08/31/2024 – 18:23
“Take a large clear container with a lid and, without much ceremony, fill it with a whole cucumber, grated into slices, and some cream cheese. Add a slice of smoked salmon, cut into small pieces with scissors, and some red onion, grated into slices. Then, add salad dressing and a spoonful of capers, lemon juice, seeds and plenty of monosodium glutamate to enhance the flavor.
Before the mixture overflows, cover the container and shake it like a bartender preparing a caipirinha – and voilà, your meal is ready!”
The result seems to be as good as an enthusiastic and sighing Logan Moffitt suggests, between one bite and another.
He’s Canadian – and a TikTok star with almost 6 million followers. His videos of different cucumber recipes have been viewed more than 30 million times. In the digital world, he’s known by the nickname “The Cucumber Guy”. Watch the video here.
Hype hit hard in Iceland
About 4,000 kilometers and more than eight hours of flight away, in Iceland, Moffitt’s videos became a problem.
Until then, supply bottlenecks did not seem to be part of life in the small European island country in the North Atlantic, with its almost 400,000 inhabitants.
It was also unknown that Iceland, known mainly for its volcanoes, impetuous climate and ancient landscapes, had any special obsession with cucumbers – a vegetable whose domestic production in greenhouses is six million units, an annual average of more or less 15 cucumbers per inhabitant.
But since Moffitt’s cucumber salad recipes became popular among some Icelanders in early August, demand for the vegetable has exploded and it has disappeared from supermarkets.
As a result, Iceland began to import cucumbers from the Netherlands.
Another cucumber salad recipe from Moffitt – which uses sesame oil, rice vinegar and garlic – has become so popular among Icelanders that it has also run out of those other ingredients in the country, the BBC reported.
Fashions that appear as quickly as they disappear
This is far from the first time that social media influencers have sparked a rush for specific foods – although most of the time this hype does not affect entire countries.
In July 2023, a food blogger posted images on TikTok of croissants with colorful fillings purchased from a New York bakery. Despite the high price tag—almost $10 per unit—the video caused the establishment to be practically invaded by customers. For days, huge lines formed in front of the establishment, which even limited the purchase of two croissants per customer.
In January 2024, Swiss influencer Steve Merson announced on TikTok that he would be giving away free kebabs at a restaurant on the outskirts of Zurich. The crowd was so popular that police had to disperse the crowd two hours later.
In Nuremberg, Germany, a restaurant was invaded by a crowd after two YouTubers announced that they had created their own dish. In another city, Regensburg, the scene was repeated after three stars from the gaming universe announced on social media that they would be distributing treats at another establishment.
The food influencer scene has been growing steadily in recent years. Several TikTokers have established themselves in this field with their own dishes – and in some cases, absolutely eccentric ones – attracting a loyal legion of fans who follow and share their recipes.
Increasingly crazy creations
What all these food fads have in common is that they come and go with the same speed.
In Iceland, too, the food industry appears relatively unconcerned: the supply of cucumbers should be regularized within a week at the latest, reassures a spokeswoman for the farmers’ association.
Moffitt’s success on social media seems to be encouraging him to be more daring in his creations: in one of his latest recipes, the “cucumber guy” combines the vegetable with strawberry jam, peanut butter and honey. However, it is unlikely that this combination will trigger a new supply crisis in Iceland.
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