The other day at the supermarket my eye was caught by a posh-looking jar of jam, cloudberry jam the label proclaimed. “Sounds interestingly tasty!” I thought, having never heard of cloudberries before, and bought it (£4 for 220g). I then looked up exactly what the cloudberry story is, and found they’re considered quite the delicacy in Norway and Finland. Excitedly I tried a spoonful and… jesus, found I’d bought the most disgusting sweet thing ever made. Being a jam it is obviously well sugared, so the overall taste I’d have to describe as sweet vomit, with little crunchy seeds making an unpleasant texture. I shudder to think how revolting plain cloudberries must be.
Oh, lord, you could have stopped right there. My ex-wife spent a lot of time in Norway and developed a taste for all kinds of disgusting Norwegian “delicacies,” including cloudberry jam, brunost (brown cheese that tasted like sweet tofu to me), kaviar (pink fish eggs squeezed out of a tube like toothpaste), and a few more that I’ve put to the back of my mind.
It could have been worse–she also spent a lot of time in Iceland but turned down the opportunity to try rotten shark and brennevin.
Hmm. Yeah, I think it’s an acquired taste. Plain cloudberries do taste a little more “stuffy” than other wild berries like strawberries or cranberries. I didn’t like cloudberries at ALL when I was a kid, but now I really enjoy cheese bread (which I did not know, and was incredibly amused by, is apparently also known as “Finnish squeaky cheese”) warmed in the oven with cloudberry jam on top.
Brunost, on the other hand, is something I still haven’t been able to get used to. My dad LOVES it; apparently he got used to eating it when he was little because of our Danish relatives. I’ve always known it as “mesost” and I think it tastes like rotten taffy.
I think the Kaviar is what we have in Finland as Kallen mätitahna. Very very salty?
Brunost (and its variants) is awesome! It tastes like a cross between cheese and caramel. You can find it in Wisconsin, but I crave the stuff so much that I’ve gotten to making it myself. I have no Scandinavian connections, but I fell in love with the stuff when I had some Ski Queen gjetost (similar to brunost) at a wedding in Wisconsin.
LOL That sounds like misuse of those delicious berries. You know you are supposed to have only tea spoon of the jam on top of ice cream or dessert, not to eat a spoon of it on its own! :)) I have been also at a large event in NYC where they served this jam, and everybody just loved it! When have only a little of it on top of desserts or cheese, the taste is fabulous! I recommend you to try it again, the right way this time! : ) Go for a seedless product. There is at lesst one on the US market now.
I’ve had cloudberry ice cream and jam while in Finland. They were delicious.
Reminds me of the bit on YouTube where a bunch of Americans react after trying spoonfuls of Marmite. YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO SPREAD IT THINLY ON BREAD/TOAST, NOT EAT IT BY THE SPOONFUL, YOU RETARDS!!! :mad:
Brunost tastes nothing like tofu, which either has no taste at all or acquires that of burned rubber when baked. (I detest tofu, YECCCCH!!! :mad: )
Pink or red caviar (e.g., salmon or lumpfish roe) is actually quite common and comes in a variety of packages, which shouldn’t hurt its quality. If you don’t like pink or red caviar, odds are you wouldn’t care for Beluga, Ossetra, or any other kind either.