Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

SURSTRÖMMING

Swedes show world how to eat fermented herring

A fermented herring expert has teamed up with a Swedish tourism company to show the world how surströmming is supposed to be eaten in response to a BuzzFeed video in which Americans turn their noses up at the Swedish delicacy.

Published: 31 August 2015 10:49 CEST
Updated: 31 August 2015 13:49 CEST
Swedes show world how to eat fermented herring
Screengrab: Höga Kusten Destinationsutveckling AB/YouTube

Surströmming expert Ruben Madsen and the Swedish tourism company Höga Kusten Destinationsutveckling AB have produced a video showing Swedes tucking into fermented herring in a bid to educate foreigners about the traditional dish.

The clip comes two months after Madsen told The Local of his outrage after BuzzFeed published a video showing the American news site’s staff sampling the Swedish delicacy for the first time.

“Sewage”, “baby diaper”, “dead body” and “a national park bathroom that someone just dumped a bunch of dog food in” are just a few of the pungent comparisons used by the team in the video (below), which has now been viewed over 3 million times.

According to Madsen, who works for the Surströmming Academy on the island of Ulvön, where he promotes the dish, the fish in the video was not served correctly.

“Never, ever should surströmming be served like that,” he told The Local at the time.

“It must always be stored in a cool environment. If it is stored in a warm place, then the lactic acid destroys the proteins and there is no fish left inside the can. In the film, there’s just a mess inside.”

Madsen said that the tourism company approached him about making the video after reading his interview on The Local.

“They called me and said that they had read the article and wanted to finance a response to the video,” Madsen said on Monday.

“We tried to make the film as much like the BuzzFeed film as possible.”

In Madsen’s video (see below), which was published last Thursday, Swedes are filmed eating the dish in the traditional way – with onion, sour cream, bread and potatoes and a glass of snaps.

In contrast to the BuzzFeed video, the responses are all positive with the participants gasping excitedly as the tin is opened and the smell released.

“It makes you happy,” comments one man, while another says his “mouth waters” when he smells the fish.

Using the hashtag #surstrommingchallenge2k15, Madsen is now encouraging diners to spread their love of surströmming by posting photos and videos of them enjoying the dish on Instagram and Twitter.

On October 31st Höga Kusten Destinationsutveckling will select a winner who will get a trip to the High Coast. 

“We’ve had a very positive response so far with people sharing images of the fish,” said Madsen.

Although Madsen admits that the dish is not for everyone.

“In Sweden of course there are people who don’t like surströmming. But if they don’t like the fish then they are not negative about the fish itself.”

That’s not to say that only Swedes like the dish.

“Even [British celebrity chef] Jamie Oliver tried it while he was over here. He found the smell very strong but said it tasted fantastic,” Madsen notes.

FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits. 

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user). 

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

SHOW COMMENTS