For centuries, the Faroese diet was primal and austere, one based on local foods like lamb, wild sea birds and root vegetables, including turnips and rutabaga, because it was impossible to grow much else in these wind-swept islands. Fermentation and salting were the primary means of conserving foods, which include fermented ocean perch, wind-dried pilot whale and the wind-dried and fermented mutton known as skerpikjøt. The only regularly imported foods were flour, rice, citrus and spices.

This changed when the islands became more prosperous after World War II, and newly opened supermarkets stocked such exotic goods as tomatoes and olive oil. With the rise of the New Nordic food movement, however, a younger generation of Faroese turned their backs on a globalized diet and sought to revive the dishes that had nourished their ancestors, using as much locally produced food as possible. A growing restaurant scene, rising tourism and Faroese pride gave this movement momentum and established the islands as a place with some of the world’s most inventive cooking.

For anyone interested in a taste of traditional Faroese cooking, the islands’ government has established a unique and very rewarding dine-with-the-locals program called heimablídni, or “home hospitality.” Many of these places cater to groups, but at the home of Anna and Óli or Durita and Fróði, couples and solitary diners can reserve spots at communal tables.