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My first ever in life Greenlandic buffet. Oh, wow. Today we're trying a buffet you cannot eat anywhere else on Earth. For 20 years I've been eating buffets all over the world, but let me tell you nothing has been even remotely similar to this. Right in the heart of Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, Chef Augu has laid out a buffet that includes 25 dishes of traditional Greenlandic food. Absolutely nothing here is farmed or raised. Everything is wild, natural, literally sourced straight from the Arctic. So today our challenge is to try all 25 dishes at the buffet. Every single dish. And I'm telling you at least half of them you won't find anywhere else.
Welcome to the center of Nuuk, Greenland. This is, believe it or not, the downtown, probably the busiest area in Nuuk, probably in all of Greenland. And this is home to Hotel Hans Egede, which is home to the Greenlandic buffet, first ever Greenland buffet that I'm going to try with Greenlandic food. And before the buffet starts we're getting here a little bit early to meet up with Chef Augu, who's going to show us around and we're going to see some of the food before we get started eating. What's up, Chef Augu? Hello. Nice to see you. You too, and welcome to Greenland as well. Thank you. And we're here for the buffet. So it's like 30 minutes before the buffet right now. Things are pretty busy. Chef Augu is like preparing
there all the chefs are preparing the final touches. So it's all like Greenlandic food. Yeah, mainly Greenlandic of course. The veggies and all that is mainly imported, but Okay. all of the meats and fish and shrimps, crabs, all that it's caught locally. Very cool. Is there any strategy Uh that I need to know? I would say go in there with an open heart and open mind. Yeah, very cool. Well, and I think I'm pretty sure that a buffet a Greenlandic buffet is different from anything any other buffet you'll see anywhere else in the world. And so I think like the finishing touches are going. We're going to start with all the different cold appetizer dishes before we move into the hot main courses main dishes.
Yeah. Very cool. Our dining room is really nice. We're on the fifth floor overlooking downtown Nuuk. There's a couple of different dining room sections. I love the open windows all the natural light coming in. Um and yeah, we got here a little early so they're just now setting up the cold station of the buffet first. More things are coming out. Also for starters, we are only serving the cold for about 30 minutes and the rest will come in waves. Okay. But if we start from here, we have some lumpfish roe also caught here locally in Nuuk. Then we have some marinated whale
with soya, some shrimps, dried cod, gravlax, marinated scallops as well as snow crabs that are also caught locally. Very cool. Then we have the meat section here where we have some smoked musk ox. Oh, that's the one in the smoker down there? Yeah, exactly. Okay. Oh, amazing. And then we have some reindeer sausage or salami, cured porpoise which is like a smaller whale. Okay. Then we have the mattak. Okay. Oh. The blubber and the skin. Yeah, tell me about mattak. It's mainly just once you catch the whale and put the whale off the shore, you will take all the skin off as well as the blubber. And then you
divide it into section and give it out locally or you sell it. And we mainly eat it even fresh. Okay. So, is the what's the difference between the white part and the black part? It's the it's depending on the species. The darker ones are from the narwhal and the white one is from the beluga. Oh, okay. One of the most unique buffet experiences I think you could possibly have. So many different unique dishes and meats and everything Greenlandic. This is just only the beginning of the buffet. All right, here we go. Round one, the cold table. This is where the real Greenland lives. Raw, cured, dried, straight off the ice. There's some interesting things here.
Soy marinated whale. That looks awesome. Then lumpfish roe. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Now, like the preserved meats. Muskox carpaccio. Raw muskox. Wow. It's smoked reindeer. Mattak. Now we have reindeer sausage and smoked muskox. This is such a unique plate of food. Okay, I think our strategy here, let's kind of ease our way in to some of the meats. So, I'm going to start with that reindeer deer sausage first. Like a salami. Wow, it's fatty and meaty. Oh, it's stunning. So good.
Christian is here. Renee. Cheers. Cheers, guys. Buffet. Greenlandic buffet. Stomach. Yeah, the quality is Yeah, incredible. Fantastic, right? Yeah. Yep. And this is like You can see the sophistication of the chefs here. Mhm. Oh, yeah. I'll go in the whole team. Yeah. Just imagine back in the days, you know, when the Inuit here ate whale and now they make a carpaccio, whale carpaccio, and uh reindeer salami, and yeah.
