Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.09.2014, Qupperneq 18

18
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 14 — 2014
Iceland | Food
This summer saw the birth of two food markets. One of
them, a fully fledged outdoor market in Fógetagarðurinn
where street food and high-end restaurants mingle. The
other, an ongoing series of grassroots pop-up markets with
a focus on ethnic cuisine. This new rise in food markets
called for a sitdown with the representatives of each—a sort
of boozy state of the union for the Reykjavík food scene.
RAGNAR: I recently went on a little
food excursion outside of Reykjavík. I
stopped by Hótel Varmahlíð and they
were doing this whole farm-to-table
seasonal thing. Have you been?
ÓLAFUR: No, but it’s about time
you can get some real grub outside of
Reykjavík. It’s a shame they are as few
as they are. I was in Seyðisfjörður a
few years back and ate at an upscale
restaurant with a beautiful view over
the harbour where the fishermen
were dragging in tons of fresh fish.
And the fish of the day on the menu
was salted fish. The other fish of the
day was farmed salmon that had been
shipped in. Hopefully there have been
some improvements. The farmhouse
bed & breakfasts are a nice addition
though.
R: Do you feel it’s the increase in
tourism or awareness that is driving
these changes?
Ó: I think it’s both. There were al-
ways people who wanted good food
but the pressure that came with the
growth in tourism played a part. This
change is also happening worldwide
due to the increased emphasis on
traceability.
R: Traceability can still be a pain in
the ass as we saw with the Findus
horsemeat scandal. They had to trace
that through a dozen countries before
they saw who stuffed Seabiscuit in
the grinder.
Ó: True, but I feel that things like
the slow food movement have ac-
complished a lot all over the world. I
was in Denmark the other day and it
is getting to be genuinely difficult to
find a bad meal in Copenhagen. I see
things moving in that direction here.
The street food
revolution
R: People are just more fired up about
food it seems. It's like someone said:
“Food is the new rock and roll.”
Ó: I took a trip to Berlin with a group
of chefs and they went on a rampage,
emptying multiple minibars. There’s
definitely a hint of the rock star life-
style with some of them.
R: There are parallels with the Icelan-
dic music scene. It's not hyper-com-
petitive here and there is a fair amount
of collaboration, but still both scenes
are producing very driven people.
Ó: There’s friendly competition but
we can meet up for a drink and a laugh
about it. If someone does well you get a
pat on the back, not the back-stabbings
you get in some other cities. The idea
with the Krás food market was to mix
the places where they plate with twee-
zers and a pinkie finger in the air with
the hole-in-a-wall places: Dill, Kol,
Gandhi, Ramen Momo and Walk the
Plank—all in one spot. And I think a lot
of the techniques and tools of the high-
end kitchens will trickle down along
with the focus on local ingredients.
R: What you’ve been doing with Krás
is an example of mixing up, not just the
high-end and the low-end, but also the
ethnic and the local.
Ó: I’ve been thinking that Iceland's
lack of street food culture could be
because our urban community is so
young and we haven’t quite figured
out urban living. And the lack of mul-
ticulturalism is definitely a big part of
that. Street food has been around in
countries with warmer climates for
thousands of years, but it’s not just the
weather, because London and New
York definitely get damn cold. Iceland-
ers are simply a nation of sustenance
farmers and it wasn't that long ago
that street food consisted of a bottle of
milk in a wool sock, a slice of flatbread
and maybe a flask of Brennivín [cara-
way-flavoured schnapps]. You and the
SUMAR group have a more multicul-
tural focus with your food markets?
R: We’re trying in our amateur way to
open up the selection of ethnic dishes
in Iceland, but we’re expanding more
into events and getting people to teach
each other and just giving them a ven-
ue to nerd out over food in general.
Ó: It’s a fun idea and a great example of
a multicultural society in practice and
we’re getting some real ethnic food
in Iceland. Real Thai food without
compromise, like Ban Thai. We have
Balkan food just off of Laugavegur
with proper babaganoush [Balkanika,
Vitastígur 10] and Hraðlestin [Hver-
fisgata 64A] for quality Indian street
food.
R: Which makes sense. The local in-
gredients are good but not all the clas-
sic dishes are so attractive and I think
we've benefited from that. Although I
have been thinking about substituting
sheep-head meat for beef tongue in ta-
cos de lengua.
Ó: There are things you can do. Once
in Búðir for Þorri [an annual celebra-
tion of Icelandic food heritage and the
only time you’ll see most Icelanders
eat pickled rams testicles and rotten
shark] we used all the typical Þorri in-
gredients and created a seven-course
menu. We gave them strange names
and arranged them in weird patterns
on the plate. We had some fresh rams’
testicles and made a paté that I think
we named 'Stefnumót á gangstétt'
(“Date on the Sidewalk”).
R: Maybe the reason we didn’t have
much of a food truck culture until re-
cently was that the population is so
concentrated. We have the car culture
but there’s no real need for mobile
restaurants when all the nightlife and
restaurants are concentrated in a few
close hubs.
Ó: I think one of the reasons people
like street food is that there you have
chefs focusing on doing one thing. And
if you do that one thing well, people
will come back. The quality of the low-
range food is only going to keep on
getting better, but I also think there’s
room for improvement with the top
end of cuisine.
Please seek out the longer, juicier ver-
sion on our website: www.grapevine.is.
Rural
Evolution

Conversation between Ragnar Egilsson
and Ólafur Örn Ólafsson
Photos by Nanna Dís
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Ragnar Egilsson is a veteran food
writer for The Reykjavík Grape-
vine. For the past two years he's
spearheaded a grassroots group of
foodies called Samtök Um Matseld
Annarra Ríkja (SUMAR for short),
which started out as a Facebook
group with a focus on ethnic cui-
sine in Iceland. In 2014, it evolved
into a breeding ground for pop-up
food markets, workshops and other
events. Raggi has no formal food
training but his winning personal-
ity and rippling abs are more than
enough.
Ólafur Örn Ólafsson is behind
the Krás food market along with
Gerður Jónsdóttir. The Krás mar-
ket ran every weekend of August
and is hopefully here to stay. Óli is a
waiter and a self-taught sommelier
and chef who has become one of the
primary food start-up machines in
Iceland and a man with his fingers
in many pies. He rose to promi-
nence at Vox with Gunnar Karl
Gíslason, and the two later went on
to start Dill in the middle of a reces-
sion. He also served as a founder
and advisor for Slippbarinn, Hótel
Borg, Múlaberg, and K-Bar (before
artistic differences put an end to
the partnership).
Who Are They?
?