Sweets, Meats, and Fermented Fish Icelanders Eat for Christmas
Christmas hold some very special traditions in Iceland and, unsurprisingly, many of them revolve around food. Here are a few of the main delicacies one can expect to eat over the holidays - Icelandic style.
Note on Christmas opening hours: Icelanders celebrate Christmas on the eve of 24 December. Most restaurants are closed that evening -- and the following day -- but in Reykjavík a number of high-end places remains open. Book early and click here for details.
Sweets
Most Icelanders are huge fans of Liquorice in all of its diverse forms all year round. However, during the holidays one can expect to see Licorice tops or lakkrís toppar, a meringue cookie with chocolate chips and chocolate-covered licorice. Keep in mind, Icelandic licorice has a strong anise flavor that tends to be much saltier than licorice from North America.
Rice pudding or möndlu grautur is another typical holiday treat. This rice porridge is topped with whipped cream and chopped almonds. Sometimes it is eaten as breakfast and sometimes as a dessert around the holidays. There is even a game in which a single whole almond is placed in the pot and once the pudding is dolled out, everyone guesses who has the whole almond.
Sarah Bernhardt cookies are a popular favorite, available in cafes year-round. Named after the French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these multilayered cookies have an almond macaroon base that is topped with chocolate filling and then covered in melted chocolate.
Don’t forget the Layer Cake or Lagkaka which has layers of gingerbread with vanilla cream, or its sister cake, the Randalina which has layers of yellow cake with rhubarb jam.