Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.09.2017, Page 64

L I F E , T R AV E L & E N T E R TA I N M E N T I N I C E L A N D
Issue 16 × 2017
Sep 8 – Sep 21
www.grapevine.is

LAST WORDS
Calling Out
The Copy Cats:
A Food Rant
Words: Shruthi Basappa
Dear Food Purveyors,
Stop taking Icelandic diners for a ride!
On one hand it is hard enough to have to
contend with the dairy monopoly MS warping
collective palates with their saline block imi-
tation feta and pudding-like Greek yoghurt.
Now, it’s as if Icelandic food culture is under
attack just as it is coming into its own.
My Facebook feed is filled with ads and
recommendations to subscription food ser-
vices (looking at you Eldum Rétt) offering
an insultingly watered-down approach to
home cooking, rife with ingredient swapping
and bold cultural appropriation. Restaurant
menus too indulge in the same dalliances. A
frequent offender being dishes dubbed “In-
dian” due to a sprinkling of mystery “curry
powder” which sends real Desi fare scurrying
for cover by mere association.
It would be fun if slapping a foreign coun-
try’s name on your dish automatically be-
queathed to you that culture’s entire culinary
history, but that’s not how it works. At best it’s
lazy; at worst it’s blatant orientalist exoticis-
ing. If you are going to copycat, please extend
the same respect to other cuisines that you
afford to Icelandic cuisine.
Here are a list of things that get my goat in
no specific order of annoyance:
- Supermarkets selling round loaves of bread as
pita. Err.. what?
- Emmessis and Kjörís selling us thickened air
as ice-cream.
- Frozen baked goods from Denmark sold as
fresh in-house treats.
- Tubs of white gelatin which MS insists is sour
cream.
And while I’m at it, for Christmas, I’d like a
proper fishmonger. One that sells whole fish,
and razor clams (why not?!). And trash that
slimy, pre-marinade goop!
We, the paying public, deserve better.
The restaurants, the media, and the stores
are letting us down. We are letting ourselves
down. When we buy food, we are buying an
experience, an education in taste, texture and
culture. We are building a memory that we
will look back on. We should strive for more
than paying lip service to culinary traditions,
more than Instagram likes.
There’s work to do here. What’re you
waiting for?
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