September 2010
September 29, 2010
September 26, 2010
Dining at Mikla
It has been some time since I dined at Mikla, chef Mehmet Gurs’ penthouse restaurant in Istanbul, but the flavors from the night are still fresh in my mind. The meal was a fitting end to a spectacular foray into Turkey; much like the days I spent there; each dish was rich with Mediterranean flavor.
Before I delve into the meal itself, I would like to thank Chef Gurs for accommodating my seven-person group so handily and on such short notice. It was only two weeks before our dinner that the group even decided to travel to Istanbul, so Chef Gurs’ swift generosity in offering a table at which I could celebrate my dad’s birthday from afar must not go unnoticed. We were not an easy group to host, either. Out of the seven of us, only three had the desire to budget for a tasting menu, which made the timing quite difficult, and regrettably unsatisfactory for some.
Although I was assured that everything would be taken care of (it was), I was given a scare when I arrived at the reception to find a reservation for “Johns Gonzo –Party of Two”, written in by the chef himself. Naturally, I assumed that this was meant for me, and that it was incorrect, which caused a bit of difficulty. It was not until a few minutes later when the chef’s very capable manager, Ms. Sabiha Apaydin, found the reservation in my name, two spots underneath Mr. Gonzo’s. I was immediately relieved, and was able to enjoy my evening from that point on.
We spent our first hour at the restaurant’s bar, half of which is an open terrace at what feels like the top of the world, where we drank the sunset along with our Turkish wine. After the sun was down and the city illuminated, we moved to our table at the other side of the restaurant to begin.
The meal began with an amuse of chilled pea soup with the slightest hint of mint – a promising beginning.. The soup hit just the right spot after a hot day in the Turkish sun, and refreshed my palate before I even knew it was necessary. I played a game with the globules of olive oil that dotted the surface as I alternated between spoonfuls of soup laced with olive oil and without. Following the soup was a Carpaccio of North Aegean grouper with Kalamata olives, lemon and dill. Both as a follow-up to the chilled pea soup and simply on its own, the dish was magnificent. Thin slices of grouper were laid out neatly on the plate, with olives and herbs distributed pleasantly along the fish’s surface which made for an exciting time in scooping up all the little bits of flavor. The dish seemed to be the pure essence of the Mediterranean, although I would hardly have pegged it as Turkish. Misconceptions can be funny like that.
The next dish did not play the same tune as the previous two, and instead of light and airy the dried beef with Turkish cheese (that bears resemblance to Parmesan Reggiano) struck a decidedly heavier chord. A hint of nutmeg lined the periphery of the tousled beef while the cheese accented the plate’s hearty attitude. Simply marvelous. The meal seemed to alternate themes from this point forward and pleasantly contrasted my expectations. From the beef and cheese course we were taken back to the Turkish countryside with a plate of goat cheese and fig, accented with a special Turkish preparation of honey, truffles and arugula. My mouth is watering at the thought of succulent fig and honey juxtaposed against the dryness of the goat cheese and arugula.
While the previous courses evoked thoughts of Tuscany, it wasn’t until the next course that it became clear that Mikla is a Turkish restaurant, first and foremost. The cherry wood smoked lamb loin with a walnut pistou and pinto bean puree precisely satisfied my preconceptions of gourmet Turkish cuisine. The walnuts complemented the nuttiness of the rare protein, and as such the three of us doing the tasting were absolutely floored.
The next course saw a return to the sea, and featured grilled grouper, anchovy and olive oil-poached artichoke. Its artful presentation added to the course, with splashes of color provided by tufts of asparagus, zucchini and a fantastically flavorful red/green olive puree around the uniform tones in the center of the plate. This is fish done right.
The final savory course was a beef cheek and vegetable “pot au feu” with some more pea soup serving as a sauce if one so desires. I did, and so consumed my simultaneously light and substantial entrée with gusto. The light mint of the soup wonderfully lifted the darker flavors of the beef cheek into a very successful balance. Although each seafood dish performed wonderfully on its own, it was the clearly the turf that took dinner to another level.
We finished up with four phenomenally prepared desserts, each one as good as the last. Starting off was the “Bergama Tulum” (Turkish cheese) with a fig confit and walnut puree. The richness of the nuts and cheese paired well with the sweet confit and the resulting plate felt distinctively Turkish, much like the lamb. Following that was the vanilla panna cotta with a wild lavender flower preserve. Although the preserve was very sweet, when taken in moderation with the panna cotta it made for a wonderfully creamy and delicious dessert.
The final two courses seemed to depart somewhat from the Mediterranean theme, with a warm raspberry soup and vanilla ice cream, as well as the “Truffled Truffle”. The raspberry course was reminiscent of a deconstructed pie, and the inclusion of the vanilla ice cream made it seem vaguely American. That isn’t to say it was bad, it was in fact far from it, but it was certainly unexpected. The small truffle was served under a glass dome on top of its plating, which intrigued me greatly. Inside of the chocolate exterior was a creamy concoction of cognac, truffle, and more chocolate, which absolutely blew me away as I finished out the meal.
Altogether, I was thoroughly impressed by Mikla. Mehmet Gurs’s operation on top of the city gets my wholehearted recommendation for the smoothness of its operation, its friendly service and particularly the incredible quality of its food. I’m sure that he has developed some new dishes over the four months since I’ve been there that I would love to get out and try. It’s just too bad I won’t be able to travel abroad again for a very long time.
September 25, 2010
September 20, 2010
noma Now...and Then - A Look Back During Lunch
The end of a great meal is always a bittersweet experience. I am exhilarated by the meal I just had, but saddened that it is done. Such was the case when Scott Boswell and I finished our dinner at noma. Our sadness, however, was considerably tempered by the fact that we would be returning to the restaurant in just a few hours for lunch, this time accompanied by our wives and my one-day-shy-of-eleven year old son. In addition, we would get to experience some of noma's culinary history. Our dinner consisted of noma's current menu and some of its newest dishes. The lunch would consist of a collection of dishes from the last three years. We left our dinner at noma the night before quite happy. We had eaten an amazing meal and were coming back for more!
The snacks we had at lunch were the same that we had at dinner the night before. A discussion of them with photos can be found here.One dish that requires a little further discussion is the live fjord shrimp. For his age, my son is a very experienced and adventurous diner, but I knew that he would be challenged eating the live fjord shrimp and he was.Rene Redzepi told us that about 90% of the people to whom he serves it are challenged by it. He says, "It's because of the eyes...an oyster, no problem, it doesn't look at you and move, but essentially it's the same thing." My son did eat it, but didn't really enjoy it and unfortunately, it put him a little on edge going into the rest of the meal. Happily, his raised defenses soon began to melt away.
