The taste of the East
May contain traces of advertisement.*
In May 2019, a new restaurant was opened in the heart of Egilsstaðir in the city's oldest residential building, Nielsenshús - Restaurant Nielsen, Nielsen veitingahús.
The name goes back to the builder of the house, the Dane Oswald Nielsen, who lived here with his Icelandic wife and his family. A few photos and old tools in the Nielsen still remind us of Oswald Nielsen, such as this self-made hammer that he used to build the house and that his daughter has now given to the restaurant.Even though the house is the oldest residential building in the city, it is still only 75 years old - the whole place is still young. There used to be only one estate here at Lagarflót, and the first houses were only added in 1944. The place has had city rights since 1987. Egilsstaðir today has around 2,500 inhabitants.
After the Nielsen family moved out, the house had a variety of uses, most recently as a café, before Kári Þorsteinsson and his partner Sólveig Bernadóttir opened their restaurant here.
Sólveig comes from Egilsstaðir, she worked as a flight attendant, while Kári comes from the Westfjords and is a very well-known chef in Iceland - after working in London (in the Nordic-influenced star restaurant Texture) and Copenhagen (in the legendary star restaurant Noma). He works in the Kol restaurant in Reykjavík and successfully defended his predecessor's Michelin star as head chef at Dill in 2018.
When Sólveig and Kári announced they would have a baby, the two of them moved from Reykjavík to Solveig's hometown of Egilsstaðir so that their little son could grow up here in the country instead of in the capital.
At their restaurant Nielsen they are all about the taste of East Iceland. The focus of the dishes is on local and seasonal ingredients that are harvested at their peak flavor and then, depending on the situation, either used fresh or preserved - pickled, boiled, salted, ...
In order to offer really good cuisine, the menu at Nielsen is small and changes depending on the season. The products come from East Iceland if possible, from the region if they cannot be obtained there, but also from other corners of Iceland. Many products come from Vallanes, the organic farm a few kilometers south of Egilsstaðir, which has long made a name for itself in Iceland with its brand “Móðir Jörð” (= “Mother Earth”). Cheese and skyr come from another farm in Egilsstaðir. The ice cream for the dessert, which is made from organic milk, comes from a craft business in Reykjavík - but more on that later.
There are three starters, four main courses and three desserts to choose from on the evening menu, but you can also opt for the 3-course menu.
Nielsen's main dining room is on the upper floor of the house and was busy, even though we were there on a Monday evening and at 6 p.m. (It was really difficult to photograph my husband eating in a way that gives you a good impression of the restaurant but still doesn't include any other guests in the photo!)
We were traveling at the end of July 2019, especially in the east of Iceland, and had received an invitation from Sólveig and Kári to their new restaurant in Egilsstaðir. In order to try out as many different things as possible, my husband chose the menu at Nielsen, while I chose a starter and a main course from the menu. During the meal, Sólveig looked after us very lovingly, told us and explained a lot about the individual dishes and their ingredients, and accompanied us through our meal in a great way.
As we eat, Sólveig tells us that Kári hunted the reindeer himself here in East Iceland, and he also collected the reindeer moss himself. (When we visit, however, he is not in the kitchen in the restaurant, but is at home looking after his 7-month-old son. So the man can not only cook, hunt and gather, but is also a committed father - he must be a dream man be!)
This is the starter of the 3-course menu - pearl barley cooked in skyr with cheese, shallots and rocket. I had my first encounter with pearl barley in a fast food restaurant in Hungary in the 80s and although this encounter was quite traumatizing - the pearl barley back then had absolutely nothing to do with what we had on our plates - this was simply a poem, so wonderfully creamy, creamy, soft and smooth... exactly how risotto should taste, but unfortunately far too often it doesn't. But this was really perfect! (It's lucky that I bought a large pack of barley pearls in Vallanes that morning; I'll definitely have to experiment a bit more to be able to at least begin to experience the taste.)
