Icelanders who eat a smoked rack of pork on Christmas Eve are people of the centre – the mainstay of Icelandic society. They are the people who are sick and tired of Icesave. People who eat lamb are nationalistic and those who eat ptarmigan are snobs. So says Páll Ásgeir Ásgeirsson, a self-proclaimed ‘everything expert’.
Half of the nation, or 52.9 percent of people, believe it likely that they will eat smoked rack of pork (hamborgararhryggur) this Saturday evening, according to a poll conducted by MMR. That number has gone up slightly between years, from 50.7 percent last year. Competing foods don’t come anywhere close; with 8.2 percent of respondents intending to eat lamb (not including hangikjöt smoked lamb), 8.3 percent will eat turkey, 9.8 percent will eat ptarmigan, 6.7 percent pork and 14.2 percent intend to eat something else entirely.
Páll Ásgeir Ásgeirsson, a self-proclaimed general expert on most things, took it upon himself to analyse people’s festive foods in a light-hearted segment on RÚV radio station Rás 2 this morning. He believes that people who choose to eat hamborgararhryggur are the centre people; those who can’t be bothered to listen to any more news about Icesave.
People who eat lamb on Christmas Eve evening are nationalists, on the other hand. The are vehemently against Icelandic membership of the European Union, for example. Then there are the people who eat turkey: people who are in love with the USA and who most certainly vote for the Independence Party. Ptarmigan people are just preoccupied with the fact that they are eating the game bird. They are probably snobs and grouches, and think they are more interesting than other people.
People who go with pork on Christmas Eve probably had a Danish grandma — either that or they went to University in Denmark. Very “conscious” people — people who are so aware and “conscious” that they don’t even vote — eat nut roast for Christmas dinner, Páll claims.
Of course, there is clearly nothing scientific about these assertions; although one could easily claim there may be an element of truth to them.