Thorrablót

O.k. now things are getting serious ;-) My friend Jón Kjartan pointedly mentions that I´m becoming a worse blogger than he ;-P
I apologize for the lackage of posting of late, been recuperating after the young folklorist conference last week. Then yesterday we attended the local Thorrablot, organized by the Icelandic society, it is a winter festival marked by the eating of traditional Icelandic foods of old ;-) cue excerpt from an old essay here below ;-)
Had a great time eating fun stuff such as burnt sheeps´ heads, soured sheep testicles, rotten shark, blood pudding and liver sausage, dried fish, sweet turnip mash and smoked lamb (the only thing poor Halldór really eats ;-) by clicking on the pictures of mine and Vilborgs plates you can get a detailed description of each course.
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All in all a great evening of feasting, singing, listening to drunk Icelanders arguing politics (ok so that was less fun) and then dancing into the night :-D
I got some of the left overs to take home to the kids which they loved ;-) And amazing as it is they both love the rotten shark which I can´t for the life of me stomach.
My wee strong vikings :-D who happily eat whatever is put in front of them, were amazing this summer in Japan ... can´t believe my luck!

Þorri is one of the old Icelandic months. It always begins on a Friday, between the 19th and the 25th of January, and ends on a Saturday between the 18th and 24th of February. The first day of Þorri is called Bóndadagur or "Husband's Day/Farmer's Day", and is dedicated to men. The name Þorri is known from the 12th century, the origin of the word is not certain but speculations have been around linking it to the god Ása Þór (Thor). There is mention of Þorrablót in the literature from the middle ages but no description is given.
“God I wish I were in bed, undressed and had fallen asleep, awoken again and had started eating”

The modern day variation of Þorrablót is thought to derive from a 1950s revival, mostly undertaken by the entrepreneur owner of a restaurant named Naustið. The newspaper clip on the right is an advertisement from them and reads “God I wish I were in bed, undressed and had fallen asleep, awoken again and had started eating”.
A typical Þorrablót takes place at any time during Þorri. The season for it now extends into the following month, Góa, but the feast is then usually dubbed Góugleði. It is advisable to hold it on a Friday or Saturday night, to give the participants time to recover from the effects of overeating and heavy drinking that goes with a good Þorrablót. The form the feast takes is similar everywhere, the indispensable ingredients being the traditional food, some sort of staged entertainment, singing, drinking and dancing.