Food Blog of the Month: HellesKitchen // Delicious street food from around the world

Article taken from: Food Blogs of the Month* HellesKitchen.

Hitchhiker in Mathallen:
Delicious street food from around the world

If you want to take a quick trip around the world, head up to the second floor of Mathallen. Here you will find hitchhiker which offers exciting dishes in true street food style. 

The restaurant has been located on the second floor for four years. Chef Morten Sjøvik has been on the Hitchhiker team for a year.

Hitchhiker is the place where you can eat dishes from all over the world, with a focus on Asia. You can also get dishes inspired by South America and the Nordics, but also fusion dishes.

Morten gets his inspiration for his street food dishes from his travels. Last year he traveled to Singapore, China and Jakarta (Indonesia).

– We create variations of well-known dishes and preferably with Norwegian ingredients, says the head chef at Hitchhiker.

We made Norwegian street food-style Christmas food before Christmas. The Lutefisk dumplings were a big success.

Singapore Pepper Crab never goes off the menu
Hitchhiker is known for serving special and sometimes challenging dishes. – We have calmed down the strangeness and made it more accessible to the guest. We are going to challenge a little, but it must not be too strange, says Morten Sjøvik. – We are a bit blind when it comes to chili, I must admit. Some sweat. It should be a little strong, but it should also be good and balanced.

One of Hitchhiker's most popular dishes is Singapore Pepper Crab.
– Guests are given plastic gloves and have to “attack” the dish with their fingers, says the chef. – We use Norwegian crab. It’s so incredibly good, and you just want more. This dish comes and goes on the menu.

Ramen experts
The big food trend, ramen, is also a dish Hitchhiker has served many times. – We won't be doing that much in the future. A ramen restaurant is opening up right down the street. Plus, it's easy to get arrested when you make classic dishes. People are on the alert and many are supposed to think so much and be experts. We make our version and people have to accept that. We have served the Vietnamese soup Phô in a classic way without too much interference, laughs Morten.

The airy, yet intimate restaurant in Mathallen is open for both lunch and dinner. A couple of dishes a week are changed and there is a slight difference between what is served during the day and in the evening. – We always have gyoza and steam buns on the menu in one form or another, but only in the evening. It takes time to make these, so once a day is enough, says Morten Sjøvik. – The dishes we make from Korea and China are often fusion dishes. We rarely serve classic variations of these.

Food from around the world

From America we make Greasy Food. We serve French fries with fried ground beef, mayonnaise, lettuce and melted cheese. It's almost too much!

– We try to represent all parts of the world, says Morten. But as mentioned, we also make dishes from our own latitude. One day, for example, we might have homemade potato pancakes and quick-cured salmon. Good pre-Christmas food, I tell you. We are collaborating with Annis pølsemakeri to make a kimchi pork sausage. It's good for the food truck and at pop-ups.

Adult clientele
The customer at Hitchhiker is 30 years old and up. – Yes, we have an adult audience, but there are also many people in their 20s, says Morten.

Customers are often well-traveled or just adventurous and want to try international and good food that is relaxed and unpretentious.

Morten traveled to Indonesia last year and brought inspiration home. It resulted in a Jakarta event at Hitchhiker. – Over half of the guests who came were from Indonesia. We got real performance anxiety then! But the food was so well received. It was a real hit. No one complained. Not like some Norwegians who think they know everything about ramen…

Hitchhiker offers a 7-course menu for 565 NOK or a 5-course menu for 475 NOK. You can also choose á la carte and if you are only slightly hungry, a couple of small dishes will suffice. They have a very good selection of wines by the glass: three whites, two rosés and three reds. They use natural wine.

Trends
What are the new trends in food, Morten? 

– The ramen wave is sure to continue. The hamburger trend doesn't seem to be dying out. A lot of these places opened up at once several years ago and now there have only been more. People love a good burger.

– I also believe that the trend is moving more towards fish and vegetarian. We always try to think about how a dish can be made vegetarian here at Hitchhiker. Sometimes vegan too, explains Morten. We have a challenge with people who come and think they can get one of the large menus in a vegetarian version. It's not that easy. Some people get angry and pissed off. Really! They should know that we think a lot about how certain dishes can be made vegetarian, that is, says Morten.

Throughout the four years Hitchhiker has been located in Mathallen, there must be some dishes that haven't been so popular? 

– We had a pig's ear salad that we served on shrimp chips. It was too demanding for people. Norwegians are difficult when it comes to consistency. They don't like resistance in the meat. People there also get cursed. It's not easy to "please" everyone in the fillet nation of Norway, of course, concludes Morten Sjøvik.

HellesKitchen's Asian tacos

I was inspired by Hitchhicker's profile about food and travel. I travel a lot myself and pick up inspiration that I take home with me. The dish I made is a kind of Asian taco made with pork. Real fusion!
Here is the recipe for the dish:

Asian taco for four people:
1 package of minced pork
3 tablespoons of neutral oil
Fish sauce to taste
Sriracha to taste
3 shallot, finely chopped
4 spring onion, sliced
Fresh coriander
1 red chili (or more), finely chopped
2 lemongrasses, finely chopped (white part only)
3 tsp finely grated ginger
Peanuts, coarsely chopped
Lettuce: Use lettuce that is easy to use as “taco shells.” I used heart lettuce.

This is what you do:
Fry the minced meat and onion in the oil.
Add ginger and lemongrass when the meat has browned a little. Mix.
Add a little fish sauce and sriracha sauce and adjust the flavor to your own taste. Turn off the heat and remove the pan from the stove.
Mix in peanuts, chili, spring onions and chili.
Fill the lettuce leaves with the mixture and sprinkle with fresh coriander. Eat with your fingers like a taco. The world's best fusion street food!