Reykjavík recs

I recently took a December vacation to Reykjavík, Iceland with my boyfriend, Tim, and we had a fantastic time (see more photos here). We aren't really the tourist attraction types - my travel philosophy is basically "do what I would do if I lived here and it was the weekend". This meant we had plenty of time to explore downtown Reykjavik and try tons of food, coffee, and beer! Here's a giant compilation of links and recommendations based on our research and experiences. I definitely recommend a visit, and I hope this is helpful!

Coffee & breakfast

Reykjavík Roasters. Pretty sure this is objectively the best coffee in Reykjavik. We have high coffee standards (thanks SF) so it was nice to have some really good espresso drinks and pourover here, in a really cozy atmosphere. I recommend a cappuccino or latte so you can appreciate how amazing the milk tastes in Iceland compared to America.

Stofan Café. Closer to where we stayed, and incredibly cozy as well. It feels kind of like someone's (giant) living room! They have food, too, which we never ended up trying, but we had plenty of coffee drinks. It was a wonderful place to warm up on the walk between our apartment and the main part of downtown.

Sandholt Bakery. Amazing pastries. We got these to go more times than I care to admit, and we also sat down for breakfast twice, although I'm not sure if you can get pastries to eat in - the menu seems to be totally different than it is for take out. I'd recommend stopping in for a custard-filled pastry and eating it as you window shop at all of the adorable little stores nearby.

The Laundromat Cafe. A great place for a more substantial breakfast/brunch. They have a few homemade juices, which are a bit pricey but taste incredibly fresh and almost smoothie-like. We tried pancakes and a smoked trout bagel, as well as coffee drinks, and everything was really solid.

Lunch & dinner

KEX Hostel. There is a bar/restaurant in this hostel and it was one of the best meals we had! We went late-ish (8pm) on a Thursday night and it was very bustling, but we managed to get seats at the bar. We both got great fish dishes and Icelandic beers, and the warm, lively atmosphere (despite a blizzard outside) made it a really comforting night.

Fish Company. Our fancy date night dinner! Make a reservation (we did it online the day of and had some back and forth via email to nail down a time). They specialize in fish, with various countries represented, including many "Iceland"-inspired dishes. There is a bit of molecular gastronomy at play, and it's clear that they put a lot of thought and creativity and thought into the food. It was a great meal, but the definite standout was the dessert. So glad we each got our own, as they were very different and both amazing! This is definitely the priciest place we went to (~$150 USD for two), but great for a special night out.

The pizza place with no name. This is in the same building as Mikkeller Bar (below). The menu is super interesting, and the food was good but I wasn't blown away - maybe because we're spoiled by such great pizza at home? We got a strange but good appetizer of gingerbread with mulled wine jelly and blue cheese (!) and the bbq pork pizza. All tasty, but I think we messed up by leaning a little too heavy on the sweet side of the menu, and the pizza wasn't as substantial (read: protein-packed) as I had hoped. I'd totally give it another shot if I had more time. (Side note: we're like 90% sure Mastodon was at the only other occupied table in the restaurant when we ate here.)

Snaps. This got rave reviews from the Reykjavik Grapevine and from locals we talked to. It's a bit on the nicer side and is apparently packed at night. We went for lunch right at opening one day, and the menu seemed a bit sparse, but the food was really solid. Steaming fresh-baked bread came out first (yum), then Tim's chicken caesar salad and my fish of the day dish. Despite feeling a bit confused by the selection (there was way more listed online than in the restaurant - unsure if this was an early lunch thing?), everything we ate was just really nicely done all around.

Hamborgarbúllan (aka Burger Joint). A nice casual dinner for our first night in town. The burgers are a little more substantial than a fast food chain without being gourmet. The restaurant itself is small and laid back and was very festively decorated for Christmas. The burgers and fries weren't necessarily something we can't get at home but were nice after a long day of travel and jet lag and would be a good break in a week of fancier sit down dinners.

Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur. Hotdogs will never be my favorite food, but as they go this one was alright! It was a quick (but very light) lunch and I get the impression it's a bit of a "must try" - so why not!

