![]() ![]() As for seals, off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, the population is quite healthy at some 7.5 million animals. Iceland is now limiting the number of birds hunters are allowed to net to protect them. I’ve since learned the population is vulnerable. I’ll admit, I feel guilty about eating puffin in Iceland. They gobble up grilled guinea pigs in Ecuador and no one seems to care. I’ve sampled kangaroo in Australia and seen dog dishes in South Korea. So why is Newfoundland and Labrador so demonized while Iceland and other countries seem to be relatively untouched by the attacks from animal rights organizations? It’s a question that often occurs to me when I peruse menus in foreign places. It is lean, nutrient rich protein that is available to us on our doorstep. It struck me that it’s exactly the way many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, me included, describe the seal hunt. It’s a sustainable hunt and that’s the best way to describe it.” What is worse, for us to eat whale that is very difficult to hunt and can feed a lot of people or eating corn from the United States that is imported and can have some toxic things going on… we are not hunting 200 of these animals a year. “I would like for people to try to understand a little bit more. Jimenez spoke about a culinary movement worldwide for chefs to source food that is sustainable. “Obviously we do hear it from time to time but not so much that it bothers us,” he said. I asked chef Jimenez how often he has to defend his choice to serve whale meat in his restaurant. “From time to time, maybe a couple of times a year.” The truth, I was told by locals, is that very few Icelanders eat whale regularly. I asked chef Olafsson how often he would eat whale meat growing up in Iceland. Once in my mouth, I can honestly say it was the tenderest meat I’ve eaten with a delicious flavour as well, a little like moose meat. I didn’t want to be stuck with a lengthy gnaw in case it made me gag. I raised my fork and knife, landed them on a corner of the slab and sliced off a small morsel. The chefs prepared the meat by searing it with just a little salt and pepper and served it thinly sliced with carmelized shallots, crispy artichokes and artichoke foam. So if *they* try seal here, shouldn’t *I* try whale there? To be honest, I’m still struggling with that one. I want to see them face and eyes into a plate full of cod tongues, or licking sticky molasses off a forkful of touton, or tucking into a nouveau meal of seal by one of our talented local chefs. I mean, that’s what I want for visitors who find themselves in our little rugged corner of the world. I wanted to banish any sense of judgement I might have held and sample foods that I could possibly enjoy. That is, until I saw them on that menu in Iceland. I’ve taken hundreds of pictures of both but the thought of how they taste never entered my mind. Puffins are out there on the water too, flapping their little wings as fast as they can go. Minke whales are usually the first ones we spy in season. Just to give you some context, I spend a fair bit of time on the Bonavista Peninsula where we do a lot of whale watching. There was local lamb and fish dishes of trout and perch but there were two I’d never eaten before - minke whale and smoked puffin. By the looks of the six food servings, I figured I might need a good bit of liquid courage to get through them all. Also known as “Black Death”, a swig of this local liquor was traditionally used to wash down a few bites of that rotting shark I scoffed down at the market. The seven-course Icelandic Gourmet menu starts off with a good stiff shot of Brennivin, a caraway shnapps made from fermented grain. like M&Ms,” he said. I let it sit on my tongue a second or two and then chomped down into its rubbery texture. I can report that it did taste like old cheese and absolutely nothing like M&Ms. He looked down at his cooler for other Icelandic offerings. “Have you ever eaten rams' testicles?” he asked. It was time for me to move on. It smelled like old socks. “How do Icelanders usually eat it,” I asked. The man behind the counter offered me a small plastic container filled with the cubes of shark. After about 3 months in the hole, it’s taken out and hung for several months. They buried it in a shallow hole and covered it in rocks to force out the toxic liquid from the flesh. Greenland shark is actually poisonous to humans but Vikings developed a preservation technique that made it edible. The shark he was referring to is called, Hakarl, fermented Greenland shark and it’s Iceland’s national dish. A man behind the seafood counter looked up at me, “Have you tried the shark? You haven’t been to Iceland until you’ve had the shark,” he said. There was every kind of locally caught fish you’d want: cod, haddock, ling, salmon and it was fresh, frozen or dried. ![]()
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