Iceland

Omnom puts the ice (cream) in Iceland

Omnom puts the ice (cream) in Iceland

Posted on by Pat and David
Omnom Chocolates are possibly the best known of Iceland's culinary exports, rivaled only by Icelandic sea salt (see this post). We think that they are cleverly named. Say it three time fast and it will sound like you're devouring a chocolate bar. The sophisticated flavors include a licorice white chocolate and ‶burnt and black barley.″ They're widely available in the U.S. and Canada. But you'll have to go to Iceland to try Omnom ice cream, made in the same boxy factory (above) as the chocolates. The location (Hólmaslóð 4; +354 519 5959; omnom.is) is a bit of a schlep from central Reykjavik, but we were happy to go to great lengths for gastronomic research. Omnom sits in a warehouse district only a few streets northwest...Read More
Hot dog, Iceland’s unofficial national fast food

Hot dog, Iceland’s unofficial national fast food

Posted on by Pat and David
Judging by America's local-pride food blogs, you'd think that any of a dozen cities in the U.S. invented or perfected the hot dog. But not even New Yorkers who adore Coney Island red hots can claim a greater loyalty to the humble frankfurter than Iceland. (Close as we can tell, the particular sausage originated in Frankfurt, Germany, but that's another story.) You'll find the most important culinary landmark in Iceland at Tryggvagata 1 in Reykjavik. That's the location of Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur (www.bbp.is), the kiosk whose name (we're told) translates to English as ‶best hot dogs in town.″ Opening at 10 a.m. and closing between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. (longer hours in the midnight sun of summer), it has been in the same spot...Read More
Lamb with a view at Reykjavik’s Grandi Maðöll

Lamb with a view at Reykjavik’s Grandi Maðöll

Posted on by Pat and David
Everything old is new again in Reykjavik, not least the ‶Old Harbor″ district. Just a two-minute walk along the harbor from the oldest city restaurant, Kaffivagninn (see this post), the soaring interior of Grandi Maðöll (Grandagarður 16; +354 787 6200; grandimatholl.is) beckons diners hungry for an indoor fix of street food with a good harbor view. In case you hadn't guessed, maðöll is Icelandic for ‶food hall.″ (The ‶eth″ is pronounced like a ‶th″ in English and is often spelled that way as well.) Grandi Maðöll is one of the city's newer dining ventures. It contains eight food vendors offering mainly Icelandic foods, such as fish and chips, as well as two world cuisines popular in food courts everywhere: Italian pastas and Indian curries. In...Read More
Icelandic lobster soup warms a chill evening

Icelandic lobster soup warms a chill evening

Posted on by Pat and David
We had read that Iceland's famous ‶lobster soup″ was a special dish widely served at the winter holidays. Given that there's only about four hours of daylight at Christmas, Icelanders definitely need something to cheer them up. But during our Reykjavik visit in late August, lobster soup was ubiquitous on the city's menus. So much for seasonality — or don't believe everything you read on the Internet. According to Iceland Fisheries, the lobster season is April into September All of our research — including asking locals — pointed us to the Seabaron, or Sægreifinn in Icelandic (Geirsgata 101, Reykjavík; +354 553 1500; facebook.com/saegreifinn.seabaron). Everyone agreed that it was famed for lobster soup. The casual grill house squats at the harbor's edge in a lurid green...Read More
Kaffivagninn serves authentic fish and chips

Kaffivagninn serves authentic fish and chips

Posted on by Pat and David
The oldest restaurant in Reykjavik, Kaffivagninn (Grandagarði 10, Reykjavík; +354 551 5932; kaffivagninn.is), began as a harborside food truck in 1935. Sound out the name and it turns out to be an Icelandic cognate for ‶coffee wagon″ in English. But it also serves delicious fish. On a sunny summer day, Kaffivagninn's location on the city's gorgeous harbor is about as picturesque a place as there is to eat some of the freshest fish in the world. And fish is a lot of what Iceland is about. The fishing industry is essential to Iceland's identity and second only to tourism in its economic impact. The only fish on the breakfast menu at Kaffivagninn is (unsurprisingly) smoked salmon. Breakfast fare is 990-1890 krona (USD $7-$13.50). The only...Read More
Skyr cheese launched a thousand longboats

Skyr cheese launched a thousand longboats

Posted on by Pat and David
On our first day in Reykjavik, we wondered if we'd stumbled into some modern version of Gulliver's Brobdingnag. Everyone was … so tall. And fit. And wearing technical gear. They looked like they were about to dash up Iceland's volcanos, dive for lobsters in its fjords, or — at the very least — set sail in a high-prowed boat to discover a new continent or pillage an old one. It was a very Viking moment. The secret behind all this outsized vigor (or so we were told) was skyr. This Nordic cousin of Greek yogurt is so well-drained and thick that it's legally classified as a cheese. What distinguishes it from various other cultured milk products is that heated skimmed milk is inoculated with traditional...Read More