Our first Christmas here, we saw it at the Östermalms salu or food hall. A special table was set up with a big steaming copper pot of blodpudding or blood pudding. I had no idea what it was and upon closer inspection, I could see that I wanted no part of sampling the thick and dark brown concoction with the odd meaty/herby aroma. Robert, of course, was all up for trying it.
This blodpudding was made from goose blood and was a traditional specialty from southern Sweden. I gagged even watching Robert taste the stuff and perhaps not so politely turned down an offer to try it. And for his efforts, the food hall people gave him a nice shot of snaps to wash the disgusting mess down with. (I would say that it was necessary.)
For those of you like me who don’t know what blood pudding is, it’s a type of sausage made by cooking blood from pig or cattle until it has congealed into a thick mass. I could not get around the look, texture or smell of it. I was reminded of our experience in reading an article in The Local about the Swedish foods most foreigners hate. Apparently, we immigrants love lax or salmon, meatballs, crayfish and cinnamon rolls. We are not so happy about the blodpudding or surströmming. I think I pretty much agree with the list.
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