Iceland (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Fran Parnell [28]
Harðfiskur, a popular snack eaten with butter, is found in supermarkets and at market stalls. To make it, haddock is cleaned and dried in the open air until it has become dehydrated and brittle, then it’s torn into strips.
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Saltfish (wind-dried, salted fillets of cod) was so important to the Icelanders that it once appeared in the centre of the country’s flag.
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Shrimp, oysters and mussels are caught in Icelandic waters – mussels are at their prime during both the very beginning and the end of summer. Leturhumar are a real treat. These are what the Icelanders call ‘lobster’, although the rest of us know them as langoustine. Höfn, in southeast Iceland, is particularly well known for them and even has an annual lobster festival (Click here).
Meat
Icelandic lamb is hard to beat. During summer, sheep roam free to munch on chemical-free grasses and herbs in the highlands and valleys, before being rounded up in the September réttir and corralled for the winter. The result of this relative life of luxury is very tender lamb with a slightly gamey flavour. You’ll find lamb fillets, pan-fried lamb or smoked lamb on most restaurant menus.
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THE TRADITIONAL ICELANDIC KITCHEN: A HALL OF HORRORS!
Eyeball a plate of old-fashioned Icelandic food, and chances are it will eyeball you back. In the past nothing was wasted, and some traditional specialities look more like horror-film props than food. You won’t be faced with these dishes on many menus, though – they’re generally only eaten at the Þorrablót winter feast.
Þorrablót specials:
Svið – singed sheep’s head (complete with eyes) sawn in two, boiled and eaten fresh or pickled
Sviðasulta (head cheese) – made from bits of svið pressed into gelatinous loaves and pickled in whey
Slátur – a mishmash of sheep intestines, liver and lard tied up in a sheep’s stomach and cooked (kind of like haggis)
Blóðmör – similar to slátur, with added blood and bound by rye
Súrsaðir hrútspungar – rams’ testicles pickled in whey and pressed into a cake
Hákarl – Iceland’s most famous stomach churner. Hákarl is Greenland shark, an animal so inedible that it has to rot away underground for six months before humans can even digest it. Most foreigners find the stench (a cross between ammonia and week-old roadkill) too much to bear, but it tastes better than it smells… It’s the aftertaste that really hurts. A shot of brennivín (schnapps) is traditionally administered as an antidote.
Other (more palatable) Icelandic snacks:
Brennivín – sledgehammer schnapps made from potatoes and flavoured with caraway
Hverabrauð – a rich, dark rye bread baked underground using geothermal heat; try it at Mývatn
Lundi – puffin; this cute little sea bird looks and tastes like calf liver
Skyr – delicious concoction made of pasteurised skimmed milk and a bacteria culture similar to yoghurt, sweetened with sugar and berries
Hangikjöt – hung meat, usually smoked lamb, served in thin slices
Harðfiskur – brittle pieces of wind-dried haddock, usually eaten with butter
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Beef steaks are also excellent but are not as widely available and are consequently more expensive. Horse is still eaten in Iceland, although it’s regarded as something of a delicacy – so if you see ‘foal fillets’ on the menu, you’re not imagining things.
In eastern Iceland wild reindeer roam the highlands, and reindeer steaks are a feature of local menus. Reindeer season starts in late July and runs well into September.
Birds have always been part of the Icelandic diet. You’ll often come across lundi (puffin), that sociable little sea bird, which appears smoked or broiled in liverlike lumps on many dinner plates. Another sea bird is svartfugl; it’s commonly translated as blackbird on English-language menus, but what you’ll