At dinner, Scott and I very much enjoyed the wine pairings using the wines of the Loire Valley. Since many of the same wines would be paired with lunch, I opted to experience another side of noma that I had heard about - their natural juices, and had my lunch paired with them. Another reason for choosing the juices was that I would be having dinner later that night at Restaurant A.O.C. and wanted to limit my alcohol to remain fresh for that - or at least as fresh as possible. That didn't stop me from trying noma's own Pilsner style beer to start my meal. It was golden, hearty and refreshing.
Cucumber Juice
Cucumber was the unifying bridge between the first full course and the paired juice. We were served a salad, but a salad unlike any that I had ever had before. Called "Gem Salad and Hazelnut Milk, White Currant and Juniper", the main part of the salad was the leaves and the root of a gem lettuce that had been cooked in an aromatic tea made from "wild plants." The root was then sliced and arranged on the plate looking like little white coins. The cooked leaves were arranged around the salad with a perimeter of nasturtium leaves, while the plate was dotted with sweetly tart white currants. This all rested on a small pool of hazelnut milk and was dressed on top with a vinaigrette of green juniper oil from Gotland and apple vinegar. Each plate also held a cucumber blossom that added a bit of cucumber flavor and a touch of color to the dish. The juice was a cucumber juice, which truly tasted of the essence of itself and mingled nicely with the faintly sweet salad. The dish was a lovely study in texture with no element proving overly assertive, but each adding subtle nuance.
Invasive species can be a real problem. Sometimes, however, an invasive species can be an improvement - at least culinarily. The razor clams in the next dish, Razor Clam and Parsley, Horseradish and Dill, are Pacific razor clams, which have invaded and overtaken the native variety. Chef Redzepi prefers these clams to the native North Atlantic variety, stating "they are quite larger, do extremely well in our cool waters and are extremely tasty." Not having a basis at hand to directly compare the two varieties, I can't personally confirm the differences, but these clams were certainly quite tasty, quite large and quite beautifully presented, wrapped in a shiny parsley sheet next to grated frozen horseradish with a swirl of clam and dill juice poured onto the plate. Chef Redzepi, who serve the dish, urged us to use the spoon and the fork to get each of the flavor elements in each bite. He was right about that too.
I have certainly had pineapple juice before, but this was the first time I ever had apple pine juice. The next juice pairing was apple juice infused with pine. It was a remarkably delicious combination, tart, sweet and with added depth from the pine. It was paired with another dish that I had a version of in NY at the Corton dinner, Tartar and Sorrel, Tarragon and Juniper.
One of the oldest dishes still in their rotation, the development of this dish has an interesting story. Chef Redzepi explained that when this dish was first conceived, it seemed that most new dishes were being prepared with some type of new machinery and/or new chemical. While he has nothing against either of those things, he and his crew wanted to see if they could " make a dish where we only used our hands and still make it feel innovative." They used to make this dish with a mortar, but now they do use a blender. At the Corton dinner, I was enthralled by Redzepi's skillful use of sourness, especially with sorrel. In Copenhagen, the sorrel was even more sour, but the dish was even better. As Chef Redzepi explained to us, in Denmark he is able to get wild woodsorrel, which grows in shade in forests. By virtue of being relatively sun deprived, the wood sorrel, a type of oxalis, becomes even more sour. While I enjoy sour, too much can be unpleasant. With this even more sour wood sorrel, I was even more amazed by Chef Redzepi's balancing skill. He had instructed us to pick up a little of the meat and and a little of the sorrel with our hands, dip it in crushed juniper then in a tarragon emulsion before eating it. Eating this dish was as much fun as it was delicious and it was quite delicious. The apple pine juice made a perfect pairing.
There are few things I enjoy eating more than langoustines. I was thrilled when I saw them come out on the next plate. I use the term “plate” loosely, as the langoustines were served on large stones. Nevertheless, or more likely, as a result of the stones, the dish, Langoustines and Söl, Rye and Parsley, was particularly stunning and dramatic. Once again, we were instructed to eat the langoustines with our hands, picking them up and dipping them in beads of “mayonnaise,” which was actually an emulsion made from Pacific oysters and seaweed. The protein rich oysters are simply blended with a touch of oil before the seaweed is added. The result is a deep, rich, primal oceanic flavor. The langoustines, small, but extremely flavorful, were, according to Chef Redzepi, alive just a couple of hours before. They are fished from very deep waters from a specific area of the Faroe Islands, which are located in the North Sea between Iceland and Norway, to the northwest of Scotland. They were magnificent.
Potatoes and Milk Skin, Lovage and Yogurt was really a study in potatoes, with the other ingredients used to highlight the essential potato-ness of the dish. In the center of the plate lay a very smooth potato puree made only from potatoes and potato stock without any fat. To add a little creaminess to the dish, the kitchen layered milk skin on top. Some slightly cooked small potatoes were scattered around the plate to provide textural contrasts, while chervil and watercress stems were placed to add color, flavor and visual drama. The dish was finished with a sauce made from yogurt whey and lovage oil. It was a surprisingly complex dish with many subtle nuances of flavor and texture. It was my son's favorite savory dish of the meal.
A pairing with a crazy good, flavor saturated celery juice couldn't have been better.The celery juice was carried through to the following course, King Crab and Leek, Ashes and Mussels.
The king crab, from the north of Norway, was plated next to the leeks, which had been covered in hay ash. The small logs were then bathed table-side with a foamy sauce of mussels. The plate was then sprinkled and finished with fried bread crumbs. One might think that the ash would impart a burnt or at least strongly smokey flavor to the dish, but somehow it doesn't. The overall gestalt of the dish was similar to the langoustine dish from earlier and the oyster dish from last night, incorporating very elemental and primal sea flavors and eliciting a very specific taste memory. Ash coatings seem to be a growing trend. According to the noma staff, the use of ash in food was a Viking tradition. More recently, I first became of the creative use of ash in modern cooking via Andoni Luis Aduriz, who presented his ash coated beef at Madrid Fusión several years ago. This particular dish, was put in service at noma over the past three years or so and Redzepi may have used ash before then, so it is not clear to me, if one has come from the other's influence or if they were arrived at independently. I have since seen ash used elsewhere, most recently prior to this meal at Town House in Chilhowie, Virginia, where leek ash was used in a lamb dish. This would also not be the last meal I would encounter an ash coating on this trip. The ash is certainly visually striking and all the dishes I have had with it, have been outstanding, yet I have so far been unable to discern more than a subtle flavor contribution from the ash in those dishes. Based on the evidence, I have had so far, though, I am happy to continue exploring its continued evolution.
Like the celery juice before it, noma's carrot juice spoke of the essence of the very best carrots. This was poured more for fun to taste it then it was to be a specific pairing for the next dish, Turbot and Stems.
The turbot was spectacularly delicious, served with a sauce of elderberry capers, white wine and roasted turbot bones and accompanied by celeriac, puree, beach cabbage leaves and a variety of stems and herbs. Though the plating could not be considered so, this dish, was perhaps the most classical of all that we had. It is also one of the oldest noma dishes that we had, as it has been served using different fish and accompaniments seasonally “for a long time.” This was another of my son's favorite dishes. In my estimation, fish doesn't come any better than this.
