fermented shark shots

Sal is now in London (!!!!) and to start his adventure off properly I took him to a lovely multi-national dinner party hosted by a couple of my coursemates. The hosts are both from Iceland, and introduced us to a local favorite treat called Hákarl - small chunks of fermented shark. It's fermented, she explained, because sharks don't pee and thus the ammonia gets all trapped in the meat and you have to let it out via decomposing.
Wait, it gets better.
We were to follow a bit of shark with a shot of 'black death', or Brennivín - a type of schnapps so nicknamed because it was about the only safe thing to drink during the Black Plague.
The shark was kind of tasty for the first few seconds - but then something terrible started happening with my nose. Suddenly shark was everywhere - I could see, hear, and smell in shark. I took the shot of black death. It made me brave. I took some more shark. The room started to swim.

You know what we brought to the party? Chili. Or, rather, what Sal calls 'white people chili.' He toned the spice level down to accommodate the Nordic/European delicate palate. That was a mistake. I'm bringing stuffed cayenne peppers next time. These people are badder than we ever imagined.

cultural differences

"Guinness is blood," a guest informs me at the pub.
I raise an eyebrow, wondering if he's quoting some colloquialism or commercial I haven't seen.
He raises his glass to me and grins. "I don't know how they do in other places, but in Ireland they don't sell the blood. You give it, as a donation. Well, back some time ago they would give you a half-pint of Guinness after you donated your blood."
Now both eyebrows of mine are raised. "A half-pint you say?"
He nods. "They said it restored what you were missin' after the blood was taken. So they would give you a half-pint, and a cup of tea and a biscuit."
My fellow bar-maid is German and tells us that they get paid for giving blood there.
"We donate blood in America too, but they don't give us Guinness," I say, grinning, "Back in college they gave us pizza and a Coke."
We laugh.

I guess in America, Coke is blood.