Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.09.2016, Qupperneq 50

Awards For Best Thai Food Every Years
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BanThai
N E W A W A R D
B E S T T H A I F O O D 2 0 1 6
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ATTENTION :
Th
e
fo
od
an
d
se
rv
ice
w
ill
b
e
slo
w
er
w
he
n
th
er
e‘s
a
fu
ll h
ou
se

O
ur
fo
od
is
m
ad
e
fre
sh
fr
om
sc
ra
tc
h,
it
‘s
no
t p
re
-m
ad
e
All food is gently cooked from fresh ingredients
and that keeps its nutritional value and original avors well.
it takes time to cook all the food, nothing is ready
Please prepare your time before you come to enjoy your meal
R E S T A U R A N T
Ban Thai is not a “fast food” restaurant
every meal take some time to cook, we cook after receiving the order
Food
LUNCH DISH
“The meat is tender and subtle.
This is because the lamb are slaughtered at six
months, rather than the usual eleven months.”
Ga-Lamb-orama
Words YORK UNDERWOOD Photo ART BICNICK
In Iceland, “I’ll meet you tomor-
row” means anything from five
days to a month. It’s a confusing
and hopeless phrase that leaves
many people questioning if it’s
really a statement any longer. Per-
haps it has become the Icelandic
version of the American “How are
you doing?”—essentially mean-
ingless.
Lunchtime may be the answer
to this dilemma. If you’re supposed
to be meeting an Icelander on your
visit or simply trying to connect
with someone you matched with
on Tinder, it’s the perfect time. You
have a set time limit (typically an
hour) and it’s a functional outing:
you need to eat. You could always
grab a burger or a hot dog, but
sometimes you want a little glit-
ter in your weekday. This leaves
you with Iceland’s two major meat
groups: lamb and fish.
The rack of lamb at Apótek (3790
ISK) is a fine fancy lunch and a real
bargain when you use the NOVA
two for one deal. It’s accompanied
by smoked celeriac purée, grilled
leeks, baked carrots, pickled onion
petals, spinach and a dill cream.
Apótek as a lunch venue is
unique. It’s one of the few places
that has space and light. It’s a large
room set against west-facing win-
dows that keep the room bright, but
never irritatingly sunny. You’ll see
people wearing designer clothing
from JÖR or Herrafataverzlun Kor-
máks & Skjaldar. You’ll see tourists
studying maps, and occasionally
snapping photos. It’s fancy, but re-
laxed and without pretension–ex-
cept possibly the 400 ISK macarons
(or “French macaroons”). They are
delicious, though.
Icelandic lamb is known for its
lean, fine grain. The meat is ten-
der and subtle. This is because
the lamb are slaughtered at six
months, rather than the usual
eleven months. During the sum-
mer, the sun is up nearly 24 hours,
resulting in the lamb eating more
and gaining weight quicker. They
live fast and die young. Several
chefs, including Washington, DC’s
Robert Wiedmaier, consider Ice-
landic lamb to be the best tasting
in the world. And in the end, that’s
all that matters, right?
The reason I selected this par-
ticular lamb dish as “Lunch Dish
Of The Issue” is because it manages
to be contradictory in its delivery,
but works as a dish. It seems like
it would be heavy—a rack of lamb
at lunch?—but it manages to be
light and comforting, subtle but
distinct. The meat isn’t overly sea-
soned or strong in flavour, and the
tiny smokiness of the celeriac pairs
extremely well with everything on
the plate. The acid from the pick-
led onion petals blends with the
slight oiliness of the lamb to give
the whole dish the freshness and
aroma of a salad.
The worst thing that could hap-
pen is your lunch date bails and you
eat alone. However, this could also
be the best thing. They were prob-
ably cramping your style anyway.
You’ll experience so much more on
your own. The better you look, the
more you see.
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Afternoon Face Stuffing
50The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 14 — 2016