Street Food Ittoqqortoormiit

I’m going to be really clutching at straws to get 300 words on what is basically my 4th blog on Ittoqqortoormiit, but I am going to try my best.

Ittoqqortoormiit is a settlement of 452 people (exactly apparently) on the eastern side of Greenland and is one of the most isolated settlements on earth. This blog will therefore probably be a little less on street food, and a little more about what and how the Inuit of Ittoqqortoormiit eat. 

Tinned goods in the supermarket of Ittoqqortoormiit

There seem to be two markets in Ittoqqortoormiit; the bigger one was closed when we went there and the smaller kiosk one was renting DVDs and had a variety of canned and preserved goods. There was nothing even bordering on “fresh” there, quite understandably. We tried to buy what we assumed were Danish soft drinks, but they would not take euros, so that ended the idea. 

Ivalos Grill

We were very happy to find a restaurant — the one restaurant in town– but it was closed. I will never know what they serve at this restaurant. 

They hunt polar bears

You will see polar bear skins drying outside a lot of houses. I imagine they are mostly hunted for their fur, but you’d assume that people eat them too. 

They eat Musk-Ox

In Nanu Travel Agency (the tourist shop), an old man was giving free samples of musk-ox meat. I really liked it — very gamey and a bit like a goat. Sadly though, they do not sell said meat, which was a little disappointing (I got a t-shirt instead).

We can assume a lot of them are fishermen

In Ittoqqortoormiit, there were almost as many boats as there were houses. It was the weekend, alas, so we did not see anyone working when we were there.

They like to drink on Ittoqqortoormiit

Apparently, booze is banned on the street, but judging by the empty cans that does not matter too much. The weekends reputedly tend to be one long piss-fest; hence the lack of activity when we were there. 

And that is the food situation on Ittoqqortoormiit! A lot easier to write about than I had expected!

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