Iceland 2013 - Day 1
I'll be honest, I never thought of Iceland as a culinary wonderland. I always thought of it as kind of a wasteland of fermented shark meat, smoked puffin and horse meat. But I must say that I was pleasantly surprised at how awesome the food was there. I would totally recommend every place I ate at and I would love to come back to Iceland to try out a bunch of other places I saw or read about but didn't have time to try.
The Laundromat Cafe - Austurstræti 9, Reykjavik
On our first day in Iceland, Allison and I asked our hotel for a recommendation and they mentioned that there was great new place that was down the street called The Laundromat Cafe. Usually I am a bit skeptical of recommendations from hotels because I feel like they just get kick backs from the places they suggest. But I actually didn't get that feeling here. It seemed like the guy just really liked this place a lot and I can see why. This place is on one of the main drags in the middle of town and its got this super cute beatnik cafe type feel without being overly pretentious. And yes, they apparently also have an actual place to do laundry downstairs as well. The clientele here was hipster and yet family friendly also. There are tons of books surrounding the bar and pictures of laundry mats around the world on the walls (strangely there was a picture of the place I used to do my laundry at in Park Slope which totally freaked me out). The menu has a nice mix of brunch type stuff (like pancakes and eggs) and lunch dishes such as sandwiches and burgers. I was torn if I should try their version of brunch but in the end I opted for the cubano toast (2,190 ISK = $17 USD) and Allison got the vegan toast. When they say toast, they really just mean open faced sandwich. The cubano toast was served with braised pork, chipotle salsa, and sour cream on a toasted slice of bread. Unlike cubanos in the US, there wasn't any ham or pickles and the pork was almost like a pork chop without the bone in it. It was definitely tasty and different. The bread was a bit tough and hard to cut through so I ended up just eating the pork with the salsa and sour cream but that was filling enough in itself. Of course the dish also came with thick cut french fries and mayo and I pretty much devoured the entire thing. It was the perfect place to come after a red-eye to just chill out, enjoy the people watching and fill your stomach with some good comfort food. I really loved it here and could see myself coming here over and over again if it was in my neighborhood.
Fjorubordid - Eyrarbraut, 3A, Stokkseyri 825
For dinner we indulged at a seaside seafood place in this town called Stokkseyri which was probably 1-2 hours outside of Reykjavik. It was part of our Northern Lights Jeep tour and I'm usually skeptical about any group meal that's part of a tour. But it was actually a great meal. The dinner came with a few sides of marinated tomatoes and cucumbers and salads to start and fresh warm baked bread. But the main star of the show was the giant pot of lobster tails and potatoes soaking in butter. When I first heard lobster, I thought of the big Maine ones we have at home, but the lobsters here are small - almost like a crayfish or large shrimp but if you eat enough of them, you can most definitely get full. They serve just the tails here and you can easily peel/de-shell them. The meat is very tender and sweet and some of the meat fell apart as you were eating them. I think part of the sweetness has to do with the 2 lbs of butter that the tails are soaking in but hey, it was still delicious. The whole meal felt very homey and quaint, much like the town we were in. It was nice to check out a small town far from the city center once on the trip. This place was different than what I expected but sometimes different is just perfect.
Photo credit: Icelandguest.com and fotothing.com
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