Can't believe it... we have been married for 10 years' already!!! It felt like just yesterday that we were two youthful nuts who just graduated from university.
As we walked through memory lane... we are forever grateful to Merete Skov Kristensen who indirectly brought us together.
I recalled fondly my time working in Hempel Singapore, and my heart is filled with thanks to Christian Vang, who smoothed the way for my tansfer to Hempel Denmark.
Florian has been putting up with a perfectionist freak such as I for 10 years already, who is constantly reaching for the unreachable sky!! and good in spotting the little black spot on a white cabinet, as he described me!
Then name Noma stands for nordic food, which brings to the world's attention the unassuming nordic cuisine , using ingredients found in the nordic.
It was a 21-course menu, and the only menu we could have.
This was our first dish, yes, flowers... but was it edible? Notice the two sticks of "twigs"? We were told to enjoy it. It was "twig" made of flat bread. Clever!
A lovely dish and brilliant idea... until I saw that they had the same pot of flowers in a bigger version in the washroom!... a place one wouldn't associate to see food!
Close-up of the "twig" from the flower vase. It tasted great, though a little burnt.
This was our second dish... again... which part was edible? It was the white moss, supposedly called the Reindeer moss. It tasted like mushroom.
Close-up of the reindeer moss. You are supposed to dip it into cream fraiche.
Here was the third dish - some kind of pork cracker topped with dried blackcurrant film, which was a weird combination for me... not my favourite
This was the fourth dish and one of my favourites, blue mussels. We were told to also eat the bottom shell. Ahhh?
Close-up of the mussel, and we realized that the bottom shell is made of some kind of seaweed cracker, absolutely delicious!
The only thing was there was only one mussel each, too few to feel satisfied... but this is what gourmet restaurant is all about, isn't it?
This was the fifth dish, which we couldn't remember what it was, except that it was sprinkled with mushroom powder, which was tasty.
This was the sixth dish - small cakes and cheese, rucola and chopped stems... very simple ingredients, yet very tasty.
Close-up
This was our eighth dish - potatoes sliced that tasted more like potato chips, toped with frozen chicken liver that was very oily. We could not taste so much of the oiliness because it was frozen. Neither Florian's nor my favourite.
This was the ninth dish - smoked quail eggs served inside a big quail like dish... very unusual, interesting and, creatively packed, and tasted exciting.
Here were the two small quail eggs set on hay still smoking and exuding the smell of the hay...
Mmmm... the smell from the hay smelled really good and reminded us of being back to nature. Noma has achieved what they intended :-)
Here was the tenth dish - ahhh, a plant? Yes, a muddy pot of plant, my absolute favourite!
Close-up - can you see the radish covered with soil? ... we were told to eat it! The "soil" was apparently made of hazelnut, malt and beer with a creamy grass dip underneath and tasted equally great. DELICIOUS!
This was the 11th dish - toast with cods roe. On top was a crisp film of duck sauce which was dried. Very pretty.
Our 12th dish - the modern æbleskiver with a whole small fish from Finland called "muikku". We were quite skeptical initially. That fish didn't look that inviting, but it tasted actually very good, much better than the traditional æbleskiver.
Close-up
Now... we had to be brave to try the fish!!! This turned out to be one of Florian's favourites.
Here came the bread... Noma self freshly mad bread... wrapped in felt basket... very nice :-)
...served with garlic butter and some kind of pork fat. I preferred the butter, but Florian preferred the pork fat. The bread was great.
After 11 appetizers which felt more like little snacks, this was our first main course - squid. Notice the young pine... they were edible, all picked from the nordic countryside... very interesting. They tasted mild and great.
This was the 13th dish - crab meat served with egg yolk and herb sauce... the chef/waiter was pouring the sauce...
Close-up. Looked too pretty to be eaten...
14th dish - Limfjord oyster. I loved how it was presented... almost made me feel like I was near the beach walking on peddles... hmmm... we wondered how they kept the pebbled "plate" clean though?
Close-up
15th dish - we both liked this best. Thinly sliced lightly frozen chestnut eaten raw with fish roe sauce. Apparently having it slightly frozen improved the texture of the taste, we were told. Seemed like the folks in Noma were right.
16th dish - Cauliflower was the main character of this dish and accompanied by pine needles (not edible), which was too overpowering a decor though. The cauliflower tasted good. Top layer was carameilized and crispy, and the rest was steamed to varying degree, so you tasted different texture all the way through. Our cauliflower was a little burnt though, otherwise, it would have been given a higher score! Florian's favourite nevertheless.
17th dish - this dish looked very artistic, until the chef/waiter poured this foamy sauce over... sigh. Since it was covered with all the foam, I could not quite remember what I have eaten. But I remember the long green stem was a cabbage stem, which tasted surprising good! Normally I would discard cabbage stem from my cooking, but Noma has inspired me to use all parts of the vegetable!
18th dish - Nordic picked vegetables. Loved the colours - pickled carrots, beet root, cabbage, all from its own sauce. It was drizzled with some kind of meat stock sauce and served also with bone marrow.
19th dish - duck fillet with edible leaves and rose petals. The smell from the rose petals though sweet, made this dish too perfumy for Florian's liking. But I enjoyed eating the leaves. Made me feel like I was back to nature!
And we were supposed to eat it with a dagger too!
20th dish - now is the dessert called gammel dansk... weird ice-cream in sweet dild and green spinach (?) sauce. pretty bad... don't think those vegetables go well with ice-cream!
21st dish - called the pear tree. The heavy-looking green cake on the right was surprisingly light and melt in your mouth like ice-cream.
Flødeboller chocolate filled with yogurt sauce and potato chips coated with chocolate. Strange combination I would rather do without.
And here came the bill of a life-time!
We thank God for holding our hands together through thick and thin thus far for the past 10 years and for all the blessings He has given us.
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