Icelandic food: BEWARE!

After telling you all about how delicious, innovative and fresh the Icelandic gastronomy scene is why would we write an article warning people about the dangers of Icelandic food? Well, to tell you the truth, Icelandic food and Icelandic food are two different things, and this article is about the “bad” kind… the “Thorri” kind.

If you’ve ever heard horror stories about Icelandic food it’s probably due to the Thorri food, peddled to foreign visitors as traditional delicacies that they “simply must try.” If you have a sensitive palate and/or stomach, don’t be fooled and tell that lying local to shove it.

A TIME FOR BAD FOOD

Thorri is an old name for the hardest of the winter months when food began to get scarce in Icelandic homes and peoples first, and foremost thought was to survive this harsh time. Today Icelanders celebrate Thorri by gathering at foul smelling buffets that offer all sorts of regional dishes, invented before the advent of refrigerators, freezers and, apparently, taste buds. Thorri food is either rotten to the core or cured in whey giving it a pale tone and a sour taste. These buffets include some truly awful dishes that few people actually like but those who do, claim to love.

Don’t get us wrong; it’s not like Icelanders are elbow deep in whey cured or rotten meat all year round. Thorri buffets are, after all, a cultural matter and for most, just a once-a-year thing where they get their Thorri fix and try to out-do each other by eating as many horrid items off the menu as possible.

THEY EAT WHAT?

There are a few selections on the Thorri buffets that are available in shops year-round, and that is the proverbial seal of approval that this type of food isn’t too horrible. These items are for example dried fish (harðfiskur), rye bread, flatkökur (flat bread), smoked lamb, fresh blood sausages and liver sausages. If you are a foreign visitor chances are that a “funny” native looking for a story to tell his or her friends will try to force feed you a bite of the other buffet dishes such as whey cured head cheese (or "sour sheep head jelly" as they’ll probably call it), fermented shark, sour sheep testicles, sour seal flippers, sour minke whale blubber or putrefied seabird eggs to name just a few of the horrid concoctions. They will probably tell you that this is actually food that all Icelanders eat, and that it’s quite good. Nothing could be further from the truth, and what they’re really after is you retching and gagging so they can make fun of you.

Rotting shark to the left, dried fish to the right. Try both!

ROTTEN SHARK doodoo-doodoodoodoo

When all is said and done, we do have one caveat to our Thorri food warning, and that is the fermented shark. It is, of course, an acquired taste (like really strong blue cheese) but it is available all year round, and studies have shown it’s beneficial and could prevent cancer. It has a strong smell of ammonia, but if you’re only going to be adventurous once when it comes to these Icelandic treats, the fermented shark is your best bet. It’s the most famous and sort of a rite of passage for visitors. Just make sure you have a shot of Brennivín handy.