Sharmila on Food

noma, Copenhagen

It’s taken me over two months to write this post.  That’s pretty rubbish.  Well, very rubbish.  So I’ll try not to labour this and cut to the chase.  noma is bloody ace.  It really is.  Yes, it is expensive, but ace.  I’ve never had a tasting menu in a Michelin starred restaurant before where I’ve left and haven’t felt like I either a) have gout, or b) need a good long lie down.  That is testament to the lightness of touch and freshness of flavours that you get at noma.  All that stuff about only sourcing ingredients from Northern Europe isn’t just gimmickery.  It results in you eating a series of dishes that don’t feel derivative of what you may have eaten before, and have a character all of their own.  This was a wonderful meal.  Looking back at this, it might seem surprising that only one course was dominated by meat (it was actually the only duff note of the meal), but I really didn’t miss it.  I think that speaks for how well composed the menu at noma is.

So, without further ado, what did we eat?  Well, lots and lots of things:

First up, some beautiful and dainty “cookies” composed of speck, that appeared to have been dried.  Tasty pork and crunchy stuff.  A good start.

Next up, smoked soft boiled quail eggs.  Just divine.  Perfectly soft boiled, a waft of that smokey flavour, and a light sprinkling of sea salt on top.

Then, one of my favourite things that I ate.  On top, a layer of crisp rye bread.  Below, a piece of baked, crisp chicken skin.  Both encased a glorious type of soft sheeps cheese.  This is everything you could want in a nibble.  Great contrast of textures, indulgent, but not too much.

On to a plant pot.  Yes.  Except those plants are radishes with leaves attached, and in the bottom is an edible soil and cream based mulch that you can dig into with said radishes.  A wonderfully fresh mouthful, and a great way to whet the appetite.

Next up were slices of dainty crispbread topped with some more light, whipped cheese and topped with a variety of herbs and, I think, some kind of herb flower.  This is as close to capturing the essence of fresh as it is possible.  Gorgeous.

So, that was just the amuses.  Phew.  Now on to the main stuff.

We were given some beautiful breads, but the real stars here were the spreading material.  On the left, a well, gorgeously goaty goat butter.  And on the left, pig fat topped with baked onions and smoked bacon.  Yes, pig fat.  Utterly utterly gorgeous pig fat.  Heaven.

The first course proper was a dainty palate cleanser of apples and hazelnuts.  Again, total freshness, but also very tasty too, with the tartness of the apple mingling really well with the richness of the nuts.

On to one of my other favourite dishes - snow crab with cubes of a mussel jelly.  This was just great.  The crab was spankingly fresh, rich, with the mussel jelly adding a welcome saltiness to the whole shebang.

On to…a spinach foamy thing.  This is when things started to get hazy due to initial glass of champagne combined with per course wine pairing.  Tasty, but not the most memorable point of the meal.

This is what I can only think of as onion squared.  A dish composed of onions in lots of different ways - a kind of slow cooked tasty mush, poached onions and then onion essence encapsulated in tapioca pearls, with lots of fresh herbs for good measure.  This was great - oniony (of course!) but very inventive.  However, it didn’t feel like invention for inventions sake - the tapioca, for example, was a really great textural addition to the dish.

How beautiful is this?  This was also my favourite favourite dish of the meal, and probably one of the best things I have eaten all year.  A series of different vegetables, al pickled in their own unique pickling cure, dotted with bone marrow.  What you can’t see is that one of the chefs came out to then pour a butter sauce all over this delightful creation.  For a dish so simple, this gave so much.  All of the vegetables had been deftly cured, with none overwhelming.  The way this mingled with the butter and richness of the bone marrow was just wonderful.  I wish I could eat this again.

Then, on to the only course that didn’t really do it for me.  Duck and duck heart, with some different vegetables.  I don’t have anything against duck, it’s just this dish didn’t really wow me.  After all of those delightful, fresh, delicate flavours, this felt a little like coming back down to earth in a way.

A between course palate cleanser of different forms of cucumber was up next.  Well, it definitely did cleanse my palate.  I particularly loved the cucumber cream and sorbet.  I probably could have done without the cucumber balls.  Overall though, I liked this.

Dessert consisted of a dish of berries with corn and a corn ice cream.  I love the flavour and sweetness of corn, and this combined well with the berries.  What I would say is, if you were looking for a proper full on sugar/fat assault for pudding, you aren’t going to get it here.  This was much more restrained, but it was in keeping with the overall meal.

Alongside this, we had opted for the wine pairing - we had a succession of wines mainly from Austria, composed of things such as Reisling and Gruner Veltner.  So I was in heaven, these being some of the wines I love the most.

And that was that, save for this lovely raspberry take on a walnut whip with coffee

All I can say is noma completely fulfilled my expectations.  I left feeling I was walking no air.  I thought I was done with fancy Michelin places and tasting menus - too much poncery, too much rich food.  But noma challenged that notion.  Not only was the food unique, but the service was fantastic - informal but incredibly knowledgeable.  They also have a habit of having some of the chefs come out and serve you, and it was nice to be able to talk with them too.

If you get the chance to go, do it.  It is expensive, but for a lovely one in a lifetime experience, it is totally worth it.

Details:

noma

Strandgade 93

North Atlantic House Cultural Centre

Copenhagen, 1401
Denmark
+45 3296 3297

Price: eye wateringly expensive.