Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.05.2015, Blaðsíða 53

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K-Bar is a gastro pub with a Korean, Japa-
nese, Icelandic inspired kitchen and quirky
cocktails. We have eight icelandic craft
beers on tap and over 100 types in bottles.
Open all day from breakfast to late night
snacks. K-Bar is located at Laugavegur 74.
Ask your reception how to find us or find us
on facebook.com/kbarreykjavik
FOOD
FOR THE SOUL
I love donuts. My favourite donut place
is probably Peter Pan in Greenpoint,
Brooklyn (google “Peter Pan Bakery: A
Documentary Film” to see why. Donuts
can lay a better claim to the status of pri-
mary all-American pastry tradition than
any other pastry that springs to mind.
Definitely more than the patriotic apple
pie that was so omnipresent in Europe
that it was brought to America from
three distinct culinary traditions. Speak-
ing of culinary traditions, why shouldn’t
we import American donuts? We’ve got
Thai folks selling noodles and Turks
flinging kebabs—let the Yanks serve their
donuts.
So how do I feel about
Dunkin' Donuts?
I have yearned to be able to buy a dozen
assorted donuts in a pink box since I first
saw it on 'The Simpsons'. 'The Simpsons'
taught me:
- to question authority,
- to embrace my inner sloth,
- who Darryl Strawberry was, and
- to crave donuts.
How do I feel about Ameri-
can companies coming
here?
They've been coming here for ages. We
probably got the first one with the Amer-
ican occupying force. The first American
chain restaurant would have been KFC
in Hafnarfjörður in 1980 (this historical
monument is still there, although now
it’s a combo place with Taco Bell). Pizza
Hut was probably second to open in Ice-
land, sometime in the mid-1980s.
Is it a good thing?
I don't have a say in it—it’s basic supply
and demand—but personally, I almost
always prefer small local operations over
international chains, as the quality of the
food is higher, the service is often more
personal and they can take on character
and charm in a way that a international
chain can't compete with.
Occasionally I will prefer an inter-
national chain over a local chain (how
is Dunkin’ Donuts worse than local
Starbucks clone chain Te og Kaffi?), and
some international chains are better
than others. For example, I find Dunkin’
massively superior to Starbucks, at least
in the States. Because Dunkin’ is a mod-
erately-priced no-frills chain that does
the job of offering massive containers of
regular black coffee with half-and-half
and a decent pastry to an army of over-
worked, sleep-deprived wage slaves.
Are people going
to be happy?
Read any travelogue written after 1703,
the year coffee was introduced to Ice-
land, and you will see that Icelandic
history is fuelled by two things: coffee
and sugar. Coffee has traditionally been
served before, during, and after meals—
morning, noon, and night. And no table
was complete without a jar of sugar:
we drizzle it over blood sausage, turnip
mash, pancakes, whatever we get our
hands on. Still to this day we are some
of the most unrepentant sugar addicts
in Europe and attempts to tax our love
away were an abysmal failure.
So a joint that serves sweet pastries
and coffee should do well here. It’s true
that the bakery tradition is stronger in
Iceland than it is in your average Ameri-
can city and the quality of the baked
goods are relatively high here, but I
HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR 20 FUCK-
ING YEARS FOR A BAKERY TO START
SELLING MY PINK BOX WITH A
DOZEN ASSORTED DONUTS. Homer
Simpson made me a promise. Icelandic
bakeries had their chance. They failed.
Bring it, Dunkin'.
Do I care?
As you can see, I care about stuff like this
way more than I should.
Words Ragnar Egilsson
Our Food Editor reflects on
the coming of Dunkin’ Donuts
Mmmm,
Forbidden Donut
Words Ragnar Egilsson
Iceland’s two most popular sha-
warma places have gone to war.
Owners of shawarma joint Ali Baba
are pressing charges against the
owners of next-door kebab-slingers
Mandí. The owners were formerly
in business together but have now
gone into competition with nothing
but a wall separating them.
Despite that, the month’s strangest
story has to be that local R&B sen-
sation Friðrik Dór and neoclassical
composer Ólafur Arnalds are open-
ing a restaurant selling nothing but
Belgian french fries. We are still
waiting for the punch line.
Jón Pálmar and the rest of the kids
at Bar Paloma are testing out a new
taco wagon in their backyard. High
time that Reykjavík picks up on the
bar + taco truck combo, for all of
those high times.
Fans of British produce and arti-
sanal kitchenware mourn as Pipar
og Salt, Iceland’s only place to get
Walkers shortbread and whiskey
marmalade, closes up shop after 28
years in downtown Reykjavík.
The Yotam Ottolenghi-inspired
Bergsson Mathús has branched out
from brunching to offer full dinner
service with the new Bergsson RE
in the ever-popular Grandi neigh-
bourhood.
We$tfjord company True West
came out with an all-natural, sus-
tainable cold press fish oil called
Dropi (www.truewestfjords.is). Is
this the first real competition for
Lýsi?
Gastropub Public House opens
minutes after the Reykjavík Grape-
vine publishes a pedantic prick’s
guide to getting a gastropub right
(www.publichouse.is/). They seem
to have gotten some things right.
This Month
In Food
May 2015
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