KennethT

Is that commonly how biryani looks in that area? In the photo, it looks just like steamed rice with some type of curry rather than what I think of as biryani in which the rice is steamed with the spices and meat.

The tale is that the Vikings named them in reverse as a way to keep other people out. But Iceland is very very green... at least in summer!

The next stop on our Golden Circle route was Gullfoss - a large waterfall. It's pretty impressive and you can get quite close to it - there's really no one there to stop you from doing anything other than a thin rope and a small sign here and there. Next stop was to see Geysir - the original geysir from which the word was coined. Nowadays, Geysir itself is inactive - it only erupts once maybe every 6-8 months or so and is unpredictable, but just a few steps away from it is Strokkur which erupts every 4-8 minutes or so.... We stood around in the rain for like 20 minutes to get this video since sometimes the eruptions are not very dramatic, and other times we would just miss one by a second or two. I'm glad we were fully prepared for rain with rain pants, rain jacket, hat, shoes etc. - so we were nice and comfy and dry while most others standing around certainly were not! By this point it was starting to get a little late, but we had wanted to see a waterfall named Bruarfoss because it's sort of off the tourist radar and is known for having the most remarkable blue color. It was a bit of a hike to get there, and because of the constant on and off again rain, the trail could get quite muddy. Plus there were tons of flies so we got a good use from our bug nets for our rain hats. You can see how close you can get to these falls.... one slip and that's it!! By this time it was getting late (it was still quite a drive to get back to civilization in Selfoss) so rather than continuing up the trail to see a few more waterfalls, we headed back. By the time we got to Selfoss, it was past 9PM and all of the restaurants on my list had already closed or stopped serving. One of the few places still open was the local shawarma restaurant (open until 11). Something we've never seen before - it was a Kurdish restaurant, so it was actually great to try the spices they used! It was pretty busy - there were a few people in there when we got there, and while we were there, there was a steady flow of customers. I didn't take a photo of the menu/prices but you can see it here: https://www.kurdokebab.com/#menu While in no way inexpensive, it was probably one of the cheapest meals we had (not including what's coming up, but that doesn't count!) We got the Kurdo Plate with lamb: Flavorful marinated lamb that was not overcooked, served with salad and tasty dressing. In the cups was like a Tzaziki and a hot sauce. Kurdo shawarma with chicken And a side of fries: I think the fries were coated in some kind of starch before frying but they were nice and crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside - and stayed that way even once cooled.

There is no separate service charge on the bill, but it seems as though workers are paid living wages. However, many places also have a tip jar at the register - most restaurants you pay at the register rather than paying at the table - and some people would put in a small amount depending on the size of the bill. Also, tipping of guides is not very common - our Troll guides had a tip jar out for us while we were having our hot chocolate, but our glacier hike guide had no such thing. He was amazing and I wanted to show my appreciation so I just gave it directly to him, but I don't think it was a common occurrence.

