My love of stinky fish started in early childhood. Every New Year, my grandma would open a can of smoked oysters and put them out beside the fancy cheeses and wide variety of crackers, and you’d pick them up with toothpicks and eat them on a cracker. How on earth she ever got a six year-old to try eating something that looked like some sort of slimy alien organ, I’ll never know, but for whatever reason, I loved them. Couldn’t get enough of them. Ate whole cans by myself, even.
And so now, every time I walk past the canned fish isle, I’m tempted to buy a nice smoked kipper or sardines in brine or even pickled herring. But I always save the canned oysters for New Years…
But good luck getting Layne to give me a New Year’s kiss after I’ve polished off the can.
Steve in MI Says:
Hehehehe… ME TOO! I buy myself a can of sardines or smoked herring or oysters occasionally as a treat, and my partner just gives me that “good grief, how can you EAT that?” look. Meh. Don’t know what they’re missing.
Gabriel Rotar Says:
Mmmm stinky canned fish, Rule of thumb the nastyer something looks and smell the better it tastes. Also now I want some stinky fish to lay to rest in my tummy 🙂
Roland Says:
Try to get your hands on some swedish “surstroeming” fish cans… won`t be allowed on airplanes though, cause of being explosive. Can is under pressure and inflated like a balloon for the dead herrings are still rotting. Open it outside because of the stench, dunked into a bucket of water so it won`t blow up while being opened. Drink a lot of wodka for courage, eat it with swedish knaekkebroed, potatoes and raw onions. Wodka and onions will shutdown your nose instantly, and that’s the most important part. Well, you still need strong nerves.. because the herings have this pale white appearance of dead fish at the beach… well, they are dead fish. But miamm… the taste… unbelievable.
Omnix Says:
Do you really brave COLD to eat that? Wooo, you really love it then, you being ectothermic and all… 🙂
Raventail Says:
Smoked kippered herring, yum!
Sabine Says:
I’m all with you there.
My boyfriend starts opening the windows as soon as I open the can and has me brush my teeth for what feels like half an hour when I finish.
Suggestion: canned tuna and tinned sweetcorn salad. Use the tuna in oil (not own juice or water) and you won’t need any salad sauce.
James Hicks Says:
Heh, just yesterday at lunch we were discussing my unnatural love of anchovies and sardines. I was a minority of one, so stinky-fish folk unite!
Laura Says:
Oh dear Lord, smoked oysters. You and me and Kittenface need to get together and just eat smoked and pickled fish for an entire day. We can take solace that at least we have friends to share the delicious food even when our respective loves leave us for less stinky people.
LoneHowler Says:
I love canned osters but I can’t eat a can by myself mom and dad have to be there with toothpicks and bread as we all take turns spearing the delicasy
Ookamikun Says:
Try Russian Riga sprats. They smell good, they taste awesome, and you’ll be wiping up the every bit of oil from the can with bread, it’s that good!
Ookamikun Says:
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS317US318&q=riga%20sprats%20in%20oil&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf
The top 3. Can must be round with a black and gold label.
Bard Says:
Dammit, Alina! Now you’ve got me hankering for anchovies. People look at me strangely when I tell them my favourite pizza involves anchovies, onions, and capers. But…damn they’re good.
Haven’t had smoked oysters in years. However, as stinky fish stories go I have an aborted one. Back before it ceased to exist, my father used to work for Landsbanke, a big Icelandic bank (the bank ceased to exist, not my father), and made frequent trips to Rekjuvek.
Now, for those of you who don’t know about Icelandic cuisine, there’s something called “Hakaarl”. The process for making hakaarl involves finding a shark, killing a shark, digging a 6 foot pit in the sand on the beach, filling the bottom with stones, cleaning out the shark’s innards, dropping it in the pit, dropping more stones on top of it, then filling in the pit. They come back 3-6 months later, dig up the shark, wash it off, then air dry it.
…then they slice it like bonito flakes. It is, in fact, air cured rotted shark, and one of the only things Anthony Bourdain ever ate on his world tour that made him vomit.
Well, my dad and I are sitting in a Japanese restaurant when I say to him: “You know. The next time you go see the guys in Iceland, you should ask them to give you some hakaarl. THey’ll think you’re really manly. Don’t look it up…just ask them the next time you see them.”
So…he did. And found out what it was. And didn’t eat any. And thus it was a terribly aborted joke, unfortunately. Air cured rotten shark. Nummers.
Namnammo Says:
It’s strange, I can’t stand normally canned fish on things like pizza and cracker and such, but right out of the can with mayo is the best!
distance education Says:
Here some more questions for you to answer! 😀 haha! ^_^
Avilan Says:
Nothing of what you listed stinks… I am swedish, and there is the FERMENTED herring… But then most of us would not touch that stuff. (My wife who’s from the US (St Louis) calls pickled herring “stinky fish” though. I don’t get it.)