Le Bistro - Reykjavik

Jan 22

Jan 22 Le Bistro - Reykjavik

After a long day of riding on the bus with not that much food, we were both quite hungry. I had read in advance that we should buy liquor at a duty free shop in the airport since drinking is so expensive in Iceland. So we bought a bottle of Tito’s for $20 and brought it. My reasoning in the airport was “with a bottle of wine we can only get drunk one night, with Tito’s we can drink multiple nights and make friends if we share”! However, we’re only in Iceland 3 nights and I underestimated my desire for drinking when we were both so damn tired. So night two, we open the Tito’s and pour it into Adams water bottle (after both taking a swig) as al responsible adults would do. We set out to the 10:11 (just like 7/11) and buy a blood orange Gatorade to mix it up with. Hydrate while you dehydrate. 👍🏼👍🏼

We walked up and down the main roads in search of a dinner restaurant while getting increasingly tipsy. I had read good things about a Thai place but felt since we are in Iceland we should really be eating fish. There are plenty of options, but any nice place is over $50 for entrees and a cheap place would be about $20 for entrees. We keep walking searching for something in between when we find...Le Bistro.

Arctic Salmon over sweet potatoes and a cream sauce. The salmon was cooked perfectly, crisp on the outside and medium on the inside. There was a bit of tomato something in there which I didn’t think mixed very well with the salmon. But after pushing that to the side, I cleared my plate.

Adam the meat lover opted for lamb shank. It was definitely fall off the bone delicious and tender. This was everything that our attempt at cooking lamb shank wasn’t.

The exciting part of our meal...when Adam decided that since we are in Iceland, he has to try fermented shark which is paired with a drink called brennivin aka “Black Death” . The other term for “fermented” is rotten. This shark that they use to make this dish urinate through its skin so they have to let the shark rot for a certain amount of time before it can be safely eaten. I don’t think it tasted very good but he managed to eat all four pieces! What is brennivin? An unsweetened schnapps that Adam said tasted like swallowing thumb tacks. The waitress said “don’t smell it before you eat it” but Adam did and then proceeded to try to get me to smell it too! No way Jose. Why did Adam want to eat this disgusting dish? No idea...boys will be boys.