The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Swedish cops contain fermented herring menace

'Gas leak' nothing more than a storm in a surströmming

Ensure Ease of Recovery with Asigra’s Agentless Software

Swedish cops who rushed last Saturday to a block of flats in Stockholm after concerned residents alerted emergency services of a possible gas leak, found that the tremendous whiff was actually down to fermented herring.

Officers backed by two fire trucks and an "emergency gas leak team" swooped on the Södermalm building's stairwell, polluted by noxious fumes eminating from a traditional surströmmingsskiva (fermented herring party) in one of the flats.

Firefighter Björn Hörnsten told Swedish radio: "The person who called the police had spoken to several neighbours in the house who also thought it smelled like gas, and were worried.”

He added: “They’ve got gas in the building, so I find it a bit strange that they called us. They ought to know what it smells like when you turn on a gas stove. It doesn’t smell like surströmming at all."

The Local describes the stench of surströmming as "something less dangerous" than explosive gas. Anyone who's ever got within sniffing distance of an open can of the Swedish delicacy might beg to differ.

Experts are divided as to whether surströmming or Icelandic hákarl is the world's most repulsive nosh. Our informant Mike Richards describes the latter's decidedly non-piquant shark odour as resembling "a well fermented urinal on a hot summer's day".

Indeed, it's the only food we're aware of that's capable of temporarily disabling sweary food botherer and turkey specialist Gordon Ramsay, as this clip from his show The F Word demonstrates (language NSFW):

®

Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery

Re: "A tin should be opened in a bucket of water to stop it spitting in your eye. "

Pardon? It should be opened in a glovebox under argon - unless you wish to trigger a bio-weapons alert.

4
0

Who's for Kiviak?

These fermented fish dishes are for wimps. Real men eat Kiviak. Hundreds of sea-birds left to ferment inside the buried, hollowed-out carcass of a seal.

What's not to like?

4
0

Rubbish, that stuff is for wossies.

"Lutefisk" is the real deal. (Basically rotten cod treated with sodium hydroxide). Once tasted, never forgotten.

4
0

More from The Register

Reg hack prepares to live off wondergloop Soylent
Our man puts eating people powder Food 2.0 to the test
Oracle's Ellison outlines plans for Hawaiian Electriclarryland
Solar-sourced eau d'Oracle the key to island revival
 breaking news
Who's to be the next Dr Who? Sherlock beats Maurice - says you
Cumberbatch EXTERMINATES Ayoade, Atkinson, Pegg - and Tilda Swinton
Chewbacca held up by TSA stormtroopers for having light sabre
'Mrauuun' 'Right, Chewie, giant man do need giant cane'
 breaking news
I told you I'd be back: Arnie set for another career revival
Don't worry voters, Schwarzenegger's talking about Terminator 5
Waving an Eye-of-Sauron pulsating mock cock? STOP IMMEDIATELY
Mains-powered sex aid recalled ... Ultimate O turns into ultimate OH NO
ROBOT COW teaches Saudi kids where milk comes from
Udderly ridiculous bovine intervention is beyond the pail
At #guardiancoffee, we can now TASTE THE FUTURE through a PRISM!
I have measured out my life in espresso spoons
Soylent days and soylent nights
Food 2.0 fails the post-pub nosh test
Google erases G8 venue from Earth: Microsoft doesn't
Cameron and chums to hold confab in empty field, apparently