Showing Northern Delights: Reykjavik Cuisine by Erna Kaaber

This book addresses Reykjavik's food culture and hospitality for the past 200 years. Hospitality is central to contemporary Icelandic culture but this national trait can be traced back to the Icelandic Sagas. Incorporated is the story of how a small village of some 250 persons blossomed into a capital city. The origins and evolution of restaurants in Reykjavik are explored with a visit to many of the best contemporary restaurants included. Short everyday tales of love, fate, ideas and their construction are told in accordance with historical relevance. Some of the restaurants are the end result of ideas that surfaced many decades earlier. One such notion was for a meeting place to be constructed at the top of Oskjuhlio where Perlan now stands. Other restaurants are built on historical sites and house long forgotten stories of love and hate. Many of the best chefs in Reykjavik have lent their expertise and given gourmet recipes and all have in common that they only include the use of the finest Icelandic ingredients. Thus, the reader not only gets an idea of how to use the ingredients but also the opportunity to sense the smell, taste and texture of the fast moving culinary culture of Reykjavik.