Dream it, plan it, live it. Fia Gulliksson and Martin Alfredsson decided to take their vision of the future out of their list of things to do and instead make it a reality. They had a dream about hosting, hunting, fishing and farming as well as meet with new people and for them prepare food using local, fresh and organic ingredients taken from around the corner.
In December 2008 they opened The Boathouse in Östersund. This mini-restaurant in a boathouse, with a stunning view over Storsjön, can seat up to 12 guests at a time. They accept 1-2 groups per month in order to maintain the level of cooking they expect themselves to produce.
To start we enjoyed some pre-dinner snacks while Fia and Martin told us about themselves and the restaurant concept. We had crispy moose chips, reindeer sausage, fried yellowfoot chanterelles and a delicious pesto made using nettles. This was washed down with a glass of SAV, a sparkling wine based on birch sap where the sap is harvested from birch trees growing on the mineral-rich soil of the Storsjön-area in Jämtland.
Seated in the boathouse we had a small tasting of their homemade snaps (spiced with St John’s wort, birch and blackcurrants). I think each and every one of us was eager to try the smoked Arctic char´s presented to us as soon as we arrived. Absolutely beautiful!
The first dish was called “Dopp i Kopp” (dip in the cup), an old dish with heritage from Tornedalen in the most northern part of Sweden. In a cup you put some onion, chives and other herbs and then pour hot clarified butter over. Next thing you do is to dip seasonal vegetables, and in this case also the arctic char, in the cup and enjoy. This was delicious.
A Garden Angelica– and green tea granita was served in order to get rid of all the buttery flavours in mouth.
Next we had a chili on seasonal meat from the wild. In this version Fia and Martin had used beaver, venison and a Swedish mountain cattle which was a fun take on a classic chilli. This was served with sour cream, tomatoes, green salad and soft flatbread.
For dessert we had a delicious “grandma’s dessert” with sweet cheese, sour lingonberries, whipped cream and caramel sauce with a touch of rosemary. Fingerlicking good!
Coffee was served with small bites of chocolate cake to be dipped in a coffee-syrup spiced with Garden Angelica-root.
This was a wonderful evening at Fia and Martins boathouse and I will happily return in the future.
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More photos from this evening can be found here!
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Adress: Torvollsvägen 68, 831 92 Östersund
Phone: +46-70-288 66 36
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