The next day, we had to be out early (before the hotel's breakfast, which was only from 8-10!) so they gave us some pastry to grab - the full breakfast will be featured in the next day's segment. We had about an hour's drive to Thingvellir National Park, home of Silfra - supposedly the only place in the world where you can snorkel between two tectonic plates, as Iceland straddles both the North American and Eurasian plates. The Silfra canyon was formed during an earthquake which opened to revel glacial melt groundwater. It is said to have some of the best visibility in the world - up to 100 meters! I can definitely attest to that - in all the snorkeling/diving I've done, this was definitely the clearest water I've ever seen. Basically, what you are looking at is the canyon - there are no fish, just rock and some neon algae type grass here and there. The water in the canyon is about 37F, so the snorkel companies provide you with a dry suit which takes forever to put on but is fascinating. It seals around everywhere so the only areas that get exposed to water are your face (your head is covered in a wet suit hood) and hands (covered in a wet suit mittens). Typically, I keep my hands behind my back when snorkeling so my hands barely got wet! They first suit you up in a warm underlayer which goes on over your base layers (thermal underwear/t-shirt etc). My wife proudly models it after just coming out of the changing truck: You then stand around while they fit everyone in your group (there were 5 of us) in the dry suits. In parts of Iceland, it's REALLY buggy - little flies that don't seem to bite, but like to hang out around your face and annoy the crap out of you. I had read about this and had planned accordingly getting bug nets for our heads for hiking, but in this case, all of your stuff goes into a dry bag which is stored outside (it was raining on and off) while you're snorkeling. This is the route you take: The parking lot dressing area is the circle on the right - they you walk to the left to the entry point. The numbers in parentheses are the various depths. Once you get to the end of the channel, you get a free swim time in the lagoon area, which I used to explore what they called "Little Silfra" which is the small channel just below the main one. All suited up and ready to get in the water! A group before us getting in the water. The tour company takes underwater photos for you: After getting out of the water, the company provided us with a snack (some kind of giant Icelandic Kit Kat) and hot chocolate - no photos because my phone was still tied up in the dry bag at this time. After that, we drove off to get lunch - about a half an hours drive from Thingvellir. I had read about this place: Efstidalur - a family owned restaurant/farm/ice cream shop/hotel in the middle of nowhere. Before getting to the front door, you pass their Icelandic horses, which you can ride (we didn't): At the restaurant, you have the menu: The beef for the burgers comes from their own cattle farm and the produce comes from their neighbor. Note the prices - the cheapest burger (the Farmers) was 2800 Krona, about $21.50. Once you order at the bar, they give you a number to put on your table in the dining room and they come find you. Views from our table in the dining room: They have a big window overlooking their cows. Icelandic cows are special - they were supposedly brought over with the Vikings from Norway around 900AD when they settled Iceland and have remained unaltered ever since. There is evidently some political controversy right now as some want to bring in some other breeds to cross like Jerseys (which is currently illegal) to increase the country's dairy production, but others say that the pure breed is integral to their traditions and heritage and don't want the change. Facing the other way in the dining room: Our view out the windows: Skyrburger - skyr is a local dairy product similar to thick yogurt but it's even more tangy. Farmer's burger From all the activity (the snorkeling was hard because there were times you had to fight a current) I was starving and decided to get some ice cream before we left. I got the salted caramel - which was fantastic - a nice slight bitterness on the caramel set off the sweetness well.

Also interesting to note - this was our only trip to Europe where we had barely bought any bottled water. In fact, in the supermarkets, you don't really see any bottles of normal water - sparkling or flavored, but not regular water. This is because all tap water in Iceland is from glacial melt and is super clean and pure. It's also quite tasty as it's filled with minerals (which doesn't really help when you want to shower!) In fact, you can even drink any water you find there - whether it's a small stream when you're hiking (as long as the water is clear and doesn't have any sediment from agitation) or from a waterfall to the water we went snorkling in the following day!

