Ben Sternthal & Friends

I went on a bike ride today to an area of Reykjavik that I have never been too before. I still have not started back running yet, taking it easy on my two broken toes.

I was heading to Ellidaar, a very clean salmon river that runs through an area of the city. But I got completely distracted by this beautiful valley. And right in the middle were a huge amount of allotments, and they looked to be growing all manner of veggies.

Below is a map of where I was and some pics along the way.

ben iceland

My fish of the moment is Arctic Char. I can pick up a nice fillet on my walk home for less than 400isk so it’s cheap and delicious.

I prepare the fish with a light glaze of ~ 1 tsp dijon mustard, ~ 1 tsp heavy cream, ~2 tsp aquavit, and some parsley. The aquavit is a nice touch, especially if it is made with dill.

Then into a hot oven (400F) for ~10 minutes. If your fillets are thin go for 8 minutes. Overcooked fish is awful so I always keep a careful eye on it.

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I love this photo. It was taken around the time I usually go to bed, 11:30 and yes that is the sun streaming into my Kitchen. Last summer I had an awful time adjusting to the lack of darkness, I barely slept.

But this year it’s amazing, I can sleep with the bright sun streaming into my room and I do not awake at 3am when the sun is back up and blazing.

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Iceland is not the best place if you are into mushrooms. The season here is incredibly short and I am not aware of anything especially tasty. I snapped this photo of some unidentified guys popping up behind my apartment. All my mushroom identification books are in storage but I’ll take a spore print and see if I can identify these guys.

ben food, iceland

Twice this week I have been asked “How do you manage development when your located in Iceland and your developers are in the Ukraine? “ I thought a lot about this lately, and I think it comes down to two things, a little software and a lot of trust.

I should also mention that not only are the developers I work with in a different country, we have never met in person. All our interaction has been over Skype.

On the Project Management/Software side, I use a lot of techniques picked up from when I worked at John Wiley & Sons, Including:

• Google Spreadsheets – Iteration Planning/ Story Management
• Skype – Primary Method Of Day-To-Day Communication
• Mantis – Bug Tracker
• Media Wiki – Knowledge Repository
• OmniGraffle – Wireframes
• Subversion – Version Control
• ANT- Build Management

The project management challenges can (in my experience ) be solved with extra planning and detailed specs. Usually this is enough to compensate for the lack of face to face communication. The greater challenge is Team building, I know it sounds corny but once you are somewhere that does not function as a Team you will realize how important this is.

Team building is not easy when your not in the same office and it is even harder if you have never met. You can’t chit-chat about projects, life or anything else and of course, no beers after work. You are left with what you say (in Skype) and what you do (code, project management), yep its a real meritocracy.

With such limited interaction – what you say and what you do are all that matters. This is your only method for building trust, and in my experience this trust is what will contribute to your team coming together.

In real life this means doing everything you say your going to do – if you say you are going to complete a task on Tuesday – complete it Tuesday. If a developer sends you a Skype … drop everything and respond. Meetings must be short and direct and always start on time.

You need to demonstrate that you are reliable and looking out for your developers (as a manager you should always be looking out for your developers). Most importantly that you are working hard, reliable, and that you are qualified to make decisions.

If you can establish mutual trust and respect, you have overcome one of the main challenges of remote software development. Hooray!

ben iceland, startup, tech

Another advert for the new season on starting sunday (from finalgear.com):

ben random

I recently hosted the Nuglov’s for the first part of their Icelandic vacation. They were kind enough to bring some good wine and some amazing baklava.

I decided to use some of the Red Wine to make Rillettes. The recipe is a combination of my own and one from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Basically pork belly (in my case short ribs), with a good layer of belly fat. Scored and seared, with garlic. Then lightly coat with a very light layer of whisky and a strong dijon mustard. Then a good amount of red wine goes in.

Tightly covered, in a low oven for 3hours.

One photo of the before, and one of the after, only one left by the time I remembered to take the photo. You can serve cold (as the french do) as a deli item or warm over some mashed potatoes. As Hugh says “they warm your cockles”.

ben food

Another entry into the “you eat what” category. As common as ketchup in the USA, Icelanders gorge themselves on Cockteilsosa as a condiment for french fries and a topping on burgers. It’s basically a sweet mayonnaise with maybe a hint of ketchup. It’s actually quite good.

Some photos from Vitabar (not taken by me) where I go to get a quick bite with Cockteilsosa and a beer after work.

ben food, iceland