Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.01.2005, Qupperneq 10

An American book from 1965 called The Art of Scandinavian
Cooking (a contradiction in terms, you may be thinking) states:
“The cold climate of the North demands that more fats be
eaten. But all the opulent sauces and clouds of whipped cream
do not seem to affect the Scandinavian figure much; this does
seem most unfair to the visitor limited to the low-calorie lettuce
leaf.”
Ah, happy days. When I was a child in the late 70s, hot dogs
from your local kiosk were still the only fast food to be had in
Reykjavík. When the burger joint Tommaborgarar opened in
1981, it was the first fast food joint in the city. By the early 90s,
however, you could order a pizza at any time of day. The first
McDonald’s opened in 1993, and faced stiff competition from
local sandwich bars such as Hlölli (opened in 1986) and Nonni
(opened in 1993). Coupled with the introduction of beer in
1989 (brennivín might not do much for the mind but it is, after
all, better for the figure), Icelanders, who in the 80’s claimed to
be the most beautiful and healthy people in the world as they
regularly won strong man and beauty pageants, were suddenly
no longer immune to the obesity epidemic.
It used to be that a round belly was associated with affluence,
but these days, food that’s bad for you is usually cheaper than
food that’s good for you, it is only the affluent who can enrol in
the gym and do health-conscious shopping; it is only the rich
who can afford to take care of their bodies.
Everything is allowed
We may still be more beautiful than the British, thank God,
but obesity has hit the Nordic countries particularly hard in the
past years. In his book Fast-Food Nation, Eric Schlosser states
that countries that have more established food cultures are less
susceptible to obesity. A Frenchman, Italian or Spaniard used
to two-hour meals with wine during lunchtime is less impressed
with an order-and-eat-in-less-than-15-minutes fast food joint.
Conversely, Northern Europeans, who have more of an eat-
to-live than live-to-eat mentality, which formerly guaranteed
their good figures, are now overtaking the Latins in terms of
overeating. The Scandinavians are a meat-and-potatoes kind
of people. For them, going to a restaurant is not something
you do for lunch every day, but something special to do when
celebrating. And then everything is allowed.
It used to be that you had certain blowouts, such as
Christmas, Easter or “Sprengidagur.” Sprengidagur is on the
7th Tuesday before Easter, this year landing on the 8th of
February, and translates literally as “exploding day,” or “bursting
day,” the idea being that you are supposed to eat until you burst.
This is done in preparation for the 40 days until Easter where
meat is neither to be eaten nor even mentioned. In fact, people
would refer to meat as “cloven salmon” during Lent to avoid
mentioning it by name.
But these days, it seems every day is bursting day. Whereas
a couple of decades ago you would pig out at Tommaborgarar
once a month, now Icelanders eat out at some snack bar, no
holds barred, several times a week. And it goes to show you can
tell. So what is Icelandic food culture that has been so lacking in
resilience when faced with external threats?
A Brief History of Icelandic Overeating
In most famous of the Sagas, Njála, the hero’s wife is accused of
stealing cheese from his enemies. Much feuding and bloodshed
results. A dead whale drifting ashore could also result in a minor
civil war, as our forefathers killed each other over rights to the
rotting meat.
When the settlers first came to Iceland, they found little in the
way of game or indeed any animals at all here. The sheep they
brought along became the mainstay of the diet. There not being
much else available, every part of the sheep was eaten, the blood
made into pudding, the liver into sausages, eyes, testicles and
everything was devoured. The less tender parts of the sheep are
still eaten once a year in homage to our impoverished ancestors,
although not before copious amounts of brennivín are consumed
as anaesthetic.
Cows were expensive to keep, and dairy became much prized
among islanders. In Halldór Laxness’ Independent People,
the protagonist Bjartur meagrely subsists with his sheep on a
barren plot of land, but his wife maintains that everything will
be alright as long as they have the cow. Now that Icelanders
can eat more or less whatever they want, milk products are
everywhere; cheese, súrmjólk (soured milk), yogurt and skyr;
clabbered milk which is standard lunch fare but tourists have
somehow been tricked into believing makes for a nice desert.
“Mjólk er góð” (Milk is good), we are constantly reminded, and
milk is commonly thought to cure every ill, even though it is not
only fattening but destroys your immune system as well.
Eating like a pig, Danish style
During the Danish period, pork, the mainstay of Danish
cuisine, became popular among the upper classes, which is still
reflected in our Christmas dinners. Whereas the poor were
forced to eat bird such as ptarmigan, the wealthy would feast
on Danish pork. Today, however, it is the other way around.
Ptarmigan has become rare in the highlands and, thanks to a
three year hunting ban, is now expensive and hard to get a hold
of. Pork, on the other hand, is everywhere.
When Icelanders went forth to colonise the New World, they
brought their culinary traditions with them. Framfari, the New
Iceland immigrants magazine in Canada, said in 1878: “I would
also advise emigrants to take with them sufficient Icelandic
food, for experience has shown the food people eat along
the way to disagree with them…This food ought to consist
especially of hardfish, butter or good mutton, tallow kæfa…and
a little good aquavit made from grain (brennivín).”
It’s only in the past few decades that Icelanders have gone from
fish, mutton and potatoes to being able to eat whatever we
want. Small wonder, then, that we have gone a bit overboard.
It will take a while to adjust. Until then, we are at the mercy of
advertisers who pray on our genetic need to build up as much fat
as possible for the lean years.
In a society that has always had notoriously strict alcohol laws,
and has recently been introducing ever stricter tobacco laws,
perhaps a spot of food legislation is in order.
Shouldn’t we at least be allowed to know what we eat? We
have to go to a special store for our alcohol needs. When we
get a hangover the day after, at least we can’t say it was entirely
unexpected. The British, who are currently suffering the most
because of the obesity epidemic, are introducing a labelling
system, wherein food that’s bad for you is labelled red, food
that’s good for you is labelled green and in between is labelled
yellow. Perhaps that’s just what we need over here. That way, is
you start piling them on, at least you shouldn’t be surprised.
THE FACE OF
ICELANDIC FOOD:
Are Icelanders eating right?
By Valur Gunnarsson