or: My first national food in a tube (not including Vegemite)

It’s no secret. One of the 974 things I like about traveling is having the opportunity to try new food. 

I’m coming toward the end of three months in Mauritius so you would be forgiven for thinking I was going to try about some Mauritian food I hadn’t tasted on previous trips. 

I’m not.

I’m going to tell you about a food found in a tube that comes all the way from Sweden.

One of the other benefits of traveling is I meet other people who are also traveling and it was a mother and son who has introduced me to what was arguablely inspired by a very upmarket astronaught who was also trying to mix things up a bit.

I’m convinced that putting people in space is positively correlated with the rise in foods which are now available in tubes (as well as Space Food Sticks – I miss the caramel flavour from my school lunchbox). I’m not sure when it happened exactly but my childhood was not filled with tubes of condensed milk to make lemon meringue pie, it was always in a can that you had to be very careful how you licked the lid (until the can open was reinvented to take the lip from the can too) so you didn’t cut your tongue. Those days are over since now condensed milk is available in a tube. Not only that, you can also buy it mixed with coffee in a tube. Harissa paste, tomato paste, garlic paste – these are all in tubes now too. 

As is my tube of Vegemite which I travel with since I like to share some things too and I like the taste on my toast or crackers.

Anyway, back to this Swedish food in a tube…. 

I still can barely believe this is something. You may think it sounds odd and that’s because it does if you’re not Swedish or haven’t spent significant time living there. It’s been referred to as “Sweden’s answer to Marmite”.

The new food in a tube is creamed cod roe and cheese.

Yes, you read that correctly – creamed cod roe and cheese. 

A perfect mix of what many cultures would consider highbrow and lowbrow.

It’s called Kalle’s Kaviar.

You can even buy it mixed with a few other things too, like dill. For the purests, you can buy the original which is just the creamed cod roe plus general additives… Same recipe since the 1950s.

The way I was shown to eat it was to take a piece of bread (I’m in Mauritius so naturally it was a slice from a baguette), spread on some butter (not too thick), then squeeze out this orangey-colored taste sensation (also not too thick). 

Eat.

I ate another and would eat more too however they only brought one tube with them for their month-long holiday and they told me they also eat it at breakfast with a boiled egg.

I’ll try that next time.

In the meantime, I’m wondering what else the astronaughts from Sweden are eating at the International Space Station.

* Thanks to INXS for the title to this post.