Do they have ice cream in Iceland?

Well, do they? I mean, it's not a given that any particular food is available in any particular country. And Iceland, being isolated as it is, has its own unique foods. You may wonder why I'm writing about this, now, as we don't leave for three more days and won't be eating any Icelandic food until Thursday.

Ben & Bill's, Bar Harbor, August 2013

Well, I'll tell you.

A friend of mine was kind enough to introduce me to his cousin, who went and married an Icelandic guy and now lives in Iceland. And the cousin was kind enough to invite Sally and me over for drinks, and then to go out for dinner. We are excited to meet some "real" people who not in the tourism business. She asked what kind of food we might like, and sent over a list of several restaurants we could eat at.

Two of the choices were Asian: a Thai place (Gamia Siam) and an Indian place (Austur India).

One is apparently French-style; the name is 3Frakkar, and Google Translate tells me "frakkar" means "French". They have French onion soup on the menu. But this being Iceland, 11 of the 14 entrees on their dinner menu are fish or seafood. Including four styles of cod. I buy Icelandic cod in the supermarket every couple of weeks.

One, Vox, offers New Nordic Cuisine. Their dinner entrees are two types of fish, lamb, beef and a vegetarian dish. Our soon-to-be-friend told us the beef is better in America (and she is American). Wikipedia told me that sheep imports are illegal, so the lamb is genetically the same as the Norse brought over 600 years ago. Heirloom lamb!

Another restaurant is Grillid, which sounded like it might offer a selection of grilled foods. Indeed, "grillid" translates as "barbecue". Turns out the selection is either a fish entree, or a beef entree. They define themselves as offering Icelandic specialties.

Ready for fishing, Bar Harbor, August 2013

The final place seems more like a tavern or bar menu: lots of finger food to share, like flatbreads, fried calamari and chicken wings. The entree choices are beef, pork, fish and a burger.

So we'll send over a couple of choices and see what happens. I think we'll be eating a lot of fish on this trip. With a sprinkling of lamb.

Oh, and the ice cream? A couple of the places do have ice cream listed as a desert.

 

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans