Restaurant noma was voted the world’s 15 best restaurant by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants of 2007.
Congratulations!
Source: Politiken
Monthly Archive for April, 2007
Wednesday 18 April 2007
I had decided not to write another post on noma. Really, this time I wanted to fully concentrate on the enjoyment of the afternoon alone with my dear mum and beloved baby brother, having lunch at my very favourite Danish restaurant.
My jabbering about how extraordinary noma is, had finally paid off and I had managed to talk (part of) my family into joining me again to this journey to an exploration of the senses.
That is what noma is doing – stimulating my senses. By sense I don’t only mean scent and taste; I mean sight too and, if such exists, the sixth sense. The little things important in life, the little extra that makes you (me) feel good.
There are flowers everywhere at noma, each table and even at the loo, wild flowers from the Danish country side. There are candle lights too everywhere, which is a very characteristic thing for us Northern people. During the long, cold and very dark winter we light up our homes with tiny flames flickering by the slightest breath of air, this bright light reminding us of the warmer and sunny days we’re all yearning for. Noma has the capability of making me feel at home and relaxed and fully let myself float into this heaven of experiencing the delectable food they create here.
The lunch menu and wine:
“Crudité” and pickled elderberries
Celery juice and dill
Cod, mushrooms
Mead and herbs
Duck breast and ramson
Leek and wild herbs
Glazed sheep’s milk mousse
and sorrel granité
Caramel in different textures
Crumbles and chips of malt
2005 Chardonnay
Jean-Paul Brun
Beaujolais
2001 Cabernet Franc
Catherine & Pierre Breton
Loire
We got the very same table as my first time, the best in the room to me. I enabled my guests to enjoy the view of the harbour and myself to overview the whole restaurant from my corner between two enormous windows.
The snacks and amusing lump fish roe with horseradish, bred crumble and milk soup was the same as I had the last time, and I was glad to see how surprised my two dearest were, just as I was, when I met this innovative kitchen for the first time.
The Crudité was art. I don’t know how the chef and cooks come up with these imaginings, but they must see them inside their head in some way to be able to create such a beautiful plate, adorably colourful. A painting in oil. This is what I mean by stimulation of the sense of sight. So fresh, so crackly and a very good taste. The croutons thin to the extreme and very salt.
Cod with mushrooms, salt bread crumble and with the mead, which is the yellow sauce that surrounds the fish. Amazing how the mushrooms suited the cod and the mead and the rest of the ingredients the salt rye bread crumple and the herbs matched very well. The Chardonnay I had with it was perfect for the dish, not for the lump sucker. The cod brought out new flavours of the wine and in particular dryness and more volume.
The duck was wonderful, tender, strong sauce, powerful ramson foam, leek rolled in ashes, which didn’t taste as strong as one might imagine, more like a dry and a mild, flat flavour.
The Cabernet Franc had a great odour, powerful blackcurrant, a good taste and much dryness and tannin. In my opinion the long after taste lacked fruit and fullness. It was a bit better after some 30 minutes in my glass but not enough, I believe.
We got a pre-dessert that sent us all right out into the garden one fine summer day with the lawn mowed minutes before. This green and fresh scent was exactly what I tasted with the green wood sorrel granité. The mousse sugar flake and the green anise on top was marvellous. Again, mixing everything provided the full joy of it.
The dessert was a bomb of dark powerful flavours, spiced up with roasted barley and yoghurt to add a bit of sour and salt to the sweetness of the malt. Need I say I loved it?
A part from using the Scandinavian herbs and flowers to a large extend, I find that the essence of noma’s food is the liquid which accompanies each course in one way or another for example being a sauce, a soup or a gelé. It’s these juses that give the finishing touch to the food, the intensity and powerful flavour, mixing them with the other ingredients in the plate takes you out there where you can’t swim any more – close to heaven because of an astounding deliciousness.
I love that the bread is brought to the table warm and in a felt basket and that the steak knife comes in a dagger sheath. I love the atmosphere at noma and the way that the waiters are friendly, not too formal, but professional at the same time. I love that it makes me warm to think of the sheep’s skin at my back caressing me sitting in the comfortable chair with arm rests. I love that this energy, the sixth sense, I get from dining at noma lasts throughout days.
When I’m visiting noma, somehow the sun is always shining on Copenhagen. Why is that?
good food makes me glad. noma makes me happy.
Really, just like that!
Friday 6 April 2007
Delicacy and Innovation
In the adorable, old, softly hilled but rough town of Lønstrup by Jutland’s North West coast there is a wonderful place, Restaurant Glashuset, only open during spring and summer. The chef there is Kim Møller-Kjær, an ambitious and clever guy. The restaurant shares premises with a glassblowing and a shop all in one house.
