Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Solstice

Ah, that holy day: the longest day of the year. In the summer, it's the midsummer marker, the feastday for greeness, a bittersweet day because the night begins its return.

We'll be celebrating with some Scandinavians tonight, and we're bringing snitters and sour cream for the sild. They'll be providing the akvavit and the fire. And the herring, of course.

Hoo, hoo!

2 comments:

CabinDweller said...

As a Scandanavianly-challenged person, I have to ask, "What is a 'snitter'?"

I'm not being lazy. Google was no help.

Defn. @ Wikipedia: "Snitter is a village and civil parish in Northumberland, England. It is in the Alnwick district, and is near the Northumberland National Park. The closest town is Rothbury."

Deirdre Helfferich said...

"at snitte" means "to cut" in Danish. So snitters are little cuts--of fish, of meat, of bread. Basically, it's a regular dish at a smorgasbord (literally, "buttered bread"): a small piece of bread or a cracker, smeared with butter, mayo, cheese, or mustard, and topped with shrimp, pickled herring (sild), salmon, a few herbs, lemon juice or slices, or maybe a very thin slice of pate or hard salami.

Yum. We always have shrimp snitters for Christmas at my mom's house (Swedish family, long stay in Denmark at an impressionable age).

But you weren't the only one who didn't recognize the word: the Swede there didn't have a clue what they were, either--until he saw them.