Þorrabloated

One of the famous Icelandic events is Þorrablot, a tradition from viking times, where people eat "old-time" food. However "old-time" food in Iceland, is, well... hmm...

Let's just say that it's a good thing this country has evolved :).

We got some of that food at work (in celebration of Bóndadagur aka farmers' day or men's day). We also got invited to Jó's aunt's, who introduced us to some more of that food.

Here are some of the foods:

• Svið: singed sheep's head, blow torched to burn the hair before being cooked. The food that looks you back in the eye.
• Sviðsulta: bits of meat from the svid, pressed together, in gelatin.
• Súrt slátur (lifrarpylsa and blóðmör): two types of soured sausage, one made out of liver and the other a blood sausage kind of thing.
• Hrútspungar: soured sheep testicles, pressed in a gelationous matter. Was available at work but not at the dinner, so no pics unfortunately.
• Hákarl: shark meat buried raw in the ground for several month, then hung to dry. Smells like stale urine because of all the ammonia in it. The smell sticks to your clothes for a long time too. Hence the closed box in the picture.
• Lundabaggar: roll of lamb meat, soured.
• Saltkjöt: salted lamb. Very salty, but quite nice.

And here are the pictures...

Clockwise, from the top left: lifrarpylsa, lundabaggar, sviðsulta, more lifrarpylsa, hákarl, and blóðmör

Saltkjöt

Svið. The tongue tastes Ok. You eat the skin too.

Baked brains with peanuts, and ice cream. Ok, ok, so that's just an apple bake :)

Many thanks to Jó's aunt for providing us with this food :)