This is the main course on the menu - fish of the day (that day it was cod, but sometimes they have more exciting fish, Solveig tells us) with barley from Vallanes, rhubarb, angelica and basil oil and fresh rocket. Somehow the fish doesn't really compete with the pearl barley, the pearl barley with all the flavors from sweet to intensely spicy and almost a little bitter, but with an incredibly well-rounded taste, is simply too good!
The main course of the 3-course menu is lamb with potatoes, kohlrabi, vegetable puree and oil with chives. It tastes great, the lamb is really soft as butter, a real treat, and I would love to indulge in the vegetable puree with the oil.
This is the dessert from the menu - milk ice cream on chocolate with salted caramel and larch needles. The chocolate tastes intense, but in no way too sweet, rather spicy, and every now and then when eating you come across a crunchy salt flake, along with the delicate, fine larch needles, "harvested" very young and still nice and soft. Nielsen gets the dairy ice cream from SKÚBB, Sólveig tells us, a small ice cream manufacturer in Reykjavík that makes their ice cream with organic milk. The dessert is definitely a poem!
After the meal, Sólveig brings us a small sample of a dessert they are currently working on - lupine sorbet with basil oil. Solveig says that the previous test eaters love this dessert or they think it's terrible, there's not much in between. Therefore, they are currently in the process of perhaps modifying it to be a little gentler and more harmless. In terms of taste, it was an absolute explosion for us, slightly sweet, intense, fresh, almost breathtaking. We couldn't have eaten much of it - but a few spoonfuls each was a great way to end a really, really good meal!
After the meal, Sólveig gives us a quick tour of the restaurant, the rooms in the basement, where they also have a few tables,...
...and where we can admire another of Kári's fields of activity - he enthusiastically experiments with the preservation of foods, from dried berries to herbs pickled in vinegar such as tarragon to lupins and angelica pickled in sugar, optionally in sugar, salt and Vinegar preserves. So lots of budding ingredients for the future winter kitchen at Nielsen!
However, the experiment with Jerusalem artichoke hasn't been that successful so far, says Solveig. The plants, which can actually grow to a height of 2 meters, only grew squishy and about knee-high, and the tubers they harvested were also much too small. Sólveig says this is probably because the plant is a short-day plant that only flowers when the day length falls below a certain length. In Iceland, when the sun sets after midnight in June and rises again at 2 a.m., the conditions for Jerusalem artichokes are somewhat unfavorable.
The Nielsen also has a number of places on the terrace that can be used when the weather is nice - even if they unfortunately haven't had many nice days in Egilsstaðir this year. There is also a marquee in the garden that they like to use for bachelorette parties and similar celebrations.
We had an absolutely great evening at Nielsen, had a great meal and, thanks to Sólveig's support through the meal, were able to get to know the taste of East Iceland in a wonderful way. We love it and will definitely come back next time we come to Egilsstaðir!
Thank you very much again, Sólveig and Kári, for this fantastic experience!
At a glance:
The Nielsen Restaurant is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. It offers lunch, coffee and waffles and dinner in the evening, and brunch on weekends.
The lunch menu changes regularly so that the guests, who are mostly local people who come here to eat during their lunch break, are offered enough variety. That's why the lunch menu is more general, not as "typically East Iceland" or typically Icelandic as the evening menu.
For dinner there are 3 starters, 4 main courses and 3 desserts to choose from. The starters currently (as of July 2019) cost an average of around 2,560 ISK (a good €18.40), the main courses cost an average of 3,845 ISK (just under €27.70) and the desserts between 1,490 ISK and 1,690 ISK (roughly between 10.70 € and 12.20 €).
If you want, you can also order the 3-course menu, which consists of one specific dish from the menu and currently costs 6,990 ISK for a starter, main course and dessert, the equivalent of a good €48.
* Legal notice:
Formally this article can be graded as advertisement, since we had been invited for the meal. Anyhow, we have chosen only restaurants, which we had heard good things about and which we estimated as interesting. Accordingly we're really delighted, and if we fall into words of praise, these are meant honestly.
[Translated from here.]
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