eat what now?

They eat some pretty interesting things, up there in Iceland. Controversial even. Icelanders are proud and have a strong identity. They have unique things. Like a language without dialects. And magical horses, Icelandic Horses. Hardy, burly. These days they are used mostly for leisure. But they also eat them. Filet of foal? Coming right up! Hákarl (fermented shark) or better known as nasty rotten shark is not just a tourist gimick. Sure, kids don't pack it in their lunch box (I hope), but people eat it! Come to Iceland hoping to see puffins, but you came at the wrong time of year? No worries, you can eat one instead. And I suppose the most controversial of them all, whale. Eating a whale. Or a least a few bites. It just sounds wrong. But is it? American's don't balk at the thought of eating a cow or a pig, but there are people in other parts of the world that would never eat either of these four legged creatures because of their culture or religion. So how and who determines if it's ok to eating something?

I love food. I like most things. I usually draw the line at weird body parts and generally avoid things like plump tree grubs unless I'm in survival mode while stranded in the wilderness. I believe that expiration dates are a joke, just like FOX news. So what did I eat in Iceland? Well. I did wear my experimental pants a little bit. Unfortunately, I didn't try all the Icelandic dishes that I would have liked, but that is because we cooked and ate most of our meals at home while choosing to spend our cash on other things like glacier trekking.

I had some lamb filet with licorice sauce one night. It was the best thing I had the whole trip. I had Icelandic lamb stew twice. Very simple. Just hunks of lamb with veggies in a simple broth and is very tasty. Filet of foal? Didn't try it. But I tried the puffin. It's smoked, served with a blueberry brenevin sauce. Awful. Horrible. Not revolting, but not worth eating. It was dense, dry, and just tasted weird. Nothing like chicken! I tried to keep eating it. But it was killing my appetite. Food adventure failure! That night we were at a Spanish/Icelandic restaurant. Here, you order a ton of small dishes rather than simply one main entre. After the puffin plate came... the whale. I think my pulse may have sped up a few bpm's. Really, I'm going to eat a majestic creature? My tastebuds were saying mmm!! My brain was screaming STOP! You can't eat a WHALE!!!! Shut up BRAIN! Shackleton ate penguins, I can eat whale!! But Shackelton WASN'T ON VACATION!!!!!!!!

In order to keep the peace between my brain and my tastebuds, I slathered each bite with a peice of ginger and the orange sauce. I was so distracted that I didn't even try to figure out what the orange sauce was. I ate it all. If I hadn't been in public, I may have licked the plate. I ate Minke and then I took a big, big swig of wine. After that night, I was done with the level 5 food experimentation. I will sort of sadly report that I never tried the rotten putrid shark. Call me chicken. Maybe I copped out. But the truth was, after the puffin, I was feeling less, well motivated, to test the limits of my tastebuds. I was putting it off till the end of the trip. But then I came down with a terrible sore throat. And if Icelanders need a shot of brenevin, also known as black death, to wash down this nasty treat, then that means I need TWO shots to wash it down. The thought of an extremely strong liquor running down my raw, sore throat made me want to cry. So, no Hakarl for me, not this time anyway.

Here is an unflattering photo of me chowing on supposedly the world's best hot dog. They are pretty good, I will say. And at $2.50, a bargain meal!!