West Fjords - a Culinary Journey

of Guðlaug Jónsdóttir and Karl Kristján Ásgeirsson

Foto: Guðlaug Jónsdóttir

Today I present you one of my really favorite cookbooks about Icelandic cuisine! I got it last Christmas as "jólagjöf" and I love the book because it not just includes recipes, but the recipes are often involved in local events. 

In the book you accompany the inhabitants of the West Fjords culinarily through the year. End of January you celebrate sólarkaffi. That's the day, on which the sun appears for the first time after some dark winter weeks. On this day they are baking pancakes and invite friends and relatives to "sun coffee". You bake with them on Carnival Monday, on bolludagur, a special kind of donuts. You experience at end of April the Fossavatnsgangan, the ski marathon in Isafjordur. You harvest in May dandelion, sorrel and angelica. You visit the abandoned paradise Hornstrandir during the summer months. In late summer you collect berries in the Westfjords. And end of August you celebrate the blueberry day in Súðavík. Later in the year you eat wild mushrooms and also cormorants, ducks and geese. You take part on the Smala, the sheep round-up in autumn, with all the delicious lamb dishes. Fish dishes are served all year round anyway.  And finally on the day before Christmas you celebrate the Þorláksmessa eating the very traditional skate with hnoðmör and rúgbrauð. 

The recipes are all embedded in the everyday life and the various local festivals, accompanied with beautiful images from Ísafjörður and the surrounding area. So you can really learn to know recipes and traditions of the West Fjords at the same time. Highly recommended! 

I immediately fell in love to the book - and that was for me the motivation to visit Ísafjörður and the West Fjords, an area of Iceland I did not yet know at all. In September 2015 I was able to realize this project - and I could explore the West Fjords with a private guide. What's more, my guide was a former colleague of Guðlaug Jónsdóttir, the author of this cookbook. So I had the opportunity to meet Guðlaug personally. This was an absolute highlight of my trip!!! 

Looking into the fjord from Ísafjörður

 
The visit was great. I was able to experience Guðlaug as a wonderful, very committed woman, who has really impressed me with her enthusiasm and her passion for good food, good ingredients and everything related to the topic of food culture! I have learned a lot during this evening - even about hnoðmör and kæst skata.

Finally Guðlaug gave me a glass aðalbláberasulta (blueberry jam) and dried mushrooms, which smell delightfully! I'm really looking forward for cooking with these mushrooms! 

Imagine wonderful intensiv mushroom aroma!!!

Guðlaug also told me that I can present two recipes from her book here in my blog - coming soon! 

Dinner at the seafood restaurant Tjöruhúsið. Photos of this restaurant can also be seen in the book!

P.S .: 

In Germany you can order the book via internet, e.g  here for approx. € 80.