Dinner for non schmucks

I hated the title for that movie but somehow it (sadly) stuck in my head and now it's a title (with a minor change) for this post. Oh well it was either that or 'look what I ate in Iceland'. Anyway, on Thursday night I went out with a few new friends from Reykjavic (hello Birna and Inkor) for dinner at Einar Ben, one of the oldest (and best) restaurants in Reykjavik. The restaurant, housed in a historical wooden house that was once the home of Icelandic National hero and poet Einar Benediktsson, definitely left this hungry traveler well satisfied. I mean who wouldn't be after having a fantastic five course tasting menu that included minsk whale that was marinated with seaweed soya sauce (soya sauce made in-house from dried seaweed - who knew?), warm salted cod with arugula, rare beef with potato Lyonnais and a traditional Icelandic dessert of skyr (strained yoghurt with added cream and sugar) with blueberries and topped with a blueberry puree. God, that dessert alone was so damn good. All dishes were paired with wines by one of the best sommeliers in the country. What made this tasting menu different was that Chef was required to create meals that matched the wines, not the other way around. I mean again I ask who knew that a Spanish red wine would pair so well with salt cod after being taught that white wine is the best match for fish?? See this is what I'm talking about when it comes to great food. Take a look at the pics and tell me you aren't salivating…

Minsk whale marinated in seaweed soya sauce with arugula and radish salad

Grilled scallops with dill and cilantro – three sauces: roasted red pepper; garlic, and; caramel sauce which was quite sweet but very tasty with the scallops

Warm salt cod with a parmesan arugula salad ( yeah, a bit of an arugula overkill but I love it so I won't complain). I should note that all ingredients for the dishes were locally sourced including the arugula (grown in giant greenhouses that are scattered across the country).

Rare beef in a béarnaise sauce with dauphinoise potato, glazed carrots and parsnips.

This was so damn tasty – skyr with a blueberry puree and blueberries!

Reykjavik: A City of Contrasts

I've been asked to guest blog for the amazing tour company that has set up this entire round the world trip for me – Global Basecamps. My first post for their blog was about my cultural walk around Reykjavik, so check it out here . Since this is (shockingly) short post, I thought to myself why not post a few pics of Reykjavik through my eyes. If you wanna see some more, click here (my pics are under the name SDW29ca) for the rest!

Loosely translated: At the harbor, the city has fallen asleep, the small huts/houses/ look like heavenly palaces, but up there in the sky, the northern lights are dancing all night long, naked in the endless sways of the sky. Tomas Grimshaw, Poet of Reykjavik.

Hallgrímskirkja Lutheran Church: This picture does not do it justice, the place is massive – the biggest phallic symbol you'll find in Reykjavik, if you're looking for that sort of thing…

dried eels yum…

 

Laugavegur: the main shopping street in Reykjavik

A small part of Reykjavik harbour.

I love this sculpture, it's dedicated to the Unknown City Servant.

Airline food, revisited...

I flew Icelandair to Iceland and you know how in an earlier post I moaned about the food on the last airplane I was on? Yeah, no complaints this time and I had an appetizer that consisted of herring dressed with a mustard mayo –herring with mayo!! It came with a hardboiled egg and rye bread. Doesn't sound so great but Holy Mother it was damn good!! I did make the mistake of choosing chicken tikka with basmati rice over reindeer medallions with a raspberry-pear reduction for my main but I thought to myself it's airline food and I'm not about to eat reindeer for fear it would ruin my palate for future reindeer meat so I stuck with the chicken. Well, after that fantastic herring starter I should have gone for the reindeer, it probably would have been much better than the chicken. The bread that came with the meal was warm and soft, the dessert was a decadent chocolate cake with mango-caramel cream, and I had a very nice Riesling with the curry which wasn't a bad match, all served with real china, glass stemware and stainless steel cutlery – oh did I mention I was in business class?? See, the airline post I wrote earlier was when I was in economy class and the best way to explain the difference between business and economy is to think of the distance between Toronto and London. Yes, that huge. I took pictures of the food, secretly with my phone - let's hope it turns out. Oh and I was drunk too (lots of champagne and the flight attendant was spoiling me with way too many chocolate truffles and red wine). Now that's the way to travel my friends.

Velkominn til Iceland!

Now I'm pretty sure the title above says "Welcome to Iceland" in Icelandic. If it doesn't make sense, I apologize, but I don't speak Icelandic (obviously), and trust me it's very, very hard to figure out, but I'm still going give it a go!

So I'm in Iceland(!). A six hour flight from Toronto and boom, I'm here. As I was being driven to the hotel, I was thinking to myself, "wow, I can't believe I'm here." Let me reiterate that last sentence. I didn't just think it, I said it out loud, in the car, which earned a chuckle from my driver. The second thought I had was "damn, too bad it's so dark - I can't really see what's outside" (the airport is about 40 minutes away from Reykjavik so you could get a good glimpse of the countryside – if there was more light). My third thought was "hey, I know its dark but I can't seee any trees!" A lot of thoughts for someone who had about 2 hours sleep on the plane, and arrived in Iceland at 6:30 in the morning eh? Still, from what I could sort of see in the dark from the car, Iceland has such an eerie landscape, eerie but beautiful and later as you get closer to the city, trees do appear. I have to give a shout out to my driver, Kristian, who was very cool to point out various sites and landmarks to familiarize myself with Iceland, and the life of Icelanders. It was a completely off-the-cuff tour but totally appreciated.

