People of the North

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Havila Voyages -- sustainable coastal cruises along Norway's beautiful coastline.

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Seafood from Norway.

Join me on a journey where we will meet people who live, work, and enjoy life right here in the far north.

I'm joined by star chef Frida Ronge, who is culinary leader at some of Stockholm's finest restaurants.

She has come all the way up here to look for new creative impulses.

My good friend, Stig Bareksten, is also coming.

He's the founder of an award-winning Nordic gin distillery, and he's on the hunt for new and exciting flavors.

My name is Arne Hjeltnes, and I'm taking you to meet the fantastic People of the North.

This breathtaking scenery is Lofoten, an arctic gem which totals seven main islands that stretch out into the Norwegian Sea.

And lucky for us, they're all strung together by bridges.

In Lofoten, you can find stunning vistas everywhere.

It's beauty at every turn.

Admire snowcapped mountain peaks and visit many charming fishing villages.

Each little village or town on these islands has something to offer.

It's an experience just waiting to be picked.

Our first stop is Anita's Seafood at Sakrisoy, where manager Mia greets us at the door.

To start the day, what can be better than a fresh cup of coffee and some chocolate, of course.

We have reached Sakrisoy and this fantastic place where Mia is one of the strong women that are important in forming Lofoten of today.

And, Mia, what's the story about Sakrisoy?

Sakrisoy is a tiny village, a tiny island, where my great great grandfather settled in the late 1800s.

He had a vision to create a place where we could receive the fish.

Yeah, and it's still based on the fantastic sources of fish from the sea.

That's really still your base of your business.

Yes.

Absolutely.

It's the core of everything we do.

Experiences are based on all senses, so it's like the landscapes that we're in, like with our stockfish and our products is crafted by locals, is flavored by nature.

Everything is very connected with nature and our surroundings.

What would you say are your most popular products for the seafood bar?

What do you think we should eat?

We have our world famous fish burger.

They are topped with salmon and shrimps.

Made by hand, the burgers.

They are super nice.

We also have a very popular fish soup.

I'm getting more and more hungry, Mia.

And I really want to taste some of the delicacies you have here.

Good.

And I'm so glad that you, as a fifth generation, is keeping the tradition going here at Sakrisoy.

Thank you.

Stunning setting at Sakrisoy is inspiring, and so is the food.

At Anita's Seafood, the fish burger is really packed with treasures from the sea.

What a treat!

How was the fish of the sea?

It was fantastic, a little bit spicy, as well, so it's super nice.

This is big.

Big and it's -- It's difficult with chopsticks.

Yeah, but I love to eat with chopsticks, you know.

Even burgers?

Yeah, why not?

I mean, at least the shrimps.

[ Laughter ] It's amazing that you are in a fairly remote place like this, and you have this quality restaurant.

Everything here is so fresh, delicious, and, yeah, God is in the details everywhere here.

It's really worth a journey just to eat here.

Definitely.

And you know, every table is a window table.

Yeah.

That's for sure.

Did you know that cod fish from Lofoten was Norway's first commodity, eaten and appreciated all over the world.

It was the fish that laid the very foundation for all these villages.

Without the cod, it would be very few settlements.

Here we are in Ballstad.

Stig, we stayed over there at Hemmingodden.

And they also have some street art over here.

Quite big.

Quite big.

It's as big as in Europe, and it's painted by the artist Scott Thoe.

How big is it?

It's 20,000 square feet.

Wow.

But we know that this port goes way back.

It's at least a thousand years of fishing here.

Actually, they found some Viking burial sites on the other side there.

And the reason why people live in Lofoten is the cod.

And it's the perfect place to make the dried cod fish.

They hang it up.

The temperature here doesn't get too cold.

There are no insects.

And the fish, they have plenty of food in the sea.

It's a perfect place for making the dried cod fish.

So this is the reason why people have lived in Ballstad for at least a thousand years, and this is the reason why they will keep on living here.

