The food of the island known as one of the moste disgusting food’s om the world
Sharks don’t urinate
spiked scales and can grow as large as 24 feet in length.
One of the most eccentric experience you can try in Iceland it’s the
Shockingly, the shark doesn’t actually smell upon first inspection,
culinary challenge to eat Hakarl, known as one of the disgusting
the door blessedly protected by its dry and rigid skin. Only when
food in the world, eating the most dangerous animal of the sea:
the hide is cut away to reveal the rotten flesh does the rancid
Shark and Whale
stench waft through the air, singeing the nostrils and back of throat.
The shark do not urinate as most animals do, they convert urin to
Minke whale
urea, a toxic compund which is really converted ammonia. Urea is
The whale is a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic
absodbed in the flesh and expelled by through the skin. When a
marine mammals. It is worth mentioning here that the only whale
shark dies this urea is converted back to ammonia, for this reason
type consumed in Iceland is minke whale (which has never been
shark meat tasty and smally really bad. So for preparing the meat
considered endangered!) Whale meat can both be eaten rew or
you need many months for to let clean the meat, buried under the
cooked. Icelanders will let you know that minke whale is not an
ground, but still remain horrible. When foreigners try to eat Hakarl,
endangered species, but for some visitors, it´s still whale and
almost people looked stiff look on their face and take a picture for
that´s a full-stop no-way, while others use the ´i will just try it
taking a commemorative photograph.
once.´rationalization.
Hakarl is made from a Greenland shark that lives in the polar waters
“Meet Us Don’t eat us” is campaign to take whale meat off the
of the North Atlantic Ocean. When their Viking forebears settled
menu for tourists. The campaign is a positive campaign because
the island centuries ago, Greenlandic shark, which is abundant in
when we approach tourists and also Icelanders, we point out that
the city waters of the North Atlantic, became the main staple of the
the most sustainable way to enjoy whales is by responsable whale
island. The problem with the Greenland shark, other than the fact
watching – better for whales and the Icelandic economy.
that it is fairly ugly, is that the meat is toxic to humans. It has thick, 30 | una magazine | september east edition