New
Year’s Eve, and what better way to spend it than with a 38ºC bath, good drink,
good food, and throwing health and safety to the wind as Reykjavik’s residents
ignite enough gunpowder to obliterate a small town, at the Hallgrímskirkja
church fireworks.
First
thing, a trip to the Blue Lagoon as detox in anticipation of the forthcoming night
of debauchery. A truly bizarre place - superheated
water from the ground near a lava flow is used to run turbines that generate
electricity at the nearby geothermal power plant and provide heat for hot water
systems. The water is then fed in to the
lagoon.
Once
you’ve put the fact that you’re bathing in power plant water out of your mind,
it’s a fantastic experience. The warm
waters are rich in minerals like silica and sulphur and everyone looks equally
ridiculous as they float around with silica mud smeared all over their
face. I came out as soft as a baby’s
bum. Definitely a must do experience
while in Iceland. Oh, and there’s a bar, so you can sip Viking
lager while you relax. Perfect.
Back
to the hotel, and we’d planned ahead and booked in to VOX, the restaurant at
the hotel we were staying in - the Hilton Nordica. Not only damn handy, but also one of Reykjavik’s hottest
restaurants at the moment. The set menu
made life easy, especially as we had slipped on our Stolichnaya overcoats in
preparation for the chilly evening ahead.
The
first two courses of Langoustine followed by Arctic Char were delightful. Light and interesting with clever contrasting
flavours and textures.
 |
| Skyr butter |
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| Arctic char from Haukamyri - lightly smoked and fresh char with char roe, cucumber and creme fraiche |
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| Slightly cooked langoustine with tomatoes, rose hips, horseradish and tomato foam |
Then
it got more challenging. Lamb tartar is
something I’ve certainly never had before and, not being a big fan of tartar
generally, I found this hard to get my head around. Having said that, the Icelandic berries
worked perfectly with the rich lamb flesh - I actually found myself kind of
enjoying it.
 |
| Lamb tartar, estragon cream, pickled onion and Icelandic berries |
Then
Reindeer - not something I’m squeamish about as it’s such a close relative to
venison which we’re so lucky to have in abundance in Scotland. While I like it rare, this was slightly under
for my tastes, but the dish came together in earthy deliciousness with the
cabbage, kale, mushroom and smoked marrow accompaniments.
 |
| Reindeer from Herad - panfried reindeer, cabbage, mushrooms, kale and smoked marrow |
‘Icelandic
nature’ for dessert unfortunately failed to push my buttons. Maybe we just didn’t like moss? ventured our waiter. Maybe, maybe...
 |
| Icelandic nature - moss pudding with spruce sorbet and berry juice |
For
all it’s promise, I wouldn’t rate VOX as the best meal we had in Iceland (see Sjavargrillidin Part 1) and enjoyed the meals we had there in the Bistro (see below) more
than this one in the Restaurant.
Waking
up the next morning after a night of revelry and fireworks, I was feeling
delicate to say the least. It was all we
could manage to have a refreshing walk in the snow and then back to the VOX
Bistro for some sustenance and to force down the first beer of the day.
It’s
always good to choose a hotel with a good in-house restaurant I think, for days
like these where you don’t have to feel guilty when it would be just too much
to drag yourself any further than the hotel lobby. This would be the second time we ate in the
VOX Bistro - the first being on the night we arrived and just needed to eat
immediately. Both times were great.
Then
there was the ultimate New Year’s Day hangover food - “Roast Beef”. Grilled sourdough bread was topped with a
mountain of rare roast beef, fried mushrooms, lightly pickled cucumber, sautéed
onions and horseradish shavings on top.
Oh dear, I can’t think about it without drooling. I’m going to have to stop now. Part 3 still to come - with some cheap eats
and the lobster soup Egon Ronay rated as the best ever.
