Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.07.2016, Blaðsíða 56

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Food
Harðfiskur
Food Of The Issue
Words ISAAC WÜRMANN Photo ART BICNICK
“What’s that stuff wrapped in plas-
tic?” asked my friend visiting from
Canada as we wandered around
Bónus. “Is it fish?” I muttered
something vague in response,
about dried fish, about Icelanders
loving the stuff, about photos I had
seen of fish hanging from wooden
beams set against an ocean back-
drop. I hadn’t yet tried harðfiskur,
and I wasn’t about to proceed with-
out the guidance of someone much
more well-versed in the ways of
Icelandic cuisine than me.
The next day, half the office was
crowded into the kitchen of Grape-
vine headquarters, passing around
a bag of harðfiskur. Debates ensued
over whether or not it was impera-
tive to eat the dried fish with cold
butter, room-temperature butter,
or if butter was even necessary at
all. (The consensus was eventually
in favour of cold butter.) “It’s like
eating wood,” said one of my fellow
interns. I compared the texture to
that of a carpet, or a tough woolen
rug.
Harðfiskur has been a staple in
Icelandic diets for centuries. It’s
made by drying fish, most often
cod, but also haddock and wolf-
fish, in the cold North Atlantic air
until it becomes cured by bacteria,
similar to the process of matur-
ing cheese. Once it’s dried, the fish
turns hard and yellow, and isn’t
really edible until it’s pounded by
a meat mallet, turning it into the
softer harðfiskur that Icelanders
know and love. All over the island
you’ll see harðfiskur hanging to
dry. Up close, the process looks
more like a crime scene than any-
thing else, with fish heads pointed
to the heavens and the stench of
rot in the air. But you needn’t ven-
ture far from Reykjavík to taste
harðfiskur yourself—you’ll find it
at nearly every grocery store.
In the end, though, like most
things in this country, the harð-
fiskur eventually won me over. The
taste is comparable to other dried
meats, and you could probably get
away with describing harðfiskur
as “fish jerky.” Once it’s slathered
with butter, it’s hard not to keep
going back for more. The only rea-
son you won’t go through an en-
tire bag in one sitting is that your
jaw will be sore after a few pieces
thanks to all the chewing it takes to
break through the woody texture.
Athletic types will also be happy to
hear that harðfiskur is, like, the en-
ergy food, even more so than that
liquorice Alexander the Great fed
his troops (see last week’s candy
column for more info). Good harð-
fiskur is up to 80% protein, mean-
ing it will keep you going through
even the toughest hikes and gla-
cier-crossings that this island has
to offer.
Bonus points for feeling like a
real badass as you gnaw on a dried
fish fillet atop an Icelandic moun-
tain peak. Extra bonus points for
being able to use harðfiskur as a
bat to fight off drunken revellers
after djammið on a Reykjavík Sat-
urday night.
SHARE: gpv.is/hrr
All The Icelandic Candy!
56The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 9 — 2016
THE NEW
LEGEND
NEW VERSIONS OF THE
ICELANDIC HOT DOG
INGÓLFSTORG
Organic bistro
EST 2006
Tryggvagata 11,Volcano house
Tel:511-1118
Mon-Sun 12:00-21:00
www.fishandchips.is