People have asked me, why Iceland? My answer; why the hell not? It's not as if no one comes here. I know they have a thriving tourist scene but granted it's not at the top of peoples list of places they wish to visit - or so I think? Could be totally wrong there. I mean the name alone conjures up images of ice does it not (substitute ice for lava rock and you'll understand Iceland a bit better). Still I'm so glad I made it, and now I can really experience the country.

What's a better way to experience a country than its food. After all, this blog is called a hungry man travels right? So after taking a quick nap at the hotel, I showered, and went out for lunch. There was a little sandwich shop about five minutes from the hotel and I thought why not. I mean it's just a sandwich; there is no way I could screw that up right? Wrong. I'm in a foreign country, and it must be pointed out that English is NOT the first language here and despite the menu being translated I still wasn't understanding what was going on (and I hate being THAT tourist who is clueless when they travel) so I had no idea what the menu meant, and I was too stubborn trying to fit in to even ask (side-note to self: you're black Steve, you won't blend in here). All I could see from the menu was that the food had something to do with a boat and there were many different types of 'boats' you could order like pizza or ham and cheese or chili or chicken curry. So sticking to the tried and true, not to mention i love curry, I ordered the curry still not grasping what this 'boat' was. Turns out I need to open my mouth to speak or at least brush up a bit more on the English to Icelandic translations. The 'boat' was a word for bread or submarine and I ordered chicken curry with rice. So yes it was curried chicken with rice AND mayo and lettuce stuffed into a submarine sandwich served with a giant can of coke. I ate it. It was not good but dammit I was hungry. I paid dearly for that sandwich later. Lesson learned. Don't try to pretend you know what you're doing - either learn language or open mouth and ask questions or both before your order food Steve!!! I'm well on my way aren't I?

Coming up: Culture Walk in Reykjavik with Birna; A Geyser and Glacier tour, and; Northern Lights and Lobster feast. Oh and yes I'll have pictures!

Counting down the days

I'm leaving for my first destination in my round the world trip - Iceland - in a week. A week!! Ummm, holy crap where did the time go??? I have to admit that as excited as I am to get started, I'm also a little bit nervous. That's right – I'm nervous. Nervous you ask? Nervous you say?? What? Why? When you get to tour the world? Whatever reason would you have for being nervous? Probably because this is completely unknown for me, so I'm a little nervous in regards to expectations. Understandable right? But yeah I know I'll get over that soon enough (he hopes).

So I've spent much of the past couple of weeks going over lists, checking them twice and so on and so on just to make sure I ve got everything I need for this round the world madness. Despite the planning I still kinda feel like I'm forgetting something and of course knowing me, I probably have/will (please re-visit post 1 for a quick recap on Steve's amazing organization skills). I've been thinking a lot lately on how I got here; meaning - how I got from sitting in culinary school discussing the many merits of the Meyer Lemon to all of a sudden packing up and deciding to take a trip around the world. Truth be told it just sort of happened. I remember saying to my good buddy Shawn back in March that I wanted to do it. Course we were drinking quite a bit of Scotch at the time and I could have said hey I want to eat my way around the world but somehow the idea was born right then and there.

Chef Wright , one of my favourite instructors at culinary school and whose opinion I actually cared about - when I asked him if I should do this - told me without pause: "what the hell, you're young(ish) you might as well go out and explore the world before you get old (er) and have to face responsibility". I'm like ok, thanks for the directional push, I definitely needed that but what does that mean – before I face responsibility? All my life and in particular, the last two and half years I've faced responsibility. Man, based on that alone I could write a bloody book on what responsibility truly means (I won't though). I know some people may not think I have any concept of responsibility but I do. I've just done it in my own way – whatever that means.

I guess what it comes down is choice. I could spend my life wondering and waiting or I can just get the hell out there and do it - get out of my comfort zone and make a move. I made my choice and now I'm gonna live with it. No regrets, no looking back. I'd say that's a pretty good attitude to have when you're about to go to places you've only dreamed about, don't you?

A Confession...

Ok I wasn't entirely honest about my trip to Germany during Oktoberfest. I did talk in a previous post about the various types of German food I ate and/or what I wanted to/should have eaten but I have to confess something: despite my culinary pretentions and food babble, in Germany I ate at McDonalds (not all the time and not every meal it must be said – twice I had it exactly twice and my travelling partner in crime Danielle can back me up on that!). Now I know this revelation wouldn't even raise an eyebrow (or interest for that matter) to people who don't know me but for the ones who do they know I have practically made a bloody religion out of not eating at McDonalds. I would go on and on (and on) saying don't eat that food; do you know this fact or that fact about the crap you're eating? Holy mother was I annoying on my little anti McD's mission. The truth is - are you ready for this? I actually like McDonalds. A lot. And although books/docs like Fast Food Nation grossed me completely out for five years of ever wanting to eat fast food again, I'm finding that despite that book (and hey it was a damn good book), when you've been drinking and you're hungry and there is nothing else around that's open at 1am, and trust me you're looking, suddenly, McDonalds just does the body good. I am NOT endorsing, I'm just saying!

Uh oh, the McD's craving is back and back HARD!! Damn, I forgot how tasty a Big Mac can be!

I'll resist again.

The truth is out there - now I can sleep.