The dried cod fish goes all over the world.

And I think we should dive into it, know a little bit about the history, and maybe taste.

Yeah.

Let's go.

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We're here together with Liv Margrethe Hansen from the fantastic family company Halvorsfisk.

They make outstanding fish products, and this is a dried cod fish, Stig.

Ah.

Looks strange.

It's hard.

It's almost like a bat.

Can you tell us a little bit, how is it produced?

So this is a stockfish, so it's produced by a type of cod that's called skrei.

And skrei is a cod that migrates from the Barents Sea to the coast of Northern Norway.

We take the skrei and hang it outside, and it's right outside for three months.

So what we do, we take the dry stockfish, put it into water for several days, and during the watering process, we remove every skin, all the skin, bones, and we make it ready.

And then it becomes a wonderful product like this.

This is not only a delicacy for us Norwegian.

You also export.

Yes.

Stockfish is very important in Italy, for example.

We've been exporting stockfish to Italy for hundreds of years.

Maybe our friend, Gunnar, can make some magic out of this dried cod fish loin.

I try.

Thank you.

And what are you cooking for us?

Today, I'm going to make panfried stockfish.

It's a soup base... Wow.

...made of the skins and bones from the produce from when they produce the stockfish.

Oh, this is fantastic.

It's tomato.

It's almost like a dashi, right?

Yeah, yeah, it's like a a combination of French bouillabaisse and a Japanese dashi.

Mm!

Fantastic.

Okay, let's start.

Okay.

So, Gunnar, please tell me exactly what you have on the plate now.

So we have the panfried stockfish, we have some salted cabbage.

It's a soup based on the bones from the stockfish and also mushrooms with soy sauce, or a unagi sauce, and some green onions on top.

Wow, it looks so delicious.

Please, taste.

You can really feel the flavor of the dried cod and the soup, the broth you made.

It's just a perfect combination of flavors.

Thank you so much.

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Stig, this we have been doing for quite some time.

Yeah, over a thousand years.

Over a thousand years.

This is the fish from Ballstad.

It is, and I think we can keep up another thousand years, if you ask me.

This was so good.

Definitely, yeah.

Thank you, Gunnar.

Thank you, Gunnar.

Thank you.

Yes, hopefully the fish in the sea will last for another thousand years, as the abundance of cod in Lofoten during the annual winter season still is phenomenal.

Off the beaten track but well worth the visit, next stop is a historical fishing village, a hamlet by the sea.

This is Nusfjord.

It's probably the best-preserved fishing village in the whole of Lofoten, Frida.

Yes.

I mean, it's the second time I'm here, actually, and for me, this is one of the most prettiest little villages in Lofoten.

And, today, this place is still a fishing village.

And, Stig, they have a special store here.

It's not the grocery store.

No, it's a landhandel.

So that's a place where you can buy everything.

It's a mix between hardware and -- Software?

[ Laughing ] Software.

They only had the one store.

Yeah.

And it had to have everything.

One stop.

We should go and take a look.

Yes.

Yes.

In a landhandel.

So here you have the opportunity to learn a very important Norwegian word from Lofoten, the landhandel.

That's the place to go to because it was the only place you could go shopping.

So let's go.

Let's go shopping.

Oy.

This is truly a landhandel, Stig.

Absolutely.

They have everything.

Yeah.

They have actually everything.

Shoe polish, tobacco.

Coffee, ammunition.

It was really a place that was so important.

The fishermen had been out fishing.

They got some money for the fish.

Yeah.

And then, they could go in here and buy nice clothing.

A little gift to the wife.

To the fishing wife?

Yes.

[ Laughter ] Landhandel.

Fantastic.

Hi.

Hello, my favorites.

Ooh.

Are you hungry?

Yes.

Yes.

Nice, because I just made a little lunch for you, and this is a Norwegian salmon burger.

