Please excuse this week's break from our "How to Save / How to Splurge" routine, for next week we will have one of each cheese to make up for lost time. But for the next few days, your cheese musings will be coming straight to you from the Northern most capital worldwide, Reykjavik or smoky bay.
Arriving this morning at dawn it was hard to judge whether we landing on water or on land that in that early morning glow resembled the ebbs and flows of lightly wavy water. We were landing sure enough on land after a flight that was shorter than the trip from NYC to LA. Stepping off the plane and out onto Icelandic soil, one really feels as though they are at the end of the world, in a completely surreal climate due to it's location on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. What does this location cause you might be wondering? Well first off, in the past two centuries, over thirty volcanoes have erupted causing the soil and ground to be a blackish color due to the amount of volcanic ash. In stark contrast to the black land, there is a decent amount of snow on the ground with plenty of mountain tops in the distance covered in snow.
After the 50 km drive from the airport to the city of Reykjavik, we arrive at our hotel tucked away on a side street off of one of the main drags. Dropped our bags off and went in search of breakfast. I ended up ordering the Icelandic thicker version of yogurt, called skyr served with museli. Thick, dense creamy yogurt that tasted fresh, crisp and completely unique in comparison to the American yogurts one finds in the grocery stores in New York.
After a morning of walking around town, getting our bearings and exploring we happened into a small food produce shop with what looked like a decent cheese selection, so I inquired what cheeses were made here in Iceland. I found out the ones this little shop had available were a variety of goudas and some bloomy rind cheeses like Brie and Camembert. We tried a few and settled on the Icelandic black wax Gouda -- nothing overly complex but a true honest melt in your mouth grassy full bodied Gouda with a nice zap to it. You could tell this was not a cheese with anything extra added in, it was an example of the raw icelandic terroir. We got it with some of their homemade thin crisp bead with flax seeds, dried cranberries and nuts, the perfect nutty, fruity compliment to our cheese.
That's all for now folks but stayed tuned for lots more adventures from the land of fire and ice.
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