Iceland review - 2016, Page 48

46 ICELAND REVIEW
FOOD
“Here in the UK cod liver is seen as
medicine, something that is good for you,
not something that is gastronomical,” he
explains. Despite first impressions, he
says he came to enjoy what he has tasted
of Icelandic food. “Once you get over
your preconceived ideas and taste the
products from a gastronomical view-
point you can really appreciate them. For
example, if something is smoked with
sheep dung you come to understand that
this provides grassy notes to the flavor.”
There were other factors too which
convinced Matchett to get on board.
“In the UK there is so much focus on
the cuisine from the Mediterranean but
we’re so close to the North Sea, so we’d
like to focus more on that,” he says, add-
ing: “Plus, Icelandic food is the healthiest
in the world,” in reference to a Channel 4
documentary, The World’s Best Diet aired
in 2015 which found that the Icelandic
diet is the world’s healthiest.
BACK TO BASICS
Of course, the recent international inter-
est in Nordic cuisine also helped. David
says that the processes used in Nordic
cuisine, such as fermentation, are consid-
ered by many to be new but are in fact
a rediscovery of something old (learn
more about Icelandic food history on
page 49-51). “You’re using very tried and
tested processes and the products are not
over-processed.”
It’s 12:30 and back at the Icelandic
Pantry the delivery truck with Halla’s
lamb, and the rest of the missing prod-
ucts, is just arriving on site. Everyone
helps to unload the goods and carry them
to their respective stalls. It’s lunchtime
and it’s starting to get busier.
I meet Icelandic chef Fanney Dóra
Sigurjónsdóttir, who has worked as a
sous chef to Jamie Oliver and currently
works at Jamie’s Italian in Guildford,
located about 50 kilometers (31 miles)
southwest of London. Fanney says that
food culture in Iceland has returned to its
roots with local ingredients once again
valued after the years of extravagance in
the lead-up to the 2008 financial crash.
“After the crash people had to rethink
everything. It’s been a process of redis-
covery. Icelanders had to look around
and see what they could do with what
they had. We were eating all sorts of
exotic food—Mexican, for example—but
people have since been returning to their
roots.”
Standing at a distance from the stalls,
we note that the mood in the Icelandic
section of the market is quite subdued.
“Icelanders behave very differently at
markets. You see over there that people
are yelling out, calling you over, whereas
the Icelanders are very quiet—but it’s
still early,” Fanney says.
Matchett emphasizes the social aspect
of the market, with one of its aims being
to foster connections as well as educate
and inspire people. “I always think of the
word agora, a place where people meet,
connect, buy... where people get inter-
ested and talk.”
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Natalia Yukhnovskaya, sales manager for
Eastern Europe at iCan, is doing just
that. She’s handing out tasters of smoked
cod liver with coriander, lemon zest and
lava salt while talking with customers
about Icelandic fisheries. Later she tells
me that some people have been reluctant
to try her product. “Some like it, others
say they wouldn’t buy it, but those that
are a little more open-minded do, espe-
cially older people,” she says, pointing
out that it’s a delicacy in some coun-
tries. “Many people are surprised that it
doesn’t have that really fishy taste that
fish oil had in the old days. People like
that it both tastes good and is healthy. It
has vitamin A, D, Omega 3.” Co-owner
Guðjón Davíðsson ponders whether
the name puts people off. “Perhaps we
shouldn’t call it cod liver. We do also call
it foie gras de la mer, or foie gras of the
Arctic, but it is cod liver so we shouldn’t
really hide that.”
iCan exports its cod liver primari-
ly to France, Russia, Scandinavia and
Germany, and elsewhere in Europe, as
well as to Asia, and the company is look-
ing for new markets, Natalia tells me.
“With the [ongoing] crisis, sales went
down in Ukraine so we are looking for
new markets, like the UK.”
I wander around the market to catch
a glimpse of the other stalls. At the
entrance to the market, Vallanes organic
farm, located in East Iceland, is selling
lacto-fermented vegetables, including
sauerkraut and kohlrabi and kimchi-style
kale, as well as chutneys, jams, organ-
ic barley, Icelandic pancake mix and
breakfast products, among other things.
There are also kleinur, Icelandic twist-
ed doughnuts, and flatbread, which is
sold at Sandholt Bakery back home,
Anna Hulda Sigurðardóttir and Eygló Björk Ólafsdóttir of Vallanes organic farm; Kolbeinn
Einarsson, Íris Birgisdóttir and Sóley Birgisdóttir of Ósnes, marinated herring producer.