Cuisine

Due to the isolated location of Iceland, important ingredients of traditional Icelandic cuisine are lamb dairy and fish. Here are couple of examples:

Hangikjöt is smoked Icelandic lambs. It is reputed to be especially good because of how the sheep are farmed, which is quite old fashioned: they are free to roam around the wilderness of the unspoiled and rather barren highlands all summer long without any supervision at all. The sheep graze not only on grass, but also on plants and herbs which contributes to their rich and complex flavour. In this way, the meat has been marinated the entire life of the animal.

Skyr, is technically a type of soft cheese, made from gelatinous milk curds. As appetizing as that sounds, mixed with milk and served with sugar or Icelandic blueberries, it’s actually quite wonderful, with a rich, yoghurt-like texture and slightly sour taste. The real magic, however, is in its nutritional value. This superfood is incredibly high in protein and unbelievably low in everything else, a typical batch sporting something like 12% protein, 3% carbohydrate and 0,5% fat, and also rich in calcium and various vitamins.

No surnames, no worries

In general there are no surnames in Iceland except for few danish family names. Some of them have lasted for decades but these family names are not that common and mostly originate from foreigners marrying into an Icelandic family. For the majority of Icelanders people have a last name that is comprised from their father’s (or mother’s) first name with the addition of -dóttir (-daughter) or -son. For example if my fathers first name is Gunnar, so my last name is Gunnarsdóttir (Gunnar’s daughter). This means that a member of a family will have a different last name to both of their parents and their siblings of a different gender. Women also do not change their name when they get married. With such a potpourri of surnames, it is little wonder that the Icelandic phone book is sorted by first names. If the population were 300 million rather than 300,000, I suspect the system may not work as well.