our first icelandic meal.
matur og drykkur means "food and drink" in icelandic, but is also the name of a quaint restuarant in reykjavik. it's focused not only on icelandic ingredients, but also old icelandic recipes found in history books and manuscripts. it was one of only a couple dinner reservations i had made for our trip to iceland, and it was for our very first night. i had made it an early reservation, 6pm, since i knew we would be tired, but it still ended up being an exhaustive 3.5 hour dinner!
white ale, mead tea and thyme.
they have both an a la carte menu as well as three tasting menus - icelandic, seafood and vegetarian. we opted to try the icelandic and seafood, which had quite a few dishes in common. all the dishes were beautifully presented and packed full of unfamiliar flavor and texture combinations that worked really well together. definitely a great introduction to icelandic food!
course 1, both menus. dried fish, whey butter, and pickled dulse.
course 2, both menus. trout smoked in sheep's dung, horseradish on burnt flatbread.
course 3, icelandic menu. double-smoked lamb chips with buttermilk and nutmeg.
course 3, seafood menu. pickled herring, rye bread, beets and cured egg yolk.
course 4, both menus. salted cod croquettes and horseradish remoulade.
course 5, icelandic menu. halibut soup with mussels, apples and raisins.
course 5, seafood menu. seared blue fine tuna with lumpfish roes and sea truffle paste.
course 6, icelandic menu. lamb, potatoes, arctic thyme, rhubarb jam, winter kale and crowberry sauce.
the cod head was the size of a deflated basketball and just way too much (then again, most people probably don't try to eat everything on a fish head the way i do!).
course 6, seafood menu. cod's head cooked in chicken stock with sugar kelp; served with potato salad and lots of lovage.
course 7, both menus. skyr with blueberries, oats and whey granita.
course 8, both menus. icelandic twisted doughnuts "kleina" and caramelized whey.
Grandagarður 2, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland
