From Nada To Empanadas

Mijita Offer the First Taste of Colombia in Iceland

When the Colombian-Canadian indie pop star Lido Pimienta played Airwaves way back in 2017, I ended my rave review of her set with the following lines: “With exquisite percussion, delicate vocals and a mention of empanadas, her performance was warm, fresh, and memorable. I don’t expect to see Lido in Reykjavík again, but maybe someone can take her suggestion and sell some damn empanadas here?”

In the same year, way across the world, María Jiménez Pacífico was visiting her native Colombia. She walked into a grocery store and gazed longingly at a wall of ready-made empanadas and arepas, the typical pastries and patties stuffed with spiced fillings. She said, “Wow, wouldn’t it be amazing if Iceland had this too?” Years passed before she decided to realize the dream that she and I share with Lido, but once she did, she didn’t stop until it came true.

From fashion model to business model

“It’s important when you’re cooking that you put your heart in it,” María tells me. “This beautiful process of creating something is not just mix-and-match. No, you want to do something that will bring you memories or that will bring you to a place. So, that’s what I’m doing with Mijita.”

María emigrated from Colombia to Iceland with her family in 2004. After studying acting and cinematography here, she worked as an actress and model around the world. That’s what she was doing in Colombia in 2017 when she first had the idea for Mijita. “Then my father passed away and ‘mijita’ was the last word he said to me,” she remembers, explaining the origins of the name that means “my little daughter.”

In 2022, she received a grant from the supermarket conglomerate Hagar to import the machinery necessary to produce arepas and empanadas. The intention was to sell them in grocery stores, but it was a long process and she was eager to get started. “So then I rented a wooden shed so I could have the place to cook,” she says. “And then I made everything beautiful. From the beginning, it was very important for me to show that we have a concept. We are not only food; we are an atmosphere.”

They set up the shed at the Reykjavík Street Food Festival in 2022 to huge success. By the following year’s festival, they had a purpose-built food truck in all the colors of the Colombian flag and won the festival’s Best Vegetarian option. By the end of 2023, Mijita’s food hit the shelves of Hagkaup and Melabúðin, and they were ranked Top 3 at the 2024 festival. In December, Mijita opened up a kitchen in Kópavogur that offers take-out and delivery via Wolt. She has her sights set on further expansion.

No secret to success

In a city known for a rotating carousel of repetitive restaurants opening and quickly falling into bankruptcy, María has found success in a seemingly risky business. “I put all of what I learned from my modelling, because being a model is being a product,” she explains. “I understood how to make arepas and empanadas a success because it’s not only about the looks, but also the genuineness.”

She brought her grandfather over from Colombia to help recreate her late grandmother’s recipes. “He’s like the soul of the company,” she admits. “He’s the one that is helping me to keep the flavours genuine, because we are reproducing the recipes from my late grandmother. I am reproducing the memories from my childhood.”

The star of the show is “el cerdito” filling. “It’s 14 hour slow-cooked pork. Not two hours, no, 14 hours!” María assures me. They also have traditionally vegan and vegetarian options using spiced beans and cheese. Not only that, but because much of Latin American food uses cornflour, all of their food is naturally 100% gluten free. To top it off, their business model aims to be zero waste.

Although international dining experiences in Iceland have been limited until quite recently, María believes it’s not necessarily for lack of interest. “Icelanders are also open to new things,” she claims. “Maybe they should be more open to spicy food… when they get flavour, they immediately say, ‘Oh, this is spicy!’ For them, it’s totally new. But they try, you know!”

“If you want to travel through your taste buds, all the way to another culture that you have never been to, you just respect what foreigners are bringing to you,” María reminds me.

Mijita’s success to date indicates that, thankfully, Iceland is willing to offer that respect. Hopefully María’s labour of love inspires restaurateurs from other cultures to follow in her footsteps. “I think the key is to be true to yourself,” she concludes. “There is no big secret!”