I originally published this text on my last blog and it was partially modified for this site. The anecdote was written when I lived in Sweden, back in January 2017. I like the story and ice cream ... so, an apology.
Last weeks have been cold. Between 4ºC to the horrible days that we were around -15ºC. It is very difficult to go out when is cold outside and to do normal activities. No sir, the only thing that should be allowed in those conditions is channeling your inner bear and hibernate as much as you can.
That been said, you need food, as a matter of fact ALL YOU NEED IS FOOD (sorry Mr. Lennon, you got it wrong there).
But here and there, in between main food, you can treat yourself, specially when it comes to munchies. Now, having a craving and going outside on the cold, become some sort of the Revenant task. So here we go, on a day around -5ºC , to the outside, seeking to satisfy our cravings of Icelandic ice cream. Just with a tiny inconvenience. In Sweden, they don’t sell those kind of things.
I am going to make a detour in this story, to talk about a thing that I found fascinating: the Icelandic culture of eating ice cream.
First of all, in my experience in this nordic countries, one of the things that had impressed me the most, is related to munchies. There is a variety of candies, chips and other snacks that can ease almost any stomach. But candies are not reserved just for kids, they are a treat for adults as well. In Mexico, even that is not rare to see adults in candy shops, most of the time is with the company of a child, and may be that explains why I find it quite peculiar.
However, besides candies, Icelandic people love ice cream, and they take it very seriously. I tried many kinds of it, every single one of them is amazing. It is not rare to see a long queue waiting to get a nice cone of some Daim flavored ice cream (I wanted this flavor right now, but I am sure people select many other flavors). And, obviously, weather is not an inconvenient.
It is not rare to see a long queue waiting to get a nice cone of some Daim flavored ice cream (I wanted this flavor right now, but I am sure people select many other flavors). And, obviously, weather is not an inconvenient.
Actually, the first time I tried an Icelandic ice cream was on January 2014, in this very nice store named Valdís. The weather was windy and freezing, there was ice at the top of the old snow in many parts of Reykjavík. But we had our cones, and the heater on the car, so it was nice. Summer in Iceland is not what in Mexico we would call summer, but you get sun, so you take what you get. And summer is a more ice cream weather. On the summer of 2015, I got to know Bragðarefur. This is a mix-in dessert, like a McFlurry, but way much better I must say. You get to choose between different candies, fruits and sauces. And then, they blend it. As I am an animal of habits, most of the time I go with something with chocolate (probably Noa Kropp, or chocolate balls) black licorice and some fruit like strawberry. If I am feeling wild, I go with some more chocolate.
So, for the last months I been craving for a nice cup of Bragðarefur. Returning to our fascinating story of the day, we went to our tour de force for satisfying our cravings. We got to a Pressbyrån (a Swedish store, on the fashion of 7-Eleven) and we just picked two Magnums. They sell better ice cream on the super markets, but it was already late, and those were close. This guy at the store looked at us and screamed “Fy Fan! Värför köper du glass?!”(Damn! Why are you buying ice cream?!). That made me realised that actually I also used to think that it was wrong to eat ice cream on this weather (although, if we know some basic things on physics, we can understand why this is not as bad).