Some pickled wakame seaweed and cucumber in rice vinegar and also some sprinkled dried seaweed.

Hope you enjoy.

Thank you, Frida.

Thank you.

Perfect little lunch.

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With plenty of humor and warm after lunch, we set out to our last destination.

Going by car in Lofoten, I would say, is the ultimate car trip.

Beautiful at almost every turn.

And just a couple of miles before the very end of the road, on the southernmost tip of Lofoten, there it is.

Holmen Boutique Hotel and Culinary Restaurant, run by the ambitious Ingunn Rasmussen.

Ingunn and Audun, brother and sister -- you grew up here.

But give us a little bit of the history of Holmen Hotel.

I bought this place back in 2001 with the idea of putting up a small cabin.

But very soon, I found that these old buildings needed some more tender care and not to be tear down.

So we started in the small building of the old buildings.

And by 2007, we opened with a restaurant and three apartments.

You got some, I would say, rather international help in the kitchen.

Yes, we do.

Between 2007 and 2017, I was living partly abroad and partly in the south of Norway, and for a period, staying in South Korea.

500 TV channels, but only one channel that I could understand, and that was BBC.

And then, watching Valentine Warner's different TV programs where he traveled the world for BBC, and I just found that he fitted very well in with our concept.

I wrote him a mail and said, "Could you please consider coming to Norway?"

And he answered, in fact, I think it was the same night.

Said, "I can come in February."

And I thought, "This February?"

but it was two years ahead.

And then, he just came, and I think he just fell in love.

Audun, you grew up here, and there is something about the strong women of Lofoten.

There has always been strong women in Lofoten.

Would Lofoten be the same without these strong women?

No.

That's true.

You're here, Ingunn.

Yes, yes.

It's actually something that we have seen also now that there are strong women behind what's happening and what's developing in Lofoten.

Yes, it always have been, and I think the reason is partly because fisherman went off, and then, the only one to take care of everything else was the women.

I think that there is quite a few strong ladies in the community, and all of them running their own businesses and developing the area.

Everyone who comes here loves it.

Of course, the women of Lofoten is something that's inspiring, also, for us who are only here for a shorter time.

But inside here now is my friend, Stig, and he has prepared something special for us to drink before dinner.

Well?

All good?

All is well and good, yes.

I wanted to do an fusion in the vermouth with the dulse seaweed.

Mm-hmm.

I think you're right to pick dulse of all the many seaweeds out here because this is particularly savory.

It's got a sweetness to it.

It's a very, very delicious seaweed to use.

And it also has this licorice-ish flavor, as I experience it, and I think that's cool with gin.

I think it's the perfect seaweed for the job.

It's very delicate, what you've made.

Yeah.

I mean, it's not overpowering, but it's undoubtedly there.

But salt, it can enhance so much flavors.

You know this one?

I do know that one.

Thank you.

I'm very honored that, for somebody who makes gin themselves, that you chose ours.

I know this gin is fantastic.

We normally use local gins or local spirits when we travel around, but since you're a distiller, I found it quite natural to use yours.

And we made it for martini drinkers.

You made it for me.

I made it for you.

Thank you.

And it is a good, good gin.

Okay, we need some glasses.

Two seconds.

And then, I think you can add a little bit of flare to this one.

This is almost like popping a Viagra into the bottom of a martini.

Your eyes dilate as that mineral twang overtakes you, and you feel warlike.

Sounds dangerous.

Oh, my Lord.

That's a beautiful thing.

Looks nice, though.

Ice and urchins.

Let's try this one.

Skal.

Skal.

With immediate 100% honesty, I look into your eyes and I say that is one of the best martinis I have ever drunk.

Thank you.

This is like an elegant silver brick being thrown through the front window of your day.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Mm.

Oh, that's a work of genius.

The saltiness, it kind of enhances the earthiness in the gin, I would say.

The dulse really, really comes through, but in a very delicate way.

Yeah.

