Food etc.

Iceland has its food specialities, I shall mention only the most tasty ones. (You might not share my taste.)

Icelandic lamb is special. It's a thousand years old race and the pastures are special. Maybe it's the latter, but I don't know the exact secret of the great taste.

Horses are not only for riding, and horsemeat really tastes. Unfortunately this is taboo food for a lot of people.

There are wild reindeer in the north of the country. This might also be taboo food for some Americans (can't eat Rudolph), but it is very tasty.

Then all those kinds of fish. For example villtur, wild salmon, which is much better than farmed salmon.

Also, the Icelanders really know how to smoke meat and fish, like nobody else. The smoke may come from slowly burning birch, willow etc., just like elsewhere and with the same dull result, but the special and strong flavour comes from burning - oh, you might not want to know, so you may skip the rest of this paragraph. They sweep up dung, dried urine, straws and whatever has accumulated on the floor of the sheep pen and dry it, then burn it in the smokehouse. In spite of what it sounds, there is nothing unhygienic about it, and the result is marvelous.

Like some other Scandinavian countries Iceland has its fermented fish tradition. Sweden has its surströmming (fermented Baltic Sea herring), Norway has its rakørret (fermented freshwater trout), and Iceland has its hákarl (fermented Greenland shark). In each countries it's now special feast food, and it's usually served with schnapps (although some Swedes say they prefer milk with surströmming).



In Iceland booze and strong beer (above 2.25 percent alcohol) can be bought in restaurants and bars, and in the government shops called Vínbúðin. Because this is a big town (Höfn, 1800 inhabitants!) the opening hours are quite long. Although all kinds of liquor are available, the traditional kind should be mentioned: Brennivin, 37.5 percent alcohol floured with caraway and nicknamed Svarti dauði (Black Death). More than twenty years ago strong beer was prohibited and people often added booze to the (light) beer. The ban was lifted on 1. March 1989, and the first of March is now the celebrated Beer Day!



As in many countries now, smoking is forbidden inside public buildings and transport, and shivering smokers on doorsteps risking pneumonia may be observed. And unlike Sweden and Norway, the Scandinavian snus (tobacco placed under the lip) is banned inside the wet borders of the Republic of Iceland.

updated 2010-06-25