{"id":3570,"date":"2014-08-27T13:23:10","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T13:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/?p=3570"},"modified":"2014-08-27T13:23:10","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T13:23:10","slug":"icelands-ice-cream-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/2014\/08\/27\/icelands-ice-cream-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Iceland’s ice cream day."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"is035\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the volcanic activity life in Iceland goes on as usual. I’m still following the volcanic activity in the (now somewhat faultily named) post B\u00e1r\u00f0arbunga eruption just hours away?<\/a> but meanwhile let’s look at what else is going on on this little island.<\/p>\n

Hverager\u00f0i is a small town on the south coast of Iceland that’s particularly well-known for its greenhouses and, once upon a time, its large botanical garden that sadly\u00a0burned down to the ground a few years ago and has not been rebuilt since. Yet there is one more thing that Icelanders know it for: ice cream.<\/p>\n

Ice cream is serious business in Iceland<\/a> and enjoyed throughout the year, something which took me completely by surprise when I first moved here. One of the largest local companies, Kj\u00f6r\u00eds, is based in Hverager\u00f0i and holds an annual ice cream tasting fest\u00a0there\u00a0where they bring out possible future flavour ideas and naturally also some flavours they’re really not considering for the market, they just make them for this fest in order to… well, I’m not sure, but maybe to have a giggle at people trying them. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

\"is031\"<\/a>The festival is massively popular going by an Icelandic scale. Most of the people you see in this picture are actually forming a very wide queue towards…<\/p>\n

\"is029\"<\/a>…the ice cream tasting tent, and here you see the same queue from the inside of said tent. The left side and the back were lined with long tables where staff were busily spooning ice cream samples into little bowls and the queue sort of milled around in an orderly fashion. I know, that sounded kind of contradictory but I have no way of properly describing the chaos that somehow still managed to move from table to table with almost no elbowing included.<\/p>\n

\"is024\"<\/a>Each flavour had a name to describe it with the actual ingredients listed below. Here’s Fyller\u00eds (fyller\u00ed<\/em> = binge drinking, drinking lots of alcohol, \u00eds<\/em> = ice cream) and Par\u00eds (that’s an easy one – just a pun of Paris the city). Below the small text lets you know that Fyller\u00eds is Guinness beer and Par\u00eds cognac ice cream. Both were unbelievably delicious, I know this because I sampled them very thoroughly. Just to be certain you know, the level of unbelievableness called for a scientific approach and whether this ice cream tastes just as good if eaten f.ex. from another box. Based on my research I’d say it tastes still as good 100% of the tries and should hopefully become a new ice cream flavour for the company.<\/p>\n

\"is027\"<\/a>The flavours seemed to have a country theme too – Grann\u00eds with green apple and berries represents Iran and Sinfon\u00eds (another easy pun) with Mozart chocolate naturally Austria.<\/p>\n

\"is025\"<\/a>Moving onto the\u00a0more unusual\u00a0flavours, Piri Pir\u00eds (piri piri ice cream) and Haf\u00eds<\/em>, which coincidentally represents Iceland. It’s also a punny name because it can be read either as “sea ice cream” or “sea ice”. As for the taste… it had dry fish flavour. It was akin taking out a scoop of ice used for storing fish, adding milk and sugar and blending it all together. It was honestly revolting. The company had done this with the obvious idea of trolling people, at least judging by the size and amount of containers they had prepared for each flavour. For the more popular flavours they had tall stacks of them and several people manning the stalls, for Haf\u00eds… just a few boxes and one person.<\/p>\n

\"is022\"<\/a>However, sometimes trolling goes very, very right. This here is called B\u00fab\u00eds. It doesn’t mean anything in Icelandic but try saying it out loud and you may get an idea of what the main ingredients might include! Hint: the “\u00fa” is pronounced like “oo” in “good”. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

\"is021\"<\/a>Most of the tasting stalls were inside the large tent but the flavours thought most popular were outside instead. \u00cds \u00e1rsins 2014 (= ice cream of the year 2014), Kvikk\u00eds that used Sunquick as flavour and the B\u00fab\u00eds mentioned above. M\u00f3\u00f0urmj\u00f3lkur\u00eds<\/em>\u00a0= mother’s\u00a0milk ice cream, in other words breastmilk ice cream!<\/p>\n

I admit doubting\u00a0it\u00a0at first. The idea actually came from\u00a0a radio show prank where someone called the person in charge of the new flavours and suggested it. Little did they know that after everyone had laughed at the joke the idea behind it stuck on the other end and, she said, she just had to go with it. She had already began to plan it in all seriousness during the call and could not let go of the idea. Good thing she didn’t because you know what? It was delicious.<\/p>\n

Sadly they cannot start producing this ice cream like other ice cream flavours because the source or the main ingredient cannot be guaranteed at all times, but it was definitely a great experience for the ice cream tasting day!<\/p>\n

\"is019\"<\/a>I tried to get a picture of the staff at work and the size of the samples but people kept literally walking in front of the camera. The pull of free ice cream is strong…<\/p>\n