Trying hakarl, Iceland's fermented shark

There is one thing you are more or less obliged to try in Iceland, and almost nobody enjoys it: hakarl, fermented shark. It is exactly what it sounds like. Greenland shark, which is toxic when fresh, buried and fermented for weeks and then hung to dry for months until it is, technically, edible. Technically.

When I was there as a student, only one restaurant in Reykjavik seemed to serve it, and it was not cheap, which for a traveller on a budget made the decision feel even weightier. But there was no way around it. You do not come all this way and skip the most notorious food in the country because of the price.

It arrives as small white cubes on a plate, looking completely innocent, usually with a shot of the local caraway spirit alongside to wash it down, and you quickly understand why. The smell hits first, sharp and ammoniac, like cleaning fluid. The taste is intense, fishy and chemical, and it lingers. I chewed, I swallowed, I reached for the shot, and I can confirm I have eaten it. I cannot honestly tell you I would order it again.

But that is not really the point. Hakarl is not food you eat for pleasure, it is food you eat to say you did, a small, pungent rite of passage. Try it once, pull the face everyone pulls, chase it with the spirit, and enjoy telling the story far more than you enjoyed the bite. It is, without question, the most Icelandic mouthful there is.