Thus, you spent a large part of the summer preparing for winter and to stock up your larder where you would find food in the winter months where sealing, whaling and fishing were not possible due to ice, storm or death hazards.
The legend of the Mother of the Sea is one of the most famous legends in Greenland. When people became too greedy and misbehaved in the settlements, the Mother of the Sea caught all the fish, whales and seals in her long hair, causing starvation. There was no other solution than to send a necromancer down to her at the bottom of the sea. Following some negotiation, the necromancer was allowed to comb her hair, and the animals were set free, providing food once again.
The necromancer was also given some wise advice: You must not be wasteful and live in plenty; you should be modest with nature, otherwise you will kill it. For this reason, tradition prescribes that you have respect for the animals you catch and use all parts of the catch.
The meat will be eaten, the train oil is used for cooking, preserving or candles and heat, the innards are eaten or used as sewing thread, for instance, and the skins are used for clothing, kayak covers or tents. Even the bones can be used to make tools. Many locations in Greenland are named after the animals available for catching in the area.
Ammassalik means the place with capelin, the name of the Southern Greenlandic village Eqalugaarsuits refers to the trout found there, and the Kapisillit village near Nuuk is named after the salmon that can be caught there — just to mention a few examples.
Throughout thousands of years, seals have been the basic main ingredient in Inuit cooking, and the national dish of Greenland is Suaasat, which is a thick broth often made of seal meat however, it can also be made of other types of meat. Today, the main ingredients in Suaasat is meat, barley and onions, although a lot of people replace barley with round-grain rice as the local kiosk may not provide barley. Roasted seal is not bad either, but if you have not grown up with the taste, it takes some getting used to.
This has given rise to seeking out new possibilities, such as honey-roasted seal, which is said to taste almost like traditional beefsteak. Many Greenlanders light up just at the mention of whale meat, while many foreigners often are horrified by the fact that whales are hunted, let alone eaten. But whales have been part of the Greenlandic menu for more than a thousand years.
It is often forgotten that Greenlanders have not caused certain species of whale to become endangered.
Instead, the industrialised countries are to blame, as they all but exhausted certain species in order to obtain fuel train oil for street lighting. Today, only a few nations are allowed to practise whaling, which happens within strict guidelines established by the International Whaling Commission, the IWC. Whale meat is a great delicacy in the Greenlandic kitchen.
Just like seals, whales can be prepared in several ways, but probably the most popular is to cook steaks and serve them with lots of onions. Whales also provide mattak — the skin of the whale with a layer of blubber. Mattak is also known as Greenlandic chewing gum or Greenlandic candy, which to us seems a little disrespectful.
Mattak is quite unique, and while chewing gum is cheap, synthetic candy, mattak is the largest and most expensive delicacy in Greenland. It is often ripped from the counters the moment it arrives — or even better when it on rare occasions is sold fresh from the Board, the local fish and meat market read more about the Board further below in this guide.
Everyone invited for dinner in Nuuk, Maniitsoq or Sisimiut in fall should anticipate that reindeer is on the menu. You can also prepare yourself for accounts of reindeer hunting. If you are up for that, you have a splendid evening in store, where stories are told — and laughed at — and food is enjoyed to the full.
It is a combination of original reindeer and deer that have been released into nature by humans, which has triggered growth in the populations. Reindeer is the only species of deer in Greenland, and the number can vary quite a lot, depending on the season. If there are too many animals they will overgraze, causing the population to drop.
It takes a long time for the Greenlandic flora to recover following such overgrazing. This is why regulation of the population is carried out by hunting to ensure the animals do not starve to death. Reindeer soup, reindeer steaks, reindeer osso buco, leg of reindeer. There are endless possibilities, and this is subject to a lot of experimentation in Greenlandic kitchens. Read more about reindeer. Kangerlussuaq has a rich wildlife. The best known animals of the area are musk oxen and reindeer.
The musk oxen were actually imported to the area from North-Eastern Greenland in Back then, 27 musk oxen were flown to the other side of the ice, and it has been a huge success. The growth rate among the musk oxen in the area was the highest in the world. In fact, due to the success, no one knows exactly how many musk oxen live in the areas near Kangerlussuaq, Sisimiut and Maniitsoq today.
An estimate says, there are between 10, and 25, indivduals. As is the case with reindeer, there are several ways to prepare musk oxen. Again, one of the favorites is oxen served as a roast or as steaks with lots of onions. The musk oxen wool is rather expensive, but you will love any knitted item in musk oxen wool. It is incredibly soft and provides unbelievable warmth. A small, thin woollen scarf provides the same amount of warmth as 12 down jackets. Well, almost…. Read more about musk oxen.