Beer

Mikkeller & Friends. We already know and love Mikkeller Bar in San Francisco, so we knew we wanted to come here. Go up the stairs from the pizza place, and you're in Mikkeller & Friends! There's a fantastic selection of beers, with a bunch from Denmark, particularly Mikkeller and To Øl. It was really packed on Thursday night, complete with middle aged Icelandic men singing, but totally dead on Sunday evening around 7, so time your visit based on what vibe you're into.

MicroBar. A great little basement bar with lots of beers we don't see at home, including many from Iceland. We visited this on our first night, when we were incredibly jet lagged and exhausted, and I wish we'd come here in a better state! They offer flights of 5 or 10 beers (with very heavy pours!) so it's a great chance to try something new (or several).

Skúli Craft Bar. We went here twice. It reminds me of some of the fancy beer bars back in SF, but way less crowded and featuring lots of Icelandic (and other European) beers. There is a little side room that we got to ourselves on both visits, so it was a great place to sip a brown ale and talk about our trip so far.

Other

Hallgrímskirkja Church. A very tall, iconic church at the edge of the main downtown area (and near Reykjavik Roasters!). For about $6 USD you can buy a ticket to the top and look down over the city. Definitely recommend!

Blue Lagoon. This seems to be the thing to do if you only do one tourist attraction (or at least... that was how we did things). It's definitely full of tourists, but the natural thermal pool is still really amazing and a fun way to spend a morning. An hour and a half was plenty for us, but definitely worth the visit. Buy tickets ahead, plan to drive or book a bus (it's about 45 minutes from Reykjavik), and go early (we went at 10 and it was great, but it started getting pretty busy by 11!). Lots of people recommended booking this right next to our flight in or out, since it's close to the airport, but I'm glad we broke up our week in town with this in the middle.

Our adorable penthouse airbnb. Melkorka's apartment is one of those picture-perfect airbnbs that make me dream of decorating my own home to be half as lovely (and is just as beautiful in person). This is her actual apartment, not a landlord with a full-time airbnb rental, and I felt so at home all week. She was really helpful with recommendations and answering questions, and she met up with me one day when I locked my key in the apartment (doh!). All in all, a fantastic place to stay, in a residential area but definitely walking distance to the shops and restaurants downtown.

Tips & things we learned

• Buy snow boots. I got a nice sturdy pair and I'm so glad I did. Walking through the city, I stepped in snow up to the top of these boots more times than I can count, and my feet were always perfectly toasty even with regular-weight socks on.
• All other winter gear can be fudged a bit - I wore yoga pants and leggings every day (these are my fav). I got a medium-weight parka, which worked just as well for Iceland as it did for rainy Portland in October. I layered those with some long sleeve tops, and a scarf, gloves, and hand-knit wool hat I already had (all too warm for daily wear in SF, but nothing really intense). I was set for the snow, rain, wind, and chilly temps, which never dipped below 20°F and were often above freezing -- no worse than the eastern US.
• We rented a car and I'm glad we did, but I wouldn't recommend it if you've never driven in snow. Parking was the worst part - it was easy to get our sedan's tires stuck spinning in the snow. But we appreciated the freedom and not having to crowd onto a tour bus with tons of strangers. If we hadn't gone during one of the worst weather weeks ever (blizzards and hurricanes, oh my!), I think we may have used it to explore outside of town more.
• Find a grocery store and get some skyr and muesli for breakfasts! It was a nice change from all the heavy food we ate at restaurants, and damn the yogurt is good. And if you have a kitchen where you're staying, buy some whole milk -- the milk in Iceland is so much tastier than in the US! -- and cook the muesli up like oatmeal.
• I personally love gloom, cold, and snow - I swear I have RSAD. This trip was delightful and slightly made up for all of the year-round heat and sunshine I deal with in California. Tim is less of a winter enthusiast but still enjoyed the change of climate for a week. In early December, the sun rose between 10 and 11, stayed low (often covered by clouds) for most of the day, and slowly set from 3:30 to 5. The pitch black hours weren't significantly different from home (California), but there was way more dusk and overall gloom. It may be rough for someone with winter SAD.

