Iceland is a wonderful destination to visit and, while many visitors fly into Reykjavik to tour the Golden Circle and bathe in the Blue Lagoon, the country has many other beautiful places to see further afield. We toured southern Iceland for a week in winter, after picking up a hire car at Keflavik airport. It meant we could travel at our own pace, so that we could enjoy the spectacular sights that the country had to offer. Being an island, the local cuisine has a lot of seafood to offer and Icelandic lobster was definitely something we wanted to try.
Having driven in a ‘smile’ along the south coast of the island we arrived at Skaftafell and enjoyed some walking in the area. We were blown away by the magnificent and beautiful Jokulsarlon glacier lake.
The Harbour of Hofn
In the south-eastern corner of Iceland lies the fishing town of Hofn, located around 450km from Reykjavik. The name means ‘harbour’ in Icelandic and it lies on a peninsular inside one of the country’s natural harbours.
It’s a small, town, at the end of Route 99, which is just off Iceland’s main ring road, Route 1.
Because we had spent the day exploring the glaciers in the area, it was approaching dusk when we arrived.
It’s very much a working town and had a great view of the harbour where we could see the boats coming in.
Icelandic Lobster in Hofn
Hofn is the lobster capital of Iceland and has a number of restaurants where you can eat leturhumarinn or Icelandic lobster. In fact, Hofn is so famous for its seafood that the town holds a lobster festival every July.
We hadn’t chosen to stay in Hofn but were keen to visit in order to try the Icelandic lobster as they are considered to be a delicacy. There are no actual lobsters to be caught around Iceland’s waters, so the term lobster has been applied in Iceland to describe langoustines, also known as Dublin Bay Prawns, or Norweigan Prawns. They are related to the lobster but are smaller and have a narrower body.
Iceland is an expensive country to visit and prices for food are no exception. But good value Icelandic lobsters can be found in Hofn. We discovered a local restaurant that offered a simple dish – grilled leturhumarinn in a cream sauce served with chunky slices of bread. Because of the size of the Icelandic lobsters you only eat the flesh from the tail – the claws are too small to extract any decent quantity of meat.
We were offered a plate piled high with lobster tails. They taste delicious – succulent and sweet – it was a real treat.
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