Iceland food -- Dill and Buðir

We just got back from a 10 day trip to Iceland -- I made 2 dinner reservations before leaving and they turned out extremely well. One was at the restaurant at Hótel Buðir, and the other was at Dill in "downtown" Reykjavik. I uploaded my Iceland pictures to a cloud file and several of them are food pictures so I figure it's OK to just post the link here. Please enjoy and ask questions if you want to know what's what. I have an image of the menu at Dill and the pictures are in order so maybe you can figure it out. Iceland was just great. One thing important to understand is that the livestock by law MUST be "Viking Stock" so the only sheep there are from a breed from 1000 years ago -- everybody has horns including rams, ewes, and little lambs. And everybody eats the lush grass that grows rapidly with 24 hours of sunlight in June. The flavor is mild and delicious! One reason I had to eat at Dill was that I had bought the cookbook "North" by Karl Gunnar Gíslaison, chef at Dill (then) and chef at Agern in NYC (now). Not just recipes but a rather complete description of all of the foods peculiar to Iceland. Anyway it was one of our best vacations ever.

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B025oqs3qD8wxX

Nice pictures, Frank! Quite a lot of scene in that scenery.

Looks good. I heard about those special sheep but I don't eat meat so I had to content myself with the amazing fish from those nice cold northern waters.

It's a very special and unique island (at least to me) but for whatever reason my one week there in 2011 was enough and I'm not dying to go back. (Perhaps because the food spectrum was a bit limited!) Although I think I may end up going back because my wife has always wanted to go and my trip was a work-based trip.

[Robin Garr]

Thanks for posting, Frank. The link made it easy.

For people not interested in wading through the big iCloud file here is a "20 best" photo set on Flickr.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/40834692@N06/

No food in this one.

Rahsaan, Dill has a vegetarian tasting menu. It's tough though, because at 52 degrees F in June, it's hard to grow vegetables there. A lot come from greenhouses or are imported. There are great soups -- the lobster soup at Sea Baron is famous. And across the street from Sea Baron is a fish and chips place that serves a tasty Icelandic dish made of cod, potatoes, and milk. In our hotel rooms when we didn't feel like spending $100 on supper for 2 (food is expensive partly because tips are included, and partly because EVERYTHING is expensive there) we had cheese and wine with interesting Nordic breads, either crunchy and made mostly from seeds, or thin and chewy and made of soft whole grains like rye and spelt. I liked the food a lot wherever we went.

There are only 330,000 people living in Iceland, and there are no fossil fuel power plants -- everything is hydrothermal (hot underground water), hydrodynamic (falling water) or wind. I said to Louise "you kind of don't need to wash your hair in Iceland!" The air is clean, everything is clean! We brought back some Skyr, some caviar, some rhubarb jam, and some of that bread. I can get they chewy kind here. The cheeses are largely imitations of things like Havarti and Gouda but tasty.

Anyway thanks for the comments! Our son Tom went twice and then convinced us to go. I could imagine going again some day. This was probably one of our favorite vacations ever. I might want to go back during a season when it gets DARK once in a while so we might have a chance of seeing the Northern Lights. The people were amazingly friendly and helpful and everyone spoke English. I learned quite a bit about the esoteric ins and outs of Icelandic pronunciation and I might try to get a little deeper into the language before revisiting. But they certainly don't expect tourists to speak it, they know it's complicated and difficult.

If you didn't look at the iCloud file please try the Flickr file, I tried to weed out and just post the best pictures in that small file.

[Robin Garr]

If you didn't look at the iCloud file please try the Flickr file, I tried to weed out and just post the best pictures in that small file.

Excellent photos, Frank, in both locations. You really captured the spirit of Iceland. I assume, anyway, since I haven't been there.

Thanks Robin. We are making plans to go to Agern, a new restaurant in NYC with the chef who started Dill, and someone from Noma. Karl Gunnar Gislaison was at Dill. Mikhail Lipyansky also went to Dill and wants to experience Agern before it turns into "Hamilton" and we won't be able to get a reservation. We may go with him next month.

Clean Nordic food has a real appeal and involves some truly interesting flavors and combinations.