A very different island cuisine awaits on chef’s next tour

Fermented shark, smoked puffin and whale kebabs.

No, this is not the lead-in to a “Man v. Food” episode. This list of traditional Icelandic fare includes some of the culinary curiosities that chef and restaurateur Alan Wong and his guests will encounter aboard his next Connoisseur’s Cruise in May.

“The more you travel, the more you learn how much you don’t know yet,” Wong said.

Which is not to say guests will eat the exotic meats, nor that Wong will prepare them.

Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, on one of his television shows, described fermented shark as the worst thing he’d ever eaten, and given the many bizarre and unsightly foods he has ingested, the opinion seems significant.

During the four-day crossing from the East Coast to Iceland, Wong will conduct cooking demonstrations and talk-story sessions with his group. “We pick a few topics, talk about them and do demonstrations or classes,” he said. “It’s very casual, very informal.” Many of the attendees are return guests.

Wong has been developing demonstration dishes the guests are likely to find approachable, such as baked salmon with pickled cucumbers and skyr, an Icelandic soft cheese often compared to yogurt.

Going to Iceland will be somewhat similar to the cruise he led to Russia, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, Wong said.

Seemingly nonplussed by Bourdain’s opinion of fermented shark, Wong explained that the Scandinavian approach to food is simple. “They use what they have, and sometimes during the winters there are harsh conditions so they pickle a lot and ferment a lot … to extend the life of the food products when it’s cold.”

Populations in coastal areas of the North Atlantic also have hunted and eaten seabirds going back hundreds of years. One of them, puffin, is traditional, often served smoked.

“What’s interesting about puffin is how they catch ’em,” Wong said, comparing the hunting tool — the “hafur,” a long, Y-shaped pole ending in a net — to a mango picker.

Several videos of the process can be viewed online, including an uncensored one featuring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay “sky-fishing,” as he called it. The videos are not for the faint-hearted, as many show the puffins being dispatched — their necks broken — immediately after being netted.

Two international conservation groups have listed the Atlantic puffin and other area bird species as near-threatened or vulnerable, according to Smithsonian magazine.

That said, minke whales, not considered endangered, are commonly eaten in Iceland.

An optional pre-cruise itinerary in New York will include a special event for Wong, Tavern on the Green executive chef Bill Peet and former Lutece chef-owner Andre Soltner. Both Wong and Peet worked at the storied Lutece earlier in their careers. “It will be a minireunion and a chance (for guests) to meet these people,” said Wong.

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For details about Seawind Tours & Travel’s Connoisseur’s Cruise, call 949-4144 or visit seawindtours.com/chefalanwong.

Send restaurant news and notes to erika@staradvertiser.com or call 529-4303. Follow Erika Engle on Twitter @eriKaengle.