Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.12.2009, Blaðsíða 22

Grapevine’s Sari Peltonen tucks
into the Icelandic Christmas
tradition of Christmas Buffet.
Rule one:
sTuff yourseLf sILLy.
Around us, there are families, young
couples and a table full of businessmen.
The tradition—possibly derived from
their Scandinavian ancestors and feast-
ing in Valhalla—is so popular that I hear
it is not uncommon for a person to attend
three buffets—one with work, one with
friends and yet another with the family.
The few tourists are easy to pick out in
their sweaters—the local dress code is all
shirts, ties and small black dresses.
Rule two:
Dress uP.
Apart from the Christmas carols, the eve-
ning’s background is provided by the city
lights of Reykjavík. The UFO like pearl
of Icelandic architecture, Perlan, was
completed in 1991, overlooking the town
from the Öskjuhlíð hill. It features six
water tanks, which supply the town with
geothermal water, a Viking museum,
view deck, café and a man made gey-
ser—the last blowing at regular intervals
throughout our meal.
The top of the Pearl is the revolving
restaurant. The outside ring turns slowly
while the centre with the buffet provides
the anchor. The movement has confused
one older gentleman in a gray suit, who is
stood by our table looking lost.
After a delicious bowl of wild goose
soup, we hit the buffet. The starters
feature various types of salmon, caviar
and blinis, roast beef, duck liver pate,
ox tongue, seafood salads and herring,
apple salad, ham salad in mayonnaise…
We fill our plates and notice that we are
alone. Indeed, most of our co-diners have
arrived a lot earlier than 8.
Rule three:
Come earLy, so you Have TIme
To eaT more.
After emptying our plates with envi-
able speed, we hit the buffet again, this
time for the main courses. On offer are
the classic Icelandic dishes of sugared
potatoes and manure-smoked lamb
hangikjöt, stuffing, meatballs, red cab-
bage—a combination of local speciali-
ties alongside this and that adopted from
other countries. Finally there is a mini-
carvery of salted pork, venison and pork
belly.
“Some people come to Iceland just for
our buffet,” says the chef proudly whilst
cutting us thick slices of venison.
By the time of dessert, the restau-
rant has spun around enough to bring
the cake tables right to us. And what a
selection: English fruitcake, pineapple
cheesecake, skyr cake, chocolate cake
and mousse, meringue, crème Brule and
the dubiously named Pearl Bomber.
Around us, people are getting drows-
ier, the group of business men louder.
The gray suited gentleman is escorted
to his table by the waitress. He sits down
and toasts with his companion, patting
the waitress’ back.
Skál for Christmas buffets!
Christmas buffet at Perlan 7.890 ISK per
person. Thank you to the restaurant for
kindly providing a buffet meal for two for
research purposes.
SeleCteD ChrIStmaS
offerInGS In reykjavIk
BrauðBær
A Danish inspired buffet. Mon to Wed,
lunch and dinner. 3300 ISK/3900 ISK.
eInar Ben
Traditional buffet dishes served sepa-
rately to each table. Dinner 6490 ISK per
person.
fIsH ComPany
A Christmas edition of their famed
Around the world in 8400 ISK menu,
served for the whole table.
fIsHmarKeT
Fusion Christmas menu, served for the
whole table. Christmas Sushi and more.
8900 ISK per person.
TaPasBarInn
Tapas with a Christmas flavour. 4990
ISK.
fJöruKráIn
The Viking theme restaurant puts out
their Christmas Buffet on Fri and Sat.
For 6800 ISK, one gets the traditional
food, mulled wine and live music.
granD HóTeL
Traditional buffet and traditional live folk
music. Lunch buffet 5100 ISK, dinner
7500 ISK for adults, cheaper for children.
Available on weekends.
grILLIð
Fine dining Christmas menu with 3/4
courses (7900 ISK/9900 ISK), 16 500 ISK
with an accompanying wine menu.
HóTeL HoLT’s gaLLery
3900 ISK for a 3-course Christmas
lunch; the classy Jólaball dinner menu
for 7900 ISK; On Sun-Wed it comes for
the bargain price of 5450 ISK.
HóTeL LofTLeIðIr
The Loftleiðir buffet is overseen by Dane
Ida Davidssen to ensure the ultimate in
Scandinavian quality— including one of
the widest selections of herring around.
On Sun-Thu the dinner buffet costs 5950
ISK; On Fri-Sat 6500 ISK with live music.
Lunch buffet 3950 ISK.
sILfur
Dinner time Christmas buffet, 6900 ISK
per person, 5900 ISK from Sun to Wed.
The foods feature the traditional line up
with a modern touch.
voX
Vox does Christmas all the way: Brunch,
menu and High tea all dress up in San-
ta’s clothes. In addition there is a lunch
buffet for 2850 ISK—reduced from last
year to help out in hard times—and a
weekend dinner buffet with live music.
resTauranT DILL
New Nordic food goes Christmas, with
herring ice cream, langoustine wrapped
in Christmas tree and “Kjartan’s volcanic
Christmas pudding with lava”. An eve-
ning at Dill with coffee, champagne, full
menu and wines comes with a price tag
of 18.000 ISK, Standalone menu for 8400
ISK and wine menu for 7900 ISK.
BroaDWay
Broadway offers the unexpected collabo-
ration of Christmas Buffet and Michael
Jackson tribute concert until mid-De-
cember. For more information and book-
ings, call 533 1100.
