Shark Anyone

I have heard from multiple people that a shark steak can be very good. But traditional Icelandic shark is much different. Once a year there is a heritage celebration in Iceland where a feast is prepare of traditional food. Usually I enjoy the experience a different culture, but experiencing this day once in my life time is enough and fortunately I missed this year’s celebration. Since this day just recently passed, I thought of sharing my previous experience. Here is a portion of an email that I sent last year, before I started a blog.

I don’t know if many people can say they have eaten fermented shark. I can now say that I have or at least attempted. Iceland has a celebration once a year, where there is a feast of traditional food. Some of their traditional food includes: shark, sheep’s head, sheep testicles, and many more. To get back to the shark, it is prepared by burying the shark meat for several weeks. Then the meat is removed from the ground and hung up to dry. Once dry this meat is cut up in little cubes and is ready to be served.

The cantina prepared several of these traditional items and for this reason, I don’t know if the food was authentic or not. But I was adventurous that night and tried the shark, sour whale, sour sheep, and smoked sheep. I wasn’t adventurous enough to try the sheep’s head or testicles, couldn’t get over the look of the food. Well let me first state that the shark was the worst thing I have ever eaten. It was so disgusting that I had to spit it out in my napkin. The remaining items that I tried were fairly bad, but I was able to finishing eating them unlike the shark. These very little items ruined the whole meal. I couldn’t get the taste out of mouth. I tried to eat some other items for dinner that night, but couldn’t.

Sitting at the table, wondering what the hell was I thinking. I watched the re-action of several people trying the same food for the first time. I imagine that I had a similar look as I ate it also. I was feeling better about the experience until one guy came and sat at our table. He had a huge plate of shark. He proceeded to pour chile sauce over it and then just started shoveling away. Seeing this, I felt like I was going to be sick and had to get out of there. Now a couple days later, on an occasion I can still smell that food when I am eating.

It is hard to describe the taste I experience during that dinner, just due to the fact that there has never been anything that is even close to being comparable. The best description of the taste is how it is prepared, rotting meat that has been buried in the ground for several weeks.