Believe it or not, we really struggled with this particular theme, dinnertime. Do we show some cute and cuddly animal eating something? Do we show a scene from a restaurant? Do we show a meal that we’ve prepared? Obviously any of those could be relevant choices, but we wanted to think a little outside the box. After a little deliberation, we decided on a photograph taken of the fish monger in the markets of Tangier, Morocco.
So Many ChoicesThe Fish Monger
We strongly considered this picture of volunteers handing out food to people who had lost their homes due to the forest fire that happened in Colorado Springs in 2012.
Food Drive
And just because you can’t have enough pictures of cute animals, here is one that we shared in a post about seeing wildlife recently.
Adorable Chipmunk
This was an incredibly delicious, yet simple, squid that we had in Estepona, Spain.
We try to have some sort of seafood every week and tilapia is a mild fish that is easy to prepare and typically inexpensive. We cooked this as a weeknight dinner because it is quick and easy, but also very tasty. Because tilapia has such a mild flavor, there are plenty of options to serving it, from sauces to cooking techniques such as baking, poaching, and pan frying. Asparagus is also very versatile, but oven roasting it is one of our favorite ways of preparing it as it gives it a robust flavor and is very easy, especially for a weeknight dinner. We’re providing the recipe that serves four people, but we did half of this recipe since it was just the two of us. Enjoy :).
Tilapia with Roasted Asparagus
Ingredients
1 lb Fresh Tilapia Filets
1 cup Panko or Bread Crumbs (we used Panko)
2 eggs
1/4 cup Milk – optional
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
1 tbsp Spanish Paprika
1 tbsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1 tbsp Fresh Rosemary – finely chopped
6 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 lb Fresh Asparagus
Salt and Pepper to taste
Pan Frying Tilapia
Instructions
Toss the asparagus with 2 tablespoons olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Place the asparagus on a baking sheet, ensuring that they are not crowded, and put into a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes or until the asparagus begin to caramelize. On plates or in shallow bowls, prepare the breading ingredients. In the first bowl, combine the flour, paprika, garlic powder, tablespoon of salt and half tablespoon of black pepper. In the second bowl, whisk together the eggs and, if desired, milk. In the third bowl, combine the Panko or bread crumbs and the rosemary. Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Dredge the tilapia in the flour and then coat with the egg mixture. Finally, completely cover with the Panko and place the fish in the frying pan. Cook the fish until golden brown and thoroughly cooked, about 4 minutes per side. Squeeze some lemon juice over the fish and serve with the asparagus.
We actually ate more on this trip than we usually do. Perhaps it was because we love seafood or just because every day was a long day of exploring the beautiful landscapes. We definitely wanted to try authentic Icelandic fare, but there were also a few things that we knew that we wouldn’t eat. When reading about the food of Iceland before we travelled, there was quite a bit out there about the restaurants serving whale and puffin. We’d also heard about the fermented shark, which was featured on a couple of shows, including Bizarre Foods. We mostly ate in Reykjavik, but we did enjoy a couple of meals while we were travelling around the countryside.
Meat Soup in a Bread BowlSeafood PastaPork Belly
Seafood and lamb were on every menu in one shape or form and the most traditional dishes seemed to be the soups, fish soup, meat soup, and lamb soup, of which we tried each. We had fish soup several times and each time the broth was a little different, but they were all delicious. Langoustine, which are small lobsters, were also very common on most menus. Some of the best that we had were actually at the restaurant at the Settlement Center in Borganese. They had a wonderful buffet, but we chose to order a la carte, having lamb and fish soup and then entrees. In addition to the langoustine on tagliatelle, we also had Ling, which is a white fish in the cod family, but it was lighter than traditional cod and very delicious.
Ling with White Wine Cream SauceBuffet at the Settlement CenterLobster with Tagliatelle
When we went out to the Snæfellsnes peninsula, the Hotel Búðir was highly recommended to us as the place to stop for lunch and we weren’t disappointed. They are a wonderful hotel and would probably be a great place to stay and get out of Reykjavik, but we had to settle for just having lunch there. Again, we had fish soup as well as a lamb sandwich, with the meat being very mild in flavor.
Lamb SandwichFish Soup at Hotel BudirHotel Budir
On one of our nights out, we decided to do the chef’s menu at the Seafood Grill, something also offered at many restaurants, where you get several courses all chosen by the chef to represent the food of Iceland. We told them that we did not want puffin or whale, ordered a couple of glasses of wine, and then the food started coming, all nine courses. Unfortunately they still brought us puffin, but we asked them to replace it with a second order of goose, but otherwise every course, all meat except for dessert, were delicious. We had goose, grouper, salmon, lobster, ocean pearch, and lamb. It was way more food than we could eat, but each course was incredible.
Cured Goose and Puffin (before we returned it)Grilled Lobster and SalmonOcean Pearch
In addition to the food, Iceland is quite proud of its beer. The most common is Gull beer, which is brewed in Reykjavik and can be found just about everywhere. We tried Boli Premium that is a premium lager that is also brewed in Reykjavik. There is no wine produced in Iceland, for obvious reasons, but we did hear that they were going to attempt it in the near future. The other thing that they produce in Iceland is vodka as well as Brennivín, which is an unsweetened schnapps that is the most popular distilled alcohol in Iceland and is usually taken as a shot.
Boli Premium LagerThe English PubLamb Soup
We chose not to eat any puffin or whale during our trip because of the environmental impact. From what we heard, the puffin population has decreased by 38% since it became a popular dish on the island and some whales are still on the endangered species list. We don’t judge anyone else who chooses to eat puffin or whale, it is just something that we didn’t want have while we were there. Fermented shark is a shark head that has been left out for a month to rot and is then served. We didn’t see that on any menu, but it just sounds disgusting, so we were glad not to see it. The one other thing that we saw on a menu, but didn’t try, was reindeer. We probably would have tried that had we had the chance, but the restaurant that served it was so busy that we ended up walking out without eating there.
GrouperSimple Ham SandwichLamb Roast and Lamb Shank
Overall, the food that we had was terrific, especially the seafood. Because we wanted to try as many different things as possible, we ended up eating way more than we usually would. Normally we split a meal or just eat small bites, but on this trip we ordered appetizers and full meals for each of us so that we could share and order different things. Reykjavik definitely has a wonderful variety of restaurants to choose from, both Icelandic as well as traditional restaurants such as Italian, Thai, American, etc. The food was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.
