Eating Iceland

Hey Team –

Writing a damn cookbook on top of a full-time job is exhausting! I was like “give me a literal break!” And so last week, I took a vacation! To ICELAND!

Iceland Vacation 2024 was me, my sister Rita and her huz Eric. My man Jimmy was invited but was TC;HP. (Too cold; hard pass.)

And – guess what. It was a FUCKING DELIGHT. In just 4 days, we crammed in the absolute most. Waterfalls, geysers, black sand beaches, the penis museum, sad beluga sanctuary, puffin hunting, random tomato plantation, blue lagoon, and eating our dam faces off.

I admit I was nervous about the food situation. In my mind, Scandi cuisine is fermented reindeer, pickled herrings and so much fucking dill. Y’all – I was (mostly) damn wrong!

So – for posterity’s sake and as maybe-cookbook-inspiration, here’s my Iceland food review!

I drew this on the plane ride home! LOL???

I’m gonna just keep this list TIGHT and just give the rundown on the 5 best things:

1. The famous Iceland hotdog, Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur (Reykjavik, and also the Reykjavik airport?). OK! This is like a hotdog cut with lamb meat (???) and has like mustard, remoulade and crispy onions. I mean – like it’s not like an extraordinary hotdog by any stretch, but when you’re fresh off a 5-hour red-eye, a hotdog is actually pretty fucking great!

2. Choco-Chip Cookies, Bakabaka Bakery (Reykjavik). Like, am I a dumb bitch? (Lolololol, very likely.) But right after hotdog is chocolate chip cookie? Yes, I see why this is troublesome. Well, all I can say is this is MY LIST and I DO WHAT I WANT! And – y’all – I say this choco chip cookie is maybe the best CCC in the whole wide world. Like – it’s buttery and maybe there’s molasses in it? I can’t describe it, but it’s like almost caramely?? And I’ve never seen this shape before which makes me incredibly horned up because of its specialness???

3. Langoustine Taco, Sjávargrillið (Reykjavik). OK – so this is like a cute little taco with like a fish nugget on it. But it’s not fish, it’s a shrimpy lobster. And, per science, lobsters is bugs. So – this is basically a bug taco. In retrospect, I’m getting sick thinking about it.

4. ????? Cheesy Baguette Situation with like Cream of Mushroom Soup Like Baked Inside of It, Vigtin Bakhús (Westmann Islands). I’m not fully clear what this thing was. It looked like cheesy baguette and Iceland’s version of Sophia Petrillo asked me if I wanted it warmed up. I said yep! And so – with knife & fork – I tucked in. Surprise surprise – a weird soup was hiding inside! And I loved it!

5. Tomato soup! Friðheimar (Reykholt). Y’all – Iceland is 90% glaciers, 9% volcano, 0.9% weird lumpy land and 0.1% new greenhouses. Greenhouses!!! There’s a banana plantation! And – also – tomatoes! We had a lovely tomato soup and crummy bread in a cute-ass greenhouse wine bar like 2 hours outside Reykjavik. Beware though – it’s a hot-spot for bus loads of old ladies. But do the wine bar! It’s so cute!

BONUS!!!

The Blue Lagoon signature cocktail, Lava Restaurant (Blue Lagoon). It’s gin and blue stuff and passion fruit and egg white and it’s so damn delicious. Just really good and I loved it!