Sea buckthorn is a flavor I had been totally unfamiliar with prior to this trip to Scandinavia, but it is a flavor that I will now seek out when I can. The next dish was accompanied by a sea buckthorn juice, that was bright, tart, refreshing, addicting and colorful. Its flavor seems like it should come from a tropical fruit rather than a berry from very northern latitudes.
The parade of seafood continued with Lobster and Red Currant, Rosehip and Salad. The lobster was sauteed and served with a lobster cream that used the lobster coral, lightly cooked lettuce leaf, roasted salad root, pickled rose petals, sorrel leaves and a creamy red currant wine sauce. The lobster, barely cooked, was sweet and tender. Sorrel leaves added a nice, piquant component while the rose petals added a touch of sweetness. The dish was pure, luxurious decadence.
Our last savory dish moved away from the sea. Beef Cheek and Verbena, Pear and Endive. The cheek from ox was braised in hay at 72ºC for 24 hours and served with chicory (endive) cooked in red currant wine sauce, pear, verbena, a verbena and spinach puree and a sauce which had been cooked with chicken and brown butter and poured table-side. This dish really reflects Redzepi's pairing talents, utilizing ingredients that most mortals would not consider to be intuitive combinations such as ox cheek and pear and performing culinary alchemy to create something absolutely marvelous.
Lingonberry juice worked well with the dish. It had a flavor and mouthfeel reminiscent of cranberry juice, but deeper, fuller and more robust.
The forest in summertime was the theme of our first dessert, a noma classic, entitled simply, Blueberries and Wood Sorrel. The dish contained wild Danish blueberries, a blueberry sorbet, a pine granita layered on top to look like forest moss, a pine flavored sorbet, wood sorrel leaves, wild thyme flowers, brioche croutons for crunch and pine oil to finish. This dish, marvelously creative, fully reflects the Scandinavian basis of Redzepi's cooking.
Elderflower liqueur has become quite fashionable in recent years and with good reason. The juice at noma, served with the first dessert supported it - refreshing and delicious.
I'm not sure that I have ever tasted a better dessert than Walnut and Blackberries, Cream and Powder, despite the fact that I am generally not terribly enthusiastic about either walnuts or blackberries. Walnut is incorporated into an ice cream and a powder. The powder is made using walnut oil and maltodextrin. The dish includes frozen cream and dried blackberry. Minimalist in appearance, the flavors are anything but, achieving great depth and perfect balance. I loved this when I had it in NY at the Corton dinner and I loved it no less here.
It was paired with sorrel juice, which really, really grew on me the more I drank it. Outstanding!
Our final dessert, based on a Danish breakfast called Øllebrød, which basically means "beer bread", consisted of a small porridge made from rye bread and ale. The bread had been soaked in the ale for a while then pureed. Underneath there was milk foam and skyr sorbet. This dessert straddled the boundary between sweet and savory, reminiscent of Sam Mason's Beer and Pretzels dessert that he served at Tailor and I most recently had at a Sam Mason retrospective dinner at Aldea. Both desserts are definitely designed for adult palates and work extremely well for them.
Based on the previous night's dinner and the day's lunch, it is interesting to try to gauge how noma has changed over these recent years. While delicious proteins were served throughout both dinners, it struck me that over the past three years the emphasis of the plates has shifted away from the central proteins and more towards the supporting elements or vegetables as the main element on the plate. At lunch two of the savory courses lacked any visible or central animal protein, while at dinner there were four and those dishes that did possess significant animal protein, seemed to use them in more integrated ways, such as The Hen and the Egg, The Oyster and the Sea and the Dried Scallops with Watercress and Biodynamic Grains. As the animal proteins appear to have receded from their centrality, the dishes have also become even more sophisticated. Of course one dinner and a lunch is not enough evidence to commit to such a sweeping conclusion, but these are the impressions I was left with after our too brief journey into the cuisine of noma.
I was left with even more impressions and thoughts about this wonderful restaurant. The food at noma is delicious, original, beautiful and of a place. The service is friendly, warm, efficient and extremely professional. The space is warm, inviting and comfortable. It is no wonder that Rene Redzepi and his restaurant have become popular, but I believe that what makes it resonate so deeply with its diners goes beyond that. noma merges modern sophistication, elegance, luxury and comfort with something more elemental or even primal. With an emphasis on such things as roots, rocks, seaweed, raw food, red food, marrow, eating with hands, skins on the chairs, woodsy interior, foraging, pine, berries, wildflowers and more, noma taps in to atavistic tendencies that run deep in our collective psyche. It strikes a deep chord. That it is done so well helps that chord ring loud and true, making for a very powerful and visceral response from most diners. In a sense, as modern diners, we have a restaurant in which can have our cake and can eat it too. We have a very sophisticated restaurant that comfortably allows us to deeply respond to deep primal culinary instincts.This time we left noma not having the consolation of returning for yet another meal there in a few hours. That was indeed very sad, but we still had some other things to look forward to.
September 19, 2010
Oven Dried Tomatoes
Sun-dried tomatoes have received a bad rap in recent years - perhaps because they were just about everywhere and in everything back in the '80's and early '90's or perhaps because most people have only tried commercial versions. That's too bad, because they really are a great product, especially when starting with good tomatoes. The best I can recall was when I was in Sicily back in 2002 at Anna Tasca Lanza's Tasca d'Almerita Regaleali Estate and Cooking School with Peggy Markel's Culinary Adventures. Of course they grew their own tomatoes and dried them in the glorious Sicilian sun, which I could swear I tasted in every bite.
Unfortunately for tomato drying purposes, we don't have too much Sicilian style sunshine where I live, so actually drying tomatoes in the sun is not a very practical project. The good news is that drying them in an oven is very nearly as good.
My wife bought a bushel of Juliette plum tomatoes from Linda Gifford at the Glens Falls Farmers Market and dried her own. She washed them, cut them in half, scored the backs of each half tomato and placed them on cookie racks with a little salt sprinkled over the tomatoes. She then placed them in the convection oven to roast at the lowest setting of 170ºF with the door propped just ajar to allow the exit of moisture. The duration can be quite variable depending on the amount of moisture in the tomatoes as well as the ambient environment. The object is to get a texture between leathery and brittle. It took her about 4-5 hours to get a great result.
So forget about what you thought you knew or didn't like about sun-dried tomatoes, if you have never had freshly dried ones! So long as you have good plum tomatoes, it is pretty easy and they are oh, so good!
September 18, 2010
September 17, 2010
Tomatoes - September 2010
I have lamented about the apparent dearth of really good tomatoes around where I live this summer, but these from Kim Feeney and her husband Kevin London at Farmhouse at Top of the World were an exception to the rule. The tomatoes were sampled and the photo taken at last weekend's Saratoga Performing Arts Center's Food and Wine and Fall Ferrari Festival held on the grounds of SPAC. They sell their tomatoes and other produce at the Glens Falls Farmers Market.
