ughh I just wrote this whole post and my Internet explorer HAD AN ERROR AND SHUT DOWN
20 minutes just gone like that
anyways......................
QUOTE (smokie @ Feb 05 2008, 06:41 PM)Do your police typically carry firearms?
What kind of crops are most common?
Does Iceland make/export anything?
Don't you guys have geothermal heating? Or is that Greenland? If it is Iceland and not Greenland tell me about it.
No the police do not carry firearms at all, the icelandic special forces deal with that.
Crops arent common at all here, allmost all the plains are reserved for grownig grass to store for the winter so the animals dont starve, also the climate is too irregular for any crops to survive, We do have agriculturals stations though, a few only but enough to supply us with greens for the year.
We export fish mainly, too much fish really, lately fish-factory workers hve been losing their jobs because there's too little fish to process.
We do heat our houses with hot water either in ovens on the walls or waterpipes under the floor, this is possible due to the fact that Hot water is EXTREMELY cheap in iceland and the cold water even less so, the cold water is also drinkable and is very good water.
QUOTE (ImTakes @ Feb 05 2008, 06:42 PM)Beautiful country indeed....I took some of your pictures, dear tonifreyr....as desktop background material.....now then here is my question....or questions...
What type of foods are eaten by your people?
Does the fishing industry have a big stake in what folks eat?
Are any breeds of sturdy game or cattle, able to survive the elements?
Does ranching or horse breeding thrive in Iceland?
I thank you in advance, for your kind responses.
We eat alot of imported food and recipies, we have all the meat and such and import the rest of wich we need, we produce our own milk products and beverages.
We also eat icelands richest resource wich is the fish, but not as often as some think.
We also have some native recipies wich i must say WILL look disgusting to you
Here is a description from a english site that I found wich is very accurate in describing the look and taste, but i will post pictures with it.
Click at your own risk
.....
1) Hákarl. This is the famous putrefied shark, buried for several weeks then allowed to dry in the wind. It's OK when you first bite into it, and for the first period of chewing, but suddenly the flavour kicks in and it's truly revolting. I gagged several times but did manage to swallow. Brennivin(A wine so strong it burns your throat, he didnt mention this so I added it,
Tonifreyr ) is supposed to clear the taste but I had the car, and Coca-Cola just didn't seem to work as well.
Shark in a jar
2) Blóðmör. Sausage of sheep's stomachs filled with rye, raisins and sheep's blood. I've never been a fan of black puddings but this was surprisingly good. It tastes a bit like a gamey version of corned beef.
Its the dark brown looking stuff to the left in the middle
3) Hrútspungur. Ram's scrotum with testicles. Sharp but pleasant - taste and texture not unlike a strong Lancashire cheese.
My crotch hurt the only time I tried to eat this
4) Lundabaggi. Roll of sheep's fat and belly muscles. This has a very high fat content but tastes like a normal smoked lamb otherwise. It leaves you feeling as if you've got a thin coating of fat inside your mouth.
Couldnt find a picture, sorry
5) I didn't get an Icelandic name for this one, but it was described as pig jam. It's effectively ham in jelly and tastes quite like tinned ham.
No picture here either
6) Svið. This is made from the assorted meats that can be salvaged from a sheep's head (excluding the brains but including the tongue, cheeks and eyeballs). Again, they taste like meat in jelly. Lots of jelly.
This description however is not accurate, That wich he is talking about is Sviða-Sulta(Sviða-Jelly)
Svið is a boiled sheeps head and icelandic often eat the meat by plucking it off the head, excluding the brain and eyes.
The warning still stands, you still wanna see this
7) Harðfiskur. Dried fish eaten spread with butter in the same manner as bread. Not at all bad, and very popular.
8) Again, no Icelandic name but it's smoked ham and tastes like smoked ham.
I also tried the hangikjöt or 'hanged meat', which is a smoked mutton and quite pleasant. It looks like the smoked ham but is a little darker.
About the fishing industry, no I dont think they do.
We put the cattle inside over winter, barns and such
In the old times the living quarters of a house were on the floor above the animals so the body heat from the animals would go up and warm the house.
Just a bit of extra knowledge
It doenst actually thrive, but it is popular,
Did you know that Icelandic horses have Five types of walking/running, i dont know tha translation for them but ill check if you really want to know