Restaurant Aanaar is a restaurant in

Inari Inari may refer to: Shinto * Inari Ōkami, a Shinto spirit ** Mount Inari in Japan, site of Fushimi Inari-taisha, the main Shinto shrine to Inari ** Inari Shrine, shrines to the Shinto god Inari * Inari-zushi, a type of sushi Places * Inari, ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

at the Hotel Kultahovi, which was on the list of the 50 best restaurants in Finland in 2019. The Finnish Gastronomical Society has named it as the restaurant of the year in Finland in 2020. The chef of the restaurant is Heikki Nikula. The hotel and the restaurant are located on the banks of the Juutuanjoki River. Nikula has taken correspondence courses with the Helsinki Culinary School Perho.

History

Hotel Kultahovi ("Gold Court") was founded in 1937. It was closed in September 1944, during the

Lapland War During World War II, the Lapland War ( fi , Lapin sota; sv, Lapplandskriget; german: Lapplandkrieg) saw fighting between Finland and Nazi Germany – effectively from September to November 1944 – in Finland's northernmost region, Lapland. ...

, and the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

burnt it down in November of the same year. A new hotel building was completed in 1956. During 1966–86 the hotel's director was Maija Nikula. She became the owner in 1987, when the Finnish Tourism Association decided to give up the hotel. For the next 20 years, Nikula led the hotel until it was taken over by the next generation. Nikula's daughter Kaisu Nikula became the director, and her brother Heikki Nikula became the chef of the restaurant. The restaurant has been working on the present principles since 2008.

The restaurant today

The restaurant follows a Nordic style, and its models include

Noma Noma, NoMa, or NOMA may refer to: Places * NoMa, the area North of Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., US ** NoMa–Gallaudet U station, on Washington Metro * Noma, Florida, US * NOMA, Manchester, a redevelopment in England * Noma Distr ...

and

Fäviken Fäviken was a restaurant located in Åre Municipality, Jämtland, Sweden. It was run by chef Magnus Nilsson between 2008 and 2019. The food served at the restaurant was localised to the estates around the restaurant, with only a handful of exce ...

. It also draws from the

Inari Saami Inari may refer to: Shinto * Inari Ōkami, a Shinto spirit ** Mount Inari in Japan, site of Fushimi Inari-taisha, the main Shinto shrine to Inari ** Inari Shrine, shrines to the Shinto god Inari * Inari-zushi, a type of sushi Places * Inari, ...

tradition and comes up with innovative dishes. It serves local fishes, such as various species belonging to the

salmonidae Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish that constitutes the only currently extant family in the order Salmoniformes . It includes salmon (both Atlantic and Pacific species), trout (both ocean-going and landlocked), chars, freshwater whitefis ...

, whitefish and

pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

, brown trout and

arctic charr The Arctic char or Arctic charr (''Salvelinus alpinus'') is a cold-water fish in the family Salmonidae, native to alpine lakes and arctic and subarctic coastal waters. Its distribution is Circumpolar North. It spawns in freshwater and populati ...

. Ingredients also include lichen,

usnea ''Usnea'' is a genus of mostly pale grayish-green fruticose lichens that grow like leafless mini-shrubs or tassels anchored on bark or twigs.Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale University Press, 2014, The genus is in the f ...

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...

bark,

spruce beer Spruce beer is a beverage flavored with the buds, needles, or essence of spruce trees. ''Spruce beer'' can refer to either alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages. A number of flavors are associated with spruce-flavored beverages, ranging from ...

hierochloe ''Hierochloe'' is a genus of plants in the grass family known generally as sweetgrass. These are perennial rhizomatous grasses found primarily in temperate and subarctic regions of Eurasia and North America, although some species extend southward ...

and marinated

cones A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...

. For a dessert called "Forest",

bark bread Bark bread is a traditional food made with cambium (phloem) flour. It has a history of use as famine food. History Bark bread seems to be a primarily Scandinavian tradition. Mention of it is found in medieval literature, and it may have an even ...

is used along with berries, spruce twig granite and

boletus edulis ''Boletus edulis'' (English: cep, penny bun, porcino or porcini) is a basidiomycete fungus, and the type species of the genus ''Boletus''. Widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere across Europe, Asia, and North America, it does not occu ...

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...

. According to the Finnish Gastronomical Society the unique ingredients are the strength of the restaurant. In addition to the ingredients listed above the restaurant also uses oxyria digyna,

angelica archangelica ''Angelica archangelica'', commonly known as garden angelica, wild celery, and Norwegian angelica, is a biennial plant from the family Apiaceae, a subspecies of which is cultivated for its sweetly scented edible stems and roots. Like several oth ...

, inonotus obliquus, of which tea is made, and

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains ...

leaves, with which

sorbet Sorbet (), also called "water ice", is a frozen dessert made using ice combined with fruit juice, fruit purée, wine, liqueur, honey, etc. Generally sorbets do not contain dairy ingredients, while sherbets do. Etymology The word "sorbet" en ...

is made. Naturally the restaurant also uses local berries, such as blueberry,

lingonberry ''Vaccinium vitis-idaea'', the lingonberry, partridgeberry, mountain cranberry or cowberry, is a small evergreen shrub in the heath family Ericaceae, that bears edible fruit. It is native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra throughout the Norther ...

cloudberry ''Rubus chamaemorus'' is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae, native to cool temperate regions, alpine and arctic tundra and boreal forest. This herbaceous perennial produces amber-colored edible fruit similar to the blackbe ...

mountain ash Mountain ash may refer to: * ''Eucalyptus regnans'', the tallest of all flowering plants, native to Australia * Mountain-ashes or rowans, varieties of trees and shrubs in the genus ''Sorbus'' See also * Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf Mounta ...

berries, as well as various local

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is ...

s and wild herbs. Some of the ingredients are found right outside the restaurant’s back door, and some from elsewhere in Lapland, some from the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

. "This restaurant has to be located in Inari, somewhere else it would not be the same", says chef Heikki Nikula. In the restaurant hall there is a TV screen, on which one can see underwater life of the fish in Juutuanjoki River.

Aurora borealis An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

can be observed from the restaurant’s windows.

References

Restaurants in Finland Inari, Finland Tourist attractions in Lapland (Finland) {{coord, 68, 54, 22, N, 027, 00, 24, E, type:landmark_region:FI-10, display=title