What most Icelanders over thirty still think of when somebody mentions Sunday roast  is definitely leg or saddle of lamb, well done, probably served with sugar-glazed potatoes and canned green peas – maybe also carrots and other cooked vegetables, sweet-sour red cabbage, pickled cucumber, canned corn, sautéed mushrooms or a coleslaw – but invariably with a thick and rich gravy. Lesa meira

In Iceland, Christmas begins on Christmas Eve. The shops close at noon or a little later and at 6 p.m., the church bells ring to signify the beginning of Christmas. By that time, dinner will be well on its way in most families and some sit down to eat as soon as Christmas arrives, because the children are eager to begin opening their presents. Lesa meira

Iceland is surrounded by some of the best fishing grounds in the world and the catches of the trawlers and fishing boats have made it one of the richest nations in the world, but this has really only fairly recently begun to show to any extent in the cuisine. Icelanders Lesa meira

If you ask an Icelander to name the traditional Icelandic soups – excluding the sweet ones – chances are most people will come up with the same 3 soups: meat soup, pea soup with salted lamb, and halibut soup. All are substantial soups, always served as a main course, never as a starter. Lesa meira

Many food customs and dishes are connected to certain holidays, although perhaps not as many as in other European countries. Some of these customs can be traced back in time hundreds of years, others are fairly recent, and some have ancient roots but have been resurrected or reconstructed in recent years. Lesa meira

Traditional Icelandic food – the food most people over forty grew up on – is to a very large extent influenced by Danish cooking. Iceland had been under Danish rule since the Middle Ages but it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that this began to be reflected in the cooking to any great extent. Most of the traditional Icelandic cake and cookie recipes came from Denmark, and so did a great many dishes that are now considered extremely Icelandic in character. Lesa meira

Most of what can be said about the diet of the people who came to Iceland in the Settlement period (AD 874-930) is guesswork. There are no written documents dating from that period, no cookbooks, no traveller’s descriptions, no trade accounts. What we have is the evidence of the Sagas, written centuries later and not really all that concerned with culinary matters, and some scant archaeological evidence. Lesa meira

Desserts used to be a very important part of the Icelandic diet. A few decades ago, a dessert of some sort was served at least once and often twice a day in every Icelandic household. As desserts are now rarely a part of an everyday meal, some of the simpler desserts have turned into real treats, just because people who remember them from their childhood seldom get them any more, so they appreciate them all the more when they are served. Sweet dessert soups are largely unknow outside Northern Europe but in Iceland they come in many forms. Lesa meira

Laufabrauð, the traditional Icelandic Christmas flatbread, has sometimes been called “snowflake bread” in English because of the intricate cut-through patterns. It is first mentioned in writing in the early eighteenth century and more than 100 years ago, it had become the one and only Christmas bread of Northern Iceland. Now it is made all over the island, especially by people of northern descent. Lesa meira