Bizzare Foods - Iceland Part 2

Well I'm done with the bizarre. Now covering less scary items.

4) Skyr Cheese/Yogurt hybrid.
I suspect Icelanders grow up eating this stuff. It's a type of cheese that's low fat but tastes like yogurt. According to Wikipedia Skyr's been appearing in New England gourmet stores though I haven't seen it.

This tastes pretty good. It tastes richer than regular yogurt though not as rich as Fage. It is sold in a variety of yogurty flavors like blueberry, strawberry and vanilla.

I seem to have lost my photo of poor Skyr :( Here's one from the Skyr website. It comes with a spoon! LOL


UPDATE: I found Skyr today at Whole Foods! The price was $2.73 which is high for yogurt but I suppose it is imported and comes with a spoon :P Seriously though, it is virtually fat free so try it sometime.

5) Brennivín aka "Icelandic Black Death"
We were treated to a round of this when our dearest Hotel Budir "lost" our reservation. It's served cold, in a shot glass, and is pretty smooth. It tasted like Greek Ouzo / Sambuca with a liquorice flavor but way milder. I hate usually hate liquorice but liked this.

I don't have a photo but here's one borrowed from Wikipedia.


6) Icelandic Produce - Lamb and Fish
Lamb in Iceland is free range, delicious and cooked fabulously. Slightly pink on the inside and very tender. Icelandic chefs also seem fond of cooking with Asian sauces. Perhaps inspired by their Japanese counterparts who share a love for whale.

We also enjoyed the fresh fish caught from Breidafjordur Bay. Fresher than Whole Foods, yum! ;)

Yummy lamb with a soy glaze:


7) Dried Cod
Icelanders love their dried cod. Apparently so do certain African countries. It is considered a delicacy and exported there from Iceland. The dried cod tasted alright, fishy without much flavoring. I prefer the Asian versions of dried seafood (you can find this at Kotobukiya) that use vinegar or salt and sugar as seasoning.



8) Mystery Fish Roe
I quite enjoyed this mystery fish product for lunch. One of my favorites. Anyone have any idea what it is? It's imported from Denmark.



And to finish off, presenting one of my favorite photos of Iceland ...


Askja Caldera in Iceland's Interior

Bizarre Foods - Iceland Part 1

We're back from our 10 day vacation! Iceland is not exactly a gourmet's mecca but we did the best we could. Like good foodies, we diligently tried to cover everything local to Iceland. If I may say so myself, I think we did quite well =)

1) Puffin
I remember puffins as the cute mascot used by the book publisher Puffin Books. They're endangered in some parts of the world but are apparently like pigeons in Iceland. The puffin we had was smoked and served as an appetizer. Puffin's red meat, salty since it was smoked and the texture was like hrmmmm .... raw beef.

Served here with a little honey mustard:


2) Guillemot
They are often mistaken for puffins. This carries over to the taste of the meat as well. I had it as part of a salad this time. It actually went pretty well with shavings of parmasan cheese so I enjoyed this better than the puffin which scared me a little.

The soup in the bowl is fish stew. Next to the salad with smoked guillemot:


3) Hákarl
And lo and behold! The most bizarre of them all. Putrid Shark! Putrid shark is putrid because it's buried for months, fermented and then hung to dry.

The experience wasn't all bad for me. I gingerly took a small bite (hey no water here, it was a farm not restaurant). It tasted like a messed up swiss cheese. Had a little bit of an issue swallowing it, mostly from the mental picture I conjured, but I managed. (Duh Gordan Ramsey is lame, saw on Wikipedia that he puked up the Harkarl in a food challenge.)

P on the other hand didn't have quite such a mild experience. He bravely ate the entire cube. According to him "it has a very strong ammonia after taste that burns your esophagus". Following that he mocked me for only having a small bite. Whatever :P maybe he has a future in Fear Factor.

Oh and one more thing. The smell stays with you. The entire farm had this weird mildly rotting stench. I got some of the shark on my fingers while trying to craft a smaller piece for myself. Bad move, I couldn't wash the odor away! EEEKS!!



It's hanging to dry here. Surprisingly the smell isn't as bad out here:



TO BE CONTINUED ...