Iceland - Day 3 (The Food!)

We decided that we'd try some local food that day. For the previous few days we'd been self-catering our meals. We had brought bread, canned tuna, canned salmon, pate, corned beef, and clementines from UK. Apparently other travellers often also bring along food with them from home cos the cost of food, and the the cost of basically everything, is very high in Iceland. Iceland tops the Big Mac index! One of the guidebooks described how it is pitiful to see travellers who normally travel in style and luxury end up penny pinching, and even taking food from breakfast buffets to make lunch packs. Our hotel had a sign on the dining room door that read "it is not the custom in Iceland to make lunch packs from the breakfast buffet" to prevent exactly such behaviour. But Jon and I are used to self-catering anyway, having done that many times on our various backpacking trips.

We got to see just how expensive food is in Iceland that Sunday. We shared a snack of soup and a kebab and it added up to S$36! But the food was really good! The soup was made from lobster (and was excellent), and the kebab was of Minke whale! Wait wait wait! Before you say anything, Minke whales are not endangered! In fact Iceland carefully watches the Minke whale population. Of the 45,000 Minke whales, less than 1% are allowed to be caught. Whale meat is surprisingly like red meat! It really looks like, and has the texture of beef steak, though the taste is slightly different.

We were glad for the hot meal because it was another freezing day!

Having warmed our stomachs, we went to explore the Sunday Kolaportio flea market. It's rather an ordinary flea market, except for the food section. Oh...the food section. There we tried some yummy Icelandic food like smoked fish (like giam he) and smoked herring (sweet, fishy, and tasty). We also bought some of their flat rye bread (yummy! sweet and with a slight burnt taste), a loaf of sweet malty bread, some smoked salmon and fish pate to try.

But the king of Icelandic delicacies that we tried was Hakarl, which is rotten shark. Yep...rotten shark. It is buried for up to six months in sand to break down the high levels of ammonia and neurotixins contained in its flesh. Different parts of the shark yield either white or dark meat. We tried the white one... While the initial taste was sweet (though Jon will dispute that heh), the aftertaste which came quickly after was horrible! Oh man...you cannot image the taste! Ammonia plus some other gross concoction of flavours...yucks.. And the worst part is that the taste stays in your throat for the next few hours. Even though we ate other things after that...there was still a lingering tinge of the rotten shark. The smell was horrible too. At the stall selling Hakarl there was an overwhelming pungent smell that I kept trying to blow out of my lungs! I couldn't imagine working in that stall and being surrounded by that smell all day long. But I suppose the stall keeper was used to it..and maybe even likes Hakarl!

Anyway, we tried it! :) It seems many Icelanders also don't really fancy Hakarl, and the traditional way of eating it is to drink a glug of really strong alcohol once you've popped the Hakarl in your mouth so that you don't taste the rotten fish.

Another really fantastic bit of Icelandic food that we tried was their hot dog! We went to the most well-loved stall called Baejarins Beztu Pylsur which was near the flea market. It looks like a simple hot dog, but you know you've got something wonderful when you bite into it! The flavour and the blend of sauces is excellent! And there's an extra crunch from the fried onions they put inside. Fantastic! Don't think I've had a better hot dog!

We couldn't resist going back to the hot dog stand after coming back from the Blue Lagoon and getting a hot dog each as a pre-dinner snack. It's clear it's a well-loved stall cos there was an endless flow of customers going to buy hot dogs, even at night! We then had dinner proper back at the hotel, eating some of the stuff we had bought from the flea market. Yummy smoked salmon and the super tasty rye bread with knobs of butter! :) So much better than canned tuna! :)