I have been itching to try lutefisk since I went to college in St. Paul, and the Lutheran church across the street would host an annual lutefisk fund-raising dinner every December. I was too terrified to go then, but over the years I’ve grown even more curious about this legendarily off-putting Norwegian treat. So when I moved back to Scandinavian country I started looking around for a chance to sample this … well, would you call dried fish soaked in lye a “delicacy”? (For a rather vivid description of a lutefisk factory, click here. For a picture of lutefisk, click here.)So this past week I went to Anthony’s out on Shilshoe Bay. Every December, Anthony’s lutes its own Pacific red snapper (aka yelloweye rockfish), and serves it up, boiled, with a salad, boiled potatoes, boiled carrots, and drawn butter. All for $16.95. I expected lutefisk to taste like fish steeped in caustic chemicals, but Anthony’s version was anticlimactically mild. There was a little fishiness to the aroma, to be sure, but it made Mrs. Paul’s seem pungent by comparison. More disturbing than the lack of odor was the fact that the fish was translucent, and when I took a bite, I realized that my friends back in Minnesota had correctly described the texture as “fish jello.” I added salt, then lemon, then butter, then more salt. Nothing. The anti-flavor is actually what sent me packing, but not until I’d eaten enough to preserve my pride.Don’t want to spend $20 on a culinary dare? The IKEA restaurant is selling lutefisk meals this month for $6.99. Good luck to you, and uff da.