In Southern Greenland, the sheep farms lie like pearls on a string. Which is why there are a lot of lamb being bred in Greenland. In recent years, however, cow farms have also resurfaced in Southern Greenland, due to a large demand for beef. Greenlandic lamb is not sold as organic, but it more or less is. They roam freely in the rocks from their birth in spring to autumn when they are driven in and butchered. Greenlandic lamb is probably some of the most delicious lamb you will ever taste.
The cold climate causes the lamb to grow slower, and the taste is delicate and utterly amazing. The sheep farms are obviously first and foremost households where sheep are bred. In order to drive the animals in for butchering in autumn, the farms often have a number of Icelandic horses.
Several of the sheep farms offer accommodation. In some places, you can even go horseback riding. For instance, at the Inneruulalik sheep farm, located across Narsarsuaq. In Greenland, you can come across a total of bird species — if you are counting. Out of these approximately 60 of them breed in the here. Many of them — including the white-tailed eagle — are unconditionally preserved.
But there are still many other birds to make the Greenlandic kitchen wonderfully varied and particularly tasteful. The grouse, razorbill, black guillemot, guillemot and the common eider are some of them. They can be cooked in the same way game birds are cooked in other countries and have the same characteristic gamy flavour. And we must not forget the sea kings, which we mentioned initially. They can be cooked in a rather unusual way. You flense a seal and take out the innards.
Leave the blubber in and fill the sealskin up with whole sea kings. Bury the animals for months before eating them. This is not a meal for everyone, not in Greenland either where particularly young people in the south almost pass out at the thought of it.
Fish and shellfish from Greenland are incredibly delicious. As they are cold-water fish, they grow slowly, giving the meat a unique texture. Great food fish include trout, salmon, cod, redfish and Greenland halibut. Obviously, you might come across many other species, but the ones mentioned above are the most popular. They can be served in a great number of ways. Redfish or cod coated in cornflakes, for instance, makes for a very tasty and easy everyday meal.
But that is just one of an endless number of ways to cook fish in. This tart and tasty little vegan-friendly berry is the taste of late summer in the Arctic. Try it as marmelade or cheesecake garnish at kaffemik , or throw it back one shot at a time as an after-dinner snaps.
If you really want to live a day as a local, in late August take a walk just outside town to pick your own crowberries. The ground is covered in the plant and you can eat the dark berries right from the vine.
Just be sure you have a small plastic bag in your rucksack to take some home. So refreshing! Restaurant chefs do it up a little fancier by dicing and pickling it and adding it to dishes for an inventive and puckering pop.
Souvenir tip : Anori Art in Nuuk sells pocket-size packets of angelica-infused sea salt as well as gentle and mild soaps infused with the greenery. And if your trip home is not terribly long, you can even buy it frozen in the grocery store. Just wrap it in newspaper to make sure it stays cold. Blue Ice Explorer. Are you dreaming of going to Greenland and would you prefer to plan your own trip?
Greenland Tours. Sled dogs are in their element under the frosty sky, crackling snow and fluttering Aurora Borealis Northern Lights of the Greenlandic winter. Overnight stay in Igloo Lodge. This incredibly tender and flavourful steak meat is a staple in most restaurants. At Hereford Beefstouw in Hotel Hans Egede in Nuuk, a g reindeer mignon graces the menu and will not leave you hungry.
Of course, delicious recipes are highlighted, too. It is sold at the Kangerlussuaq Airport gift shop as well as at Atuagkat bookstore in Nuuk. If you would like to try cooking with Greenlandic ingredients yourself then see the recipes for summer casserole with Greenland halibut as a main course and followed by a dessert of apples and Greenlandic berries with a crisp topping — perhaps finished off with a Greenlandic coffee.
Food made from Greenlandic ingredients is always a culinary experience and the ingredients are often organic, since fish, game and marine animals roam free in their natural environment and are not given artificial feed or flavourings. Each new adventure adds a dimension to the contemporary picture of Greenland.
In each show four new dishes based on the delicious and surprisingly diverse Greenlandic produce are presented. Distribution: TVF International. The first two programs, filmed in South and East Greenland, respectively are already in global distribution. TV clips and recipes can found on these pages. In , two more regions will be added to the series namely the Arctic Circle Region to be filmed in April and the capital region to be filmed in August — September.
It broke off the ice shelf in East Greenland, and because of the ocean currents, took what many might think is a strange route down, left and up when looking at the map! Fly fishing in Greenland is a short but exciting season.
Avid fly fisherman Michael Rosing shares some of his in-depth knowledge about fly fishing in Greenland. The Icefjord Centre is a visitor and dissemination centre which, through the exhibition "The Tale of Ice", informs visitors about the history of ice, the culture in and around the icefjord, and climate change.
0コメント