The Land of Fire and Ice: Somebody Feed Phil

So the sun does actually shine in Reykjavik! We awakened to clear blue skies and a lovely summer day, about 50 degrees.

My mission today was to continue exploring this city with an eye out for as many food places that Phil Rosenthal visited in his Netflix show “Somebody Feed Phil”. For those not in the know, Phil created “Everybody Loves Raymond” and is a delightful personality himself. In his 7 seasons Phil has visited exotic cities, sampling their cuisine, from places like Mumbai and Dubai to mundane cities like Orlando and Nashville. How this man’s stomach tolerates the vast and diverse cuisines is beyond me! His antics along the way are very entertaining. I highly recommend this series as most of us need some light and funny entertainment these days.

Nonetheless, we stood in a huge line to lunch at the Viking Pylsur Hot Dog Stand, the “world’s most famous Iceland hot dog”. My friend Arlene just had to have the pulled lamb with red cabbage and béarnaise sauce ‘hot dog’, the same one Phil devoured. Dom & I and Arlene’s husband opted for the traditional hot dog but we are still not sure what meat it was.

On our harbor walk we found the spot where Phil ate lobster soup. We would have loved to sample that but the Nuzzi’s don’t do well with that much cream and, besides, we just had to have that hot dog.

Naturally, we needed an afternoon snack so we went to Braud & Co to buy what Phil said was the “best cinnamon roll” of his life. It actually was delicious.

As we traveled up and down the hills of Reykjavik we encountered beautiful scenery and charming homes, some dating back to the early 1900’s. The harbor offered displays of the history of the city, from the evolution of the ship building to the creation of the road system to the settlers who came and found themselves leasing homes on property owned by those who came and gobbled up acres of land. Fishing, as you would suspect, was and is, the number 1 industry of Iceland, closely followed by tourism and aluminum smelting (who knew?). Here’s a tidbit for you: Iceland is the world’s largest green energy producer per capita and the largest electricity producer per capita but to live here your cost of living is about 30% higher than the US. Hmmm….I wonder if California was included in that!