Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.04.2017, Page 46

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Icelandic
Kebangover
Testing the Lækjartorg food
trucks so you don’t have to

Words: Joanna Smith Photo: Art Bicnick
In the early hours of the morn-
ing, once the bars have stopped
serving food, resorting to Læk-
jartorg’s food trucks may seem
like a good idea. Just make sure
you order wisely.
In the UK we have a concept
known as the “kebangover.” This
describes the horrific feeling you
get when your al-
ready horrendous
hangover is ac-
companied by the
stale, fake-meat,
heart-burning af-
tertaste of Britain’s
imitation doner kebab. It’s a food
that can literally only be ingested
when taste buds have been numbed
by alcohol, and all you need is a salty,
fatty, carb-loaded mess in a polysty-
rene box. If you’re lucky, you’ll vomit
it up straight after. If you manage
to keep it down, then I’m afraid the
kebangover awaits you. I would not
wish this on anybody.

Entering the mind of a
drunken Icelander
From one binge drinking culture
to another, I was interested to see
what Iceland’s post-bar cuisine was
like. So, for the sake of investigative
journalism, I did several shots of
vodka, then headed to Lækjartorg,
where the finest food trucks in
Reykjavík assemble, ready to serve
the drunken masses.
The main smell that permeates
the area comes from the waffle and
dough nut stands,
which at any other
time would be heav-
enly. But who wants to
be reminded of sugar
when they’ve had ten
vodka and Cokes? That
brings us to the savoury stands—
namely the trucks selling either lob-
ster or burgers. I’m a pescetarian, and
the only option from the burger van
that wasn’t mammal-derived was the
fries. As much as I love fries, I’m a
super classy gal, so lobster it was.

Not classy
The lobster truck serves lobster in
the form of soup and rolls. I had
nightmarish images of a creamy
soup curdling with the vodka in my
stomach, so I went for the carbali-
cious lobster roll instead. A word
of quite obvious advice: when the
person who works at the food truck
seems surprised at your choice,
that’s not good. The woman gave
me a look that seemed to say, “You
sure about that?” and, because I’m
an idiot, I responded with a look that
said, “Yeah I’m sure, don’t tell me
how to live my life, give me lobster
goddammit.”
If you’ve been to New England
and tried the famous lobster rolls
in Maine and Boston, you’ll recall
the delicious, creamy, melt-in-the-
mouth crustacean experience. This
was not that. The worryingly luke-
warm roll was crunchy and soft in
all the wrong places. And tasted like
dust. Some of the lobster fell onto the
ground, and I was relieved. My boy-
friend got a bag of fries and I stared
at them enviously. There is no pain
greater than drunken food envy.

“Lobster rollover”
Actually, there is. It’s the feeling you
get when you wake up the morn-
ing after having washed down six
shots of vodka with lobster bought
off the side of a road. I’m going to
call this the “lobster rollover,” the
fishy cousin of the kebangover, and
I would not wish this on anybody
either. The good news is: I did not
get food poisoning. The bad news is:
I ate something that I was like 97%
sure would give me food poisoning.
The moral of this story is—when
in doubt, just get fries. Trust me.
SHARE: gpv.is/tru05
R E S T A U R A N T
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2 0 0 9, 2 0 1 0, 2 0 1 1, 2 0 1 2, 2 0 1 3
2 0 1 4, 2 0 1 5 A N D 2 0 1 6
PAN–FRIED FISH
FISH STEW
Onion, garlic, potatoes, celery, lime,
white wine, cream and butter
1.850 isk
PLAICE
Tomatoes, capers, parsley,
lemon and butter
2.100 isk
ARCTIC CHAR
Honey, almonds, cherry tomatoes,
lemon and butter
2.100 isk
salmon (lactose–free)
Parsley root, broccoli, cashew nuts,
coconut oil, chili and lemon
2.100 isk
Our pan–fried fish is always
served with butter–fried
Icelandic potatoes & fresh salad
desserts
DATE CAKE
Walnuts, coconut,
cream cheese coffee cream,
blueberries and whipped cream
1.400 isk
any
pans
for
lunch?
lækjargata 6b, 101 rvk · 546 0095 · messinn@messinn.com
Food
“Some of the
lobster fell onto
the ground, and I
was relieved”
Spoiled by choice. If you interpret "spoiled" loosely, that is