Great Moments In Icelandic Cuisine: Bjúga

Tired of overpriced tattered hot dogs? Well, why not try out some long, thick bjúga?

While Europe was getting all gourmet about putting thin sausages in a bun, Icelanders were already stuffing seasoned minced meat into a tube of animal guts twice the size of a hotdog. There was no bourgeois ketchup on it, but white potato sauce. Mmm…hungry yet? No? Well, wait—there’s more. Bjúga is also smoked. And salted. So, you can have that raw bitter taste like someone probably feels right before they get a cerebral hemorrhage.

The dish does, however, have an exquisite, elegant touch. You have this long, fat sausage-like bjúga on the dish, and then thick white sauce sprayed all over it. And to top it off, there’s a perfectly round pair of boiled potatoes on the end of the bjúga (or more, if you are a barbarian). The dish is often referred to as the Robert Mapplethorpe of food; edgy, provocative and really explicit.

The bjúga actually tastes okay, but the real treat is the white sauce that comes with it, which is sweet and salty at the same time.

Icelanders have a long history with the food; even one of thirteen Icelandic santas is named ‘Bjúgnakrækir’ or the smoked-sausage-catcher.

This provocative dish is not as popular in modern households, although it never fails lonely alt-right nuts when their nationalistic brain damage kicks in, and they really want to get down and dirty with Icelandic culture.

Read more “Great Moments in Icelandic Cuisine” here