Þorrablót

I had the great luck to be invited to a Þorrablot dinner on Saturday night.  Þorrablót is a winter festival, held to coincide with the old Icelandic month of Þorra.  This is usually somewhere in late January, to late February.  The tradition at a Þorrablót is to eat þorramatur, drink Brennevin, and tell stories or sing songs.

I went to a rather large private party, held by some very distant relatives from what I understand.  I was told there were 92 people there, but by my count I only ever found 50 or 60.  Still a huge amount no doubt.

The first food of the evening was what everyone has been waiting to hear about.  The rotten shark, hákarl.  Truth be told, it´s not rotten, it´s a curing or aging process like other meats.  True, it does get buried.  I do also worry a bit that we are eating something that has to be buried in order to not be poison, but hey, why not.  The deal with the shark it that to live in the ocean, the shark needs to make its own antifreeze to not die.  That internal antifreeze is what is poison to eat, but if you ferment it, it becomes non toxic.  Here is a good website explaining how it´s made.  Mmmm, shark.

Here it is, what you've all been waiting for.

A lot of the kids loved it.

Let´s not sugar coat this here.  Antony Bourdain calls this the single worst thing he´s ever eaten.  Gordon Ramsay vomited.  Andrew Zimmerman called the smell horrific, but did note that it tasted better than it smelled.  He was more generous than the others and just said it was not for beginners.  So, basically, a bunch of men who make their living out of eating gross things, couldn´t handle the hákarl.  What chance did I stand?

But I ate it.  At first, it did taste a bit like a strong cheese, which made some sense, as I have seen it translated to English as 'shark cheese'.  Then the ammonia hit.  I was suddenly having flashbacks to dying my hair in a tiny, poorly ventilated bathroom.  Fortunately, I drink, and the shot of brennivin you get along with it was a big help.  I actually like brennevin, though I imagine that it as well is an acquired taste for some.  The texture was strange as well, very very chewy.  Not helpful in getting it down quickly.  I did manage to put on a brave face though, and I swallowed it.  Yay me!  I'm tougher than Ramsay!

This smile is forced. 

Trying to swallow.

Hákarl done with, it was time to move onto the real dinner.  I am ashamed to say I chickened out a lot.  I couldn´t deal with the surmatur, or the sour food.  My employers brought home the sour whale blubber to try one night, and I wasn´t sure I wanted to be spitting out food at a nice fancy party.  I did try the sheep's head, svið, which was a bit strong, but not too bad.  I also ate hangikjöt, a type of smoked lamb, some potatoes in a lovely sweet cream sauce, and some veggies.  Things I wimped out on include sour testicles, liver and blood sausage (again, sour), and the sour whale, which I´ve tried thanks to my employers.  I don't like the sour.

The plate of food. 

Surmatur

Svið.  Here´s looking at you.

Svið in loaf form. 

Hangikjöt 

Brennivín wearing a peysa

The feast begins

People really enjoy the hákarl

The dinner was enjoyable.  Don´t get me wrong.  There were just a lot of things I am very unaccustomed to, which is why I wanted to come.

After dinner, there was a singalong and the kids performed musical numbers.  There were some amazing singers there, and Jón, who played the piano was fantastic as well.  This family seems very musical, as apparently I was talking to the bass player from the band Dikta for a while.  My first brush with Icelandic celebrity other than seeing the children´s entertainer Sveppi buying sushi.

I did have some lovely 3 year old prosciutto that Jón keeps in his attic.  It was really really amazing.  He also keeps his hárkarl and his hangikjöt hanging up there.

Sweet, sweet meat

Shark

Lots of meat 

Oooh, I could eat this forever

 After the party, I went downtown and partied some more.  But you don´t need to hear about that.  So here´s more Helgrims.

I love my new camera.  This is handheld.