Tuesday in Iceland

After the Northern Lights Center yesterday afternoon, we walked back to the hotel, where I took a thirty-minute power nap. It feels good to be rejuvenated by a short burst of quality sleep. After that, I had a chance to catch up on emails, read the Seattle news from the virtual edition of the S. Times, and updated yesterday's blog post. 

Or hotel has a special happy hour with a tasting flight of beers. I made do with aqua fresca while the others enjoyed a taste of local beers. 

We walked through the dark for our 1830 reservation at Tapas Barinn. 

Iceland is on the western edge of a special excursion of the Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT, Time zone. 

As you can see on this partial time zone map, Iceland is well out of sync with solar Time. Yesterday the morning darkness stretched out until around 1000 and the evening darkness arrived around 1700. There have been efforts by local health advocates to place Iceland in the proper zone, but so far, the convenience of being on the same time as Great Britain has outweighed the adverse health effects. 

With that side note out of the way, I'll get back to the dinner at Tapas Barinn.

Based on Aaron's info, I'd been looking forward to enjoying a special menu item that included puffin and Minke whale meat, among other Tapas. While perusing the menu, another special vegetarian item caught my eye. Being the flexible person that I am, I quickly decided that the special "garden" Tapas selections merited my attention. 

First course was a salad of greens and olives with fingers of toast. It was surrounded by some Avocado puree and had a nice vinaigrette. Second course was a BBQ Jackfruit soft Taco with mango-Jalapeño salsa, Avocado puree and fresh coriander. 

Both of those courses disappeared before I remembered to take photos to share with you. 

Third Tapas was a cauliflower and romantic broccoli, cauliflower puree and lemon-mint vinaigrette. 

Fourth course was jammed Cherry tomatoes with marinated mozzarella and Basil truffle oil. Sorry, but, again I was occupied tasting the blend of flavors and forgot to break out my phone to document the arrangement. 

Fifth course was a mushroom braise which included several varieties of mushrooms, a goat cheese cream and roasted chives vinaigrette. Again, I was busy eating, so no photo. I will tell you it was very tasty.

Sixth course was vegan Pin Pin "ribs" with cole slaw and roasted baby potatoes. The main ingredient in the "ribs" seemed to be Jackfruit. This was the only dish that attempted to imitate a meat dish. I thought the end result justified that effort. 

I thought I was too full to eat the dessert of white chocolate skyr mousse and a piece of lemon and strawberry "cheese"cake with pistachio and date base, but I managed to eat the mousse and a bit of the cake before crying "uncle."

Needless to say, if you're ever in Reykjavik, take some friends to Tapas Barinn and enjoy luxurious food at a decent price. Incidentally, my bill was $62 and change US. 

After that good dinner, I toddled off to bed for a sound sleep.