I have been working hard on my fish products page. One thing I needed to clarify was the availability of Swedish Anchovies. These are NOT Anchovies as we know them, but Sprats in a spiced brine. They are essential to one of the most famous Swedish dishes, Jansson's Temptation. You use regular Anchovies in that recipe, even if the recipe calls for "Anchovies", your dish is ruined.

Back in 2011 the only place I could get cans of these was in the food section of IKEA, so I needed to confirm they still had them. Today, you can get them on line, for US $11 for a 4.4 ounce can, half of which is for perishable shipping. This would make a simple potato casserole a bit costly, and you'd have to wait for delivery.

So, reluctantly, I went to the new IKEA store in Burbank. The store itself is two stories high and covers at least 3/4 of a city block. The parking lots (counting surface and under the store), is at least 1-1/2 city blocks. There were no empty parking spaces. Fortunately I spotted a lady about to leave and got an approach to her space no-one else could subvert.

I can see why there are no spaces. You don't go to this store unless you expect to spend most of the day there. The directory is a path, not a map, and since I'd never been there before I didn't know the layout. To get to gallery 24, I had to go through galleries 12 through 23. Then I found I could have gotten to 24 by passing across in front of the checkout lanes.

No, they no longer carry the Abba Swedish Anchovies. On the way home, I stopped at one of my usual markets to buy some tangerines, cilantro and a slab of dead pig. There I found a Lithuanian product that looked to be the same thing, so I bought a
plastic appetizer tray of "Baltic Sprat Fillets" in a spiced brine. $4.49 for 6 ounces. Tasting has confirmed that these are perfectly usable in the Jansson's Temptation.

My recipe was one of the very first to explain the serious translation error from "Ansjovis" to "Anchovies" (real Anchovies are called "Sardeller" in Sweden). Last I checked, several other recipes had followed suite - who knows how many Jansson's Temptations were ruined in the mean time.

I want to check one of my other markets for similar Lithuanian or Latvian products, and will update my recipe to eliminate mention of IKEA. I hope not to have to enter that store again for a good long time.

. . that the Swedes, Lithuanians and Latvians would be fishing in the Baltic Sea".

Yes, also the North Sea, but what they do with Sprats can be quite different. Latvia is the most dependent on the Sprat fishery. They heavily smoke most of their catch, put them up in 4 inch diameter cans with oil, and sell them as "Riga Sprats". These would be useless for something like Jansson's Temptation.

The Lithuanians don't seem to do much smoking, but pickle most of their Herring and Sprats, packing them in brine or oil - oil predominating.

The Swedes do mostly Herring, put up in little jars a dozen different ways, but I've seen those only at IKEA.

The three non-Asian multi-ethnic markets I shop at have many fish products from Lithuania and Latvia, along with some from Estonia and Russia, but nothing from the Scandinavian countries - they probably have a domestic shortfall.

Norway used to be big in Sardines and the like, but the fishing and canning facilities have mostly been replaced with refineries for North Sea oil.

Russia's big product is dried fresh water fish, Caspian Roach and similar, under the name "Vobla". I have published instructions on how to eat a Vobla - Caspian Roach - patience and much beer are the basic requirements.