Among the Scandinavians of the Viking Age, there was no distinction between starter/main/dessert but two daily meals: dagmál (morning meal, after a few hours of work) and náttmál (evening meal). Food was served in a single course in wooden or soapstone bowls, accompanied by flatbread and drink. Apart stood the veizla, the great festive banquet where the master (the host) distributed meat, mead, and beer in the longhouse (skáli). For long voyages in a knörr, they carried dried and salted provisions that would not spoil.

The signature of this table is twofold: skyr, that tangy fermented dairy product inherited from the Icelanders and Greenlanders, and the art of preservation by cold wind drying (fish, meat) which allowed Leif's men to hold out for weeks at sea. Angelica and juniper are the rare aromatics of the North.