By the time we got to Noma and it was dark and around the
restaurant was dead quiet. There
was a lit up Noma sign and two tiki-like torches. We were taking photos of ourselves outside with the Noma
sign as we were easily 20 minutes early. All the way there we were equally parts nervous and
excited. With this much hype and
expectation we were doing our best not to be setting ourselves up for
disappointment. Oh, how wrong we
would be!
Then all of a sudden one of the wait staff came out to get
us. After they questioned us about
having a reservation they welcomed us to our table. I think we were the last table to arrive in a room with only
11 tables!
Our waiter then explained to us the process of the
meal. No menus where brought, they
just asked if we had any allergies to which we said no. They then explained the menu, the first
half of the courses, the courses would come fast and furious and then the
second half would go slower.
When they said fast and furious, they were not kidding they
came faster than we could photograph, take notes, and then eat (they did slow
it down a bit after we told them we were a bit overwhelmed.)
The waiter then slammed down the dried flowered centerpiece
and said “this is your first course”.
He then motioned to two twigs pointing out. They totally looked like tree branches but on closer
inspection you could see that they had bubbles. They tasted very good.
The menu (that we only got at the end) lists the course as Malt
flatbread and juniper. They also
gave us crème fraiche to dip. This
is also the only course where I didn’t get a photo. I was just so overwhelmed... although I did get a photo of
the flowers after.
For the first 12 courses we enjoyed this fabulous champagne,
which was not part of the wine menu so I’m not able to tell you much about it
besides it was very good.
Second course was reindeer moss and cep... we were very
appreciative of them letting us know what we could eat and was decoration because
there were several things that look like you could eat but we weren’t
sure. The moss was
crispy and kinda brittle and very tasty almost airy. Surprisingly, exactly how I would expect moss to taste.
Next up was the crispy pork skin with black currant
leather. This was incredibly
interesting as the pork skin was somewhat reminiscent of those puffy pork rinds
and the black current leather was like fruit roll-up but that description makes
it sounds absolutely disgusting... let me assure it was amazing, the smoky,
salty crispy of the pork with the sweet, chewy, tart of the black currant made
it absolutely divine!
Course number 4 has us baffled until at least course 15 when
we actually asked one of the chefs about it. They brought us an entire tray of open empty blue
mussels and two closed mussels.
The instructions were to take of the top off the closed mussel and eat
the whole thing. We actually asked
are you sure about eating the whole thing (were they actually asking us to eat
shell?!) and the chef (by the way various chefs bring out each course and
explain the course as they arrive) responded with a very calm “Yes, I’m
sure”. It was very nice tasting,
the shell was very crunchy and the celery added a nice touch. We later found out they make the
shells from a dough and the shape comes from pressing the dough between two of
the mussel shells. At this point
you just assume if they put it in front of you, you can eat it.
Course five was two types of Swedish cheese one was melted
in a sort of dough that formed like a cracker. They then put very finely chopped arugula and another fine
dusting of the second cheese. The
cheese was creamy and crispy and the arugula added spiciness. Awesome!
Next course was potato threads that were deep fried into
little 2” pucks. These pucks were
then “glued” together with duck liver.
The richness of the liver with the crispy deep-fried awesomeness of the
potato was very very good.
Heavenly, really.
Course 7 was easily top two for both of us. It’s simplicity is scary, the taste was
incredibly ridiculous! It’s a
dehydrated carrot that is dehydrated in carrot juice. The carrots (we got one each) are placed on hay ash meaning
they burn hay collect the ash and then put it through a sieve to be then put on
the plate. It came with a
sorrel dip, which was this intensely green dip. Seriously it’s a carrot but really it’s the best carrot I’ve
ever had! OMG, blow my mind crazy!
Course 8 I think was the bottom of the pack for us. It was certainly neat but it was a tad
too intense. So they took
milk and boiled it until all the sugars in the milk caramelized and then they
dehydrated it to create crackers.
On top of the crackers they put shaved cod liver and kemp. It was served intensely cold and we
were told to eat is as soon as possible.
It was very fishy tasting and I found I couldn’t really taste the milk
crust. But it was certainly
interesting... just not a favourite.
Next one was not a fav on my list, it was a quail egg that
has been very lightly cooked, then pickled and then smoked. It was intensely flavourful and you
could really taste the pickling and the smoking. I was not a fan of the cold raw egg inside that waited to
explode in your mouth (you couldn’t eat it in more than one bite.) Awesome, just I would not go back for
seconds!
Course 10 was a potted plant. A baby carrot and a baby radish each, they were “potted” in
“soil” made of barley and “grass” made of actual grass (I’m sure there was much
more in the soil and grass but that is all we caught. It was very tasty and absolutely fun digging in the grass
and dirt to eat the very tasty carrots and radishes with extra dirt and grass. We even at the carrot and radish tops.
Course 11 was one of my absolute favourites. It was just grilled baby corn but it
was so well done with the smoky grill and the sweet corn.
Course 12 was sorrel leaves stuffed with beets and ground
crickets (yup, that’s right we ate Jiminy) and it came in an ice tray with
green snow. The snow was made of Nasturtium
which is kind of watercress. It
was very good as snow and really made for a great end dish before the “main”
dishes began.
That is the end of the fast and furious menu. There are still 10 more awesome courses but you are just going to have to wait. Plus the photos are locked on my iPhone.
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