We already wrote about Lofoten, cod fishing, salmon processing plant the bloody stuff and about who and how cuts of fish tongues. Today it’s not going to be bloody at all. It’s going to be delicious, tasty and yummy. Join us at the table and try specialties from Lofoten!
Lofoten is not a place for people who don’t like fish. If you’re not a fish eater then there’s nothing for you to eat or do here! 🙂 Fish, fish and even more fish. Cod, cod and even more cod. Salmon, roe, sirloin, cheeks, tongues.. Fish soup and bisque. Cod pate and roe pate.. And so on! For us it’s perfect as we love fish! What’s cool to try in Lofoten and what made us, the fish maniacs, crazy about? 🙂
1) FISH SOUP
We started with a fish soup! It was our first meal in Lofoten. After a long and tiring trip, waking up at 4 am, 4 flights, running around airports in Copenhagen and Oslo in order to catch the next plane. Also after… just one sandwich on board. When we landed in Svolvær we still had to take a coach to our hotel in Henningsvaer village. It wasn’t a long trip, but after so many hours on a plane it was a bit tiring. We got the keys to our rooms and finally got IT – the fish soup. At first sight it didn’t look like anything special: some vegetables with predominant carrot and lots of white fish (first cod in Lofoten!)… The taste? Delicate, delicious, great. We want more. It’s a pity that Maks isn’t here as he would have probably appreciated the soup as well. What do we eat with the soup? Two types of bread. Thickly sliced, moist, with seeds, preferably with salted butter… Or thin slices, crispy like a communion wafer. The crispy one was alright but the dark, moist one.. wow.. I pretty much don’t have to eat lunch as I could feast on this bread endlessly.
simple and ideal fish soup
my love – preferably with salted butter
really thin bread-crisps – ideal to nibble on while eating the fish soup
the soup tastes better on the sea
2) SMOKED COD ROE WITH CREAM AND RED ONIONS
During our stay in Lofoten we eat smoked cod roe starters every day. It was served on crispy thin pieces of bread, the same that we ate with the soup and accompanied with thick cream and finely chopped red onions. When I first had this little sandwich I didn’t even realise it was roe… I thought it was a smoked salmon or salmon tartare… Good for me as I could have missed a lot knowing what it was!
I didn’t expect roe to be so good. Me and that kind of stuff? It rarely happens! Łukasz was eager to try such specialties – as usual. But I kept it safe. This time the salty and heavily smoked roe turned out to be a great idea! Served with cream and finely chopped red onions it made a perfect combination.
Be sure to try it if you ever end up in Lofoten!
I never thought I could like it so much
3) COD CHEEKS AND TONGUES
You already know that cod tongues (in our case skrei tongues) are an important thing in Lofoten. Carefully cut off by children, it’s one of local specialties. We tried fried tongues in batter during a dinner in a charming little restaurant called Lofotmat. How do they taste? On one hand similar to cod fillet that we are all used to, but on the other you can often taste a jelly-like elements that we didn’t like so much.
Specific texture of tongues made us like cod cheeks much more. Delicate meat in crispy batter! Delicious!
cod tongues in Lofotmat
what’s better: tongues or fried cod cheeks?
4) DRIED COD
I already told you about dried cod and how is it dried in Lofoten here. The cod drying perches are an essential element of Henningsvaer landscape. They are an intriguing ornament that looks best with lots of gutted cods hanging from them. That’s how stockfish is made – fish dried in the sun and the wind, one of the typical products of Northern Norway. The fish are dried on perches from February to May and then “matured” in dry and well ventilated rooms. Supposedly, stockfish from Lofoten is one of the best due to climatic conditions!
We liked stockfish in a salad that we ate at Lofotmat. It was tasty, but there were other meals that won our hearts!
dried cod salad
5) COD IN A HUNDRED DIFFERENT WAYS
Where do we try all these specialties? E.g. in our little hotel called Bryggehotell and in a charming little homespun restaurant nearby.
The already mentioned Lofotmat is a tiny restaurant in equally tiny Henningsvaer village. We enter in a group of 10 and fill the whole place. It’s supposed to be the smallest restaurant in Lofoten! The owner welcomes us and it’s her who prepares the food for us tonight. All fish oriented and homemade of course. Plates with starters and main courses land on the table and everyone take something from a big common plate. Like Spanish tapas style that we love the most 🙂
Lofotmat starts with something really good – crisps with smoked roe, cream and onion. You already know how delicious they are! Than we get tiny sandwiches with salmon and brie, cupcakes with cod pate, dried cod salad, and after that proceed to main courses. Not everything is equally good, the opinions vary, but you have to respect the cod.
Łukasz went mad for the cod sirloin served in a delicate, creamy sauce with some carrots and snap peas. He liked it so much that he must have eaten all that was left on the common plate! 🙂 For me the texture of the fish was a bit peculiar (it must be fitness of the skrei fish that I’m used to!). When I was already quite stuffed, a bowl of a kind of fish goulash appeared on the table. The flavour reminded me of Portugal and their specialties: taste of tomatoes, peppers, fish and potatoes stewed together made me have second, third and fourth helping even though I was already full! One of my favourites!
cod pate
delicate cod sirloin – Łukasz’ favourite
not too Norwegian, but still my favourite
6) LAST BUT NOT LEAST: THE FOUR CHEFS…
recognize these gentlemen?
If you checked our Facebook profile, you already know that we went to Norway in a great company including best Polish chefs: Andrzej Polan (chef at Warsaw’s Soul Kitchen), Adam Chrząstowski (Cracow’s Ancora), Sebastian Krauzowicz (Toruń’s Sfera) and Piotr Kucharski that most of you should know as he’s been cooking in Dzień Dobry TVN morning show for the last few years! Andrzej Poland can also be seen there from time to time. In Lofoten we learned that the saying “too many cooks spoil the broth” is not always true!
Four personalities that are used to cooking and making decisions individually had work in a team here… To make it even more difficult – not in their own kitchen, without their equipment and with limited supplies! They made the best of it:) A shellfish bisque with slices of bread with freshly fished fish, sour cream and chives, cod roe pate and a cod in olive oil and burned butter with celery and cauliflower puree, couscous form cauliflower and fired bacon all tasted really good! And the best thing is that you don’t have to go to Lofoten to try all these specialties! Just visit Soul Kitchen, Ancora or Sfera… You won’t regret it! 🙂
PS. An interview with Adam Chrząstowski about his approach to cuisine and cooking will be shortly published on the blog! 🙂
cod roe pate with pears
freshly fished skrei cod with burned butter
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