Icelandic diet, I could get used to this

OK so this post is kind of out of order. Let me set the scene we left Tamara and Alex's at 4:30 pm for our 8:30 flight to Berlin. Now we were delayed in the airport in NJ until 11:00 am the next day with no food or drinks overnight, the finally serve us some crappy day old sandwiches in the morning and try to keep us appeased on the plane. Now we've landed in Iceland and get put up in a hotel for the night. It's 11:00 pm Icelandic time and all the restaurants are closed, the airline said something would be ready for us at the hotel. Of course no one called the hotel to tell them to have something ready. So 20 people show up hungry and tired and are told to wait a moment while the hotel owners makes a call. She calls a local restaurateur, at home no less, and tells him to get his staff and make dinner for 20 of us. Voila he whips together a delicious fish dish for us!


We sat at a table with a couple of Swedes and a Norwegian girl who were cooing over their plates about how this tastes just like home! Two kinds of fish, cod and another local white fish, lightly breaded and pan fried just enough, with fingerling potatoes and a small side salad. Good meal, true we were starving and hadn't had any real food for 2 days, I think this was truly a great meal and to eat it in that condition was a real treat.

Obviously Iceland is a huge fishing economy with over 60% of their GDP coming out of the waters off the coast. This tends to make for some tasty incredibly fresh fish, which we had a lot of in Iceland. We were told most Icelandic people won't eat fish when they leave on vacation because it never is as fresh or as good as it is in Iceland. I tend to agree. The major port cities of the world have a monopoly on screamingly fresh, tasty and cheap creatures of the sea. God love um, cause I sure do.

The other amazing thing I was surprised by in Iceland was the dairy products! YUM YUM Butter!
Heavily salted, sweet creamy butter! This Smjor(thanks internets for the picture) is just about everything I've ever been looking for in a butter. (I'm thinking about popping the question) Heavy unctuous and buttery-iffic. SMJOR!

The Icelandic people make phenomenal fat free yogurt called Skyr. It's a strained style of yogurt much like Greek yogurt. This started as a cost saving measure to use up buttermilk, and has become a valued tradition. The yogurt is almost pure protein and is often found unsweetened and is dirt cheap in the stores in Iceland. This is the creamiest, thickest most hardy yogurt I have ever tasted, and it's fat free, which usually in my book is a negative. Somehow this still works really really well.

Lastly the milk was really good in Iceland(who knew you get great butter and great yogurt from great milk!) Anyways I just loved the brand name of this milk

MUUU!

-NOM!

God save the Thomas Keller: Bouchon

MMM Max likes Thomas Keller. French Laundry GOOOOD.. Ad Hoc GOOOD. Yum yum Bouchon! Thomas Keller food without the six month wait(technically since I new someone who knew the reservation girl, I didn't have to wait at all for The French Laundry but I don't want to brag... Wait no I am totally bragging, don't you wish you were me?) Anywhoo, I went to bouchon bakery in NYC. Well... to be totally honest I had to go back the next day too... and well I had to take my sister there right? SOOO maybe I went to Bouchon three times in a week OK? Nothing wrong with that! Right?

Right?


This is a Pain au Trois (bread of three(three chocolates that is)). Basically chocolate puff pastry, stuffed with chocolate gonache drizzled with chocolate. This was Jessie's favorite. Go figure a woman who loves chocolate... now that's something to blog about.


NOM!

This was my favorite a pecan sticky bun the size of my head, ooey gooey goodness so top heavy with pecans it would topple in a stong breeze. Layers of buttery dough not quite caramelized sugar syrup running through the whole thing... this is Heaven people!


Focaccia bread toasted with tons of butter on top coated in some amazing creamy cheese(goat?) then topped with amazing crispy bacon heated to order. This was pretty awesome but not as awesome as the Wagyu beef sandwich(not pictured as I ate it too quickly to film or see with the naked eye) P.S. The milk they use is GAF Seelig milk, im not sure if they get the butter from there too but the taste of the butter in the pastries really comes through. Basically I want his butter guy. I also tried a Croissant. While I have tasted better baked croissant(I like the really high heat well browned croissant) I have never tasted a better butter used for a croissant.

-NOM!