The best head at Reykjavik bus station

Sheep's head that is. When we were at the Blue lagoon in Iceland we met another American who actually lived a half a block from Tartine bakery, my favorite bakery in San Francisco. He told us that in Reykjavik he had gotten drive-though sheep's head. Basically a half a sheep's head with mashed potatoes and turnips on a Styrofoam platter that you pick up in a drive through. Immediately I knew I needed to eat this collision of old and new, rough country food and convenience.

He was pretty sketchy about the location of this culinary delight, but showed us a great video of him eating the eyeball and a picture of the billboard out front.



After visiting the Pearl, a large touristy lookout point on a hill we talked to some locals about where to get some good head. Apparently the only place they really knew about was at a bus station right by the airport. Low and behold, HERE WAS OUR DRIVE-IN! We ordered a half a sheep's head which came with a nice cauliflower soup, mashed potatoes and mashed turnips. I couldn't help myself but to dive right in.



I've already torn open the cheek here, which I thought was a little bit over cooked. To properly enjoy a sheep's head you are supposed to eat everything except the jawbone and the skull.


All the meaty bits were, well, quite meaty. It was just like eating any stewed meat. The really interesting part were the nostrils and the lips. They were a little chewy and basically the skin felt... like a sheep's face. It had a very rough texture like if you petted a sheep's or horse's nose but when you bit into it, it was very tender and not at all chewy. Not surprisingly, the tastiest part of the sheep was the tongue. Absolutely the best flavor and texture on the whole head.


This was the final toll on our poor sheepie. I will name her Katie the sheep. We also ate Katie's eye. Katie's eye was pretty tasty, basically it just tasted any eye. Mostly I've only eaten fish eyes. This one just tasted like a really big fish eye. We also didn't eat the iris's since those are mostly indigestible. To be honest, ever since I worked on models of glaucoma dissecting and doing live surgeries on eyes... they have lost some of their appeal to me. But they are a tasty morsel, not to be missed by non-neurosurgeons. (P.S. no brain much to my dismay but it's probably for the best with scrapie's and all)

-NOM!