September 15, 2010
Dinner at noma - The Principal Plates
With the light snacks behind us, we moved into the more substantial dinner plates. While the food was to remain true to the restaurant's Scandinavian roots, we diverged from a pure Nordic experience when we elected the wine pairings to accompany the food. The noma wine list strays from Scandinavia, but it doesn't stray far, as it only lists wines from Europe, with an emphasis on wines from northern Europe.That evening they were focusing on wines from the Loire Valley of France, which also happen to be some of the most food-friendly wines in the world. The choices were superb. Not only did they work beautifully with the food, they were delicious on their own, a trait not always present in wine pairings. I did not complain about the variation in terroir.
The change in direction of the meal was indicated by the arrival of noma's incredible bread and accompanying spreads. While I do not consider bread to be the sine qua non of a restaurant, I do feel that a restaurant's approach to bread is generally indicative of their approach to food. Some restaurants don't offer bread at all. I would rather that than receive a half-baked attempt. Other restaurants offer a variety of breads. I am often tempted to try the gamut, especially if they are good, but I tend to shy away. Usually, though, bread is not something more than a way to fill time and a mouth between courses. While noma did not set out a variety of breads, they did set out what may have been the most perfect bread I have ever eaten. It was still warm with a wonderfully crusty exterior and a light and fluffy crumb. A sourdough with a special flour originally from Sweden called Ølands, but now grown in Denmark, the bread is baked fresh twice daily, before each service. Though it is so good it doesn't need any accompaniment, it came with pork fat spiked with apple aquavit and "virgin" butter from Goteborg, Sweden. The butter , incredibly light and fluffy, is called "virgin" because it still contains the buttermilk along with the butterfat and contains the natural acidity of the buttermilk. If this is how good "light" butter can be, bring it on!
We had already tasted the small fjord shrimp, which are caught at a depth of only one meter. The next dish highlighted deep-sea shrimp. The shrimp were served raw and cold amongst several large stones on a plate representing a rocky beach. They were laying atop a vinaigrette of fresh, biodynamic unhomogenized cream with dill oil, beach plants and frozen summer urchin. These urchin, low in roe, are juiced, which is then frozen and grated.Chef Redzepi delivered the dish himself and advised us to try some of each element in each bite. The result was a beautiful, refreshing and delicious dish. The urchin played a supporting role here as it was not as assertive as a typical roe-laden example.
To this point, we had been drinking the champagne that was served with the snacks. From here on, we began the formal pairings with the wines from small family-estate biodynamic producers from the Loire Valley of France. The first formal pairing was the 2007 Cheverny from Domaine Philippe Tessier called "La Charbonnerie" from the eastern Loire Valley.This was a mineral rich half Chardonnay/half Sauvignon Blanc that was paired with a dish familiar to me from Redzepi's dinner at Corton. The Dried Scallops and Watercress with Biodynamic Cereals and Hazel Nut did, in fact, taste different from the one in NY. This time the dish was prepared with Scandinavian ingredients.The scallops were sliced thin and dried at 80ºC for twenty four hours, crisping them and lending them roasted tones as the sugars of the scallops were slowly caramelized. Underneath lay four different varieties of biodynamic grains. The grains were bound with a puree of watercress. In NY, Redzepi used beechnuts to add another crunch, but here used toasted hazelnuts since beechnuts were out of season. A sauce made from squid and a little seaweed finished the dish. The dish was a textural tour de force between the crispness of the scallop, the plush softness of the grains, the crunch of the nuts and the liquidity of the sauce. The flavors were deep and rich with a strong nuttiness. The sour aspect of the dish here was more muted than the one served in New York, but was still present. Though the main protein of this dish was from the sea, the overall effect was one of earthiness.
The essence of the sea can be elusive. It is easy to suggest the sea, especially when it comes to food, but it is not always so easy to truly evoke it, to make it real right in front of the diner. I've experienced it in restaurants before, but not very often. I have yet to dine at The Fat Duck, so I haven't experienced Heston Blumenthal's ode to the sea, in which he utilizes an ipod to add an aural element to his dish. Earlier in this very meal, Redzepi's shrimp dish on the rocks visually evoked the sea, but the dish, while wonderful in many respects, including deliciousness, didn't fully transport me right to the very ocean. His next dish, however, did, and without any props, but the food itself. The dish could not have been any more accurately titled, The Oyster and the Sea. The magnificent, wild-harvested oyster itself came from the west coast of Denmark, from a large fjord, called Limfjord that extends across most of the northern part of the country. This essentiall oyster was lightly steamed over sea rocks and seaweed. Inside the shell, the oyster was joined by pickled elderberry capers, tapioca pearls and some herbs. The elderberries were picked unripe and pickled for a year in salt and vinegar. The ones in our oysters were picked a year ago. The elderberries for next year's capers, it turns out, had been picked that very morning.The net effect of the dish was to transport me directly to the primal sea, such that if I closed my eyes, I felt as if I was there.
This oceanic dish was followed soon after by another very earthy dish, Cauliflower and Pine. We had first experienced Redzepi's use of pine during our snacks when he used a little as a component of a savory cookie. In this dish, spruce boughs were used as a flavoring element for cauliflower. The cauliflower was surrounded by the spruce in an enameled cast iron pot and steamed slowly for an hour and a half with some caramelization occurring on the bottom surface of the cauliflower. After an initial presentation to us, it was brought back to the kitchen for plating. When it returned , a sauce of whey and spruce oil was poured over the cauliflower while a dollop of whipped cream with horseradish was spooned onto the plate. Redzepi encouraged us to dig right in, emphasizing that temperature was essential to the dish. It's funny how specific dishes can trigger certain memories. The dish reminded Scott of Euell Gibbons, a well known proponent of natural diets, who in a 1974 ad for Grape-Nuts cereal, asked "Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible." In many respects, Gibbons was before his time. Redzepi and his friends from Cook it Raw are direct descendants of his approach. Of course, cauliflower, is not ostentatious when it comes to flavor and can be easily overwhelmed. I might have thought that the pine would have done just that, but it didn't. It gave enough flavor to color the vegetable, but not drown it. The same was true for the horseradish. This particular dish was subtle. It was paired with a dry Vouvray, "Les Grenouilles" 2007 from Domaine du Petit Coteau.
In New York, we were treated to a very special carrot. In Copenhagen, it was celeriac that was served with black truffle and garden sorrel. Upon its initial presentation, I thought it was a baby chicken. The young celeriac was roasted for about two hours in goat butter along with wild sorrel that grows around the celeriac. The celeriac was started upon our arrival and turned often throughout the roasting process. The flavor had intensified over that time. The sauce was made with Swedish black truffles from Gotland. This was a dish that did not initially knock me over the head, but grew on me as I ate it, to the point that I enjoyed it very much. It was paired with a tasty and very interesting chenin blanc "Vin de France" called "La Lune" made in Anjou by Mark Angeli at his La Ferme de la Sansonniére.
The quality of the service at noma has been amply described elsewhere. The dishes are served by the cooks themselves, which provides a depth of knowledge to the delivery that simply can't be duplicated elsewhere. It provides yet a closer connection to the food itself. It is interesting to note a similar model now being incorporated into the service at NYC's Eleven Madison Park. Yet, the cooks are not the only servers. The dedicated front of the house staff also does an extraordinary job handling the wines as well as some of the more mundane aspects of good service such as bussing, replenishing liquids and providing fresh napkins. The attitude is warm and friendly without being overly familiar, which to me is the ideal. This provides a level of comfort that at noma is magnified by the room itself. With plenty of wood and warm wood tones, it is relaxing, yet still surprisingly elegant. The latter part is most definitely helped by the generous spacing of chairs and tables as well as the sheepskins on the backs of the chairs and the focused lighting. One thing the room is not is pretentious.
The next dish was Onions in Different Textures. It was as thorough and delicious an exploration of this ingredient as I have ever encountered. On the bottom of the plate was a compote of slowly cooked caramelized onions, that was glazed with a melted cheese from Sweden. Around it were two different types of onion shells. The larger, white ones were from new onions and were lightly cooked in butter. The smaller brown ones had been pickled in beer and honey. This was dressed with an onion bouillon. Atop it all were "air onions," small seeds of wild onions, which had been slightly cooked and mixed in amongst tapioca pearls. The greens on the plate were chickweed - herbs that grow around onions - and also chive flowers and leek. The cheese covered compote was reminiscent of the very best French onion soup. I suppose that this could be considered a "Danish" Onion Soup. The whole dish was simply a knockout, providing a new flavor palate for onion along with much that was familiar.
The next dish, accompanied by a rosé, all pinot noir champagne from Olivier Horiot called Séve, involved a little theater and diner participation. Called The Hen and the Egg, it consisted of us frying our own eggs for a precise, predetermined period of time (one minute and thirty seconds) in a hot cast iron pan with hay oil. Once the time is up, a pat of thyme butter is added to the pan along with lovage and spinach leaves for a quick saute. The cook then returns to add sauce and finish the dish with herbs, flowers and crispy potato strands. Aside from being fun, it was also rather tasty!
Pickled Vegetables is a name that did not fit the glory of the next dish. With a variety of vegetables pickled in their own brine including yellow beets, elderflowers, hip roses, red beets, the dish also included bone marrow and a sauce from roast pork. The dish was both beautiful and deliriously delicious and my favorite of the evening, reminding me of the minestrone dish I had at Town House earlier in the summer in terms of its vegetable base, deliciousness and incredible beauty.
Red, a visual and gustatory study of the color arrived at the table along with a pouring of our first red wine of the night, a 2005 red Sancerre, "Belle Dame", from Domaine Vacheron. The wine, a pinot noir, was not particularly tannic or heavy. It was excellent and paired well with the evening's final savory course, Deer and Wild Thyme, Red Beets and Red Fruits. The idea behind this dish, as with many of the dishes at noma is to pair the principle ingredients with others with which they coexist in nature. In the case of this dish, the deer exists in the forest and walks on and eats the wild seeds, berries, fennel, parsnips and other elements found in this dish. Though beets aren't really part of that equation, they are included and provide additional color, depth, flavor and a touch of sweetness. The venison,taken from wild roe deer from Sweden, was obviously cooked "red" and was delicious. It blended visually with the beets and berries and gave off a primal air. The deep red was only disrupted by a touch of green from the thyme. It was a marvelous dish on many levels. The venison, excellent on its own was elevated further by the other items on the plate. This dish represents the art and alchemy of cooking on the highest level.
After the venison, we grudgingly moved on away from the savory part of the meal into the sweet. That transition was aided by the arrival of a fascinating and delicious wine, Ze Bulle Zéro. Pointe, a wine that breaks all appellation rules. Made from chenin blanc using biodynamic methods, the gas released during fermentation is captured and placed back with the wine during bottling. Declassified according to the appellation rules of Saumur, the wine is nevertheless delicious, sweet, but balanced with great acidity.
Once the first dessert, really an intermezzo, came out, our regrets about moving past the savories completely disintegrated. As delicious as it was beautiful, Hay and Chamomile with Sorrel and Wild Herbs made me fully appreciate anew the conceit of bringing savory elements into the realm of dessert. Hay parfait had been aerated and served with chamomile jelly made from fresh chamomile as well as sorrel juice with rapeseed (canola) oil and a number of different herbs and flowers.
Rene Redzepi certainly likes sorrel. Before first encountering the sorrel in his dishes at his NYC dinner, I can't recall more than a handful of dishes that I have had in my life that had featured the herb. The next dessert, "Gammel Dansk", Milk and Woodsorrel, featured it yet again. In lesser hands, this degree of relying so heavily on a single herb family might have come monotonous and cloying, but in Redzepi's hands, new vistas kept opening up to make me appreciate it in so many different ways. "Gammel Dansk" is a traditional Danish bitters drink. In this dessert it was utilized as the base for an ice cream. The acidic woodsorrel was used to complement the sweetness of the ice cream. The dessert was finished with "milk" crisps on top and "milk" crumbs below.
We were poured another chenin blanc, this time a Coteaux du Layon "Fleurs D'Erables" from Domaine des Sablonettes. Wonderfully botrytized and acidic, this wine enhanced our final, and yet again, savory based dessert, Jerusalem Artichoke and Marjoram, Apple and Malt. The jerusalem artichoke came in the form of an ice cream.The apples were compressed with French apple juice and there was apple sauce on the bottom of the plate. In addition, there was malt oil, malt cookies and marjoram. Both the apples and the malt cookies were made into equal sized discs that provided visual as well as taste and textural contrast. I initially had doubts about this dish, especially as a dessert, most likely secondary to the presence of the malt, but the dish was fantastic and a suitable ending to the dinner progression.
It wasn't , however, quite the end of our meal. As an aquavit neophyte, I asked for a recommendation for a good aquavit with which to complete the meal. The response was that we would be surprised and we were! We were poured a line of different Danish spirits starting with a fruit based spirit made with Danish apples called "Ingrid Marie", then a Danish Schnapps that had been matured with sloe berries for a year, then another with walnuts and yet another made with Icelandic seaweed that was made especially for noma, called "The Sea at noma." We certainly received a grand introduction. Each was delicious with, of course, the noma seaweed schnapps being the most unique.
The real end of this glorious dinner came with the final mignardises, which included the justifiably famous bone marrow caramel, more salty and smokey than sweet and made with actual veal marrow; a "creme bun" that contained no cream and was not a bun, but is a danish classic (It is actually a small malt biscuit with a meringue flavored with the whey from yogurt to give it acidity and covered with sweet milk chocolate); and finally a bitter chocolate covered potato chip sprinkled with fennel seeds. Naturally, each of these were presented in keeping with the style of noma. The bone marrow caramels were wrapped in butcher's paper and twine while the others were brought in tins.
