Iceland: Miscellaneous
This is going to be one giant dump of miscellaneous photos. Are you ready? I'm not sure I am, but here we go.
It didn't take us very long to come to the conclusion that dining out every meal in Iceland would be unsustainable for our budgets. Luckily, our first Airbnb host told us about affordable grocery stores such like Kronan and Bonus:
They're just about everywhere, though some are better than others. We realized right off the bat that fresh fruits and veggies were off the table for us. Way too expensive. Beef, pork, and chicken? Also expensive. Fish and lamb were a bit more reasonable.
What we ended up buying a lot of was snacks. Particularly the chip kind. We found that Icelanders have a preference for flavors like sour cream and chives, salt and vinegar, cheese, and paprika:
Paprika basically tasted like barbecue minus the sweetness. I certainly wasn't mad at that.
There were a lot of Lays and Doritos:
But we also tried some brands that we'd never seen before. Like this bacon flavored chip that came in the shape of...bacon:
And these airy paprika star chips:
From chips, we branched out to cookies. Lots of cookies:
Our favorite was the Petit Ecolier, which is actually French, not Icelandic. But who cares? A good cookie is a good cookie regardless of origin. We don't discriminate.
The popped rice cookies with chocolate were alright:
Another favorite were the Toffypops:
These chocolate topped biscuits came with a sticky toffee layer in the middle. Sweet, but so satisfying. Also less than a dollar for a package when you're lucky.
Our Airbnb hostess in Reykjavik welcomed us with a fruit bowl (which touched us immensely since we knew how precious fruit is in Iceland) and a box of mini Hraun:
Hraun is a wafer covered in milk chocolate and corn puffs:
I brought a box back to the States as an edible souvenir.
What I didn't bring back was this bag of licorice balls covered in licorice powder:
Uggggh...so bitter. I memorized the word for licorice in Icelandic so I would never make the same mistake again. Lakkris, you are dead to me.
While gathering recommendations for Iceland, people made a big deal about trying skyr or Icelandic yogurt:
From the way it was described to me, I had an inkling that I wouldn't like it. And...I was right. I gave it a shot. Actually, I gave it a lot of shots. I tried many different flavors, from plain to chocolate chip to strawberry cheesecake. It's just too thick for me. If you like Greek yogurt, you'll like skyr. As for me, I only like thick yogurt when it's on savory food. I can't just spoon it directly into my mouth like a dessert. Ew.
The day we went out to the Golden Circle, we made sandwiches to sustain us through the day. We randomly bought bread that looked good to us:
We bought various types of cured meats (also random because we couldn't read the packaging) and spreads to make our sandwiches with:
We overestimated ourselves. These were just for us girls:
DK had his own stack of sandwiches. In fact, he bought one whole loaf of bread for himself. We ended up having enough sandwiches leftover for another lunch another day.
For dinner one night, we bought a hodgepodge of things that didn't really go together, but that we were curious to try. I doubt dried fish ever really goes with anything:
We ate it with butter, just like how they served it in restaurants. It was exactly as expected in terms of taste and texture. Very similar to dried fish or squid in Asia, but with less flavor. It didn't make it unto my list of souvenirs to take home.
What I wanted to take home but couldn't was the pickled herring:
There were two flavors, but they tasted pretty much the same. Sweet and tangy:
So good on dark rye bread:
Another favorite was the lamb pate:
We didn't quite understand the black jelly film on top, but that pate was awesome on bread, on crackers, and in sandwiches:
In terms of beverages, CV was obsessed with this brand:
It had many different kinds of juices, most of which contained carrots. Surprisingly, it wasn't super expensive.
For another meal, we got ambitious and decided to actually cook. We bought frozen Brussel sprouts and pre-marinated salmon and it actually turned out pretty good:
DK was concerned that wouldn't be enough food, so he added a package of sausages:
What really saved our lives in Iceland was this:
Instant noodles were cheap and quick and not bad tasting. We stocked up every chance we got:
The others were fans of the Thai shrimp flavor, but it was a bit spicy for me. I preferred the tamer chicken or beef.
Too lazy to cook the noodles in a pot, we just made individual servings in bowls with boiled water:
More often than not, the noodles were slightly undercooked, but we weren't going to complain about that when a bowl cost less than $1.
On our way to the airport to catch our flight back to the States, we stopped by a Kronan for the last time. Here's what I picked up for my in-flight meal:
On the way to Iceland, we complained about how expensive food was on WOW Airlines. After spending time in Iceland, however, we couldn't stop commenting on how reasonably priced everything was on the flight home. Still didn't mean I was going to order anything though. I had my own water and my own sandwich material (the mustard and mayo packages I filched from a deli in the airport). I was perfectly content.
