Gluttony

I feel like any bloggage about food in Iceland has to begin with the Green Choice.

This incredible veggie hideaway was a very short walk away from our couch surfing host's place. After the first visit, we freaked out and had to come back. The proximity to our host's place made it a no brainer to come back to the Green Choice at least five or six times after that first time. 

Grean Kosturr had many variations on a theme, indeed. It was good thing that theme was incredible, unique nordic veggie cuisine. The Green Choice remains in both of our memories emblematic of Icelandic cooking, even though it was probably the furthest from traditional fare as we could get.

That fare being various incarnations of the menus below

And hot dogs. Many many hot dogs.

Ted partook in Baæjarins Betzu Pylsur, but was not very impressed. 

We also enjoyed a few visits to Tíu dropar, because we loved the ambiance, the people who work there, and their offerings. 

Pictured below was a special treat of hot mulled wine, aged to perfection, saved from last winter, brewed by the Swedish bartender whose eyes lit up when we asked him if he happened to have any mulled wine available one rainy evening.

 We strayed from the Green Choice once to partake in the other veggie offerings of the capital city. We walked to the outer bounds of the city to eat at Glo. We should have gone there first, because it paled in comparison to Graen Kosturr.  

Well, it was ok (although the grapevine listed Glo as the best veggie restaurant of 2012, which was somewhat confusing), just not as interesting/delicous as the Green Choice.

Anyhow, due to most of the rest of the country not being that Veg friendly, we made our own most of the time. A lot of these meals consisted of the delicious paste pictured below (for the first part of the trip, at least)

With most mornings starting off heavy with flaxy/nutted/berry oatmeal blasts.

And most evenings cooking out of the back of the kamper.

Silva

The outskirts of Akureyri provided the best restauranted veggie delights outside of Reykjavik. Plus, all the food they served came from the farm that surrounded the restaurant.

Playing scrabble in Icelandic in the Eastfjords required some wood fired vegan pie

Followed shortly by some magic cayenne choco chunks that one of the cooks brought out to the restaurant to share with everyone.

Melissa rejected the first round of chocolate, assuming it contained some form of animal, but when she refused a second time, the chef wanted to know why. Melissa confessed her dietary restrictions, and the chef was pleased to report that her chocolate creation was completely cruelty free.

Inspired by the French couple the previous night, Ted decided to mix orange soda with some malt alcohol and have smoked salmon with our Rúgbraud (if you didnt click the link, this rye bread is made in underground ovens. Bread made from the molten core of the earth. Incredibly good and something we both miss alot). Malty orange draaank (or booce! (beer and juice) as Ted kept exclaiming as he loved every sip) was surprisingly amazing.

Sometimes we would run into situations like the one pictured below, with various store/restaurant workers looking over everything to see if there was anything without "dairy products or eggs" in them. This was Melissa's guilt face over these particular bakery girls literally looking over every peice of baked good to find something she could eat.

Ted got into "skyr" fairly late in the game, but made up for it by getting a small tub of it at most of the gas stations or Bonus' we would go to. Below is the brand he loved the most. (Ted had hoped the tanker pictured below was full of thick, beautiful, honey kissed skyr to swim about in and take multiple gallons of it with us for the rest of the trip). The vanilla variety was consumed by Ted the most.