Is my blog taboo?

Well. This is an entry for IMBB? #12, which marks the anniversary of this fun blogging event that originally Alberto thought up. This theme is "Is my blog taboo", and it's hosted by Carlo. I wasn't planning on participating, but.. the deadline got extended and I thought - what the heck. I'll do it.


The kitten didn't hate it.

So. What's taboo in my culture? Or what do we eat here that might be taboo somewhere else? The answer to the last one is easy - surstr�mming. It's fermented herring. (Uh-huh, fermented as in rotten.) You can read about it, should you want to. I'm certainly not going to talk about eating it, I don't come near the stuff. It smells like death. People claim it tastes a lot better than it smells, but frankly.. I'm never trying it. Ever.


Would *you* eat this?

Ok. So something that's taboo here then. That's not a lot. Sweden is an old farming society, and people are not generally very squeamish. But I let my mind wander and travel across the Atlantic.. and what came to mind was this: Swedes are very wary of additives in food, of anything not-completely-natural in fact. (Swedes have a very hard time at US supermarkets. It can be a scary experience. I personally don't mind additives, and will happily eat Kraft Mac & Cheese, or Kool-Aid) And what is completely unnatural then? I didn't have to think long about this: Jell-O.

Jell-O is scary. Very, very scary. I know that this is widely accepted in the US - and the scariest for me is not the pure form, but the things that are done with Jell-O. Like Jell-O salads. Dude. That is just awful. I googled for a recipe involving Jell-O and other things I would not normally eat, and after a while I came upon this one. Strawberry Pretzel Cake, also known as The Pink Horror In My Fridge. The recipe claims "Strawberry Pretzel Cake is an unusual recipe that has a pretzel crust and is delicious." Yeah, unusual is about right. Delicious? Not so much, no.


Look at this pretty closeup. Bright, bright food coloring. Yum.

I made it according to instructions, using the nearest thing I could find to Cool Whip - some kind of German whipped cream in a can. It actually has cream in it though, which I don't think Cool Whip has. It tastes equally awful. It was a bit hard to get the Jell-O to set, I poured on the final layer while it was still pretty much liquid, and hence the orange-pink clotting that looks like a particularly nasty cottage cheese. As for taste? Well. What did you expect? Something edible? Sorry, no. I took a small bite and promptly threw out the rest. Ew.