Dennis & Aimee's Big Gay Paris Adventure

We're back from Copenhagen. There are many stories to tell, but as you know, we tend to talk about food a lot, and we had a meal that was probably our best meal ever, so it warrants talking about. The restaurant is called Noma, and you can see more at http://www.noma.dk Here's a little quote from their website, which I found compelling:

We want to go into depth with the matters before us. We are paying careful attention to the qualities in our culinary legacy, but we also aim to generate something new and innovative. We are exploring the potential of milk and cream in today’s modern cuisine. We are developing new ways of preparing the well-known and other not so well known kinds of cereal grains. We are constantly on the lookout for berries and herbs in the natural environment, including certain varieties that other people do not generally feel like gathering. We are also interested in working with raw ingredients which have no part in any systems of formalized cultivation and which therefore cannot be obtained through the ordinary channels of distribution.

We are smoking, salting, pickling, drying, grilling and baking on slabs of basalt stone. We are also preparing our own vinegars and concocting our own distilled spirits. However, we are making use of the most up-to-date kitchen appliances and “cutting-edge” techniques, of course, because we are paying just as much attention to the food’s consistency as our colleagues are busy doing at today’s top international restaurants.

Whereas others are using wines in their sauces and soups, we are making a systematic use of beers and ales, fruit juices and fruit-based vinegars for imparting a lively freshness and “edge” to ours. Vegetables, herbs and spices and wild plants in season play a decidedly prominent role in our cooking. Consequently, they take up more room on the plate than what is generally served in traditional gourmet restaurants.

We started on the patio with a French champagne which came with some fried fjord shrimp, strips of toasted flatbred and home made potato chips, along with a dish of lobster mayonnaise.

We went with the 7 course menu paired with 7 wines, and were offered a bonus opener (amuse bouche) of raw shrimp from Greenland, mini cucumber balls the size of English peas and micro radish slices.

The bread for the meal came in a little square brown wool felt pillow with a diagonal slit across the top which was tied closed with leather string. The bread was hearty white, mini cupcake sized served with both slightly smoky, dark lard with crushed, toasted pumpkin seeds and butter with danish herbs, tiny flower petals and a touch of buttermilk. We each had a salt cellar that contained lovely flaky salt that we rarely used because the food was so perfect. Here's what we had:

Tartar with woodruff and horseradish
Tarragon and aromatic juniper
The tartar was thinly sliced organic beef tenderloin in a rectangle, garnished with what looked like a layer of four leaf clovers. We were instructed to eat it with our hands as people have been eating food with their hands for thousands of years. "So, we though it would be fun to eat raw meat with your hands." The trick was to pinch a piece of meat and green, then touch it in the tarragon sauce, and then in the juniper powder. It was stunningly good.

Glazed lobster with green peas
Shoots from "Bregn" and herbs from the shoreline
Black Danish lobster. With another French champagne. One of the tastiest ever. The peas were perfect, there were tiny potatoes the size of marbles with the tops cut off, with little micro potato chips balanced beside them. There were several fresh herbs that I've never tasted, and there was a smear of pea sauce on the plate "essential for balancing the flavor of the herbs." Fantastic.

Pike perch and sauce of smoked fish
Purée of potato and wild herbs
I think this dish was different. I don't recall any potatoes. We were starting to get drunk about now, as you might imagine.

Aspargus
Green strawberries in different textures
When we were debating between five and seven courses, this is one of the ones that would have gotten cut. That would have been a huge mistake. This dish was unlike anything I've ever had. Shoots of green aspargus white aspargus were wrapped in a light dough and deep fried, and served with with a green strawberry sauce and super thinly sliced green strawberries. It was remarkable. There were a few steamed slices of asparagus in there too. What an amazing flavor unlike anything we've ever tasted.

Summer game, snails and hazelnuts
Mushrooms with buds and shoots
Venison tenderloin, possibly a rib cut. Bloody. Awesome. Tiny perfect mushrooms no larger than a kidney bean. Every bite was an explosion of flavor.
It was served with (finally) nice light red. French. Possibly a bordeaux.

Mousse of sheepmilk-yoghurt
Iced "green acid" and raps seed oil
This one also would have gotten cut if we'd gone with the five course, and it would have been another HUGE mistake. On top of a square slab of rich yet delicate yoghurt was a thin slice of sugar ice called nougatine. The iced green acid was some sort of local green, maybe even ice plant, made into a sort of granita. It was chunky green stuff, semi frozen, kinda slushy. It had a fresh green flavor somewhere between mown lawn and green apple, and was the perfect counterpart to the creamy yogurt and sugar. Another incredible blend of tastes, this one really secured the *best meal ever* title for me. The inventiveness, presentation and perfect balance were stunning.

Rhubarb and ginger-bread
Cream-ice cream and fresh herbs
When they set down this plate, the server warned us that it might be the best ice cream we'd ever have, and it was. The ice cream was a vanila with local fresh herb. Also with a rhubarb sorbet. Tangy. This was served with a sweet italian sparkling dessert wine. Spectacular.

Of course the server explained every wine grape, winemaker and region and the foods in extreme detail. Many of the local herbs did not really have an english name.

The only way I can begin to describe my total delight with this meal is that I was giggly-giddy like a schoolgirl for (Dennis swears) an hour afterward. I could *barely* contain myself in the restaurant, so pleased was I with the service, the food, the presentation, the venue... Even the classic Danish furniture was lovely, and our chairs each had a curly piece of sheepskin tossed over the back (which you can see on the website) which was so soft and comfortable and delightful to touch. No detail was spared, and it showed. Spectacular.

Stay tuned -- week after next we go to Pierre Gagnaire http://www.pierregagnaire.com to check out one of Chez Pim's strongest recommendations. In the meantime, I'm going to recommend this Noma place to some of the other food blogs I read. I can't believe they're not more famous.

--Aimee