From Iceland — Well, You Asked: Grinding Gears And A Whale Tasty Meal

Well, You Asked: Grinding Gears And A Whale Tasty Meal

Published March 12, 2021

Well, You Asked: Grinding Gears And A Whale Tasty Meal
Photo by
Art Bicnick

You asked. We answered. Isn’t that enough?


“How do you really piss off an Icelandic person?”

Icelanders are touchy on a number of subjects, which makes it super easy to cheese someone off at a moment’s notice. My favourite way to provoke someone is to tell them that Skyr is literally just yoghurt and nothing special; I mean, yeah, it’s nice, but does it compare to a Müller Light? Not really.

Another way to grind an Icelander’s gears is to subtly infer that they’re all cousins. I don’t imagine it’s particularly nice for your whole country to be compared to the Targaryen family but, well, you asked…

My final insult to Icelandic culture would be to tell them that silver is not as good as a gold medal. This is in reference to the Icelandic handball team who, in 2008, won Iceland’s only silver medal in handball at the Sydney Summer Olympics. To really drive the knife in, mention how Denmark won gold in 2016.


Is whale meat tasty? Hell, Is it even ethical?

Whale meat is pretty tasty; it’s essentially just a big juicy steak that tastes fishy. It’s certainly not bad but by no means anywhere near as good as a real steak. [Editor’s Note: This opinion is the journalist’s own.]

In terms of it being ethical, whale, I’m afraid to admit that many Icelandic fishermen clearly don’t particularly care too much about the ethics of hunting whales. Or shark for that matter. If it swims, they eat it.

More importantly, whales aren’t even the worst thing people eat here. In Vestmannaeyjar, they eat puffins. Puffins damnit! I get that being on a freezing cold rock in the north of the Atlantic means that you gotta eat what you gotta eat but come on now, there’s plenty more fish in the sea, right?

Got a dumb question? We’ve got an even dumber answer! Send it to grapevine@grapevine.is

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