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foooood in iceland

what we ate in iceland

hey, it’s been a while since i did one of these food recaps (like budapest, paris, or london), so here we go — let’s talk about food in iceland. and there’s a lot to talk about!

first off, the quirky stuff: dried fish, slathered with butter. no, seriously! :) it’s an icelandic snack that resembles a bit our salt-dried cod fish, but with much less salt and with a healthy dose of butter on top. it takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s surprisingly nice… and probably healthier than toast + butter.

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we got the fish at kolaportid flea market, which has a nice food-section. in it, we also discovered the best ryebread we’ve ever tasted:
rugbrot
delightfully dense but not dry, with a hint of sweetness, lovely with butter! we read somewhere that it used to be cooked by burying it in the ground near hot springs… though probably not anymore. :)

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the hot dogs everyone mentioned were tasty and made for a cheap snack… hurray for cheap snacks — iceland is very expensive, as we quickly discovered…

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the last time we ate open sandwiches we were in copenhagen, i think… i don’t care much for 2 layers of bread — just one is fine with me! :) we had herring, onions and dill on rye bread and smoked lamb on smoky flat bread, which were both lovely. did you know that iceland has more sheep than people? they’re good for more than just providing wool for lopapeysa

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what else? oh! skyr, of course!

skyr

skyr is a sort of thick yoghurt (technically cheese), probably thicker than greek. it’s quite tasty and comes in a variety of flavours and cute packagings. we were quite happy to make our way through the whole supermarket selection!

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and speaking of dairy, here’s something new we tried as well:

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súrmjólk, or “soured milk” is, very literally, milk that has gone sour. it’s a bit acid, but actually not as bad as the name would make you believe — especially when flavoured.

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since breakfast is one of my favourite meal, we tried some in town. laundromat café had a very american ambiance to it (and was filled with tourists to match), but the dishes were ace, as was their impressive bookshelf-counter!

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bacon! eggs! sausages! towers of mini-pancakes! <3 we liked it so much we went there twice! :)

we also tried the tommi’s burger joint (hamborgarabúllan), for their famed burgers:

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they were nice, and we were lucky to be able to grab a seat in such a tiny place. lots of character there!

to cut costs, we mostly ate at home (one of the many advantages of house-swapping) — with one notable exception that we thought was worth the splurge: matur og drykkur. they do traditional icelandic food with a few modern twists, in a relaxed environment. each of us tried a different tasting menu, so we could sample all the dishes!

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we started with the most amazing bread, warm and sprinkled with caraway seeds, and a really soft butter with bits of volcanic salt on it… i could have stayed right there, happy as can be, munching on that bread… but soon our starters arrived:

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salted cod croquettes and horseradish remoulade, and fish soup with mussels, green apples and dried fruits — both great, and that soup! hot and fresh at the same time, and so creamy…

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we moved on to the main dishes, lamb with rhubarb jam, potatoes, kale and crowberries and their fish of the day dish (which i think was cod, but can’t remember for sure).

and last but not least, the desserts: skyr with blueberries, oats and whey granita and mini-kleina, with caramelized whey. i love how they use whey for everything! did you know the vickings used it to preserve their food by “pickling” it in whey?

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it was the perfect meal, from start to end — and the perfect sendoff from our time in iceland.

wait… but what about proper sweets or pastries, you ask? i’ll tell you about that in another post… :)

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in iceland stationery sundays

my favourite icelandic stamps

i’m writing a post featuring all the nice things we ate in iceland… but in the meantime, here are some of their beautiful stamps:

icelandicfoodstamps

the one about the volcano actually has ash embedded inside… but my favourite ones are definitely the ones in the center — a food landscape on a stamp, with an egg yolk as the sun! <3

this sheet was actually a gift from the lovely people at icelandic post, who we met to talk about postcrossing. we were chatting about stamps and at some point i gushed about this one and complained about how tricky it was proving to find in normal post offices… so they promptly picked up a sheet for us. how nice is that?! :D

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in iceland

hot pots!

so you ask, what’s the best part of so much hot water in iceland? definitely hot pots! :D

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hot pots are pools heated by natural springs of geothermal water. sometimes they resemble big swimming pools, but more often than not, they’re just man-made ponds on a countryside hill, small and “rustic”. sometimes there’s a little hut for you to change, sometimes just the hole in the ground filled with steaming water. all you need to do is take your clothes off, have a wash and then soak to your heart’s content…

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on our way back from the golden circle, we went by hrunalaug, a small pool featured in a number of guidebooks. you change and wash in a little side cabin, and in you go!

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the feeling of being wrapped in warmth in the middle of a quiet hill, little bubbles sticking to your skin as you dip your toes in the black sand at the bottom of the pool… it’s just pure bliss. let me try to show you:

we had it all to ourselves for a while and it was easily the best part of the trip. i wish i could bottle this feeling, this simplicity, this magic.

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in iceland

geysers!

and speaking of hot water, did you know that the word for geyser actually comes from geysir, a famous icelandic geyser? (according to wikipedia, the word geysa means “to gush” in icelandic.)

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geysers are a rare occurrence in the world, and notably temperamental, being affected by earthquakes which can trigger or make them go away. the science is complicated but the simplified mechanics resemble those of a pressure cooker… water gets superheated, pressure builds up, and then steam and water get released!

though the original geysir rarely erupts these days, its neighbour strokkur delights tourists every few minutes with an awe-inducing show of strength. due to the variable time between eruptions and how sudden they are, it’s hard to catch on a photo, but with some patience and space on your phone…

…magic! :)

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in iceland

hot water

did you know that iceland runs almost entirely on renewable energies, every single day? true story. between geothermal, hydropower and a little wind, the electricity generated is more than enough to power the whole country. the hot water also takes care of showers, heating houses, swimming pools and even the roads in winter. they still import oil for running vehicles and boats… but with the rise of electric cars, who knows? they might be 100% renewable in a few years, which is nothing short of amazing.

on a roadtrip in the island, we stopped in deildartunguhver to see one of the springs where the hot water comes from. it’s just a humble crack in some rocks… and yet, boiling water gushes upwards from it at the astonishing rate of 180 liters per second — the highest flow of any hot sprint in europe. whoa!

Deildartunguhver

Deildartunguhver

they pipe this water in a nearby facility and deliver it to households in a 65km radius. the leftovers get dumped on a nearby river, the steam making everything rather cinematic :)

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Deildartunguhver

Deildartunguhver

the sulphur does make the water smell a bit like overcooked eggs, which is funny when you open the hot water tap,  but one quickly forgets it after jumping on the shower. it’s lovely not having to wait for water to heat up — it’s instantaneous and super hot.

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the best part of so much hot water? i’ll tell you in another post! :)