Stuff we didn't do

Tim and I are very chill travelers - we don't like a lot of pre-booked plans, crowds of tourists, or going on guided tours. This means we missed out on some beautiful and interesting sites and spent most of our time eating, drinking, and relaxing in town. The internet is chock full of tours and adventures you can book (and I've heard mixed reviews on them from people who have done them). Here are a just a few things I had wanted to do, if weather and planning had cooperated:

• Glacier cave tour. These looked super cool and I was really hoping to do one. Unfortunately, the options seemed to be a 36-hour guided tour with tons of activities and other visitors, or we would need to drive round trip in a day (about 4 hours in each direction), mostly in the dark. Combine that with needing to book ahead, with no idea of what the weather would be like, we skipped this one. Maybe on a future visit I'll give in and do the big tour!
• Drive the golden circle. We were hoping to do this one day but the weather never really settled enough for us to feel safe driving out of the city. I'm not horribly sad, but it could have been a fun day trip.
• See the northern lights. A lifelong dream of mine, but unfortunately it just didn't happen. A combination of cloud cover, auroral activity, and darkness all have to work out at once, and the inclement weather (and tons of clouds) meant it just didn't work. I'm hoping to come back someday and give it another shot! (If you want to try - track cloud cover here and the aurora here.)

Resources

Some other sites and posts that helped me find all of these great places (for once I didn't use Yelp at all!!)

• Almost all of the recs we got from friends and google searches also ended up being on this 2015 Grapevine "Best of Reykjavik" list. This seems to be the source of truth for everything great in Reykjavik - the tab was open (and referenced often) during our trip, and this post is mostly duplicates from there.
• Elsie and Emma from A Beautiful Mess went in September (and may have been the ones that actually planted the idea for me!) - they had a few recs in this blog post.
• My internet friend Marssy visits Iceland often and left a great comment with food recommendations here. 
• The I Heart Reykjavik blog was really helpful when I was figuring out what to do / how to prepare for our trip.

Autumn 2015 photo summary

I'm currently stuck in a hurricane-strength storm in Iceland (???) and it seems like as good a time as any to go back through my October/November and share here. I already posted about our Portland trip the last week of October, but there's plenty more from those months that I haven't shared here.

Birthday: homemade dress + homemade cake.

I bought this fantastic real spider web necklace from a Portland friend via instagram!

The annual October corgi beach day happened. Tumbles had a blast and wore herself out, and we had fun watching her too.

I sewed some stuff - almost all stretch! Which I'm getting the hang of, but it's a nice change to go back to regular woven fabrics sometimes.

... including matching skirts for me and Tum. These were going to be our Halloween outfits, but it was a rainy Portland day and we stayed inside in our PJs and birthday suit, respectively.

I got dressed up to celebrate my pal Jessica's engagement at the most instagrammable flower shop.

I hosted an extremely late and very small Oktoberfest party, and Tumbles made sure to bring her photogenic side(s) for sure.

 

And then, later that same week, Thanksgiving. I planned extremely last minute and celebrated with only Tim (and Tumbles), but I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out.

On the menu: the Pioneer Woman's mashed potatoes, a childhood recipe for sweet potato casserole (it's a photo of a recipe card in evernote), Smitten Kitchen's pretzel parker house rolls, and coffee crusted beef tenderloin from the Crepes of Wrath. Not bad for a "low key" Thanksgiving, eh?

 

Thanksgiving beef, because I've never been a fan of poultry as a holiday meat.

Oh and dessert. What the what? I took Joy the Baker's Toasted Marshmallow Ice Cream Cake and made it even more obnoxious (wonderful) with some marshmallowy 7 minute frosting swirled through and spread on top between the ice cream and marshmallows. So into it.

And just before my early December trip to Iceland, I met up with a former coworker, Kate, and had a lovely quick drink before rushing home to pack. She and Tumbles are just adorable together.

And finally.. saying goodbye to this pup before a week away in Iceland. I miss her tons but I think she's having a great time at her boarding place (also her daycare, so she knows and loves them). See you soon, Tum!

