Ever since the Vikings stranded on the snowy beach of Iceland the inhabitants have been fighting to live each day at the time in a difficult landscape. This was a country that had wind going every direction even upwards, raining sideways, snowstorm in a matter of minutes, no forest for shelter or firewood, sunny for only a few hours in the winter time if the sun got through the stormy clouds, this was a country for toughest of the tough, and the survivor of the fittest. On of the methods of survivor was the way to process food mostly so it could be stored for the winter time,
"The Vikings used to hang fish out for the dry. Out side on the fields they had tree structures all over the place and hang the fish there in the summer sun. This was of course, before the age of restaurants or even ovens - they did everything by hand, and though it was less efficient, it was an easier process requiring less raw materials than would be used now. They had even a scarecrow to scare away the hungry birds. In current times this is like a TV snack for the people of Iceland called “harðfiskur” hard fish. Hard fish is very expensive but is sold in every petrol station on route one in Iceland."
Other way of storing food was to keep it in sour liquate until it was eaten, for example whale meet was processed that way, in a closed bucket. Then people would put their hand in and reach for a fresh raw sour whale meat, delicious.
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One food has been an tourist attraction for years but mostly to be looked at or to watch an Icelander eat one. The name says everything “sheep testicles pate” yes you got it the ingredients is testicles of sheep. Because the animals in Iceland where not may the Icelander used every part of the animal, even the testicles. Not make me begin about the eyes but they are also delicious.
Also quite popular in Iceland is the Rúgbrauð or brown bread. In the old times they used to cook it underground in a geothermal field. It was a slow cooking progress but the bread was after that moist and thick, very good to eat with lot’s of butter.
Icelanders have been eating this for centuries and will continue, however we do not ask that foreign guests do the same like it is a sort of a peace pipe, but it’s quite an experience to try it as you see here in the video as TV presenter Anna Walker tastes traditional Icelandic food:
survivingiceland.com/HS