Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
sugar, fruit flavours (such as blueberry) and cream to give it an extra-special taste and tex-
ture.
Skyr
can be found in any supermarket and as a dessert in restaurants.
Icelandic
pönnukökur
(pancakes) are thin, sweet and cinnamon flavoured. Icelandic
kleinur
(twisted doughnuts) are a chewy treat, along with their offspring
ástarpungar
(love
balls), deep-fried, spiced balls of dough. You'll find these desserts in bakeries, along with
an amazing array of fantastic pastries and cakes - one of the few sweet legacies of the
Danish occupation.
Local dairy farms churn out scrumptious scoops of homemade ice cream - they're often
featured on the menus of nearby restaurants. Alongside boring old vanilla sit novel fla-
vours such as beer, liquorice and béarnaise sauce.
Salt Eldhús (
www.salteldhus.is
) is a small cooking school in Reykjavík that offers a 'Local
in Focal' cooking course for visitors, using local ingredients to create a three-course meal.
Drinks
Nonalcoholic
Life without
kaffi
(coffee) is unthinkable. Cafes and petrol stations will usually have an
urn of filter coffee by the counter, and some shops offer complimentary cups to customers.
Snug European-style cafes selling espresso, latte, cappuccino and mocha are ever-more
popular, popping up even in the most isolated one-horse hamlets (the coffee isn't always
good, though). Tea is available, but ranks a very poor second choice - the brand sitting on
most supermarket shelves makes a feeble brew.
Besides all that coffee, Icelanders drink more Coca-Cola per capita than any other coun-
try. Another very popular soft drink is Egils Appelsín (orange soda) and the home-grown
Egils Malt Extrakt, which tastes like sugar-saturated beer.
It isn't a crime to buy bottled water in Iceland, but it should be. Icelandic tap water gen-
erally comes from the nearest glacier, and is some of the purest you'll ever drink.