 

[Edit: These posts feel a little silly - like a duplicate of things from social media (which are already duplicated across platforms sometimes... sigh). Not really sure where I want to go with this blog. I'm going to think about it and I guess do what I feel like in the meantime.]

I'm hoping to be back here before too long with Iceland photos and favorites from Reykjavik, and I have high hopes that I'll actually learn to edit photos a bit before that (ha), so we'll see how this goes!

29.

This birthday feels big. The last year of my 20s. In some ways I'm ready - the 20s are a year of growth and change and making mistakes, and it seems like many people go into their 30s in a much more solid place. It's just a number, but somehow it feels symbolic - I want to be generally content with where my life is when I get there, ready for the next stage.

The last year and a half have been really good for me. I've found exercise I love and feel really strong and healthy, got Tumbles and have settled into a routine with her, and I've learned to stop letting anxiety sabotage me at work and finally feel like I am building the career I've wanted for some time. Now that a bunch of stressors have settled down, I'm finding more time to do hobbies outside of just baking. I've even started being able to keep plants alive! This is all very new. I went into 28 just getting started on a lot of things - I'd recently gotten super into ballet, I had just (finally) shown myself that I could accomplish things at work, and Tumbles was still a pup and took a lot of work (in fact, my birthday was one of my most stressful, sleepless, and all around emotional days last year). I feel like I'm on much more solid ground now.

Things are good.

But I still feel restless lately, although I appreciate that this restlessness comes in large part from a place of comfort in my life. I've been in the bay area for six years, and it's wearing on me. I moved here for work and because I knew a few people (hi, Tim), but I never saw myself staying long term. I've always missed seasons, particularly the crisp air and bright leaves of fall and the cold of winter. San Francisco has been changing, before and since I moved here. Rents have climbed almost as fast as my cushy tech income, people not in tech can barely live here anymore, and the city itself just feels exhausting lately for an introvert like me. I've enjoyed most of my time here, but I'm ready for something quieter, where I can buy a house and have my own backyard for Tumbles and settle into a less hectic lifestyle.

I'm hoping the next year will bring some of these changes, but it's out of my control in large part - the downside of settling down with another person - so time will tell! Either way, I hope I can continue to enjoy what I have and focus on the many, many good things in my life right now.

Here's to 29.

Holiday cooking

I really miss cooking and baking on a regular basis - working full time + raising Tumbles + 3 ballet classes a week until recently -> no free time to cook. But time off work for the holidays has been the perfect excuse to make so much food and try some new recipes, too. Here are a few things I've made in the last couple of weeks, accompanied by mediocre phone photos when I happened to take them:

Salty-sweet peanut butter cup bars. I am seriously making my third batch this month right now. They are addictively good (better than my old family recipe for buckeyes, which I feel just a little bit bad about), and umm... we aren't good at having protein-rich snacks around, so these have been my breakfast more than once. December was made for this.

Peppermint pattie brownies. These were good, but imo they didn't quite stand up to the (totally amazing) peanut butter bars I made at the same time. I used my own brownie recipe (minus the raspberry swirl), so it's possible the given one works a bit better.

Slow Cooker Mexican Beef With Lime Crema and Pinto Beans. Ah, Serious Eats always knows where it's at. I adored the Mexican twist on a traditional slow cooker pot roast, and it lasted two of us a couple of days and reheated really well. I served it with a bit of extra cilantro and some sharp cheddar (everything is better with sharp cheddar).

My grandmother's butter cookies with royal icing (recipe at bottom). These have childhood memories for me (but with traditional American buttercream), and I was excited to try making my first ever royal icing. It worked really well, but the fancy corgi cookies I made took ages to decorate and let dry. I'll probably go just a little simpler next time, unless I have a weekend to kill.

Spicy beer braised lime chicken enchiladas. Our Christmas Eve dinner. I had been craving these since I discovered the recipe a week or two before, and they did not disappoint. I'm trying to figure out how soon is too soon to make these again. I used a Rogue hazelnut brown ale and served with some black beans sautéed with onion, garlic, tomato paste, lime, and spices, and it was perfect.

