Friday, August 26, 2022

Foods of Iceland

An Icelandic Hot Dog Roast on the Explorer — Hot Dogs are a local favorite.

During our trip to Iceland this year, as well as our trip in July of 2021, the ship’s excellent kitchen served foods from many different cuisines all over the world. At least a few of the meals were Icelandic or Scandinavian-themed, though, and as the chef is Swedish, I assume his interpretation of Iceland specialties is good. They tasted good! We also had a couple of meals off the ship while transferring to and from the airport.

Dessert buffet at a hotel in Reykjavik.

Iceland was settled by Vikings, beginning in the 10th century, and the people of Iceland have always been Nordic people, connected to Norway and Denmark. Locally-available foods are of course important as well, and there are a number of specialties that combine Nordic traditions with local ingredients from the sea and native plants, as well as from Icelandic farms and geothermally-heated greenhouses. Some of the favorites are quite familiar — like hot dogs or a special version of fried donuts (which we tried on last year's trip). Other Icelandic foods are extremely exotic, such as the sheep’s head shown on the cover of the cookbook below, or the fermented shark meat, Hákarl, that’s said to smell horrendous but taste great to those who love it. 

An Icelandic Cookbook

I bought the kindle edition of this little book which was in the ship’s library.

Traditional Icelandic Food by Gudrun Helga Sigurdardottir describes many Icelandic special foods, basically none of which I would actually cook, though several of them are appealing to eat, and we also tried some last year, when we spent a week in Iceland, also on the Explorer. 

Here's what it says about skyr, the yogurt-like Icelandic cheese that has recently been popular here in the US:

"The fresh cheese product skyr [scihr:] is authentic Icelandic cuisine, and has been traditionally made in Iceland since the time of the settlement. Through the history of Iceland it was made inside the homes, but nowadays it is produced in dairy factories. The skyr tradition has survived all sorts of changes in society, and has probably never been as popular as today." 

And about a few other exotic foods: 

"Selkjöt, sealmeat, has always been caught and eaten in Iceland." 

"The dried fish harðfiskur has been equivalent to bread in Iceland. It has often been eaten with butter instead of bread, for example with stew at dinner time." 

"Hangikjöt – smoked lamb – is one of the national dishes in Iceland, a tradition that was brought to Iceland from Norway at the time of the settlement. The meat used to hang from the ceiling in the kitchen of the turf houses in the old days, drying in the smoke rising from the kitchen hearth."

Tasting Icelandic Food 

My very first time in Iceland was a stop on the way to France many years ago, when Icelandic Airlines was the cheapest way to fly to Europe. I had almost no experience eating anything but my mother's cooking and a few very conventional American restaurant meals. The meal served to the stop-over passengers (who were bused from the airport into the city because the terminal was still being built) was baked cod, and I couldn't really eat much of it: too unfamiliar. Now I really appreciate Icelandic fish!  

A particularly nice plate of fish & chips that we had on
our final day in Iceland before flying home.
The starter was a wonderful bowl of lobster soup.

Icelandic halibut on the Explorer.

Happy Marriage Cake.

Happy Marriage Cake (Hjónabandssaela) is a very special Icelandic recipe that a new bride was supposed to make for her husband. If he liked it, the marriage was foretold to be a success! We were served this at the visitor center on Vigur Island (in photo), and at the Arctic Fox Center. I would describe this as an oatmeal bar made with brown sugar, flavored with cardamom, and filled with jam. Our samples were probably made with jam from local berries; rhubarb jam is traditional.

Pea soup: a Scandinavian favorite!

Important: a shot of Aquavit!


Iceland is of course a major supplier of fish for the entire world, and has been a fishing nation for a long time, so as I say, I am very fond of Icelandic fish dishes, but I'm glad to learn about so many others. My future posts will describe the foods of Greenland and the foods we ate on the ship. This post is copyright © 2022 by mae sander.


12 comments:

  1. I think that cookbook would be great to look through. I understand abut your first trip and baked cod was outside your comfort zone as you'd been used to meals/food from your childhood, etc.
    First time I went overseas it was such a culture shock that I wanted to return home. This was long before the Euro and the monetary exchange and amounts seemed like so muhc. Over 1,000 francs in Luxembourg for some milk, cheese and bread - it just didn't compute!

    Tina

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  2. I think that cookbook would be great to look through. I understand abut your first trip and baked cod was outside your comfort zone as you'd been used to meals/food from your childhood, etc.
    First time I went overseas it was such a culture shock that I wanted to return home. This was long before the Euro and the monetary exchange and amounts seemed like so muhc. Over 1,000 francs in Luxembourg for some milk, cheese and bread - it just didn't compute!

    Tina

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  3. I would have no problem eating food from Iceland. LOL A beautiful table setting too. Thank you for sharing this.

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  4. The skyr in Iceland was so delicious. I didn't have any of these meals when I visited in 2016, but they look yummy. Happy weekend Mae. hugs-Erika

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  5. I love skyr and usually buy it the first day of our overseas holidays if I can find it. Dessert buffets remind me of my time in New York City. We have an abundance of seals here but they are not culled. It could possibly mean feeding lots of people, but it won't ever be done.

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  6. Hello,

    Hubby and I enjoyed the food while we were in Iceland. I love the Cod, Halibut fish and the hot dogs. We had buffets for breakfast, dinner and dessert at our hotel. The cookbook looks interesting. Have a happy weekend!

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  7. I like how you're structuring these recent travel posts! I smiled that the first photo was of hot dogs! :)

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  8. i'd love to go to Iceland - one day ...

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  9. We get foods from some other cultures here, but I don't think I've ever seen food from Iceland...

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  10. I am hoping to get up to that part of the world at some point. I have heard of several of those foods including the marriage cake, but I am not sure that I want to try the fermented shark meat!!

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  11. Who wouldn't like the happy marriage cake! Yum!

    I've heard from others who have traveled to Iceland (and I would expect the same holds for Greenland) that dining out is extremely expensive -- small portions and large prices even at "bargain" restaurants. But I understand this better now, thanks to your post and considering the growing climate and the necessity to import so much of their food. Thanks!

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