I have been very excited to put this blog post together about some of the amazing food that we had on our holiday in the Faroe Islands.
Lamb and fish make up a large part of the faroese food. The taste of both fish and lamb are very much determined by the method of preserving them. The traditional preservation methods such as drying and maturing the meat and fish give it a strong flavour. If you ask me, the flavour is delightful. Since JJ was 6 months old he has been given what ever we eat (except raw honey!) and that includes fermented meat and fish. Being able to feed JJ these traditional foods even if we live so far away from the Faroes means so much. Seeing him eating and liking the faroese traditional food makes not just me and James happy, but my faroese family too. James himself likes to try it all, but he is not a big fan of the fermented taste. This might be a flavour you have to grow up with.
Sushi (not so traditional)
Our favourite faroese restaurant is Etika, which is the only sushi restaurant in the Faroes. It might sound surprising that sushi is our favourite to eat with a toddler, but he absolutely loves it. So much so, that he actually has two favourite dishes on the menu which we always order for him, the asparagus and the cod tongue. He eats it all and a lot of our plates too.
We spent a Sunday in Tórshavn seeing my brother and girlfriend. We went swimming (first time JJ went swimming in the Faroes) and then had sushi before catching the ferry home again.
Sheep heads
When I was a child we always had sheep head and stuffed sheep rectum for dinner on Christmas Eve. We usually got a glass bottle of fizzy juice each with it. This was such a special meal. As children our favourite bit to eat was the tongue, mum and dad would cut it into small pieces for us and we would mash our own potatoes with butter.
Just looking at this pictures makes me hungry. JJ tried eating sheep head in January and he loved it. It is such a joy for me to see, that he eats whatever is on the plate in front of him. The faroese food often has a very strong flavour which not everyone likes. Growing up with it I love the strong flavour and being able to give it to JJ from time to time will contribute to him liking it too.
Bang bang. When we were kids we used to pretend that the upper jawbone of the sheep was a gun and we used to play with it. This must have been thought to us by mum and dad and to them by their parents. I intend to show it to JJ as well. Here he is trying to figure out what to do with it.
Fermented meat
It was such a lovely and fresh day. In the picture above dad can be seen showing JJ how to keep his hands warm by rubbing them against each other. He now does this when we ask him what abbin does.
My mum and dad do not keep sheep. They used to when we were younger, but these days they buy the meat from other faroese farmers. With dad working away on trawlers a large part of the year and mum working too, this is easier and the meat we get is still great.
JJ is rocking his batman hat, zara trousers and hummel waterproof jacket. His very cute wellies were a bargain in Tesco of all places and they have a warm lining inside.
The picture above shows the neck and spine of the sheep hanging. It has been fermented and will be boilt before eating. Dad chopped the meat into pieces ready to be frozen. Some of this was eaten later that night though. See pictures below.
The potatoes, carrots and cabbage are boiled in vegetable stock, it makes them taste a bit sweet and just so yummy!
These are fermented sheep ribs.
Mum went over to get a kiss from dad. When she saw that I got a picture of it, she also wanted a picture of her kissing JJ. As you can see JJ was a bit busy reading his book, but a kiss from omman is always welcomed.
Blóðpylsa – black pudding
This is one of my favourite meals. I say that about them all, but I did specifically ask mum if she could make this one. We had it the second last night we were there and it was so good. One of my childhood memories is visiting my omma (dads mum) and she was making blood pancakes, basically black pudding straight on the pan and made into pancakes. I remember being in her kitchen, the smell of the cooking, putting sugar on the pancake and having potatoes with it. This kind of memories are so precious!
The faroese black pudding is made of blood, oats, spices, flour, raisins and tallow. They used to be made in the sheep stomach, but these days mum makes it in bags.
We always have the black pudding with boiled potatoes and sugar. I have tried black pudding in Scotland as well, but the faroese one has a different flavour. It is a bit sweeter and the tallow and raisins give it a distinct flavour too.
Sun lolly
So, these ice lollies are not a traditional faroese food, but we always have them in the freezer during the summer. I found a few of them in the freezer and thought that they could not stay there any longer. These pictures are of JJ enjoying his very first sun lolly. He absolutely loved it. I don’t think that he has ever been that quiet and concentrated on any kind of food. It makes me a little bit excited about visiting in the summer as I am sure that dad will have the freezer full of sun lolly.
The pink tea set
You might think, that this is one of my old tea sets, but it is not. JJ loves playing pretend, so I went to the toy store to get him a tea set. The only ones they had were pink, to be honest everything in that section of the store was some kind of pink colour. I wish they would also consider making some blue or even a bit more neutral. That being said, I dont mind at all if JJ plays with pink coloured stuff.
Both mum and dad love playing with JJ and the tea set. Mum might love it a bit more, here dad has put a paw patrol dog on the table as well. I think that he might be trying to make the tea set experience a bit more masculine 😀
Iris Xx
Our Sleepy Smiles 