FIKA: JUNE EDITION

Happy June everyone! Please enjoy these crisp mornings, the few more minutes snuggled under the doona, the steaming cups of coffee in the morning, the hot soups and crunchy bread, the clear blue winter skies and the smell of firewood kindled merrily on your walk home from work. And also these four things to make you jolly on your fikapaus!

EAT

Make some traditional Icelandic kleinur (like a churros or twisted doughnut). So simple, but one of these and a coffee and a knitted woollen jumper and you’ll be transported to a log cabin in the Scandinavian forest. Right next to a natural hot spring. Also the narrator of this video is delightful. ‘Is egg a wet ingredient? I don’t know!’ ‘Traditionally you’re meant to use a pastry cutter. But only grandmothers have those so just gonna use… a pizza cutter.

DRINK

The tasty washed Colombia Bochica. It starts off with bright and juicy fruity acidity, then rounds out with a smooth milk chocolate finish. And every bag purchased helps support sustainability projects in Colombia. Everyone wins!

READ

After eating kleinur (plural. Singular is kleina, so the correct word here is kleinur), you may as well stay on theme and immerse yourself into the depths of Icelandic folklore, tradition, and landscape with Burial Rites. Hannah Kent’s first novel is a mysterious, stark, and a striking  piece of historical fiction. She writes you into a world where truth is subject to honour, doctrine and culture, and the impossible task of surviving it. 

For more behind the scenes, have a listen to her interview with Richard Fidler about her time in Iceland that instigated the novel.

LISTEN

Bjork of course! Maybe some Oh So Quiet while you’re going for a run or dance around the house, Venus As A Boy for frollicking through a forest trail, and Army of Me to punch dance out some rage. 

And on a clear winter’s morning, with a fresh cup of coffee, kleina in hand and sun on your back, pop on Takk… by Sigur Ros, the whole album, and melt into a puddle of warmth and light.