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| Hrókur |
The "sheepfold" in the Grandi Mathöll - a guest of Hrókur
May I introduce? This is Hrókur. Certainly a very impressive ram during his lifetime. "Hrókur" means "big guy" - but also "womanizer". We met this Hrókur in the “sheepfold” in the Grandi Mathöll.
A “Mathöll” is a “food palace”, a “street food hall”. There are now two such “food halls” in Reykjavík, namely the “Hlemmur Mathöll” on Laugavegur in the east of the city center and the “Grandi Mathöll” in the old Grandi harbor district.
There used to be simply sea here, but at the beginning of the 20th century the port of Reykjavík was built here. A few years ago Grandi was still a run-down old harbor district with no prospects - now the district is booming. There are now plenty of restaurants and bars, and I've also spent rainy days here at the newly built Sjóminjasafn, the Reykjavík Maritime Museum, and the Whales of Iceland exhibition.
The Grandi Mathöll just opened on June 1st, 2018 in a former fish hall.
A few years ago, freshly caught fish were delivered here and prepared for further transport, but the old building has now been completely converted. Today, nine different companies offer their food here in their self-made stalls and food trucks. An absolute “food lovers’ paradise!”
When you come in, the work smocks and rubber boots of the fish hall's former workers are still hanging at the entrance. If you want, you can also try things on.
We were invited to "Fjárhúsið" here on Saturday lunchtime, i.e. to the "sheepfold".
These were our hosts - Herborg Svana Hjelm and Birgir Rafn Reynisson. In keeping with the Icelanders' first game at the World Cup, both of them wore Iceland jerseys.
Herborg told us that they actually run a company in Reykjavík that feeds around 3,000 children in schools and kindergartens. They want to make good, local food tasty to the children and promote their awareness of healthy eating. They value the balanced composition of the food and high-quality products from Iceland in order to avoid long import routes. They also campaign against food waste.
They now also want to implement this goal with their customers at Grandi Mathöll and promote awareness of good, regional food. You can even use the website www.islenskt.is to find out which farm the individual products that are sold here in Fjárhúsið come from. The tomatoes, for example, come from Friðheimar, the basil from a farm near Selfoss.
By the way, they built the “sheepfold” in Mathöll themselves, all by themselves, as Herborg proudly told us - and it turned out really beautiful!
Here you can sit comfortably and eat delicious food. When we were there, the Icelandic national team's first game at the World Cup was being shown. Ideal as it was pouring rain outside!
The "Fjárhúsið", as the name "sheepfold" suggests, specializes in Icelandic sheep meat. The meat comes from a farm on Þistilfjörður, the "Diestelfjord" in the north of Iceland.
On the recommendation of the house, we were given a starter and a main course to test:
The main course was " Surtla - kótilettur með allskonar salati, basilsósu og ofnbökuðu íslensku kartöflu smælki með íslenskum kryddjurtum ". So lamb chops with mixed salad and basil sauce, with baked small Icelandic potatoes with Icelandic herbs.
The lamb chops really tasted delicious! Herborg said they are exactly the way Icelanders love their lamb - nice and fatty and juicy.
I always think of the people who tell me they don't like lamb because they used to be served dry old mutton and the smell made them sick. If they were to eat a dish like this... then maybe they would realize what delicious food they've been missing out on!
But this dish was surpassed by the starter: " Hrúsi - Flatkaka með allskonar salati, basilsósu and tvíreyktu lambakjöti af forystusauðfé frá Þistilfirði ". So Flatbrauð with mixed salad, also with basil sauce - and the highlight was the double smoked lamb.
The meat is from “Forystufé”. This is a special breeding line of Icelandic sheep. Translated it means “leader sheep” or “leader sheep”.
Agriculture in Iceland used to rely on these special sheep and they were particularly valuable animals - they are considered the most intelligent sheep in the world, they have a good sense of direction, they find the best pastures - and they even sense storms and unforeseen snowfalls and always bring their flock home safely. These special "leader sheep" almost became extinct during the agricultural revolution in the 1950s, but fortunately some of the animals survived and the population has since been increased again; today there are around 1,500 "leader sheep" in Iceland. Of these, only around 30 animals are slaughtered each year, around the age of 1 to 2, and the meat from these animals then goes directly (and exclusively) to Herborg and Birgir. So it's a very special specialty that you can really only experience here in Fjárhúsið!
The "leader sheep" run a lot more than the other animals in the herd because - like a sheepdog, so to speak - they always keep an eye on the other sheep, circle the herd and pay attention to the other animals. That's why the meat of these sheep is particularly lean, Herborg explained to us. This meat would actually be too lean for Icelanders, but it is very popular with tourists who appreciate good quality.
Seriously - this "topped Flatbrauð" here with the smoked sheep was definitely one of the tastiest meals I've ever eaten. I am absolutely blown away and totally thrilled. That was a very special experience!
We definitely ate all of our lamb chops and our filled Flatbrauð, it was that delicious.
Afterwards we took a quick look around Mathöll, took a quick look at the other food trucks and bars/shops, before we had to move on - after all, we wanted to watch the football game against Argentina on the big screen on Ingólfstorg!
At a glance:
Fjárhúsið specializes in Icelandic sheep meat. The menu is manageable, there are lamb burgers, sandwiches with lamb, racks of lamb with salad and potatoes (and basil dip) and the lamb chops and the Flatbrauð with the smoked leader sheep.
For a meal here you pay an average of just under 2,600 ISK per person, which is around €20 (as of June 2018). A soft drink currently costs 390 ISK (= approx. €3.10), a beer (freshly tapped or bottled) costs 1,200 ISK (around €9.50). On average, a beer in a pub in Reykjavík usually costs between €8 and €13, for comparison purposes.
The restaurants in Grandi Mathöll are open during the week from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and on weekends on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. The coffee, tea and wine bar opens at 10 a.m. every day and closes at 10 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday and at 11 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
I really liked Fjárhúsið and the newly opened Grandi Mathöll, I'll definitely come back here!
* Legal notice:
Technically speaking, this is advertising because we were invited to dinner. But we only went to restaurants and bars that we had previously heard good things about and that we found exciting - for a variety of reasons. In that respect, we were honestly thrilled and when we burst into praise, we really mean it.
[Translated from here.]
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