Fishing and foraging in Norway's southern fjords

02.10.2023 - 14:59 / nationalgeographic.com

An expectant hush falls as two knife-wielding chefs in pristine whites emerge from behind the polished walnut counter at Sabi Omakase, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Stavanger. Ziggy, the sommelier, tops up our glasses. The show is about to begin.

“‘Omakase’ means ‘chef’s choice’,” he says, smiling warmly. “Everything is prepared fresh before your eyes, and you should eat each course immediately when served.”

The curtain rises on a zingy, king crab-bejewelled finger lime soup that we’re urged to slurp. Then, dish after dish appears on the counter, the tiny restaurant’s sole dining table, seating just nine. Silky halibut nigiri topped with caramelised onions, salmon belly nigiri with a powerful punch of wild garlic, umami-packed bluefish tuna with marinated seaweed, sweet raw shrimp, flat oysters with salmon caviar, a perfect langoustine with physalis and miso. The chefs work swiftly and precisely, with reverence for each ingredient as they fillet, slice, chop, garnish, glaze and blowtorch. 

Roger Joya appears from behind the scenes to ask if we’re enjoying the food. “This is Tokyo-style Edomae sushi reimagined with regional ingredients. The North Sea’s cold waters are the dream — full of incredible fish and seafood. We stay true to Japanese traditions, using sweet, sticky Akitakomachi short-grain rice as the base for our nigiri, but we add our own twist — river-grown Nordic wasabi, Norwegian Wagyu, reindeer. I call this ‘Normae’ style’,” he grins at his conflation of Norwegian and Edomae.

When Roger isn’t running the kitchen, he’s out working with divers, fishermen and fishmongers to ensure everything that arrives on his counter is of flawless quality. I stumble out into the night, walking off one the most memorable meals of my life as lights twinkle over the misty blues of Stavanger harbour. Norway’s fourth largest city made its fortune from the briny blue, here in the country’s south where the turquoise Lysefjord meets the North Sea. In Stavanger’s newly revamped cannery museum, I learn how sardines kept the economy here going between the 1870s to the 1950s — before North Sea oil landed the country the big bucks. Today, Stavanger has an appealing mix of tradition and edge, home to more historic timber houses in pretty pastels than anywhere else in Norway, and one of the most dynamic street art scenes in Europe, too. 

If Stavanger has hovered under the radar compared to its westerly cousin, Bergen, things are changing. The city is quietly asserting itself as a Norwegian culinary hotspot, with chefs drawing on the bounty of the fjords, fields, mountains and forests. At the pinnacle is two-Michelin-starred RE-NAA, where Sven Erik Renaa brings a foraged, seasonal touch to dishes such as sea urchin