Iceland is not exactly known for its culinary heritage. For some reason rotten shark, cured ram testicles and singed sheep heads have not earned the popularity they really deserve. No, instead we all eat silly French things, such as French Fries and French Onion Soup! I believe a large part of the blame lies with Anthony Bourdain, who described the above mentioned þorramatur as "the single worst, most disgusting and terrible tasting thing" he has ever eaten. I can’t say I disagree with him, but seriously; how can we conquor the French with such descriptions. We need more people with flair for PR to describe our cuisine. Someone who can see singed sheep head confit for what it really is, and not just focus on the temporary discomfort while eating it.

Not all Icelandic food is that bad, really. One of my favorite, Icelandic Chocolate, is finally available in the US. It is, in my opinion, the best chocolate out there; even better than Valhrona. It is made by Nói Síríus and thankfully they have not changed their packaging since 1933, which is beautifully retro looking by now.

The chocolate is available at Whole Foods with 33%, 45%, 56% and 70% cocoa content. My favorites are the 33% for eating and 56% for all my baking and hot chocolate. Yes, I said it: I like milk chocolate. None of that dark stuff for me.

Now all I’m waiting for is the Icelandic Skyr.

Have you had Smithfield pork recently?

There is a rather scary article in the December issue of Rolling Stone about Smithfields pork production.

It is somewhat long, so if you're in a hurry here are a few quotes:

"Smithfield Foods, the largest and most profitable pork processor in the world, killed 27 million hogs last year."

"The 500,000 pigs at a single Smithfield subsidiary in Utah generate more fecal matter each year than the 1.5 million inhabitants of Manhattan."

"Sows are artificially inseminated and fed and delivered of their piglets in cages so small they cannot turn around."

"Accordingly, factory pigs are infused with a huge range of antibiotics and vaccines, and are doused with insecticides."

"According to the EPA, Smithfield's largest farm-slaughterhouse operation -- in Tar Heel, North Carolina -- dumps more toxic waste into the nation's water each year than all but three other industrial facilities in America."

"Millions of factory-farm hogs -- one study puts it at ten percent -- die before they make it to the killing floor. Some are taken to rendering plants, where they are propelled through meat grinders and then fed cannibalistically back to other living hogs. Others are dumped into big open pits called "dead holes," or left in the dumpsters for so long that they swell and explode."

"Smithfield is not just a virtuosic polluter; it is also a theatrical one. Its lagoons are historically prone to failure. In North Carolina alone they have spilled, in a span of four years, 2 million gallons of shit into the Cape Fear River, 1.5 million gallons into its Persimmon Branch, one million gallons into the Trent River and 200,000 gallons into Turkey Creek. In Virginia, Smithfield was fined $12.6 million in 1997 for 6,900 violations of the Clean Water Act -- the third-largest civil penalty ever levied under the act by the EPA. It amounted to .035 percent of Smithfield's annual sales."

"The chairman of Smithfield Foods, Joseph Luter III, is a funny, jowly, canny, barbarous guy who lives in a multimillion-dollar condo on Park Avenue in Manhattan and conveys himself about the planet in a corporate jet and a private yacht."

"Joe Luter, like his pig shit, has an innate aversion to being contained in any way. Ever since American regulators and lawmakers started forcing Smithfield to spend more money on waste treatment and attempting to limit the company's expansion, Luter has been looking to do business elsewhere. In recent years, his gaze has fallen on the lucrative and unregulated markets of Poland."

"A recent report to the Helsinki Commission found that Smithfield's pollution throughout Poland was damaging the country's ecosystems."

I think we owe it to ourselves never to buy Smithfield products again.

Smári