Lutefisk: whose idea was this stuff?

[joeychitwood]

With Christmas comes a childhood memory of hiding down in the basement with my cousins trying to escape the smell of boiling lutefisk upstairs. My elderly Swedish relatives always prepared the dried, lye-soaked codfish for the holidays, thankfully giving the kids downstairs Swedish meatballs.

The horrible smell is only trumped by the taste and texture. Lutefisk stinks and looks like white lumpy Jello. Eating it can only be described using allusions to mucous or phlegm. Yet, in northern Minnesota, one can find "lutefisk suppers" hosted by Lutheran churches all season long.

Have any of you ever eaten lutefisk?