I know Kim from his time at the Hotel Phoenix in Hjørring (North of Jutland), where I enjoyed always delicious food sitting in the old distinctive wine-cellar next to the kitchen, and I remember that I was impressed by the young Kim’s creations from my very first bite. Food of Kim’s standards is not to often to be found in that part of the Denmark, and this fact made me think about another Danish delight, the film Babette’s Feast.
A snack
3 versions of asparagus and North Sea cod
Lump sucker with partly mashed potatoes, onions and thick cream.
Risotto with Danish langoustines, fresh green ramson and ramson oil.
Lamb from Hørmsted with piment and celeriac
Gin and tonic
Cheese
Buttermilk and dark chocolate
The Grüner Veltliner was so good. A strong scent of flowers and at the same time crispy with lemon. I’ve never sniffled nor tasted a wine with such a powerful citrus flavour. And the amazement was even bigger, when the food came and I experienced how the asparagus absorbed the lemon taste and drew out the dryness and the body of the wine.
I really liked the three tastings, one of the dinner’s best dishes and indeed, the first one was surprising. A fine powder of frozen white asparagus spiced with chilli and with the Spanish Serano ham perfectly crispy, not leathery in any way, it provided both salt and intensity to the dish and with the knife-point of chilli darting the sweetness of the white vegetable. The chervil matched the green asparagus well, and both the fine cod fish and the pecorino cheese did that too. Last, on the upper left top, was the white asparagus cream, which had a delicate taste and the cod provided some structure to this creation.
I completely forgot to photograph the second course. I guess that I was too busy absorbing the next wine, which was a lovely Riesling 2005 ‘Kiedrich Gräfenberg’, from Rheingau, and pecking at my puffy lump sucker pearls. The wine was magnificent with a perfect balance of fruit and dryness, a clear aroma and a good body.
The waiter splashed a thick cream onto the plates, lightly for the ladies and lavishly for the gentlemen. I found it a good idea to add the roughly mashed potatoes with the tiny sparkling and pink eggs bringing some substance to this delectable course. The food was emphasizing the fresh-ness of the wine and brought new flavours as well.
I’d like to jump to the main course which consisted of lamb in carvings and stuffed in spring rolls, which was very delicious and I hardly tasted the characteristic woollen flavour that lamb can have. The piment and the slow cooked celeriac elements were a delight. The problem here was the lamb slice that most unfortunately was cut in a way that appeared tough in my mouth. I had to cut the meat into small pieces and it didn’t even help much, very lamentable for such a nice dish.
Australia, can they produce a nice Pinot Noir? Yes, I must say, absolutely. This Yarra Yering 2003 was served semi-cold my guess is 12-14 degrees celcius, massive fruit, berries, but still lots of dryness, structure, a full-bodied wine in the full sense of the word. A bombe.
The ‘clean-up guy’, the gin and tonic, was a fun addition and comprised all that it should including alcohol and juniper berry.
The dessert was nice. A buttermilk ice cream with dark chocolate, but it was like the combination of the two wasn’t really harmonious. The dessert missed some sweetness, in my opinion. Sweet as well as excellent however, was the New Zealand Long Golly Riesling 2005, which had a perfect fruit and sour balance, and an intense and delightful taste.
As for the snack, the sparkling Yering Station, Victoria was great, dry and bubbling in a good way. Yet, the small toasts, puff paste sticks, olive paste, salt almonds and cheese fondue were completely indifferent and levels below the rest of the courses.
The young waiters this evening, by the way, were brought in from the Norsminde Kro and providing us with a perfect and humourous service.
My favourite course of the evening was the risotto and langoustines with the fresh green ramson and ramson oil. A heavenly dish, I’d like to say. Combining the tender and mild risotto, the sweet and delicate flavour of the lovely langoustines and the bitterness in them with the ramson was astoundingly good and really innovative. At first, I found it a bit strange with a red wine to accompany the dish. However, I must agree with Kim that this was a good choice of matching the intense and darkly-flavoured ramson with this Chianti Classico Riserva 1998. The Sangiovese grapes stood the course of the sweet and bitterness in the food. I love bitterness, always have, and this was really wonderful.
I was moved and happy, and leaving the restaurant thinking about the Danish film Babette’s feast. A splendid evening.
Glimpses of brilliance. Well done boys. Bravo, Kim!
Scandinavian food when it’s best
I’m in love. In love with noma. It’s as simple as that. noma is the best place to eat in Copenhagen at the moment, in my opinion. I’ll try to explain why. But first, I’d like to introduce what I ate there.
noma’s good food:
Crispy paper-thin and generously salted skin flakes of pork, chicken and fish being the best crisps I’ve ever had. The crispy-ness of them was remarkable. Fried tempura scrimps and mackerel and a cream comprising cepe mushrooms (boletus edulis).
What an amuse. Watch the photo. Doesn’t it look like a painting? I think the waiter called it milk soup with fresh cheese and with lump fish roes, seaweed, radish, snow made of semi-frozen horseradish and underneath it some brown/black crackling stuff I never found out what was.
The horseradish contained a hidden surprise. In my mouth the cold root and the stuff under it melted a little, and the next second it fire worked, unexpectedly. It was like a small blow and an explosion, completely new and innovative, to me, the cool-ness and tingle-ness of it, all at the same time. Moving the spoon round at the bottom of the plate, the algae were revealed, which weren’t at all what is often served with maki rolls and sushi, sometime a bit leathery, maybe. No, this was very different and so much better. If you can talk about tenderness, I think this the right word to describe its texture. The taste was fresh and mild, not really bitter, perhaps a bit like the taste of artichoke. A really delicious course.
Exquisite smoked eel of the finest quality melting on my tongue, and cider vinegar gelly with eel soup and dill. Although the power, the fat-ness of the fish, and the taste of smoke, this dish remained light and with finesse. The apple and the herbs must be the reason behind this. The various ingredients, and the perfect balance of fat, salt, sweet and sour gave an impression of the high complexity in this good food.
Roasted chicken with an intense, powerful and delicate sauce, not thick. The green parsley foam and the nicely well-done cooked parsnip were both very tasty. Flowers of spring on the top emphasising the pureness and wish for presenting the season as well as the idea of the Scandinavian origin.
I got two slices of nice, moist and tender chicken. The one part was a tiny bit rose in the middle of the thickest part of the meat. However, and I would like to stress this, it didn’t change the taste nor the eating experiencing comparing with the other fully cooked part.
Brilliant dessert. Buttermilk jelly at the bottom and ice-cream with liquorish raisins kicking the mild taste, and on top, the decorative sweet malt flakes. But most importantly the sprinkled mint leaves, this is where the brilliance come in, the fine characteristical and fresh taste sort of took the flavour of this dish to another dimension. The mint matched the strong and intense taste of the raisins and gave lightness to it. Again each ingredient was tasty in itself, but mixing them and that’s what I did with the last 2-3 spoonfuls, to circle my spoon round the plate and to melt the rest altogether – even nicer.
What I love so much about this food is the lightness and elegance of it, the fact that all superfluous fat had been removed. I was stunned by millions of flavours. That’s how I sensed it, and afterwards when I left the place, feeling light and tremendously happy. This food is so high-level and complex that I can hardly find ways of describing it. The large number of ingredients in each plate makes it impossible to remember every one of them. Each single little element was wonderful and mixing them made the course even better.
I would like to emphasize that the service which the waiters provided was excellent. First of all they made me feel welcome and easy. I liked the way they explained us about the food, and one waiter helped me with the chair, when I was going to the loo. All in all to the point, not too much and not too less.
We had one glass of white wine to accompany the food. The sommelier suggested a Grüner Veltliner, Spätlese from Fred Loimer (forgot which year, again sorry). It had a wonderful smell, lots of it and taste, full-bodied and well-balanced dryness and sweetness. Nicely cool at first, hiding a bit of the fruit and this went well with the amuse, and then a bit warmer and more soft for the eel but still with a good body, also for the chicken. To my surprise it didn’t hurt the dessert either.
We got the best, in my view, table in the restaurant, watching the ships in the canal, and further away the new building of the Royal Danish Theatre and Nyhavn’s colourful houses and boats.
To be honest, I had very high expectations. I’ve had dinner at quite a few one Michelin Star places here, which were all very lovely, but I’ve never tried a two stars restaurant before. I had also heard very good things about noma lately and I was thus very intrigued, high prospects. However, every expectation was fulfilled. I had a splendid time and actually the impression stayed with me longer than just for the rest of the day.
Senses and surprises – that’s what I look for in dining. And noma truly understands how to provide it. noma really has knocked me sideways!
Oh, one fantastic thing, though that noma didn’t provide directly, was to share this experience and to watch how my friend enjoyed it and was surprised by it as much as I was. That was really something.
By the way, what to eat for breakfast at such a noma day? Rolled oats, of course, with cane sugar and milk. But just a small portion, though.
I wonder why the name of this great restaurant is ‘noma’? Short for ‘Nordisk mad’ (Nordic food) in Danish?
Two stars – what makes three of them? Perhaps a ‘Toilet’ sign on the door?
noma Thursday 29 March 2007
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