
METTE BENDIXEN/RITZAU SCANPIX, 2009
Greenlandic food is characterised by coming directly from nature. Neri make up the root of the Greenlandic word for eating. The word is close to the Greenlandic word neqi – meat. That is no coincidence. In pre-colonial times, food in the Greenlandic sense was synonymous with meat. While it is easy to think that it has been a monotonous diet, wildlife provides the basis for a very varied diet, both in terms of nutrition and taste. Variation is especially formed by the course of the year, as each season brings new hunting opportunities and limitations, and at the same time the country’s vast geographical area provides access to different foods in the different areas. Therefore, a person from Nanortalik will describe Greenlandic food quite differently from a person from Uummannaq or Ittoqqortoormiit.
Diverse use of individual animals

EMIL HELMS/RITZAU SCANPIX, 2021
Each season and each place have great variety if you know about nature and animals. A caribou, for example, consists of more than roast and pieces for soup. A caribou can be the source of very diverse dishes. In addition to the meat itself, a caribou can offer delicacies such as refreshing fly maggots from the inside of the animal’s skins in winter, organs of high nutritional value and, not least, the most important Greenland vegetable – the caribou’s half-digested stomach contents. The same applies to the other important quarries. For example, a walrus also offers mussels if you look inside its belly. And all animals, from fish and seals to seabirds and eggs, can be sources of diverse taste experiences when thoroughly fermented.
Throughout time, the geographical and seasonal food has been influenced by the possibility of going shopping at the supermarket. Today, rice, onions, potatoes and apples are thus important elements of traditional Greenlandic food, even though all of them but the potatoes need to be imported.
Cooking
In the past, as well as today, cooking of the food most often consists either of boiling or no cooking at all. Eating the food raw, dried, frozen or fermented has been important for the nutritional value of food, and it remains the most common way to eat much of the Greenland produce.
Today, many people consider a cold buffet consisting of mattak (whale skin), large and small dried fish and raw or fermented seal blubber, a fermented boiled cod with boiled potatoes, a bit of dried caribou and perhaps some apple boats the epitome of Greenlandic food. These foods will also often be the ones you see at the festive meals — the kaffemik.
Kaffemik

MADS PIHL/VISIT GREENLAND, 2015
The kaffemik is a central part of Greenlandic culture, although it is a phenomenon that was introduced with the colonisation. Kaffemik is held on special occasions such as birthdays, weddings, christenings, confirmations, first days of school and funerals. At kaffemiks, people open their home to everyone, even those they do not know. In return, guests are expected not to take up the chair and coffee cup for too long so that space can be made for as many people as possible. Guests are invited to a strong sensory experience, where especially the senses of smell, taste and sight are stimulated by fine cuisine and an always impressive number of cakes. The literal meaning of kaffemik is ‘give me coffee’. Each family has their own way of hosting a kaffemik. No one does it the same way, and often the host gets new inspiration for the food from other kaffemiks. This is precisely what makes kaffemiks special. They are renewed and show the trend in society.
The elderly recall that in their childhood kaffemiks used to start quite early in the morning. The day in advance, it was the task of the children to grind the coffee, which was often made in a large saucepan. If anything was served beyond the coffee, it was Kalaallit kaagiat, the traditional Greenlandic cake, which was made in a coal oven that reportedly gave the cake an amazing flavour.
As with other parts of the food culture, kaffemik is closely related to hunting and nature. Nowadays a lot of time and energy is spent going caribou or muskox hunting with the aim of being able to serve a good roast at the kaffemik. Many families spend their vacations inside the fjords smoking the best looking trout, to be able to serve it at the family kaffemik. For many people today, the kaffemik is the main link to Greenlandic food.
Diet and sustainability
These years, diet and, in particular, a sustainable diet are high on the agenda. For the vast majority, that means less meat and more plants. Of course, such a diet is not easy to introduce in an area of the world where many of the vegetables have to be transported from afar, and where the culture is based on traditions surrounding the hunting and eating of animals. A sustainable diet in Greenland therefore looks different than it does in many other places in the world. For Greenlanders and other Inuit in the Arctic, the sustainable diet is illustrated in one of the most famous myths, the myth of Sassuma Arnaa — Mother of the Sea. The myth teaches us that if we do not treat our fellow creatures and our shared habitat with care and consideration, then the riches of nature disappear.
Further reading
- Agriculture in Greenland
- Bird species in Greenland
- Inuit hunting culture
- Population and demographics
- Seals in the Greenlandic waters
- Traditions and tales
- Whale species and whaling
Read more about Culture in Greenland