There you are on your flight over the North Atlantic and the stewardess comes by with her cart. You've been waiting the whole flight for this moment, or at least since takeoff. The peanuts came a while ago, and they just weren't enough. You are hungry for something more. You MUST HAVE YOUR Surströmming.

Surströmming, you say? What in the wide, wide world of sports is that? Alas, Surströmming is a popular dish in Sweden, and basically is made of fermented Baltic herring. Can you say yummy? I knew you could. And wouldn't you know it? According to Wikipedia when you open a can there is some kind of really bad funk, something the Swedes call Blurben sturblenfunken...ok, not really. 

But it does allegedly smell bad. And so several airlines that once served the stuff are saying ixnay on the urströmmingstay. Part of the reason is an actual fear that the cans, when supposedly can get under pressure, might explode at high altitude. The makers of Surströmming say, no way, our can't don't explode. But then they go silent and kind of sheepish when asked about the smell.

So what are we to do? Do we demand our Surströmming?! Or do we just go on, business as usual, having no idea, really what the stuff was after all?

(via Boing Boing)

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