Chocolate-y Christmas cafe au lait. This is one of the few things I make every year for Christmas (going on about 5 years now). Super rich and chocolately and just a little festive tasting. I recommend tripling the orange peel for a bit more chocolate orange flavor.

Ham & cheddar popovers. I only recently made my first popovers (these wonderful cinnamon sugar ones) and I'm in love with how easy and adorable they are. I overdid the ham and cheese a little in these, but they still puffed up beautifully and tasted amazing. Way more of a meal than the cinnamon sugar ones, too!

Slow cooker pulled pork with Dr Pepper. I'm a little obsessed with my crock pot this winter. This is the third slow cooker pork recipe I've tried, and it was by far the best. You can't really taste the Dr Pepper with all the BBQ sauce, but it cooked up so perfectly, I didn't really mind. I pretty much randomly chose Stubb's BBQ sauce at the store, and it was just right (not too sweet!).

Mustard brussels sprouts. Served along with the pork and some mashed potatoes. These were a nice, vinegary change of pace in an otherwise heavy meal.

The best white chili with chicken. This took a stupid amount of time to make (even with canned beans, as per the recipe note), but it's super good - so maybe worth it? I made this to eat with bread from my new bread machine Christmas present (thanks Mom!!), and it was a pretty good combo. It also made tons of leftovers, even after stuffing ourselves sick.

Nana's butter cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 2/3 cup all purpose flour, sifted, plus more for rolling

1. Preheat the oven to 375° F.
2. Cream butter with a mixer on medium speed. Gradually add the sugar, creaming well.
3. Add the egg, salt, and vanilla. Beat well.
4. Gradually blend in flour until well combined
5. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill.
6. Once chilled through, roll out on a floured surface to 1/8 inch thick. (I found it easier to do this in at least 2 parts, keeping the other in the fridge until ready to use. If the dough gets too warm it's hard to move the cookies to the baking sheet.)
7. Cut with floured cutter. Place on ungreased cookie sheets, then bake for 7-10 minutes until just barely browned around the edges.

I got my royal icing recipe from the Sprinkle Bakes cookbook - a similar one is on her blog here. I flavored it with vanilla and almond extracts and used lots of gel food coloring for bold colors. I added enough water to make soft peaks for the frosting outlines, then filled in with even-more-watered-down flood icing (details on both of those in the book).

Hope you're all eating well this holiday season! Enjoy!

Mulled Wine

I've been making mulled wine for several years now. It gets a bad rap, but it's pretty tasty IMO (and it's always a hit when I make it for a crowd). As soon as it starts getting chilly, I buy a box of wine and make this as much as possible - such a festive, cozy drink. I normally don't drink box wine, but there's enough other stuff in this that it's not worth splurging on a fancier bottle - plus the box lasts for weeks after opening it, so you can make as much or as little as you want.

This is totally a recipe that I eyeball and tweak a little every time, so take this as a rough guideline and don't be afraid to change it based on what you like or have on hand. It also scales up or down super easily - if you want a larger batch, make it in a crock pot early in the day and let it steep on low heat for 3-5 hours.

A note about spices: I keep whole spices on hand - they stay flavorful for longer than pre-ground and keep the drink from getting grainy. You can leave out any you don't have or use ground versions if you don't mind the texture. But, if you're going to make this more than once, I recommend investing in the whole versions - they'll last for ages.

Ingredients:

• 1 bottle of red wine, or a quarter of a box of wine
• 1 small orange, strips of zest peeled off, then sliced
• 2 whole cinnamon sticks
• 2 whole star anise
• 6-8 cardamom pods
• 10-12 whole allspice berries
• 10-15 whole cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated on a microplane
• 1/4-1/2 cup white sugar

Add the wine, orange zest and slices, and spices to a pot. Add sugar - start on the lower end, and once the wine heats and sugar dissolves, taste and add more if you want it sweeter. Cover and heat over low heat, stirring occasionally, until steaming but not bubbling - about 20 minutes.

To serve, place a small mesh strainer over mugs and ladle through, dumping the spices and orange back into the pot.