Airlines raise a stink over fermented herring
Surstromming, the highly pungent but much loved Swedish dish of fermented herring, has a habit of offending the uninitiated with its peculiar taste and overpowering smell of rotten garbage.
But now the national favourite, traditionally devoured in the summer months with large quantities of highly alcoholic liquor, has fallen foul of the airline industry who have asked passengers not to take it on board, saying it poses a safety risk.
OK, having smelt my daughter's breath after a dinner with the Norsemen I can understand. Just a little, but I can understand. I think I would describe it as being somewhat similar to sticking a spade into the wrong part of my grandfather's compost heap - the one where he buried that shark about three months back.
Jan Lindqvist, head of corporate communications at Arlanda airport, said the decision to remove surstromming from the shelves was a purely practical one.
"It's nothing to do with terrorists," he said.
"We're not saying Bin Laden is going to start using surstromming as a weapon or anything but it is a practical consideration for the airlines."
Airlines are worried that the swollen tins of fermented fish are particularly vulnerable in the air because of pressure changes during take off and landing.
In order to make authentic surstromming, herring from the Baltic is usually caught in the spring and fermented in barrels for a number of months.
It is then placed in tins and left to ferment for a further year, bloating the container and creating the noxious gases for which the dish is so renowned.
"The cans swell up like a football." said Lindqvist
"If it breaks inside a plane it would take two of three days to clean out the aircraft and the airlines don't want to have to ground their flights."
Yes. That I can understand as well. Kate did her own washing - well you can't help but dribble a mix of oil and vodka on your clothes can you - and I donated a 1kg bag of NaOH to be used to clean the washing machine out after...
But no dish is as unforgettable as the foul smelling surstromming, which rivals Southeast Asia's durian fruit and Iceland's famous buried shark in the questionable foodstuffs category.
Oh. Was that what my grandfather was up to? I doubt it.
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