[Sca-cooks] Icelandic Christmas Eve Dinner

[H Westerlund-Davis]

My Sister-in-law lives in Iceland and via Facebook she shared her recent 
experience regarding Christmas Eve dinner with an Icelandic family.

 
Sister-in-law (SNL): Reikna með að borða ekki skötu í ár!
Translation: Expected to eat skate this year .
Me: Are you eating skate the fish or roller skate. The roller skate version is 
going to be a bit rough.
SNL: the fish. it's very strong and actually not so bad to eat, just not to be 
cooked at home!
Me: Curious? How would you prepare skate? We just had a discussion on our List 
on how to prepare lamprey and eel.
SNL: the skate has to be prepared by a pro-it's first soaked for a very long 
time in an ammonia-like solution (in the old days it was peed on. not kidding) I 
think they do something else to it before it's ready to be cooked, but then it's 
boiled and the smell of it will clear out your sinuses.
Friend1 Adds: Skate is very good. 
Friend2 Adds: Glad to have missed out on this one - it is like an ammonia bomb 
going off in your mouth and your clothes reek of it even if you weren't the one 
cooking it! 
Me: Great discription! I'll have to remember "ammonia bomb." How is skate 
different from Hákarl? (rotten shark) Is this for Þorrablót?
SNL: it's not for Þorrablót. Skata is traditionally eaten on december 23, the 
feast day of St. Þorlákur (not sure why) Hákarl is not quite the same thing, or 
method of preparation, I think, and hákarl isn't cooked once it's been prepared.
Friend3 Adds: Why don't you have lutfisk like the rest of Scandinavia?
End of comments.... My Sister-in-law has recently left to learn how to play 
drums in Africa. For real.
 
Why do they eat Skata? It is an Icelandic Viking thing. They have stubborn 
issues. 

 
Bless Bless,
Aelina the Saami
 
 
 
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