This was truly an extraordinary tour-de-force meal that confirmed for us all the accolades that have been bestowed upon this revolutionary restaurant in recent years. The ambiance was warm and relaxed. The service was warm and professional, the wine was well thought out, delicious, interesting and extremely well paired and the food was original, delicious and completely of its place. There will not, can not be another noma somewhere else in the world. There may someday be one that will attempt to replicate what is here, but if there is, it will not succeed, for noma is a restaurant of a very specific terroir. noma was good, indeed very, very good at Corton in NYC. That evening was a smash success, but that was as much due to its unique event status as much as the excellent food of both Redzepi and Liebrandt. It was noma, but it was noma NYC, something I could not fully appreciate until I ate some of the same dishes at noma, the one and only, in Copenhagen. That Corton meal was a great introduction to Redzepi and his concepts, but it was not a substitute or a replacement for the original. Certainly the geographic stamp of the food from nearby in Scandinavia has something significant to do with that, but that is only part of the story. Another, perhaps even more important part of the story is the level of comfort of Redzepi and his crew in their home. This is clearly their space and it is a space that they make full use of. By all means, one should experience the food of noma wherever and whenever one can, but one should never let that substitute for the inimitable original.
September 13, 2010
A Dinner at noma - the Snacks
Having spent a good part of the day visiting noma and getting a behind-the-scenes look at its operations, Chef Scott Boswell and I made it back through the cold Copenhagen rain to relax a little and change before we returned for dinner at 6:30PM. Our wives and my son spent the day sightseeing in the city and on this night would have dinner at Kodbyens Fiskebaren, a seafood oriented restaurant not too far from our hotel. As they would be dining with us at noma the next day for lunch, neither Scott nor I felt too guilty about doing this noma day on our own, especially as Fiskebaren was another restaurant we also wanted to get to. We had to settle this time for a vicarious experience from there.
That Scott and I would be doing both dinner and lunch at noma was a direct inspiration taken from this post by the esteemed Food Snob, a man whose dining experience leaves us in awe. While we were not to follow the exact format of Food Snob's noma marathon, we did keep to the spirit of it. Our dinner was to be taken from the current noma menu, including some brand new dishes. The lunch would be comprised of dishes from over the last three years or so. The snacks were to be the same in each meal and representative of the current menu. This post will focus on the snacks with subsequent posts focusing on the principle plates from each meal.
By the time the early evening rolled around, the rain had stopped and the weather had become pleasant. While not clear, the sky was reasonably bright, which was fortunate as we were seated comfortably at a table next to a window with plenty of space to set up my camera. Once we sat down, our dinner started promptly with a glass of crisp, non-vintage brut nature Champagne from André Beaufort and the start of the snacks. These proceded to follow one another with a fairly rapid, but not too rapid pace. We were allowed to enjoy each one, but did not have to wait long for the next delight to follow.
The first snack, Nasturtiums and Snails, were already on the table, comprising a significant part of the floral arrangement. The snail, from Sweden, was embedded in the flower along with some remoulade. Taking the wild foraged nasturtium straight from the centerpiece, we ate it in one bite as instructed. It was a wonderfully clever, whimsical and tasty way to begin this adventure of a meal.
What initially piqued my interest in noma several years ago, were the descriptions of a chef using ingredients from an area not particularly known for its native cuisine in fascinating new ways, creating a new Nordic culinary style. The nasturtium and the snail as well as the rest of the meal followed that path.
Sea Buckthorn Leather and Pickled Hip Roses quickly followed the first snack. This bite was colorful and tasty, sea buckthorn being an ingredient new to me, but reminding me of tutti-frutti chewing gum - in a good way! It was sweet and acidic and combined with the pickled rose petals, pleasantly floral.Rose can be an overpowering flavor, but this one carried just the right nuance. The texture was slightly chewy, but not persistently or annoyingly so. The combination wasn't just a happy accident. Both the sea buckthorn (a berry) and the hip roses grow by each other on the Nordic coast. As the cook who brought them said, "they know each other." The bite left a smile on my lips.
Fried Leek and garlic also brought smiles to our lips. A leek was brought for each of us. The root end had been dipped in a batter and fried and was served with a bit of garlic puree on the batter-fried roots. We were instructed to pick it up and take a small bite, not too far up the leek, as only the lower part was cooked. The combination of sweet cooked leek and crisp roots along with the flavor of the garlic worked nicely.
Earlier in the day, as Chef Redzepi was showing us around the workings of the restaurant, he received a shipment from a day-boat fisherman containing live fjord shrimp. He tasted one then and there to assess it's quality. When I asked if I could try one like that, he promised that I would - at dinner. That time had now come. Several of the small, live shrimp were brought out anesthetized on ice in a mason jar. They were to be picked up and dipped in a brown butter emulsion before being dropped whole in the mouth. The sensation of eating a live, wriggling shrimp was an odd one, as tasty as it was. While I had no compunction about it and quite enjoyed it, the next day, at lunch, my young gastronomically inclined son did not have as easy a time with it. He did eventually pop it into his mouth, but he couldn't bring himself to chew it and swallowed it whole, thereby missing its fine and delicate flavor.
Next out was a savory cookie made with salt instead of sugar. It was served with a slice of "speck," which was described as Danish cured pork fat. It was topped with a black currant paste and a sprig of pine. The presentation of this snack was special. They were brought out in a cookie tin with each cookie sitting in its own little wrapper. A nice little touch though was the presence of empty wrappers in the container, providing a feeling that the cookies were a shared treat of hospitality, which in fact they were, albeit in a restaurant setting. This was also our first experience with pine during the trip, something that would pop up again, both at noma and elsewhere during our Scandinavian odyssey. Pine appears, largely due to Redzepi's influence, to be the "it" ingredient of the moment in Scandinavia.
Not all of the snacks were new to the menu, even though all were current to it. Our next snack was one that was described as a noma "classic" although the filling changes seasonally. It consisted of a template of crispy rye bread on top and crispy chicken skin on the bottom. The filling served to us consisted of Rygeost, a fresh danish smoked cheese that was blended with lovage leaves and yellow split peas. It was delicate and light, a lovely bite!
My son's favorite snack when he came to noma in March was the pickled and smoked quail egg. The eggs were brought out in an egg-shaped box that was opened at the table to reveal an egg for each of us sitting upon some lightly smoking hay. It had also been lightly smoked with apple wood and pickled in apple vinegar from the orchard of noma co-owner Claus Meyer. Popping the soft egg in my mouth in one bite and eating it was a delight as it contained a wonderful balance of flavor to go with its soft and gooey texture. I had never had an egg like it before.
