A Fan Teaches Conan About Icelandic Food | Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan

i have to say i i feel that i'm ignorant. here but uh in iceland uh i don't know. much about what happens there except. i've heard there's a lot of drinking in. iceland which has always intrigued me is. that fair to say oh yes absolutely um. well what a lot of people don't really. know is that beer. a beer was actually outlawed until about. 1990 which was when i was born why was. beer outlawed i don't understand why. that would be the case it's it's a. fairly innocuous alcoholic beverage.

compared to others well not in the hands. of icelanders i can tell you that oh i. see okay all right so. they didn't want you guys so what did. you guys drink instead of beer well the. thing is the stronger the spirits and. the clear liquids those were all still. um. you could you could buy those they were. just so expensive that the uh the quote. unquote common man couldn't really. afford them. oh. um so essentially i think it goes that. the the logic goes that the you know the. rich and the powerful they wanted to.

keep drinking whereas it was seen as a. bit um. gauche for the the commoners to be. drinking so they just outlawed beer what. terrible terrible leadership you had. it's completely missing the point. of what it means to be alive so. uh what tell me what are these spirits. so what are you drinking i'll tell you. this i've been to many years ago i went. to finland and i have a very. strong bond with the people of finland. and everywhere i went they offered me.

korskinkova. and koroskinkova. did taste like something you would put. in a mig fighter to make it go faster uh. it it it was a powerful. powerful powerful alcohol do you have. anything like korskankova. uh in in iceland what do you have. absolutely we've got something called. brendevin. yes it's essentially burnt wine. and it tastes like. oh tastes like gasoline it just clears. you right up if you're feeling a bit.

stuffed just a drip of it will clear it. all up so is it technically a wine that. someone just put on the stove and burned. yeah i believe so a lot of our sort of. most traditional drinks and foods are. sort of discovered by accident it feels. like. like iceland exactly. right iceland itself was a total totally. founded accidentally and uh and you have. the same thing with all of your foods so. your drink is burnt wine.

and then your your what is your favorite. deal like some turkey that fell on the. floor. a pie that fell off a shelf and smashed. is your national dish yeah it's on the. flag actually. um but no the um i can tell you that. probably you won't get any more. traditional icelandic than uh burnt wine. and then fermented shark oh right i've. heard about this i did hear about this. in iceland you you eat fermented sharks. so what's that all about because.

i'm trying to use find the right word. stupid there you go oh yeah that sounds. stupid to ferment a shark i mean. literally let a shark rot and then start. gnawing away at it oh yeah even better. we actually bury it in the ground and. let it rot then we dig it back up and. eat it for some unknown reason again. this was an accident someone. someone said well let's just bury this. shark we've got plenty of food then. realize later actually we don't where. did i leave that shark. well i think you buried him over there.

hey let's dig them up wow pretty rancid. let's start to chompin. so anyway i shouldn't have said stupid. that was uh culturally uh. ignorant of me but also very honest. you're eating a rotten shark right yeah. there's really no defending it really. and you wash it down with burnt wine oh. yeah just to really drive home the. self-hatred for sure.