in an exclusive series of documentaries i was born into a very ordinary japanese fell zero shows five different stories i am just too excited to focus on anything else right now from five different countries and it was true. but i was most importantly both with the one journey no one in my family has ever been to mecca this is the joyful location the road to has an al-jazeera. record a city on the cusp of the arctic circle and often called one of the most pristine joe graphically striking places on earth but beyond the classiest and volcanoes

lies and intriguing story of survival that's beautifully captured in icelandic cuisine. from a mirror of society it brings us together traces our divergent histories and open some new futures i'm on a journey to meet food lovers around the world and get the inside track on their cities through the food they love. reykjavik is the northernmost capital city in the world settled by enormous arriving bison. its very remoteness has forced people to listen to their surroundings and go see it live to stay alive.

iceland was established as a republic in one thousand and forty four and rapidly. to rapidly some would say in two thousand and eight its banking system imploded the cards most of its value people lost livelihoods. so i mean treat to meet one man who despite starting his restaurant at what seemed like the worst possible time managed to turn crisis into opportunity. good never called just listen is the owner of dill his restaurant is credited with pioneering the use of locally sourced ingredients which is help to revitalize traditional food production. time to story about dill. so we open the bill

this is two thousand and seven we had literally just. started working on a project. then the crisis hit the country and we kind of. you could say we could we could can scale yes you know so the investors the job of the work and we were kind of alone there and we were going to have like a full blown kitchen with a whole lot of chefs and the same verse from the server but we just had to train a flick change the whole thing and make you fine dining. on the new way we actually ended up starting the two of us. we had no employees and we literally we worked like this twenty four seven. how do you survive that thing either it was because we actually millet's to serve really nice. flavored

food. and good service already it was just pure luck. or a little bit of. what is the inspiration for your restaurant now we started up like going for the iceland getting greedy and looking up whatever we could actually find and after a certain time we felt a little bit like the box was closing and that we needed something more so i started like digging into like old recipes sometimes an up specific method on how to make of this or that. and that kind of inspired me a whole lot a lot of new plates as well that inspired me to go out there and look for producers up in the countryside that maybe were doing something that. the birds like a kind of old school or something that they're done back in the days. for example

how albert is making his. hello this is caught back along in my area there were about thirty producers allowed these all the way hydro this. but now i'm the only one left the smaller ones has been bought by big oil companies some have gone bankrupt. you will feel and tell me how lovely big fish and i'm sixty years old i started to as old i see working and as a profession militiaman fifteen years old. how have you managed to survive this has been difficult and i have been many times on on. on the brink of. bankruptcy you know but i vowed to do this this is the only thing i know to dos all i will continue as long as i can stand.

i'm so happy with goodnight and many others here are they respect the old method how we produce it you know i produce it the old way as my grandfather taught my father and my father taught me and and i'm teaching my grandchildren now. most of all we hope that i did something right in something good and that people are now trying to do immoral for foraging trying to find out more producers that are making something really beautiful happening here in iceland. the land of the midnight sun iceland has around twenty one hours of daylight at the height of summer just in the depths of winter. the

landscape of this terrain mess mariah's is majestic. otherworldly and unforgiving. the natural vegetation provided little firewood thus creating a unique problem. beyond the challenges of hunting gathering and foraging iceland is needed a source of heat to cook their food. they didn't have to. hear to tear out. on the back i had. ok she had to. get. here tell. me help you out of here barrett just said and how long does it begin here at

fluted look at him and. so do a lot of people this week. i mean you get it right. that the back up. you want to get out to be off with you need to blow him up like i am with the pres group but what is an aside put them here. maybe it smells good here. lifted to ft south york. ok it either has about someone whose recipe is this my harmony. through soft ones.

