Before heading to Oslo we heard rumours that even a beer was £9. This wasn’t a lie. Even in a rustic, homely restaurant where the food was surprisingly cheap, the lowest cost beer was about £9 (and plenty for much more). Instead, we headed for a cutting-edge cocktail bar, where we were half-expecting to be nursing one cocktail between us. Surprisingly, prices didn’t seem to go up proportionately and were instead more or less in-line with nice cocktail bars in London – around £15 - £17 per cocktail.
HIMKOK was difficult to find, and even once inside we weren’t quite sure where to go. It felt like we’d accidentally walked into someone’s house. We peered behind a thick curtain in one of the rooms and the friendly bartender invited us to sit by the bar. We were presented with a relatively short menu of around 10 cocktails, each showcasing a regional Norwegian specialty ingredient. We had to limit ourselves to just a few, including some incredibly good house-distilled Norwegian aquavit (sadly the bottle we bought at the airport didn’t compare at all). Here are a few of the cocktails that we tried, all incredibly good:
Tomato (foreground): House-distilled aquavit, house-distilled vodka infused with bread; mancino ambrato vermouth, and clarified tomato juice. Savoury, boozy, vegetal. The tomatoes come from Finnøy, a small region (dissolved in 2020) in the South-West of Norway. It’s responsible for 50% of Norway’s tomato trade.
Red Currant (background): House-distilled caraway vodka, sherry, red currants and peppers. Sour, fruity, botanical. The redcurrants come from Tromsø – 350km north of the Arctic Circle border. Being so far north, the Sun doesn’t set for two months during the Summer, which means these berries have non-stop sunshine within a cool climate, giving a unique and intense flavour.
Bartender’s special (below): Given how much we enjoyed the two cocktails and the aquavit, the bartender was also keen for us to try (on the house) a recipe he’d created for a competition. It was a little sweeter, a bit rhubarb and custardy (but a lot classier) with a magical creaminess from a homemade spirit distilled from whey. He told us it was based on Trollkrem – we had no idea what this was but politely nodded. We have since learnt it’s a traditional lingonberry mousse dessert made with just three ingredients: egg white, sugar and lingonberries.
We would absolutely recommend HIMKOK if you’re in Oslo. A fantastic way to learn more about Norwegian produce, and if spending lots on alcoholic drinks whilst out is practically inevitable, you might as well have some delicious cocktails!
Stay salty af,
Anika & Fleurie