When people outside Iceland think of Icelandic cuisine, fermented shark is one food that often comes to mind first. Sure. Just like batter dipped, deep fried twinkies are a typical food in South Carolina.

Hakarl is considered surmat (fermented food - literally "sour food") as well as Thorramat - foods eaten in the month of Thor (roughly February on the Roman calendar). These sour fermented foods were famine foods - things that people didn't really want to eat, but they stored well, so they were set aside if other foods ran out towards the end of winter (and that was often the case).

Icelanders today are most likely to eat fermented shark in February, if they attend a party known as Thorablot. Along with nice roast lamb and other delicacies, there are tiny portions of sour foods like shark. Icelanders also like to eat hakarl when they are in a bar with a foreigner, and they want to watch the foreigner make funny faces. I've had this Icelandic delicacy a few times, and the overwhelming aroma is of ammonia. Many Icelanders say that the shark is prepared by burying it in sand and pissing on it. Not true. All you have to do is bury it. The protein will ferment, and it will smell like a diaper pail without any human supplementation.

It is true that Icelanders eat fermented shark. But not often. More typical "Icelandic" foods include slatur, a sausage that is similar to Scotland's Haggis. Lots of older people still eat that regularly, and younger people were subjected to it when they were growing up. Potatos and fish is a popular Icelandic dish, as is Potatoes and meat. Sometimes carrots or peas are served on the side to spice things up.