COMPETITION IN THE DAIRY MARKET AND MORE CHEESE
They may be tracing links between milk products and prostate cancer but I just can’t get enough of that milky goodness. The star of Iceland’s most famous cheese, “skyr,” is rising (it is technically closer to cheese than yoghurt), but the more traditional cheese production is still struggling to find its feet. Much of this can be blamed on the monopoly in the local dairy market, with the milk behemoth Auðhumla owning the farmer collective Norðurmjólk (KEA) and supermarker mainstay Mjólkursamsalan. The rest stems from severe limitation on imported dairy products. There have been many contenders but it’s proven a tough nut to crack. Here’s hoping Vesturmjólk in Borgarnes and Kú in Hafnarfjörður will manage to spread their milky wings.
And let’s not forget the grassroots. ‘Erpsstaðir’ (in Dalasýsla) and ‘Sæluostar úr sveitinni’ offered some interesting fresh cheeses at one of the throw-up farmers’ markets last December, and we might yet see the same kind of boom the microbrews underwent.
RAW SAUSAGES IN STORES
I want to be able to walk into Bónus and choose between 5 types of uncured, unsalted, unsmoked sausages. I can only eat pylsur for so long. Throw me a sausage why dontcha!?
AN INDEPENDENT FRIED CHICKEN JOINT IN 101 REYKJAVÍK
Haninn proved pretty good. Not perfect but definitely something I’d like to see more of. And at Suðurver, they are still making a solid and completely independent southern-fried chicken. The problem is that neither of those is downtown. I would love to see a basic, unpretentious fried chicken place in 101 Reykjavík. I’d totally settle for Korean hot wings too (let the poultry fury at Kreuzberg’s Angry Chicken guide the way).
BYOB RESTAURANTS
With the already stupidly expensive alcohol to be raised even higher in 2012, pre-gaming has become mandatory. Let me bring my moonshine in ginger ale in a rusty flask and you’ll have a loyal customer for life. Hell, you could even marry it with the chicken idea. But no cork fee or I’ll cut you! (“you better listen – he’s a mean drunk!”).
SMALL, COLOURFUL, CRAZY PLACES WITH A NARROW FOCUS
…and affordable! Kogi BBQ food truck in L.A., Forno Campo de’ Fiori in Rome, Bành Mí Zòn in New York, Mooli’s in London, Angry Chicken in Berlin. I would like more hole-in-a-wall places that do one thing and do it really well, places that don’t worry about what’s fashionable or about pleasing everyone, but build on personality and repetition. Examples of this from 2011 are Litli Bóndabærinn, Noodle Station and St. Paul’s.
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And you can read about the five food things that made Ragnar happy in 2011 here
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