the cheese ladies

At the eastern end of Reykjavik, in a particularly unattractive section of white industrial buildings, car dealerships, candy companies, and the soft-drink bottler Egils, is the Reykjavík dairy. And at one end of this vast corrugated steel complex there is a bright neon sign advertising Ostabúðin and a little door in the side of a vast steel wall. Once through that door, an unlikely transformation takes place. Suddenly you find yourself in the middle of what is likely the best cheese shop in Iceland.

We went last night on the way back from the Árbær swimming pool. The shop is full of cheese-serving pottery, cheese serving tools, cheese serving vehicles, and cheese serving accompaniments. And of course, lots of cheese. There was the front waist-high fridge of cheese tilboð and the back fridge full of all kinds of packaged cheese. And then there was a glass counter the length of the store and behind it the selection was expertly tended by two classic cheese ladies. At least half of the enormous blocks and wheels under the glass were from Iceland. There was cheese from Selfoss, from Akureyri, from Húsavík. And intermingled were some classics from England, France, and Holland. As E and I made interested motions toward some English cheddar, one of the cheese ladies asked "Viltu smakka?" and when we said "Já" she sliced us each a little piece with her shiny cheese knife. And then she offered up another, milder English cheddar. She probably would have let us smakka all afternoon, but we decided on some Icelandic cheddar, some Icelandic getost (a brown caramel goat cheese), some French chevre (sense a goat theme here?) that was on tilboð, and a box of buttery British crackers. The cheese lady bade us farewell with a "Góða helgi! Bless!" But the caramel cheese and crackers didn't even last the weekend.