd salt it heavily and bury it. Late in winter when food was scarce they would dig it up and eat it.

Nowadays surströmming comes in a can, but is still only available seasonally I think. The usual method of opening the can is to first submerge the can, either in a sink or a bucket, and proceed to open normally with a can opener. The reason for this will become apparent should somebody accidentally get some of the juice on himself . . . Which I had the extreme satisfaction of witnessing first hand one time when one of my re-enactment cohorts decided he could get away with opening the can whilst lying stretched out on the ground and holding it at arm's length. After an amusing impression of land mine defusing operation the initial squirt copped him full in the face and the resulting string of expletives and facial contortions lasted a full minute.

It was very gratifying. :)

After I've eaten surströmming, people who are familiar with the aroma were able to tell I'd eaten it two days after having done so. I've heard reports that others have been caught out up to four days afterwards.

It's extremely vile BTW. Sort of a salty raw partially liquified substance kind of a flavour, quite unlike anything resembling the fish it once was.