Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.02.2013, Side 42
The best Italian/Icelandic
restaurant in town!
Lækjargata 6B • 101 Reykjavík
Tel. 578 7200 • www.pisa.is
10%
Disc
oun
t
of F
ood
FR
U
M
by Ragnar Egilsson
My views on antioxidants are such
that I actually did a little happy
dance when I read the results of a
recent study in Scientific American
that seriously questioned the role of
antioxidants in prolonging life (“Is the
Free-Radical Theory of Aging Dead?”)
and my views on the raw food philoso-
phy are best summed up by googling
"Pyradyne vitamid.”
So we go in there, two lead-spined,
taut-buttocked, glistening young
bucks that start each day with a
zombie’s share of raw hippie entrails
and wash it down with unicorn blood
and are greeted by a room full of
blissful-looking women and beakers
of green mystery juice. There is a yoga
centre next door. They were playing
easy listening. Everyone was smiling.
Everyone was smiling at us. And there
were literally three other males in
there, two of them being physically
restrained by their girlfriends and one
that was wearing a flowing skirt and
a wide-brimmed green hat (I kid you
not).
I must say, though, that a single man
would do a lot better here than at
Kaffibarinn at three in the morning.
You would be gliding from: “A messy
divorce, huh?” to afterglow granola
bars in the time it takes to cook a raw
food salad.
Ok. So we’ve established my
feeble, chauvinist mind and firm
stance (and loose bowel movements)
against dietary fibre. Here’s where it
gets a little hairy…the food is freaking
awesome. I want to fight it with every
fibre of my being (of which, we have
established, there is very little) but I
have to admit that Gló is serving some
very, very tasty food indeed.
I had the pesto chicken with tabou-
leh and kelp noodles. Chicken came
as a full portion and a half portion. I
chose the half portion (1890 ISK) and
it left me comfortably full despite not
having eaten the whole day. Despite
the raw food policy they decided
to serve the chicken thighs cooked
(where’s the courage of conviction!?).
The pesto was thinner and nuttier
than I’m used to, but really pleasant.
The kelp noodles were these
opalescent strands that resembled
sauerkraut and had been tossed
with courgette and lemongrass. The
“tabouleh” was mostly made up of
barley and parsley. Both were far
more delicious than they had any
right to be. I washed this down with a
beer and a sparkling rhubarb drink.
My rugged longshoreman of a
friend had the raw food pizza, kelp
noodles and mixed roasted veggies
(1790 ISK). This world of raw food
is alien territory to me. I’m a decent
home cook but I’m fumbling in the
dark trying to guess how they make
these things. From what I could
gather, the “pizza crust" is made from
sundried tomatoes and crushed seeds
that have been dehydrated into a kind
of jerky. This was then topped with
cashew cheese (don’t ask me), ruccola
and garlic. This may sound nightmar-
ish to many of you, but let me assure
you that this was entirely edible—not
as good as the chicken, but far better
than I would ever have expected. He
enjoyed this with a sparkling ginger
drink and a beer but at this point we
would both have been ready to give
the green mystery juice a try had they
not run out of it.
For dessert, I had the raw cheese-
cake topped with a tiny organic
raspberry. At 699 ISK, I thought it was
quite steep for such a thin slice, but I
still have to admit that it was just as
bafflingly fantastic as the rest of the
meal.
Friendy friend had the
“hjónabandssæla,” which is an Icelan-
dic take on a rhubarb crumble. Tiny,
with a tiny raspberry, and awesome
(the rule with food seems to be “the
tinier, the better.” At least that’s been
my experience with oysters, lobsters,
apples and blueberries).
If we were able to find this much
to like, with all our preconceived no-
tions, then there should be something
for everyone here. These are easily
among the best vegetarian dishes I’ve
had in Iceland and certainly the best
of the “health food” offerings I’ve
tried.
Cougar Town
Gló
Engjateigur 17-19
(@Listhúsið Laugardal)
Tel: (+354) 553 1111
www.glo.is
glo@glo.is
Mon-Fri: 11:00 – 9pm
Sat: 11am – 5pm
What we think
In the words of my dining partner:
“This was fuck good.”
Flavour:
Raw food, Mediterranean,
Japanese, vegetarian, vegan
Ambiance:
Oestrogen-suffused cafeteria
Service:
Pick up and pay at the counter.
Helpful staff.
Price for 2 (with drinks):
4-5,000 ISK
I did not go into Gló with an open mind. Gló is a health food cafeteria with a focus on vegetarian, raw food
and vegan options and those aren’t my kind of option. I’m the kind of guy who likes to rely on intermedi-
aries to negotiate the transfer of vegetables from the field and to my mouth—delicious, savoury, marbled,
intermediaries. I guess you could call me a vegetarian-by-proxy.
RAGNAR EGILSSON
ALÍSA KALYANOVA
F D
For your mind, body and soul