It's a bit of a step up from what you'd get here like a, you know, 100 150 years ago. Yeah. have never thought you can get a whale carpaccio. Yep. But yeah, yeah. Never fail to surprise you. Next up, I think I'm going to go for a piece of the mattak. Man, this is the whale fat and blubber, and even holding it in your fingers, you can feel the like oiliness, the richness of it, like almost melting in your fingers. Does have a unique aroma smell to it, and typically you eat it with this seasoned salt, but I'll just try a piece on its own first.
Wow. That is so rich and fatty and kind of melts in your mouth. It's like a nutty lotiony consistency, but the crunch, yeah. But it has this really like cartilagy kind of crunch and crispiness almost in your mouth. Okay, I'm going to go for the next piece of the mattak. There's a different taste. There's a little bit It has a little bit of a stronger aroma. But the flavor's not that strong. There's texture that kind of like melts with the blubber and the fat, but then there's hard little crunchies. It's quite a texture unlike anything else. And this is like one of the essential nutritional foods of Greenlandic Inuit.
Okay, this one is the smoked muskox. Oh, I Oh, that's fantastic. And used with the smoke. Nice and tender actually as well. Mhm. [clears throat] Next up, I think I'll follow that with some of the muskox pastrami. Which I covered in this like looks like a almost like a chimichurri sauce. Yeah, that is a little bit kind of like muscular. You can feel the muscularness of that one. We have muskox in like so many varieties. This one is the muskox carpaccio. Raw muskox.
Our first room. Mhm. The raw muskox. Oh, it has a like a little bit of a gamey taste. It is like beef, but a bit stronger I think. That's actually very smooth. The raw version, the carpaccio. Mhm. Really good. So, we had three different types of muskox already. And I think for the hot dishes there may be another version. Moving on to the next meat, this is the smoked reindeer. That is incredible. They're so pure, so clean, smoked but like so lean as well. Like no fat in it, just pure protein.
Okay, in the meantime we'll move on to my piece of bread. One side is butter with angelica, which is a local plant, a local herb, which I saw Chef Aggi preparing in the kitchen. And then on the other side is the lumpfish roe with cream and onions. That butter is great. The butter the Angelica herb which has a little bit of like a Uh Chef Aqqut said it has a little bit of like a celery-ish flavor to it. But it's local. One of the shrubs you can see on the side of the rock here in Greenland. It's not a really strong flavor. But it's kind of like a Yeah, like an essence. Kind of like celery. And then for the lumpfish roe is not quite as salty
as some other fish roe. But it has that nice little beads that kind of Yeah, they do pop in your mouth. And then crunch up the onion, that sour cream. It's actually really remarkably like not fishy at all. I love the texture. The little beads. Okay. Next up I'll try one of the marinated scallops. It's just straight butter. Like melts in your mouth. And that sauce I wasn't sure what that sauce was when I put it on. Kind of has like a fruity tomato flavor. pure butter. Okay. This is dill cured salmon or gravlax. Oh, wow. So buttery. Just melts in your mouth. Coated in dill.
Oh, love it. Okay, next up this one is whale which is marinated in soy. It has this really red meat flavor to it. Kind of like an irony flavor. But at the same time it's soaked in with that soy sauce and the sesame seeds. And then the texture kind of It's more tender than I had imagined. It's raw. Really red. Oh. Yeah, it's good. It's like not too strong in flavor. Really soft and tender. And just absorb with that soy sauce and those sesame seeds. Okay. Then on that note, I'll go for some of the salads. I got some of the green bean salad. And some of the other salad as well.
Mhm. Just good. Just refreshing. And kind of nice to be able to break up all the proteins with some greens as well. Okay, next up this really dark piece of meat is a porpoise. Wow, when you slice through it with a knife it's just like with a butter knife. It's so tender. And wow, that is really dark in color. That it almost is like a beetroot or even darker than beetroot. Wow. That age has a little bit of a bloody taste to it. It's like the fibers of the meat just kind of like melt and disintegrate in your mouth. Almost like livery and then because of the bloodiness almost like spreadable. It's just like soft and buttery. Wow.