I had tried the next dish before when Redzepi and his crew came to New York in June and cooked at Corton. The radish and carrot with soil and herbs was better for me this time, as I had a better understanding of how to eat the dish, scooping up the yogurt base and crumbly roasted malt "dirt" with the root vegetables,ensuring a more even distribution of flavor and textural contrasts.
Conceptually similar to the rye bread/chicken skin cookie, the next snack was a "sandwich" of sorts. This one consisted of a base of wavy crisp bread with dots of a cod roe emulsion placed on top of it and with various herbs placed on top of them. This was then dusted with a vinegar powder and the whole thing was covered with a "crispy duck stock" made from the natural film that forms atop a duck stock. The film was skimmed off, then dried. Though difficult to eat gracefully, this take-off on the traditional Danish open-faced sandwiches called smørrebrød was a quite unusual and quite extraordinary bite.
I saw Chef Redzepi make aebleskiver, Danish pancakes, in Madrid in 2008 when he presented at Madrid Fusión. These savory lard-fried pancakes contained cucumber, vinegar powder (vinegars are used to provide acidity to dishes in lieu of citrus, which is used more commonly in southern Europe)and a preserved sardine-like freshwater fish from Finland called muikko, which appeared to be swimming directly through the pancake.
Redzepi has plenty of experience working and learning outside of Copenhagen, including at elBulli for the 1999 season. His use of "snacks" to open the meal bears the stamp of the Adrias' influence, but while Redzepi owes a debt to that experience, he has forged his own identity.Like the snacks at elBulli, this part of the meal was fast, but appropriately paced, as the various snacks were generally one or two bite morsels.While all were delicious, they also were fun and playful. Other than the format and the sense of playfulness, noma's snacks bear little resemblance to those served at the Catalan cove as those from the Adria's had a tendency to represent Mediterranean or other world culinary influences, while Redzepi's focused directly on Scandinavia. Regardless of influence, the snacks made for a marvelous introduction for what was yet to come.
September 09, 2010
September 07, 2010
An End of Summer Breakfast
I can't recall a better summer for peaches. They are still good.
Goat's milk yogurt from Long View Farm is thin and tangy, perfect for pouring.
Mix the two and find magic in a bowl. Add a little cereal for some crunch and a perfect end of summer/ Labor Day breakfast
September 06, 2010
Tivoli Gardens
It used to be that amusement parks represented very idiosyncratic reflections of the community in which they were located. I grew up going to Astroland and Steeplechase Park in Coney Island. Granted, I was very young when those places were still special, but they did then and even now still radiate a special feeling that can only mean "Brooklyn." When I moved to the Glens Falls area of upstate NY about 20 years ago, The Great Escape still had the special home town feeling of its progenitor Story Town, which I also remember having visited as a child. Since then, The Great Escape was sold to Six Flags. What it gained in more sophisticated rides, it lost in uniqueness, as it began to resemble countless other American amusement parks.
Tivoli Gardens, located in the heart of Copenhagen, surrounded by high brick walls, is nothing, if not unique. The word "Gardens" is not a meaningless part of the park's name, as the grounds are quite beautiful, landscaped immaculately and colorfully. It's not a big park, but there is no wasted space. That is not to say, that all the space is packed full of detritus. Much of the space is given over to the afore-mentioned gardens. The rest of it is given over to rides, games and food.
Coney Island used to be known for food and Disney, in Orlando at least, is noted to have some good food, but most amusement parks suffer from food that tends to be ordinary at best. Not so for Tivoli Gardens, which claims two restaurants with Michelin stars. The Paul is located within the heart of the park and is the province of an Englishman, chef Paul Cunningham. Serving cuisine with a modernist flair, The Paul is set in a glass salon. The other Michelin starred restaurant of Tivoli Gardens, Herman, is situated along the periphery of the park, within the ornate, Turkish inspired hotel, The Nimb. Thomas Herman's cooking is inspired by the techniques and palate of France and provides a supremely elegant, tasty and delightful experience. In addition to the stars, there is a multitude of other restaurants running the gamut from fancy to basic, including the international chains Wagamama and The Hard Rock Cafe. We stopped at one fast food place for a light snack. It turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. While it was not particularly fast (the food was not sitting there pre-made), it was very, very good, ranging from a Danish hot dog in a mini-baguette to great fried potatoes to a super fry-roasted chicken. The chicken, was especially delicious. It was fried without a coating, but had a perfectly crisped exterior, moist and juicy interior and spot-on simple seasoning. I'm not sure that simply prepared chicken can be better and still taste of chicken.
As wonderful as the food and the gardens are and as important as they are to keeping people happy once there, the main draw of Tivoli Gardens remains the rides. By American amusement park standards, there aren't many, but the rides they do have are generally very good ones, including some, like Vertigo, which are amongst the very best I've ever been on. In Vertigo, the concept is that one is flying an acrobatic airplane doing all sorts of loop-di-loops and spins. While the ride is truly an incredible thrill and adrenalin rush, perhaps the most anxious part of it is waiting in line directly underneath the ride. The mesh netting seems scant protection from the planes that appear to be diving right for you, pulling up just at the last moment!
Vertigo may have been my favorite ride, but it was far from the only great one there. Daemon is a superb roller coaster set in a mock Chinese village. The Golden Tower provides a great view of surrounding Copenhagen before dropping one in a sudden and rapid free-fall and the Dragon provides a whirling dervish of an experience, twirling one over and under in addition to round and round. Even the bumper cars seemed more fun than usual.
Had we not had our son with us in Copenhagen (we took him there on our arrival in Copenhagen and just before we left on his 11th birthday sandwiched around lunch at Herman), we might have eschewed it as being something for kids and not for adults. That would have been a mistake, as I think my wife and I enjoyed it as much as our son. It has been quite some time since I have enjoyed an amusement park as much.
September 05, 2010
September 03, 2010
Kiin Kiin Can... and Does!
With all the hubbub about the New Scandinavian Cuisine and only a few days in Copenhagen to experience the epicenter of that cuisine, why have Thai food? The answer would be because Kiin Kiin is one of only two Thai restaurants in the world currently with a Michelin star and it came very highly recommended. Whatever the reason, I'm glad that we did as Kiin Kiin is simply the absolute best Thai food I have ever had. Having eaten at such wonderful Thai restaurants as Sripaphai, Lotus of Siam as well as the grossly over-rated Arun's in Chicago, calling Kiin Kiin the best Thai food I have ever had is no small compliment, but still, in Copenhagen? Yes, in Copenhagen, because to simply label the meal I had at Kiin Kiin with my wife, my son and our friends, Scott and Tanya Boswell as the best of a genre, whatever the genre may be would be doing that meal a dis-service. The meal we had was simply an outstanding dinner, transcending any specific genre. I believe that Kiin Kiin should be on any serious gastronomic traveler's list when coming to Copenhagen and soon, Bangkok as well, as Kiin Kiin owner Henrik Yde-Andersen and his team will be opening there shortly, having been recruited and supported directly by members of the Thai Royal Family.
