Cooking Breakfast: Grænn Kostur

June 20, 2012

After the vegetarian wonderland of Berlin, Cindy in addition to I were prepared for a much less exciting array of dining options inwards Reykjavik. Firstly, it's a pretty small-scale urban essence ( 250k people) in addition to secondly, the whole province is run on fish. With this inwards mind, we'd booked ourselves an bird for our rest - giving us the choice of cooking dinners/making sandwiches rather than struggling to discovery proficient meals out 3 times a day. All of which is non to tell that Reykjavik is a veg wasteland - Happy Cow lists 3 veg-only places in addition to some other one-half dozen or in addition to hence that are veg*n friendly. So, on our outset nighttime inwards town nosotros headed off to banking concern jibe out Grænn Kostur.

Grænn Kostur ('Green Choices' according to Google Translate) is a small-scale in addition to casual place, amongst a focus on good for you lot nutrient in addition to a rotating cast of nearly v dishes. The staff (like everyone nosotros spoke to inwards Iceland) are fluent inwards English linguistic communication in addition to happy to cry for out vegan options, etc. The v options are all pretty homely - things similar spinach bake, a attain of curries in addition to veggie lasagne. Everything comes amongst salads, staff of life in addition to rice. I ordered the (vegan) pumpkin curry amongst tofu balls (1590kr AU$12).

The curry was a fairly straightforward mix of pumpkin, beans in addition to spices amongst a kokosnoot milk-based sauce in addition to the unfortunate inclusion of raisins. The tofu ball was a fighting to a greater extent than interesting - a lawn tennis ball-sized lump of tofu, pulled together amongst kokosnoot milk, tomato plant paste, oatmeal in addition to spices. It was a piffling on the dry out side but worked okay inwards combo amongst the curry sauce. The salads were unproblematic in addition to fresh, the staff of life home-baked in addition to delicious in addition to the whole repast left me feeling satisfied in addition to healthy.

Cindy opted for the moussaka (1590kr AU$12, vegan if you lot skip the tzatziki). It's a mish squelch of eggplant, zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes, soy mince in addition to spices, slathered inwards a tangy tzatzki.

Cindy described this equally 'share-house vegetarian', which captures the fairly straightforward nature of it - it was squeamish to teach a dish chock amount of veggies afterward spending 10 days inwards Berlin eating fried everything, but at that topographic point was nix real exciting going on. Still, for $12 you're getting a pretty massive plate of good for you lot food, which is difficult to complain about.

Grænn Kostur isn't going to win equally good many converts to vegetarianism - it's rooted inwards a sort of former schoolhouse slightly piece of cake manner of cooking, which may survive partly to produce amongst the availability of to a greater extent than exciting ingredients inwards isolated Iceland. Still, they produce an fantabulous chore of keeping things healthy, fresh in addition to affordable, in addition to are worth checking out if you're spending some fourth dimension inwards Reykjavik.

____________

There doesn't look to survive a vibrant veg blogging scene inwards Iceland, but tourists Vegan Butthole Explosion in addition to Vegetabull Blog both idea Grænn Kostur was pretty good.

____________

Grænn Kostur

Skólavörðustígur 8b, Reykjavik
354 5522028
mains 1590kr AU$12 (small sizes available for 1,190kr AU$9)
http://www.graennkostur.is/english.htm

Accessibility: Grænn Kostur has a unmarried small-scale footstep upwardly on entry in addition to relatively crowded tables - at both touchstone in addition to bar pinnacle - inside. Ordering, payment in addition to nutrient pick-up all occur in addition to a high counter, where the nutrient options are on display (see moving-picture present above).

____________

On the double-decker to Reykjavik