Hello! And welcome to the official edition of my traveling around southern Iceland foodblog. We just got home around midnight last night, so I'm a little tired/jetlagged but hopefully this will make some sense as I work on this over the next couple of days. Iceland is otherworldly beautiful - the landscape constantly changes as you drive through it, from moss covered lava fields to hay fields (they just finished baling) to miles (kilometers?) of stark nothingness to moss covered mountains and snow covered peaks. Hopefully you'll get a good sense of this as you read along - I'm going to be adding some videos also that will help illustrate some things which pictures can't really do justice to. One thing to note is that, contrary to most of our other trips to SE Asia, Iceland is exhorbitantly expensive - from fuel to food. I don't know how much is being affected by the war in Ukraine, but I am of the understanding that no matter what, it's always expensive there. For example, fuel prices averaged 345 Krona per liter, which at the current rate of exchange of about 130 Krona/US$, works out to $10.22 per gallon! Obviously this is not the best time for a driving vacation, but this was originally scheduled for July 2020 and we all know how that worked out. Meals in a simple cafe (kaffi) are expensive - a standard burger was typically over $17! I don't think food prices are affected by Ukraine so much as it seems as though just about all the animal proteins are grown locally, most being free range/grass fed - I read that Iceland is self sustainable with meat/dairy with no imports necessary. Vegetables (at least that I saw in the summer) usually came from local farms or a restaurant's own garden. We've tried to take photos of menus to give a sense of things. One more interesting tidbit before I get on with the show is the use of English. It seemed that everyone I dealt with - from the gas station attendant to waiter to hotel staff to tour guide spoke better English than I did. As right now is super peak season, there were tons of tourists, many of them were surprisingly to me American. I don't think I've seen such a high proportion of American tourists in a foreign country I've visited, ever. So, flying over the area in preparation for landing, you can see a good example of landscape right off the bat - huge tracts of nothing - or more specifically, undisturbed moss covered lava fields: We landed around 9:30AM local time, which is 4 hours ahead of my standard Eastern Daylight Savings Time. The flight left late at night, and I worked a full day that day which means that by the time we picked up the rental car, I had been up for over 24 hours straight - the flight is so short (about 5 hours from NYC) that there's really no time to get any sleep. And since we had about an hour and a half drive to check into our first hotel, it makes this an absolute necessity: Just driving away from the airport is gorgeous: We checked into our hotel just around lunchtime and since we were exhausted and starving, we opted to have lunch there. The hotel's restaurant is really only open for breakfast (included with the room rate) and dinner but they will make you a "box lunch" upon request... Since it was beautiful out - about 55F and sunny, we decided to have it on our patio. Upon closer inspection, it looks like this: A simple ham and cheese sandwich with mayo and cucumber with a slice of some kind of tart (which we'll also see at breakfast) and some fruit. Interestingly enough, the apple was from France. After we rested a bit, we decided to do a bit of sightseeing. This hotel has good proximity for the Golden Circle sights - which are commonly seen on day trips for people staying in Reykjavik. I had allotted about a day and a half for these since one of the days will be spent doing a big hike in the interior highlands a couple hours away. The first stop - Kerid crater formed by volcanic activity and is basically filled with groundwater - the level of the water in the crater rises and falls with ground water levels but never actually drains. You can take the stairs down to the bottom: From the bottom: After viewing the crater, we went to dinner in Selfoss, which is the major town near our hotel. Outside of these types of towns, there is literally nothing except landscape. I had done a bunch of research before the trip, and found a few places in Selfoss that I had wanted to try - we'd only get to some of them though as well see later. First dinner: Krisp Overall, the food was really tasty here. We forgot to take photos of the menu, but prices were in the range of most other places we went to, which you'll see later on. Local cod tempura - I was surprised to see chillies being used all over the place in Iceland - fresh chillies, chilli jam, pickled chillies... served breakfast to dinner! Grilled local lamb (all Iceland lamb is free range) with roasted potatoes smothered in the same sauce as came with the tempura - like a citrus aioli. I don't know what cut of lamb they used - it was perfectly cooked, but you can see different muscle groups: Local wolf fish on barley with some kind of fruit compote on top - to tell the truth, I don't remember it much but I was exhausted by that point. It was really tasty though.

Very nice! I don't remember my MC - what's the purpose of the 55C retrograde with regards to fries? I know the purpose when making mashed potatoes (won't turn gluey) but I don't remember the purpose with fries.

That's not medicie - that's just delicious! I'd kill for that right now and I feel fine!

Palmer is one of our favorite Bordeaux

Why can't they do it when it's dark out? I'm to understand that Reykjavik is like this after 11PM all year long.

We didn't bring them. Who thought you'd need ear plugs in Iceland? Eye masks, check - even though I feel like I'm suffocating. Also, it was nice to come back to the hotel after dinner to find a sign out front saying that they lock the front door after a certain time for security and if you need to get in you have to call a phone number!

P.S. I just took this photo (11:25PM) from our room in Reykjavik. Between cars with their muffler cutouts roaring by every 5 minutes and the incessant beat from the dance club down the block I'm hoping to get a decent night's sleep. Oh yeah, and people walking by screaming for some God knows why reason. And I'm on the 4th floor with thick double glazed windows!!!!! There's got to be at least 3/4 of an inch of glass between us and the outside world.... Makes me long for the middle of nowhere again, or my apartment in the middle of NYC.

The famous Icelandic hot dog. This concludes the "teaser" portion. We fly home tomorrow evening and it'll take a day or two or go through the tons of photos between my wife and me and put together a cohesive (and hopefully coherent) story. Stay tuned....

And????? How were the results?

Nice. How does it change as it matures?

Have you tried it on induction? I've been looking at it but I have no gas stove.

Loving this!

It wasn't just one place. Most of the meals were provided by individual wineries and each winery had no idea what the others were making. Also, they were far away from Venice and the coast - they were in the inland part of Veneto - closer to Verona.

Feel better soon! No ginseng in there?

Yes. Exactly.

Langoustine sandwich

@ElsieD @weinoo It's as @gfweb says, braised beef cheek atop risotto - similar to how I've seen osso bucco atop risotto.

It's far away from Southern Iceland. Seriously though, there's amazing things to see all over Iceland, but we only have 9 days or so on the ground so we had to pick. There's also the Western Fjords and East Iceland.