This should be your martini served here.

Uptick martinis.

[ Laughs ] Skal.

Skal.

We were curious about what was happening down here.

Yeah, we have prepared a drink for you.

Your snow-chilled martinis.

So this is the new signature martini here at Holmen.

What do you think?

I feel like I'm also tasting the sea outside.

You were very clever to use this.

I mean, this is sweet, and it's very delicate what you made.

Frida inspired me to use that one.

Chew on the little treat at the bottom.

I'll get to it at the end.

I know, I will get there.

In a little bit, we will get there.

Yeah, I like the journey until I get it.

[ Laughter ] But I have to ask you, Valentine, how did you end up here.

An extraordinary woman rang me some five or six years ago.

Or e-mailed me.

I can't quite remember.

And said, "I've been looking at you from a distance."

She was working in Korea and, "I think you might fit in, so come and see me."

Ingunn rang me, and I said, "Sure, I'm coming."

And I found myself surrounded in this lovely wooden room, drinking aquavit and eating cod, and I kind of fell in love on the spot and left having said, "I want to work with you."

Ingunn said that you also looked like you were actually from here.

Oh, did she?

Yeah.

That's very kind of her to say, but if I was walking towards a lot of Norwegian men I see here, banging on their shields with their axes, I'd be running in a different direction, weeing in my trousers.

So it's very nice to be told that.

This was a fabulous start on our gastronomic stay here, and I think you two in the kitchen, and Stig and I finishing more of this is going to be a great evening.

I'm so excited to be here in the kitchen with you.

Likewise.

I'm gonna do some small dishes for you, but you are also going to cook for us.

Well, from the kitchen window in the waters you see out there, millions and millions and millions of skrei cod are arriving, as they do every year, to breed.

And, so, really, cod, it had to be cod today.

My fish would normally be opened up and gutted from the underneath.

Yeah.

But I have gone through its back.

So what I want you to do is, very liberally, kind of make a lovely white layer of salt.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Onto here.

And then, I'm going to open this up, and I've kind of turned it into a receptacle, so to speak.

If you would, in here, we have onions, we have ham, we have caper berries, we have juniper and caraway.

Fantastic.

And then, here, we've put lots of lemon juice into these crumbs and then dried it out so they're sour.

Mm!

Mm!

And there's fennel seeds and lots of fennel seeds and black pepper and lemon zest.

And, so, all of that is going to go into here.

Mm!

I'm looking so much forward to this cod now.

Well, I hope so.

If you said, "God, I don't want to eat your cod," you know, what would I do?

You know, I like drama.

I thought, if you came, we had to have something that was dramatic.

We want to start filling up the cod.

Here.

Because, by the time the fish would cook, the crumbs would have burnt.

Yeah.

So just for the beginning.

Mm-hmm.

When we are waiting for the cod, I'm going to give you one of my favorite things to eat as breakfast in Sweden.

Which I'm very much looking forward to.

What a time for breakfast.

The sun has gone down.

Oh, my God.

So I'm a little bit embarrassed.

Why?

Because you are cooking, like, really cool whole fish, whole skrei with super cool things, and I'm here with crisp bread with seaweed.

So egg and caviar.

The fact that you have brought something to squeeze out of a tube, I only love you more, actually.

Okay.

And, so, I fully approve of such things.

So, this is crisp bread with seaweed.

Mm-hmm.

From local -- Which seaweed?

It's butare -- sugar kelp.

This caviar is made from cod roe, so I'm also using the cod.

Well, I think it's so right that we've both done cod.

Exactly.

I'm also adding a little bit of the seaweed salt -- the smoked seaweed salt.

Smoked seaweed salt.

And dill -- one of my favorite herbs.

So nice.

And fish and dill or egg and dill is just, like, a perfect combination.

This is a typical Frida breakfast or snack.

And I think in our different ways, we're both kind of lovers of simplicity.

Exactly.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Mmm, mmm, mmm.

