Farewell Dinner
Apr. 19th, 2005 11:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetFor our final dinner in Reykjavik, I had made reservations at Restaurant Siggi Hall, in the Hotel Odinsve.
It had grown cooler, but was still warm enough that we enjoyed our walk up the hill in the lovely late-afternoon light at almost 9pm. The restaurant is in a greenhouse-like extension on the corner of the hotel, decorated in spare Scandinavian style, but more warm and inviting than that usually feels to me.
Our waiter, just back from England and full of interesting points about the contrast between Croyden and Reykjavik, helped us to narrow down our choices--everything on the menu looked good to me! After an amuse bouche of cold parsnip soup with pinenuts and parsnip chips, J. had a salad of mixed greens--including rocket and dill--with slowly baked grapes, spice-pickled beets, goat cheese, croutons and some psychedelic-looking beet chips. That was nice, but not as good as my cream soup of smoked haddock with celeriac mousse and mandrin leaves and spiced mandarin oil, which was amazing and makes me want to come home and learn how to make fish soup.
For mains, J. had the baked halibut with parmesan crust on a hot potato herbal cabbage salat, served with warm vinaigrette with italian prosciutto, melon and herbs. He was impressed by the daring of pairing sauerbraten with fish, and the flavors all came together beautifully. Meanwhile, I was in raptures over my panfried cod with lightly smoked garlic sauce, mushroom ravioli, green peas and white aspargus. The cod was perfectly cooked and wonderfully complemented by the ravioli. There was a dollop of something that seemed like thick applesauce that was too sweet for me, but I'm sensitive to that and it was easily moved aside.
We split the "Theme of Icelandic Skyr and berries"--berry compote under Icelandic yogurt spread with berry-flavored gelatin and topped with fresh strawberries--for dessert before rolling down the hill to the hotel. There was still light in the sky as it approached eleven, but now it's finally gone full dark.
Thursday is Iceland's official "first day of summer" and tomorrow night everyone will stay out all night drinking before the public holiday. But we will head home in the afternoon and miss the celebration. Ah well--it will be celebration enough for us to be home again after a good trip, and I hear it's already summer in Boston, anyway!
It had grown cooler, but was still warm enough that we enjoyed our walk up the hill in the lovely late-afternoon light at almost 9pm. The restaurant is in a greenhouse-like extension on the corner of the hotel, decorated in spare Scandinavian style, but more warm and inviting than that usually feels to me.
Our waiter, just back from England and full of interesting points about the contrast between Croyden and Reykjavik, helped us to narrow down our choices--everything on the menu looked good to me! After an amuse bouche of cold parsnip soup with pinenuts and parsnip chips, J. had a salad of mixed greens--including rocket and dill--with slowly baked grapes, spice-pickled beets, goat cheese, croutons and some psychedelic-looking beet chips. That was nice, but not as good as my cream soup of smoked haddock with celeriac mousse and mandrin leaves and spiced mandarin oil, which was amazing and makes me want to come home and learn how to make fish soup.
For mains, J. had the baked halibut with parmesan crust on a hot potato herbal cabbage salat, served with warm vinaigrette with italian prosciutto, melon and herbs. He was impressed by the daring of pairing sauerbraten with fish, and the flavors all came together beautifully. Meanwhile, I was in raptures over my panfried cod with lightly smoked garlic sauce, mushroom ravioli, green peas and white aspargus. The cod was perfectly cooked and wonderfully complemented by the ravioli. There was a dollop of something that seemed like thick applesauce that was too sweet for me, but I'm sensitive to that and it was easily moved aside.
We split the "Theme of Icelandic Skyr and berries"--berry compote under Icelandic yogurt spread with berry-flavored gelatin and topped with fresh strawberries--for dessert before rolling down the hill to the hotel. There was still light in the sky as it approached eleven, but now it's finally gone full dark.
Thursday is Iceland's official "first day of summer" and tomorrow night everyone will stay out all night drinking before the public holiday. But we will head home in the afternoon and miss the celebration. Ah well--it will be celebration enough for us to be home again after a good trip, and I hear it's already summer in Boston, anyway!
