I've been a tad slack with the blogging business, mainly because most weekends have been taken up with the annual month of Þorri, where Icelanders all around the country get together in their old county groups and eat the food of our forefathers. To some it is all that is yucky and inedible, I am getting more and more used to it and am actually starting to like some of these special "delicacies"
Pickled, fresh, on the bone or in a jelly - how do you prefer your sheeps head? These were taken in the second big blót that I went to - this one with Skaga folk, the first was with Skarðshrepp (my uncles farm belongs in this one)
Host on the first blót was Bjössi Svavars and his wife Ebba (top photo with their daughter)
The Skaga blót host was Jói á Hrauni, he's on the left with Bjössi the captain. Jói also prepares a descent shark.... yep the one thats cured for 6 months until most of the uric acid has gone out of it - whats left is a rubbery amoniac tasting piece of meat that is an acquired taste - which I am actually starting to appreciate. We stayed overnight at Jói's house, which is situated at the north end of the fjord on the western side.
The men had arrived on skidoos, so they had to make their way home in the same way. I think they had a really good time - as did I - Skaga blót is very very entertaining.
The next weekend was the Króksblót .... Freyja by this stage was unimpressed with all my going out and being away .....
Again, the heads, the jellies, the whale (pickled - in the white icecream container), the pink stuff is beetroot salad - made with cream....the stuff in the jar is shark.
The neighbours and friends. Óli Begga and Árni..
The final þorra meal was last Thursday at my cousin Rúnar's house, - there was a full moon... one of these days I will have a good camera that can capture these moments.
Again, the usual suspects, smoked meat, turnip mash, potatoe mash, breads, pickled rams testicles, head jellies and the dried fish and ofcourse shark...
Rúnar and Eyrún are perfect hosts, the glasses were kept full and we stayed and talked and looked at photos and ate and ate and ate.
Mum and cousin Guðný looking in old photo albums.
Cousin Jóhanna and Þórdís (Eyrún and Rúnar's daughter - and my hairdresser) discussing some particularly interesting photos taken in the eighties...
The really old albums then came out - after which Eyrún showed us her collection of eye glasses.... she had some brilliant ones from the late 70's / early eighties...
5 comments:
Feeling a tad hungry. What will you eat next month? Missing you.
Feeling a tad hungry. What will you eat next month? Missing you.
You guys have the most interesting dishes! I'm a vegetarian, but if I wasn't, Icelandic dishes would certainly be something to explore!
Also, love the photo of Freyja :) P.S. Where did you get that name for her?
Thanks Glenna, think though that Iceland is not the place to break the habit of a vegetarian.
Freyja is one of the Norse Gods, similar to Dianna. A warrior as well as a beauty, it was also the name that I chose as a child for a girl child should I ever have one... sometimes life deals differently so the dog got the name... so where did Portia's name come from?
That's so awesome! I always love it when dogs have really original names like that. Portia is my favorite character from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, I like her because she stabs herself in the thigh to prove to Brutus she is trustworthy of knowing about the assassination they are plotting. I did, however, consider naming her Artemis for a while, goddess of the moon.
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