Thai food, when done well is all about balance and harmony of flavors amongst salty, sweet, sour and heat. All too often, though neither balance nor harmony are achieved with one component tending to predominate. In the United States, that component, more often than not, tends to be the sweet, which is why I have tended to shy away from Thai restaurants unless they come strongly recommended. In the case of Kiin Kiin, it came very strongly recommended by two food bloggers, whose knowledge and ability to convey their experiences are outstanding, Food Snob and Trine of verygoodfood, both of whom frequent Copenhagen's very best restaurants.
We were greeted warmly as we entered the restaurant, which is located in a residential area of Copenhagen. From the entrance, we were seated towards the rear of a charming lounge area that had been beautifully appointed with Thai furniture and artifacts. Beginning with a nice champagne, a trove of delightful starters or "khong wang" soon followed to tantalize our eyes and palates. While a lot of what we were served was superficially familiar, like the soy roasted cashews and the pork cracklings with yellow curry, they possessed elements that elevated them. For example, the cracklings, while not presented in an unfamiliar form, had the benefit of a perfectly balanced yellow curry that transported an ordinarily tasty product into an ethereal one.Tapioca with oyster dip was unusual in form and flavor and satisfying in both. Most tapioca I have had has been soft, gummy and pliable. This was popped and crispy and served with an oyster and seaweed dipping sauce. Lotus roots fried with lime leaves added the haunting note of kaffir lime to a crispy flavorful chip.
These mostly, crispy and salty snacks were followed by wonderful examples of Thai street food including Yam Nuah, typically a grilled beef salad. Kiin Kiin's yam nuah had all the components, but if the immaculate beef was grilled, it fooled me. Most yam nuah's in my experience are presented as traditional salads. Kiin kiin's was a roll with the beef on the outside and the cucumber, mint, lettuce and other components rolled within the thinly sliced beef. It was delicious.
A cold sesame salad was presented on soup spoons, also delicious. The highlight, though, was the tod man pla with cucumber chutney. The spicy fish cakes were sheer perfection. Dipped into the chutney, I could have continued with these alone.
Once we were through with the snacks, Kiin Kiin host, sommelier and owner, Henrik Yde-Andersen took us on a brief tour of A- Roii, their attached take-away restaurant and the restaurant's small, but efficient kitchen before leading us up to the main dining room. Once there, the five of us were seated around a comfortable rectangular table. At this point, I encountered my only serious criticism of the restaurant or at least my experience at the restaurant - the lighting. I never use a flash in restaurants. Usually, I am able to get by, since I have a camera with good low light capabilities. In this case, I'm afraid, I was not generally successful, which is a pity, since the food and the setting was just beautiful.
A "Soup Based on Chicken" was about as understated a dish description as I have ever encountered. The soup, which also contained galanga was supremely elegant, but also supremely complex, full of deep and savory flavors. It was a revelation. Scallop dim sum came in ethereally light wrappers. Another dish, Frozen Red Curry with Crab Salad, added modern touches to intense, balanced flavor. The platings were decidedly modern, the flavors decidedly delicious and the origin clearly Thai. Other outstanding dishes included salad with spicy marinade and orchids, onions with black beans, green curry with beet root and cod, baby lobster with tamarind and of course pad thai. I like a good pad thai, but the Pad Thai Kiin Kiin, was far superior to any I have ever had before, in terms of presentation, flavor and sheer satisfaction. I have never swooned over a pad thai before. Following that, dishes of chantarelle mushrooms in coconut milk and lime leaves and guinea fowl with plum sauce and peanuts brought the savory component of the meal to a tremendous close.
Thai food can be tricky to pair wines with, but that was no problem at Kiin Kiin, which made not only compatible matches, but exquisite ones. It's not a great leap to have paired the food with northern European whites, but the ones chosen couldn't have worked better, including Grüner Veltliner Hiedler 2007 Kamptall, Riesling Peter Lauer saar 2008, and Gewürztraminer Zind Humbrecht Turckheim Alsace 2008 and an inspired Pinot noir D’Arenberg Adelaide Australia to go with the pintade. My son's non-alcoholic pairings were also delightful.
Desserts were no less delicious, focusing on flavors from southeast Asia including passionfruit, ginger, mulberry and pandan leaf.
I believe very strongly that how a diner experiences a meal goes well beyond what is served on the plate. So much can be determined by a diner's attitude and physical state. For example, I tend to enjoy a meal more when I'm hungry then when I'm full and less so when I'm tired and cranky. Given that we had arrived in Copenhagen only that morning after an overnight flight and had spent the better part of the day on rides at the marvelously personable Tivoli Gardens, Kiin Kiin had a very big obstacle to overcome. My wife, our son and I were essentially exhausted by the time we arrived at the restaurant with Scott and Tanya (it happened to be Tanya's birthday). My son barely managed to make it through the first part of the meal before he conked out (the kind staff were able to make him comfortable in the nearby lounge), but the bold, beautiful and delicious food managed to energize both my wife and I as well as Tanya and Scott, who had arrived in Copenhagen the day before. A merely very good meal and service would not have succeeded in winning me over at that point. I've had high expectations dashed for lesser reasons. Yde-Andersen and his crew delivered royally and made for a sensational start to our Copenhagen dining extravaganza. When in Copenhagen, don't miss Kiin Kiin - not because it is a great Thai restaurant, but because it is a great restaurant, period.
September 01, 2010
Dinner with The Doc & The Rock
Join us for a Private Fundraising Dinner & Screening
THE LAST CROP
A new film-in-progress by Chuck Schultz and David A. Ranghelli
Date and Time: September 10th 6:30-11PM
Location: 175 Fuller Road Queensbury, N.Y. 12804
Watch the trailer:
The Last Crop new 3 minute trailer from Chuck Schultz on Vimeo.
Multi-course “Slow” dinner to be prepared by John Sconzo & Rocco Verrigni
Wines donated by John & Kitty Sconzo
$200 per person - limited to 10 people
Every year one million acres of farmland are lost to development
If we have anything to do with it, our farm will be here for generations. - Jeff Main
The Last Crop tells a personal tale of a family caught in the delicate interplay between urban and agricultural space. Jeff and Annie Main’s story is representative of many farming families who confront an uncertain future as development impinges on rural areas and their children choose careers off the farm. The film captures the intractable nature of sustaining a small local farm and the stake we all have in ensuring they can survive and thrive.
Sustainability is a big new catch phrase, but the true issue to me is sustaining farmers. - Annie Main
Our 1st wish is that you join us for our dinner, screening and discussion
Our 2nd wish is that you make a donation @ http://blueprintproductions.biz/Donate
R.S.V.P by September 8th by commenting on this post. Comments will not be published.
Please help this important film get finished.
John Sconzo
I'm a practicing Anesthesiologist and family man who enjoys all things culinary.
Recent Comments