HóTeL saga
Hótel Saga’s traditional buffet comes
with first class entertainment by the Ice-
landic comedians Laddi, Steinn Ármann
and Hjörtur Howser. 8900 ISK/10900
ISK with wine.
fJaLaKöTTurInn
Fjalakötturinn offers a traditional
3-course Christmas menu for 6900 ISK.
veIsLuTurnInn
Kópavogur’s gift to the world of Christ-
mas buffets has a New York theme.
There’s also Christmas Brunch every
weekend for 3500 ISK, with Christmas
dwarfs to entertain the children.
resTauranT reyKJavíK
Restaurant Reykjavik offers a traditional
buffet for 4900 ISK per person every day
up until Christmas.
LæKJarBreKKa
A traditional buffet is served in the eve-
nings, Sun-Wed for 5900 ISK, and Thu-
Sat for 6900 ISK. Lunch buffet is served
in each table (3900 ISK).
PerLan
A classy buffet on a revolving floor,
breathtaking Reykjavík view. 7.890 ISK.
Xmas | Christmas Buffets
sarI PeLTonen
JuLIa sTaPLes
marK vInCenZ
ILLusTraTIon By Inga maría
6The reykjavík grapevine Xmas special spectacular 2009
Issue 18
The Icelandic Christmas Buffet tradition for beginners
Stuffing the Stuffing
Are the Yule Lads, Santa, and the Dalai
Lama all reincarnated?
Just the other day, Ingimundur the elec-
trician told me he has regular contact
with a vegetable vendor who lived in
1732 during the bubonic plague in Lon-
don. Þorvaldur the mechanic explained
that he has lived over two hundred lives,
including: a Dutchman for the East
India Company and an Italian monk-
scribe during the fourteenth century.
For those of you who have been read-
ing this column, you will note that there
is no shortage of Icelanders who believe
in reincarnation, afterlife, a universal
collective consciousness, communicate
with ghosts, fairies, elves, f lora—even
the enigmatic huldufólk (hidden peo-
ple); and yet, few will stare you straight
in the eye and admit it. Those that do,
quite often ask you for complete ano-
nymity. “Yes,” they say, “I’ve seen elves,
but for heaven’s sake don’t tell a soul.
People are very judgemental, and I still
have to lead a regular life.”
Sigrún is four years old. And I can
tell you (she’s the daughter of Guðmun-
dur, a friend), she believes in elves and
fairies, she has an invisible pal who she
plays with all the time; she also believes
in the thirteen Yule Lads. She would
have no problem accepting that I was
formerly a Mongolian warrior, a knight
of the Great Ghengis Khan. I’m sure
she would ask me if I could show her
my yurt.
Although we ‘sensible’ adults no
longer believe in Santa Claus nor the
Easter Bunny, we do everything in our
power to maintain the myth for the sake
our children. Is it that we consider this
important for nourishing their creative
impulses, their imagination; or perhaps
for honouring age old traditions? I pro-
pose that we actually want to believe
ourselves. There’s nothing like winking
at your wife while watching your five-
year old unwrap his presents with utter
abandon, is there?
In Iceland, the Yule Lads (thirteen of
them in place of the one Coca Cola San-
ta Claus), who range from the rambunc-
tious sheep-harassing Stekkjastaur, to
the candle gobbling Kertasníkir (in the
old days candles were made from pork
dripping and thus edible) arrive in suc-
cession from the 12th of December all
the way up to Christmas eve. Rather
than rumbling down the chimney to
place gifts under the Christmas tree,
they scarper in and out of hedgerows,
bound over hillocks, scramble up walls,
all for a peek inside your child’s old
boot. Of course, it’s a great way to get
the kids to get to bed early, finish their
dinner, have their homework all in or-
der: if you’re good you’ll get a gift every
night; if, on the other hand, you’re mis-
behaving, you’ll end up with a potato in
your shoe.
Recently, Guðmundur had a di-
lemma with Sigrún. Sigrún, like many
Icelandic children, has been doing a
good job of upping Icelandic milk sales:
The milk company, MS, plasters the
Yule Lads in all manner of hooligan-
ism on the sides of their milk cartons
in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
One fine morning, Sigrún looks up
from her Cheerios, and says: “Dad, in
Iceland we have 13 Santas. But on TV
there’s only one. He drives a f lying car-
riage led by a bunch of reindeer, and the
elves help him make all the presents for
Christmas. Who are the real Christmas
men?”
Trying to get his folklore straight
(and you gotta take your hat off to him),
Guðmundur said: “Well, you know,
‘cause we live in Iceland, we’re much
closer to the North Pole than Ameri-
can children. So here in Iceland, the
thirteen Yule Lads do the gift-giving
on Santa’s behalf instead.” And then,
Guðmundur considered carefully what
he was going to say next. He realised
he’d opened a whole can of worms.
How was he going to explain Grýla,
the troll-mother of the Yule Lads and,
heaven forbid, the Yule Cat (who is
said to eat children if they don’t don a
new piece of clothing at Christmas)?
Thankfully for him, Sigrún bought the
whole caboodle and had to dash off for
kindergarten shortly thereafter. Appar-
ently she hasn’t yet dug any further, but
Guðmundur is inventing a complete
new Saga in his head just in case.
In the words of the author Jonathan
Black: “Time is nothing but a measure
of the changing positions of objects in
space, and, as many a scientist, mystic
or mad man knows, in the beginning
there were no objects in space.” All we
have to do is just fill in the blanks, and
everything comes clearly into place.
As to whether Santa and the thir-
teen Yule Lads are really related, you’d
have to ask Þorvaldur. He’s lead so
many lives, he’s sure to have been one
of them once. That is, right after he was
reincarnated as the Dalai Lama.
Xmas | Merry Transcendentalism
The Bewitching Hours
Before Christmas