More than 1,000 will show up to chow down.

POULSBO — For nearly 100 years Norwegians and the honorary Norse alike have flocked to the First Lutheran lutefisk dinner in Poulsbo; today that tradition continues on.

More than 1,000 attendees are expected for the 96th annual feast, which showcases other Scandinavian delights along with lutefisk, including boiled potatoes, sliced tomatoes, traditional cabbage salad and lefse.

Veteran potato peeler Gordon Stenman was fielding ticket requests in the First Lutheran library Wednesday afternoon. Already more than 600 reservations had come in for the event. Some traditionalists and even a newcomer dibbed their seats; Stenman worked between seating plans and an index of blue, red and yellow cards like a virtual scheduling ringmaster.

As ticket buyers sat, they began conversations on their own fond memories of the dinner.

“It took a long time to get to like it when I was a kid,” Dan Iverson said of lutefisk. “The texture is, shall we say, a little on the slippery side.”

Iverson’s sister, Becky Winslow, said her brother doesn’t have any trouble with the meal now. In fact, he downs multiple platefuls, she said.

“It might take 60 years, but it grows on you,” said Winslow, reminiscing taking bites of the lye-soaked fish at Christmas celebrations as a child. She lives in Port Ludlow and has been coming to First Lutheran’s dinner since 2001.

Iverson, who hails with his wife Jean from wherever their fifth wheel happens to be parked, said the trick to learning to love the ‘fisk is in the potatoes. Mixed with the peeled starch the cod becomes easily edible.

“Once you get used to it, then you can eliminate most of the potatoes,” he said. “Now I don’t even bother with the potatoes.”

When asked what the draw of the event is, they all three noted heritage — “I’m one half Norwegian, but so is the other half,” Iverson had joked earlier, while picking out seats.

It’s the same draw for church volunteer Hildur Gleason, who will waitress at today’s dinner.

“It was a family heritage event that was very special every fall,” she said.

Even during the years she lived in other areas of the country, her family would make a point of returning.

“It was one of those things we never missed.”

Stenman, who helps to coordinate the event alongside chair Margene Smaaladen, said diners from Eastern Washington, Oregon and Canada are planning to attend. It’s the quality of the food that keeps the dinner on so many calendars year after year, he said. And that quality is thanks in part to some longtime volunteers, including potato peelers and fish cutters who’ve offered their services for decades. Nearly 200 people help to put the party on. And it’s the array of returning friends and family that Stenman said makes the day so beloved.

“That’s the crux of the whole dinner,” he said. “It’s wonderful fellowship.”