Okay, we've got the Arctic shrimp. Local Greenlandic shrimp. Oh, those are so good. Firm. Meaty. So sweet. Just absorb with that the cleanness of the Arctic seas and the Greenlandic seas. Oh, yeah. Phenomenal. For the appetizers comes down to the snow crab. Oh. This is my first taste actually of Greenlandic snow crab. Oh, whole nugget. Oh, the ratio. The sweetness and salinity. Perfect. It's so juicy, it's fresh, it's stringy. Oh, it's wonderful.
Oh, yeah. So, I think we have Oh, I have one more. Crab claw to eat here. But, I think we've worked through all of the appetizer dishes from here. We had the first course with all the different cold dishes, which was incredible, and now they stagger it, so they bring out all the hot dishes, the main courses. Yeah. So, Chef Aqqalu, yeah, what do we have? Here uh with the meats, we have some uh reindeer as well as musk ox and uh lamb from South Greenland.
Uh then we have a game stew with both musk ox and reindeer. Amazing. together and just boiled to deliciousness. Cool. Uh then we have our local Arctic char uh just baked, simple. All right. Uh with a shellfish sauce, a homemade Cool. And then uh game sauce made with uh reindeer. Okay, so that game sauce can be eaten with any of the red meats? Yeah, exactly. Okay. This is our uh suaasat with whale. It's a porridge with rice and potatoes as and onions as well as whale meat, of course.
Thank you. Okay, so that's the main course, the hot meats. Everything looks incredible. And again, everything is local Greenlandic proteins, which is incredible as well. I'm excited to try Well, we have to try again a little bit of everything. We're 16 dishes in and that was just the cold food. Now we're moving on to round two, the Arctic hot main dishes. Okay, so time for all the main courses. It's good variety again and I'm going to start with the suaasat, which is one of the Greenland's national dishes. Can be made with a variety of different things including seal is also very common, but
this one is made with whale. Oh, that is There's onions, there's potatoes and then pieces of whale in here. You can feel that is warming. That's like a dish you would want to be eating in the wintertime or even in the summertime in Greenland. It's still cold, but it's rich, it's hearty. Pieces of whale almost taste livery and then the sweet onions and potatoes in there. Really good. This incredible plate of meats. I'm going to start with the roasted musk ox. I think our chef said that's game gravy.
Oh, the gravy is amazing. A rich depth of flavor. I think he said drippings of musk ox of reindeer with some herbs in there. Oh, musk ox is great. It's like a roast beef, but with a little bit more of a powerful flavor. Yeah, it's just like an entire Greenlandic roast dinner. Oh, the gravy is incredible. And then this stew is a mix of Chef Igo said it's a mix of muskox and reindeer. Probably like all the drippings and all the little bits that get shredded into a stew. Cooked down with a little bit of vegetables as well.
Mhm. Oh, that one is amazing. I think with the sweetness of the onions and carrots, it's like a shredded game meat of Greenland. Rich, hearty, natural. Fantastic. Okay, moving on for the Greenlandic Arctic char with a shellfish sauce. Mhm. Oh, that just kind of dissolves in your mouth. A flavor that's similar to salmon or trout, but from the fresh clear water streams. And we did go fishing one day, caught a few small Arctic char in the wild. So, this is the Arctic char season. Oh, that just like flakes apart. Mhm. It's buttery. This one is quite lean as well, not too fatty. That rich flavor and with that shellfish sauce to bring out the flavor even more.
Oh, yeah. Okay, so next up for the lamb, roasted lamb. And this is raised, but still like Greenlandic, which they raise lamb in the south of Greenland. Yeah, Greenlandic lamb is really fatty. Really flavorful. With that gravy. Mhm. Oh, wow. Oh, it's tender. It is nice and fatty, too. Greenlandic lamb is fatty, I think Oh, it needs the fat to survive the temperatures here, but that is so clean. So natural tasting.