today many of the traditional icelandic delicacies including good football can be found in reykjavik score the fourteenth. asia ranch tested ok they've been cooped and show fenway milk for. half a year. that gives them shelf life. in the old days people found out that by putting food into the way they would if you chief during the winter. show after. animals they would put a lot of things into

a milk board and i needed during one else i strike there shall be for men to charge . someone in trying to shine a child she don't say so here's a wooden smoke shop thank you. that's one taste i know what you know me get around the walls but if i do i still smoke if they have it and this is the done trying to shut down you say yes indeed older days we cut down on trees and the farmers they had only one way to heat up their houses which was to take in a dorm from the sheep after the winter they dried that during the summertime and then they would burn it the next with earth to heat up their houses and of course cook their food should was always done sort of indicate you narea. then they would start hanging up. each fish different things in there for drying and for

smoking and of course found it was a perfect way of storing food smoking it sure we've you know chapter tradition you know i should prefer this this is deep of me but. tourism is one of the sectors that's helped lift iceland out of its financial doldrums and traditional delicacies know packaged and marketed with visitors to. a low. thank you i really like your shop actually thank you very much how long has

it been around it's nearly a hundred years what would have sold a one hundred years ago or selling or weight in iceland that was so good selling some for goods in the time we were very poor. yourself so small and if you'll then it was fairly hard there for the owners to keep this shop in the same but we have changed it to mortar better things on circulates. swords and how to fish good for the tourists how does this get it right fish very popular you want to try. one maybe we're not you know is it you know as a snotty you know you taste of us like it's a very healthy notice and you know. it's very. thick woods like this this is what people live on in the old days and week thank

you thank you for your time. high in protein and low in fat skin is a real good like cheese that's vital to the dairy industry. my name is good and i'm not there if i marry my son i'm braced up on a farm muster kit we have about three hundred fifty thousand liters of milk but he . must be a nice under the change to set the skinhead as you go skeet of us made from him because the cream goes to where you put the earlier days you used the cream of the currency skin has basically three steps past it as the main form and up to eight to five degrees of half an hour when you cool it down for the weeds you take a small part of your skin from last time you steer it in some of the fresh milk you just pasteurized then you start the cooling process. you cool it down and to decrease in maybe three hours after you cool it down to around six seven degrees

you think they're quite late the mixing up put it into the bags they put the barracks printed on tray on their way with rain off. and you would have the skin left and that in the bag and it's ready to consume. anybody can make spirit yes but you have to have high quality icelandic meek. and askia catches them why do the market share abroad it's evolved into something of a dutch canary trashing the planet . iceland has a population of three hundred and thirty thousand small but growing and increasingly from migration. in the past decade people from more than one hundred

forty countries have received citizenship yeah national pride is strong seen even in the clothing of these only in iceland yes by vents by hand. icelandic women has seen it that for centuries and it's about fifteen years since we started to fill said it to a tourist and tool to us both that this is a full three quote i put this into the look of this you know about this science and what makes it the look of peace it's the icelandic rule it's what especially if it's from the icelandic suplex it's been really been there for centuries and i used to say the icelandic see this saved us we ate it and three and the skin to keep us warm i mean you. know. an effect

interesting seems that sheep are as important as fish in the story of icelandic survival. soli thomas dot here is a politician and leading voice for women's issues she's also a massive foodie who enjoy sharing the cuisine and culture of her home. so sorely what are we cooking today. lamb lamb lack actually i think at this most popular me it's that the so tell me when you were growing up what was a typical new for you boiled fish with potatoes we ate fish six days a week and then on sundays only with salt potatoes maybe some can't cut it or something but we didn't have any herb store you know but suppose from around the

world so it was when a simple not minced taste but it was the sunday steak and it was always on sunday program of that you know and loans for the families at that i don't see you making something risky yes well guess they make all kinds of things with skewer make this search me the bread cursed and making sauce out of it but the love but a silicone garlic honey salt oil and then we make this sauce with the meat that some of the you know it's for us so all this produce has a lot of it do they grow nicely this is icelandic yes this is all aslant that they're making and then greenhouses they are very lucky here because they have this geothermal heat you know it's green on the to the news that the other money to warm up the green houses and it's very it is just us and we are very lucky that that are the vice we will not have all this but suppose.

this is really because really i love the flavor it's a noisy good mental mark i'll never say no thank you. other log with politics here yes if you convert traitor talk the rest of the world there are a lot of them and then politics but that have never been as many women as men at the parliament and they still have a long way to go but yet i think at this it's quite good to be a woman and iceland we have a good belfort system they have good acts at the case and we have this. pretty long parent to leave. may have caught hunt's care system so it is not that our smart spurted on them and at home i said this for women in many other countries but still women are doing more work at home than men.

