Land of milk and honey between the icebergs

Greenland is a land of milk and honey when it comes to food and drink. You'll be in for a treat, regardless of whether you visit one of the country's numerous gourmet restaurants which combine Greenlandic ingredients with French, Japanese or Thai cuisine, whether you're staying in a private home offering Bed & Breakfast, whether you have accommodation with access to your own kitchen, whether you're invited to a kaffemik (where the quantity and range of cakes will easily exceed what you can eat), or whether you're sitting in a tent after a long day spent on a dogsled and are eating a good solid meal that's designed to help physically active winter tourists keep warm.

The daily meat

Meat is a key element of Greenlandic food culture. It has its roots in the old Inuit's traditional strong sense of community, where the survival of the community depended on what the men brought home with them from a hunting trip. You'll quickly realise the importance of meat when you visit the country. It's good and cheap, and many a conversation revolves around earlier or imminent hunting and fishing trips - regardless of whether it involves commercial or recreational hunters, men, women or children.

Easy to be a chef

You can easily cook the country's range of ingredients. All supermarkets have Greenlandic provisions in their display freezers. Close to the harbour in all towns, the so-called "Board" is full of meat from whales, seals, reindeer, muskoxen, lamb and fish. Here you're sure of a good and sustainable deal. On hiking trips in the summer you can pick the same mushrooms, berries and herbs which have provided the Inuit with their daily dose of vitamins for the last 4,500 years. The berries are ready to eat, whilst herbs and angelica can be taken home to flavour roast lamb, reindeer, musk ox or fish, or else used to make a pot of tea.

Organic

Greenlandic ingredients are by definition organic. Animals and plants come directly from the surrounding nature and the animals live a long way away from humans until the day they are shot. In South Greenland the lambs are able to roam free in the fells close to the Norse settlers' old fields - without pesticides or medicines being used. The same applies to the agricultural production of potatoes, fruit and vegetables.

The cleanest water

Greenland has some of the world's cleanest water. It comes directly from the one thousand-year-old ice sheet, and is so clean and uncontaminated by pollution that the majority of visitors from cities around the world are likely to exclaim that "there's something missing". In Ilulissat and on Disko Island the water is bottled and exported for sale in high-class restaurants in Europe, North America and Dubai. In Nuuk and Ilulissat, microbreweries produce special Greenlandic beer, which you can enjoy with your dinner, whilst housewives all over the country each have their own special immiak, or schnapps, made from Greenland's water and herbs. Furthermore, later in the evening you mustn't miss out on a glass of Greenlandic coffee. This alcoholic drink is a feast for both your palate and your eyes when it's prepared over an open flame and is attractively finished with burning northern lights.

Do-it-yourself

Regardless of whether you're visiting Greenland or are at home, you should also treat yourself to an evening of Greenlandic food. You could start by enjoying " A Taste of Greenland", which is a food and travel programme in which gourmet chef Chris Coubrough guides you through tasty and light dishes using ingredients from Greenland's natural larder. You can find inspiration for recipes here.