Thus concludes my Iceland 10-day adventure. If there's anything you should have picked up from my posts, it's this: food is not cheap in Iceland so if you don't want to break the bank, go grocery shopping!
It didn't take us very long to come to the conclusion that dining out every meal in Iceland would be unsustainable for our budgets. Luckily, our first Airbnb host told us about affordable grocery stores such like Kronan and Bonus:
They're just about everywhere, though some are better than others. We realized right off the bat that fresh fruits and veggies were off the table for us. Way too expensive. Beef, pork, and chicken? Also expensive. Fish and lamb were a bit more reasonable.
What we ended up buying a lot of was snacks. Particularly the chip kind. We found that Icelanders have a preference for flavors like sour cream and chives, salt and vinegar, cheese, and paprika:
Paprika basically tasted like barbecue minus the sweetness. I certainly wasn't mad at that.
There were a lot of Lays and Doritos:
But we also tried some brands that we'd never seen before. Like this bacon flavored chip that came in the shape of...bacon:
And these airy paprika star chips:
From chips, we branched out to cookies. Lots of cookies:
Our favorite was the Petit Ecolier, which is actually French, not Icelandic. But who cares? A good cookie is a good cookie regardless of origin. We don't discriminate.
The popped rice cookies with chocolate were alright:
These chocolate topped biscuits came with a sticky toffee layer in the middle. Sweet, but so satisfying. Also less than a dollar for a package when you're lucky.
Our Airbnb hostess in Reykjavik welcomed us with a fruit bowl (which touched us immensely since we knew how precious fruit is in Iceland) and a box of mini Hraun:
Hraun is a wafer covered in milk chocolate and corn puffs:
I brought a box back to the States as an edible souvenir.
What I didn't bring back was this bag of licorice balls covered in licorice powder:
Uggggh...so bitter. I memorized the word for licorice in Icelandic so I would never make the same mistake again. Lakkris, you are dead to me.
From the way it was described to me, I had an inkling that I wouldn't like it. And...I was right. I gave it a shot. Actually, I gave it a lot of shots. I tried many different flavors, from plain to chocolate chip to strawberry cheesecake. It's just too thick for me. If you like Greek yogurt, you'll like skyr. As for me, I only like thick yogurt when it's on savory food. I can't just spoon it directly into my mouth like a dessert. Ew.
The day we went out to the Golden Circle, we made sandwiches to sustain us through the day. We randomly bought bread that looked good to us:
We bought various types of cured meats (also random because we couldn't read the packaging) and spreads to make our sandwiches with:
We overestimated ourselves. These were just for us girls:
DK had his own stack of sandwiches. In fact, he bought one whole loaf of bread for himself. We ended up having enough sandwiches leftover for another lunch another day.
For dinner one night, we bought a hodgepodge of things that didn't really go together, but that we were curious to try. I doubt dried fish ever really goes with anything:
We ate it with butter, just like how they served it in restaurants. It was exactly as expected in terms of taste and texture. Very similar to dried fish or squid in Asia, but with less flavor. It didn't make it unto my list of souvenirs to take home.
What I wanted to take home but couldn't was the pickled herring:
There were two flavors, but they tasted pretty much the same. Sweet and tangy:
So good on dark rye bread:
Another favorite was the lamb pate:
We didn't quite understand the black jelly film on top, but that pate was awesome on bread, on crackers, and in sandwiches:
In terms of beverages, CV was obsessed with this brand:
It had many different kinds of juices, most of which contained carrots. Surprisingly, it wasn't super expensive.
For another meal, we got ambitious and decided to actually cook. We bought frozen Brussel sprouts and pre-marinated salmon and it actually turned out pretty good:
DK was concerned that wouldn't be enough food, so he added a package of sausages:
What really saved our lives in Iceland was this:
Instant noodles were cheap and quick and not bad tasting. We stocked up every chance we got:
The others were fans of the Thai shrimp flavor, but it was a bit spicy for me. I preferred the tamer chicken or beef.
Too lazy to cook the noodles in a pot, we just made individual servings in bowls with boiled water:
More often than not, the noodles were slightly undercooked, but we weren't going to complain about that when a bowl cost less than $1.
On our way to the airport to catch our flight back to the States, we stopped by a Kronan for the last time. Here's what I picked up for my in-flight meal:
On the way to Iceland, we complained about how expensive food was on WOW Airlines. After spending time in Iceland, however, we couldn't stop commenting on how reasonably priced everything was on the flight home. Still didn't mean I was going to order anything though. I had my own water and my own sandwich material (the mustard and mayo packages I filched from a deli in the airport). I was perfectly content.
Thus concludes my Iceland 10-day adventure. If there's anything you should have picked up from my posts, it's this: food is not cheap in Iceland so if you don't want to break the bank, go grocery shopping!
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