Fish à la piss...

The dreaded day is almost upon us!!! On December 23rd, Icelanders are celebrating Þorláksmessa, Þorláskur's mass, patron saint of Iceland. So nothing wrong so far...

The problem with Þorláksmessa is what Icelanders traditionnally eat on that day: skata (literally skate in english). Nothing wrong there again with eating skate...

I do eat skate/ray wings in Brittany. We have a traditionnal dish called "aile de raie au beurre noir" (ray wing with black butter).

So what is wrong with skata???....

The skata tradition is supposedly coming from the west fjörds. A hole is dug on the beach, the fish is then buried in the hole for several weeks. Skate, like sharks, don't have a urinal track and therefore release urine through their skin. This means the flesh of the skate rotting away in its hole is saturated with ammonia. The finished product smells like... well, it smells like piss!

It's not Þorláksmessa today but it's last day before it in the company and for that matter, it will be served at lunch today. Luckily for me the skata won't be cooked here but the fumes from the "ready-made" trays will still make the building smell like urinals from the rarely cleaned bathroom of a railroad station.

Being French I should be used to strong smells. French washed rind cheeses are the smelliest cheeses in the world but they still smell way better than skata.

To read an oposite opinion about skata, have a pick at the article posted yesterday by Bjarni on Iceland Review: click here.

Gleðileg jól - Merry christmas - Joyeux noël

Weather outside: Mostly cloudy, 7°C

Jólasveinarnir...

"Christmas" has really started today in Iceland as last night households were visited by the first Yule Lads: Stekkjastaur. These Yule lads are 13 and are the sons of Grýla and Leppalúði, two mountain-dwelling trolls. Grýla has for "hobby" of looking for kids and put them in a sack that she carries on her back. The couple owns a huge and horrible cat: Jólakötturinn. The cat helps Grýla in her task of picking children. The tradition was that kids with a new article of clothing would be safe and not eaten by Jólakötturinn. Icelandic singer Björk interpreted a song called "Jólakötturinn". You can listen to it on Youtube: here. And I'm going to throw in the lyrics with both Icelandic and English! Lyrics here.

The 13 Yule Lads are naughty characters: they steal your food, slam your doors, peep through your windows, etc... Nowadays, kids leave their shoes by the window. When they wake up in the morning, nice kids will find a present and naughty kids will find... a rotting potato!

1. Stekkjastaur
2. Giljagaur

3. Stúfur
4. Þvörusleikir
5. Pottasleikir
6. Askasleikir
7. Hurðaskellir
8. Skyrgámur
9. Bjúgnakrækir
10. Gluggagægir
11. Gáttaþefur
12. Ketkrókur
13. Kertasníkir

All pictures are from the Jólamjólk website.

Weather outside: mostly cloudy, 2°C

Ris...

One of most, if not the most, served desserts over Christmas in Iceland is the traditional Danish "Ris a l'amande", which is a dessert made of rice and almonds. The Danes already got it wrong when using french words to name the dish (it should be riz à l'amande) but Icelanders are really out by a mile when it comes to spelling it.

I have seen the following:

• Ris ala mande
  
• Ris a la mande
• Ris alamande
• etc...
• but this year's winner has to be the spelling from the glersalurinn menu: Ris á l´allamande.

Here is the recipe if you want to give it a try:

Servings: 6 servings
Prep. Time: 1:00
Total Time: 3:30

Ingredients:
1 cup short grain rice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups whole milk
3 tbsp. sugar
3/4 cup finely chopped almonds
1-3/4 cups whipping cream
6 whole almonds
Cherry preserves for the topping

Directions:
Cook the rice in the whole milk with the vanilla extract at medium-low heat for around 45 minutes until tender and let cool. Add the sugar and the chopped almonds. Whip the cream until you get soft peaks then fold it into the now cooled rice mixture. Spoon a little into ramekins then put one whole almond in the center and cover it with more rice mixture. Refrigerate for a few hours to let set. Serve it cold with warmed cherry preserve spooned on top.

Weather Outside: Clear, -3°C

Best í heimi...

It turns out that Iceland is the best country to live in for this year 2007.
For the past 6 years, the Human Development Index was topped by an other Scandinavian country: Norway.

Smarter...

With only over 300000 inhabitants, Iceland does not have the resources to do some good television and most of what is shown is coming from the US and get subtitled.

A few examples of all that goodness: Dr Phil, Oprah, Survivor, Amazing Race, The biggest loser, High School Reunion, The bachelor, The bachelorette, America's Next Top Model, So you think you can dance, American Idol, and many more...

Icelandic version of some shows were done: 3 seasons of Idol, 1 season of "The X-Factor" and I think just one of the batchelor. The latest to date is an icelandic version of the american show named "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?", which would translate to Ertu skarpari en skólakrakki? and is shown every Sundays on Skjáreinn.

I found an small video of the original show on Fox that raises a lot of questions!

Weather outside: Sunny, -2°C

Shaking...

On Monday, the North part of Langjökull glacier witnessed over a dozen of earthquakes with the biggest one reaching 4.4 on the Richter scale (see picture on the right).

Iceland being on the top of the Mid-Atlantic ridge makes it prone to have these earthquakes. If you check the Icelandic website www.vedur.is, you can see that about a dozen or more quakes and tremors are recorded on a daily basis. The location of the quakes is usually following the path taken by the ridge underneath the island as you can see below marked in blue.

The most dramatic place to see the ridge is the National Park of Þingvellir. This park is less than 1 hour drive from Reykjavík and is a place charged with history. One of the oldest parlement in the world, the Alþing, was taking place there around 930 AD. More about the rift in Þingvellir here.

On March 6th, 2006 an earthquake of magnitude 4.6 shook Reykjavík. It happened in the afternoon. I was at work and people came to see me to ask me if I felt the quake. I had to admit that I did not feel anything.

I'm out to the countryside with A for the weekend, just above Selfoss, on the ridge so maybe this time I will feel something. Anyhow, I did learn the golden rule in case of earthquake:

• KRJÚPA – SKÝLA – HALDA
• DUCK - COVER - HOLD

Weather outside: Mostly cloudy, 2°C

Blondes...

Let's begin this week with a touch humour. When people think of Iceland, they think blonde, tall, and slim/fit women... Well I'm sorry to tell you that it is not the case. Icelandic women are far from being all blonde.

And here is the touch of humour:

Weather outside: Rain, 9°C