Breakfast can be so boring -- some cereal, some Lucky Charms, you know?

And then you can eat wonderful things like these or -- you know, wonderful.

You prefer this every day?

Yeah.

This is a good start to the day.

That's delicious.

Mmm.

Mmm-mmm.

They actually made the bread for me.

Mm-hmm.

[ Laughing ] And it's very dry.

It is, rather.

But then you have eggs and lovely things on top.

Yeah.

Mmm.

I was thinking to do a little amuse-bouche to our other friends.

Wonderful.

And then I made ponzu soy sauce here.

So, what's in your ponzu?

This is tamari, some lemon, some wasabi oil, and some sesame.

It's very important for ponzu, I think, isn't it, that you have a very sharp, something very fresh, but very umami and salty, but -- and it should have a real... Yeah!

Yeah.

Exactly.

And that's delicious.

This is exactly the reaction I was looking for.

And then just add a little sesame seeds on top.

Mmm.

Yum.

Those are very good.

Good things happening in Holmen.

Yeah.

I think the time has come.

Oh, my God.

This skrei looks so delicious.

It's kind of rough and ready, if you know what I mean.

Yeah.

Now, I've got a little finishing touch I want to do for you.

Wow.

We're not quite there yet.

Just in the car park, actually, one of my favorite plants grows.

Obviously very important for gin, juniper.

Mm-hmm.

But the wood smells amazing.

Have a little smell.

Smell the smoke from that.

Oh.

Wow, wow, wow.

Just a little burning juniper.

And I like the idea that you're standing by the juniper.

Mmm.

The cod is swimming.

Mmm!

And it all comes together.

Before we give it to everybody... Mm-hmm.

Yeah, we should try it.

...should we have a try?

Definitely.

So, I think it would only be right if you go in first.

Okay.

Yeah.

Mmm.

Mmm, mmm.

Mmm!

Mmm!

It's so delicious.

Oh, my God.

Thank you so much.

Fresh cod and stale bread.

Mmm!

It's so delicious.

So, this is sashimi of halibut.

Okay, I'm gonna do, also, a little taste here for you, because I know that you also like Japanese flavors, right?

I love Japanese food.

Mmm.

Mmm.

And very, very fresh -- extremely fresh.

And you can taste the halibut.

Mmm.

You can actually taste the kombu, as well.

I think the other guys will be happy.

I think they will be happy.

And if they're not, they can get out.

[ Laughs ] Stand in the cold.

Mmm.

Mmm.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I've had such a nice afternoon.

Yeah.

Me too.

Definitely.

So now we have had so many fantastic moments at Holmen, but I think we're gonna top it all, what's happening over at your side?

We had a very lovely afternoon in the kitchen.

We stuffed giant cod.

We squeezed things out of tubes.

I love her for turning up with a tube of caviar.

[ Laughs ] Chefs are too complicated.

Out came the squeezy stuff.

And we made a lot of food in a very short amount of time.

Yeah.

So, we have -- it's stuffed with bread crumbs, bacon, and herbs and scented seeds, and it's really everything about the cod out there and not throwing old loaves of bread away and good, provincial stuff that this place is so wonderful for.

You can see that the fish is perfectly cooked.

We live and hope.

[ Laughter ] To honor you, the best piece of all should go to you.

Oh!

There it goes.

There.

Lovely.

Thank you.

And what a great group of people you have here.

Fantastic.

Hey!

Thank you.

Yes.

[ Applause ] What a great way to end this day at the end of the road at the Holmen at the end of Lofoten.

Skal.

Skal.

For more inspiration, visit our web site, peopleofthenorth.net.

Funding for this series has been provided in part by the following.

Havila Voyages -- sustainable coastal cruises along Norway's beautiful coastline.

Oh, take me home Take me home where I belong VGAN Chocolate.

Norwegian flavor.

Available in Walmart stores.

Seafood from Norway.