I mean, a combination of that fresh Greenlandic air, the environment. I mean, you taste the environment in the lamb as you do with everything on this plate. Okay, and the next protein, I'm going to add a little pepper, is the roasted reindeer. Which is also excellent. Tender, lean, natural. Like, you can almost taste the mountain, the rocky herbs that the reindeer eats within that bite. Mhm. Oh. Yeah. That is I need to lean back in my chair, but that is the main course. That is a lot of meat. That's a lot of protein. A lot of natural Greenlandic meats.
I need a little breather. But I think we did manage to eat all the every single appetizer and every single main course. Now we have the dessert coming up. But something I really love about the buffet is that it's it's manageable. It's not gigantic. It's not one of these 300-dish international buffets that takes this massive strategy to try to eat what you want to get and navigate and try to maximize your stomach space. This one is manageable, so you can taste a little bit of everything.
It's quality over quantity. But yeah, it's it's also This buffet is actually also quite uh a fascinating education. Um of course, it's a modern-day buffet now, and it's adapted to modern life. But still, so many of the dishes in the process of everything uh still holds true as it's done for hundreds for thousands of years. Hunting is a part of everyday life in Greenland and I think just about everyone from Greenland knows how to hunt. So far so good. We've tried every cold dish and every hot dish and now Greenland has to answer a question. What does the Arctic do for dessert? Nice, I like the dessert. It's quite manageable. There is a lemon mousse. There is Greenlandic cake and then the final dessert is a pavlova.
Christian is from New Zealand. Yeah, yeah, it's a Good. Came all the way to Greenland for some Greenlandic pavlova. Came all the way to Greenland to find out that they make a better pavlova. In Greenland? Who invented it? Probably Greenland. Well, the Australians or the Zealanders or Greenland invented it. All I know, Mel. Awesome. What was your favorite thing at the buffet? I loved the gravlax. We um smoked salmon with dill. It was just wonderful. Yeah. Rene, what was your favorite thing at the buffet?
I think the muskox, uh roasted muskox maybe. Oh, yeah. Okay. So, let's try the pavlova. Mhm. Oh, that is good. Completely that like crispy meringue just completely collapses in your mouth. With the cream, with the fresh fruit on top. Not too sweet. I love how it just collapses and just disintegrates in your mouth. It is really good. And then we got the lemon mousse. Oh, I think that's the Angelica in there, too. The Arctic herb. That's nice and refreshing as well. Really foamy. Foamy and airy.
Yeah, perfect way to end a meal. And then finally, the Greenlandic cake, which is something I think that's very special in Greenland cuz we've already had it a couple times. I guess like it's more of a like a bready texture with raisins. And then it's kind of dense, but I know this bread or this cake also has a lot of history in Greenland as well. I like it. I think it'd be really good with coffee. It's a little bit dry. Got the flavor of the It's actually not really sweet, but the raisins give it the sweetness.
Kind of a little more salty than sweet actually. 24 dishes, there's one left. Well, actually it's a drink and Chef Aqqulu has been saving it. A proper Greenlandic goodbye. Chef Aqqulu comes out with the unexpected flight of schnapps home infused with different Arctic plants. So here we have the Labrador tea. Labrador tea? We have the crowberry. Crowberry? And Arctic thyme. Thank you. You're more than welcome. This buffet is amazing. Wait, did you drink it? Choose one. Who's driving tonight? You are.
It's not you. Going for the Arctic thyme. Oh, Arctic thyme smells amazing. Yeah. What a buffet in Greenland. Thank you guys. Now we're off to the schnapps buffet. Thank you. Thank you, Chef Aqqulu. Yeah, Aqqulu. Oh, that Arctic thyme is wonderful. A little burn going down with that herbaceousness. Oh, it's good though. Quite mild, but Yeah. Ah, refreshing. It's refreshing. Yeah.
It's the taste of the Arctic. The restaurant is Sarfalik right in downtown Nuuk at the Hotel Hans Egede. And this has been an like an incredible educational Greenlandic experience. Staff here are so friendly. Chef Aqqalu really took care of us. He's an amazing guy and he's really promoting Greenland through its food and its authentic culture and culinary heritage. Oh, I'm happy. I'm full. I need to go straight to sleep. Those Greenlandic meats will Oh, they will fill you up. That's a guarantee. But highly recommended when you are in Nuuk, don't miss the Greenlandic buffet at Sarfalik.
