Iceland's Golden Circle tour is filled with waterfalls, geysers and breathtaking landscape...but it's definitely not a foodie run. Unless you stop at Fridheimar, a huge indoor tomato farm and restaurant, powered year-round by geothermal energy. It's about 90 km east of Reykjavik, and many tours stop at it.
It's worth listening to a staff guide explain the system: how the plants are guided upward in their mechanized row, how imported Dutch bees keep them pollinated, how the little railcars are used to speed the harvest.
Yes, it's worth it, but by now you're probably glancing over toward the center of the row, where the tables and the food are.
And when you get there, you'll likely not be surprised that nearly everything on offer features tomatoes. A luscious tomato soup with bread and butter, sour cream and cucumber salsa. Mozzarella and tomatoes. Mussels in tomato sauce. Pasta with tomato sauce. and more.
The drinks include three variations on Bloody Mary as well as house-made tomato juice. I had a tomato-based ale; all doubts aside, it was quite good!
Even the coffee has tomato syrup available. Dessert? Tomato and apple pie with whipped cream, or my choice, cheesecake, served in a flowerpot and topped with green tomato jam.
All delicious, and hard to want to get back on the road!
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