Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.08.2019, Page 45

Fish Stew
From Heaven
Falling into a plokkfiskur-induced
trance at Fisherman
Words & Photo: John Rogers
Café
Fisherman is on Aðalgata in
Suðureyri, with a Reykjavík branch
on Hagamelur in Vesturbær. Their
products are on sale in Hagkaup
and Super 1. Get more info at
fisherman.is.
Ah, plokkfiskur, that most reliable
of Icelandic comfort foods. Take
some delicious hunks of fresh
white fish, mash it together with
steaming-hot potatoes and a bit of
butter and milk, season to taste,
and you’re good to go.
Seems simple enough, right?
But like many national staples,
plokkfiskur (“plucked fish,” trans-
lated literally) is easy to make but
difficult to perfect. It has also been
endlessly bastardised over the
years. There are the dairy queen
versions, creamed to death in an
attempted shortcut to comfort-
food satisfaction; the UK-style
fisherman’s pie with the wanton
addition of smoked fish, prawns
and bechamel sauce; and peppered-
for-the-gods re-
mixes, in which
spice hides the
flavour (or, of-
ten, the lack
thereof).
You’ll find no
such populism,
however, at the
Fisherman café
in Suðurey ri.
Billed as “A simple gourmet meal
made exclusively from first-class
produce,” their take on this Icelan-
dic classic is about as traditional as
you can get.
Fish empire
Cruising into the tiny Westfjords
town of Suðureyri, the Fisherman
empire seems to have taken over
the town. Hotel apartment build-
ings bear the Fisherman logo on
both sides of the high street, and
there’s a Fisherman café and wel-
come centre on one side of the
street, and an equally pristine can-
teen on the other.
We’re the only people in the café
on a cloudy July afternoon. The airy
space is dotted with shelves full of
Fisherman prod-
ucts: dried cod
fillets, monkfish
and cod liver, and
other mysterious
ingredients that
most passers-by
probably wouldn’t
know what to do
with. The menu,
however, is simple:
carrot soup, plokkfiskur, a plok-
kfiskur sandwich, or fishcakes.
No messin’
This well-designed and whiskery,
callous-handed, still-smelling-
like-the-harbour, no messin’
brand has clearly brainwashed
me, because I order without even
considering the options. It has to
be the original, the best, the com-
fort-food champion of Iceland: the
plokkfiskur.
The dish arrives quickly, steam-
ing hot from the kitchen, served
with a humble salad, a thick slice of
ruðbrauð—Icelandic rye bread—
and a side of tartar sauce. It is, of
course, as understated as can be.
The strands of cods are fine, and
the potato smooth and buttery,
with occasional fragments for tex-
ture. The seasoning is light, and
the racy inclusion of the tartare
adds an acidic zip to each forkful.
Ultimate
confidence
Finishing the plate is like com-
ing out of a plokkfiskur-induced
trance. How, I wonder, could such a
truly basic dish be quite so absorb-
ing? In this case, less, it seems, is
more. Without a load of flavour-
less cheese melted on top, the taste
of the fresh cod and potatoes were
allowed to stand on their own con-
siderable merits.
After making conversation with
the waitress, I dare to ask the se-
cret Fisherman recipe. She smiles
and walks me through to a back
room, where it’s displayed proudly
on the wall in giant type: 500g had-
dock, 400g potato, half an onion,
100ml milk, 50g butter, 20g flour,
1 teaspoon of salt, and half a tea-
spoon of pepper.
Nothing, I think to myself, says
confidence quite like giving away
the recipe. Because even if it was
followed to perfection, this simple,
arresting dish would never taste
quite like it does here, just a hun-
dred metres from the bustling
fishing dock of Suðureyri.
45The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 13— 2019
The best Plokkfiskur in Iceland?
The Fisherman empire mothership in Suðureyri
“This brand has
clearly brain-
washed me. I order
without consider-
ing the options.”
ÓÐINSTORG | 101 | REYKJAVÍK | ÍSLAND
SNAPSBISTRO.IS | +354 5116677
FRENCH ONION SOUP
Icelandic Ísbúi cheese, croûtons
2.490 kr.
MOULES MARINIÈRES
steamed mussels from Breiðafjörður
2.600 kr.
FISH OF THE DAY
chef´s special
3.990 kr.
Lunch offer from 11:30 - 14:00 1.990 kr.
EST. 2012REYKJAVIK