just interim chief straps a little bit ask you about the financial crisis how did it get so bad i think mostly it was picked up because people got to creepy and not not the whole society but the people who will and it was you know lack of. you know her to assess social responsibility that brought the center this i have this hope that we need to really learn something from us and the theatre really you know have to be more diverse we have to embrace that diversity they have to be you know more. we have been more nice to each other. and more the sponsible.

signs of recovery everywhere business is booming public debt is on a downward trend and inflation is no. the international monetary fund calls iceland a success story for getting back on its feet while preserving its priced wealth and most of. the economy may be gaining steam but it's still a tough story for iceland's youth to whom unemployment has averaged around ten percent over the past twelve years. that has a detent some of those studying the working abroad from returning home bringing with them and a jeep and optimism. and

a bill i'm generally very nice and it's good to meet you. all with the goal it's easier all right i'll do that we're going we're going to go to where the main street the reykjavik so you just moved from marker yeah. i just moved back here to downtown. what's changed from when you left will not the weather for one. always cold but of business wise. things have changed. when i had to whoa yes there were things are bouncing back when i left you hardly saw any building cranes you didn't see the lights and i was thought to certainly didn't see all this people but now we're gone. down the main street is really busy it's busy we're seeing new cafes opening up new restaurants and well much more variety than before let's go through it all came.

to me live. with my friend dear old samar says the sister progress through a really lovely to me nice to me. this is a turkish restaurant it was more than ten years ago but my father knew his business partners and they opened the first camp up in i sed it was something quite new it wasn't so long time ago that turkish coffee and for bottle of our or turkey schooled in general we had to go to turkey and i mean i remember these trips that i came back with suitcases of own lives of cheese of you know interesting spices and things like this now i've come here i go to the turkish supermarkets to buy my things. and i go home and cook it myself i mean this is something that just changed in the last recent years i went to the middle east

a couple years ago and i want to get back i felt like i needed to explain the falafel to everyone here because now if a person over afterward. my father is from turkey he came here i would say more than thirty years ago my mother is icelandic it's quite an interesting set up to grow often. in the last three years i mean immigration has been growing probably you would have talked about multiculturalism ten years ago so this is quite new a new phenomenon to iceland and something both of you are young professionals where do you see your country heading well things would have to change for young people to be able to build a future here the problem is the lack of jobs for graduates new country lee by ear. own home here even though it would be cheaper than to rent food prices are higher here. it's so many things so you just came back what's what's

next what's the next step from. you sound like my mother when you hit us up or up. yesterday or. what are you going to do next room for i'm optimistic i think we are bouncing back we are small economy a worthwhile nation where every every working productive citizen matter so very often there's often not the hard to find work maybe compared to the rest of the europe so it's a matter of belief finding what you are doing but you're one of the origin inspired to door and what do you want to do. i'm a whaleboat for hiring and. accustomed to isolation in this have gained a knack for overcoming the seemingly insurmountable. with lessons from the past

placing feet in what lies ahead. iceland may have grabbed headlines because of its recent economic woes but people here see those these open i return to the roots of these survive to nurture more resilient and one of the most tangible outcomes of that is modern icelandic cuisine contemporary and sustainable which just integrate giving into one didna should city until next time or as they say in icelandic just blessed. denied citizenship. health can and education.

fools from their homes to live in camps. subject to devastating physical cruelty. as their world investigates one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. through. silent abuse. capturing a moment in time. snapshots of other lives other stories. providing a glimpse into someone else's work. on al-jazeera. on counting the cost what the first wave of u.s. sanctions on iran means for iranians and companies doing business there the world's biggest oil producers and climate change plus stamping out colombia's cocaine addiction counting the cost on the.

president are due on calls on turks to support their embattled currency us president trump increases the pressure on the lera. hello i'm david polynesia watching ologies there live from london also coming up. the u.n. needs to discuss yemen the saudi led coalition says it is investigating airstrikes that had a boss full of schoolchildren. a volunteer palestinian medic is shot and killed by israeli fire joining protests at the gaza israel border. and zimbabwe's presidential inauguration is delayed as the opposition legally.