Condom fish...

It has started for me!... Over the next few weeks, I will go to several jólahlaðborð, christmas buffets. All companies and other associations are organizing one of these buffets.

We started our "eating marathon" on Saturday evening. We were invited to Domo by A's company. We did not get a proper jólahlaðborð but got served a lot of different dishes directly to our table instead of having to pick everything from a buffet.

The evening meal began with a mix of sushi as appetizers, then for starter we got two plates: one with kangaroo and the other one with scallops and squids.

It's funny to learn a new language because you try to find out how some words are made up. In the case of squid, the Icelandic word for it is smokkfiskur. I don't think you have to be a rocket scientist to guess that fiskur stands for fish. Smokk comes from smokkur, which in Icelandic means condom. So a squid is a condom fish in Iceland and when you think of a squid or of its shape who do see why Icelanders would have decided to name squids smokkfiskar.

Back to our dinner, the main course was served on three plates as we had cod, lamb and beef. The dessert was a tiny warm chocolate cake with a hint of ginger served with a scoop of ice-cream... Nice!

I have the rest of the week to burn up the calories in the gym before the next jólahlaðborð, which is this week-end. It is organized by Alliance Française. We like dinners organized by Alliance Française: the food is prepared by François Fons, a French chef who has been living in Iceland for years and does a "mean" lambalæri (leg of lamb).


I picked the photo from his website. There are classic dishes that you would always find on a jólahlaðborð:

• Hamborgarhryggur - salted and lightly smoked pork rack.
  
• Hangikjöt - smoked lamb.
  

You could also find game meat but usually you would go to another type of dinner for that: villibráðarveisla.

Bon appétit!

Weather outside: clear, 2°C