Greenlandic Cuisine

Greenlandic Cuisine is traditionally built on meat from marine mammals, birds and fish and is naturally high in protein. Because most of Greenland lies under permanent ice, the sea supplies most of the food, from smoked fish, mussels and shrimp to seal and whale. Land foods include reindeer, lamb, mutton and muskox, which may be boiled, dried, frozen, fermented or occasionally eaten raw. The national dish is suaasat, a soup made from seal, whale, reindeer or seabirds, usually with onions and potatoes. Berries garnish desserts, and rice and potatoes are common starches. Since colonization and trade the cuisine has absorbed Danish, British, American and Canadian influences, and Greenlandic coffee and glacial-ice beer are modern specialties.