Post-Noma experience

It's taken some time but as I am back in the states I am realizing the experience that eating at Noma has given me.  I walk by a tree and wonder hmmm...how could I use those interesting looking leaves in a dish.  Could I eat them?  I wonder what they would taste like?  Then, I develop these taste in my mouth that is a sort of phantom memory taste of some of the plant dishes we experienced at Noma.  I am not craving the dish, in fact I am repulsed by the memory of the taste.  I am then jolted into a contemplative mood of trying to figure out how I truly feel about the experience.   I am not repulsed by the experience neither did I hate any of the dishes as was my fear.  I consumed each one of them, also debunking my fear that I wouldn't be able to "handle" some of the dishes as I knew how experimental Chef Redzepi and his staff are.  Instead I come to the conclusion that my experience at Noma was more of a challenging form of entertainment or amusement much like a theme park would be.  A roller coaster first repulses then excites you.  You don't crave the experience but you look forward to it and then have to come to terms with how it was afterwards.   I remember a ride in Orlando at "Harry Potter land" that did just that.  It whipped me around, jolted me this way and that I felt I needed to see a chiropractor afterwards.  I was shoved into spiders, Dementors and "flew" from great heights spiraling down toward the ground only to be whipped back straight up into the air almost crossing paths with a dragon that I then bolted away from midair.  Why would I want to have that experience?  For the same reason I wanted to have the experience at Noma.  For the fun of it!

Harbor Tour around Copenhagen

Fountain in square near Harbor.  Military Headquarters (a.k.a. Denmark's Pentagon) in the background.

Denmark's Pentagon. 

Ye Old Stock Exchange

Spire is 3 dragon's tails winding together.  Three dragons are Denmark, Sweden and Norway. King Christian IV wanted these 3 countries to unite and eventually become one country.

Copenhagen Architecture School and Museum

Copenhagen's old port.

Noma is in this building first and second level on the far left.

Copenhagen's School of Music and Dance,

Harbor living

These apartments are where the navy kept their battleships for sneak attacks on Copenhagen and why Sweden and Norway were not able to take Denmark.

Denmark's battleships

Neat sculptures depicting immigrants coming for save haven in Copenhagen.

Port for only the Crown on the right and all others are to use the port on the left. 

Opera house gifted to Copenhagen from Maersk the Danish shipping company headquartered in Copenhagen.  The city cannot maintain it so events have been cancelled and its become a sort of white elephant.

House boat

New Haven

Library.  Danish call it the Diamond building because of all the reflective glass.

Old prison turned apartments. The shutters were the metal doors that were the windows with two small barred window for the prisoners to look out of.

New walking/biking bridge being constructed.

Architect/Engineer who is living inside this dome to prove biosphere living is possible.  It is also a performance art piece in that he is seeing/showing how humans and nature can coincide and live together in a mutually beneficial relationship.

Hotel we looked at staying in.  It is a houseboat turned hotel.  Rooms with a view.  Not the best amenities though.  We decided we preferred having amenities over a view and a different living experience.  Maybe someday...a houseboat would be awesome to stay on for a week.

The city of Copenhagen is building a tunnel under the ocean to mainland Denmark.  There is already a tunnel under the ocean connecting Sweden and Copenhagen.  We did not go to Sweden but we could've taken a car or ferry and arrived in Sweden in 20 minutes. 

Going under a bridge was careful work for the boat's driver.

noma: behind the scenes

It was truly an honor to not only meet but also speak with Chef Redzepi.  Jon, myself and Chef Rene Redzepi.

and now for our feature presentation...noma!

noma is on the far left and has the first and second levels.

Dining room at noma.  Seats about 15 tables depending on the size of the party.

Fresh Berries and Lemon Thyme

Oland Wheat and virgin butter

Cabbage leaves and white currants

Green shoots of the season with scallop marinade


Greens slightly grilled, some fresh, some grilled.  Horseradish flower, nettle, fudge with dries scallop.

 

Eat the green shoots with your hands so you can soak up all of the marinade

Sweet peas, milk curd and sliced kelp
Chef Redzepi closed his restaurant and took all of his staff to Japan.  He created a pop up restaurant in northern Japan for 5 weeks.   Staff forages in the forest every morning and afternoon for the lunch and dinner menus.  They foraged in the forest and used all greens from JAPAN.   The one item they brought back was Japanese kelp as an item to introduce into their menu.

Flower tart.  Crust was made out of pulverized seaweed made into a flour to make the dough.

New Danish potato and nettle

Eat the potato like so...unwrap from the nettle pouch and dip into cream.  When finished with the potatos eat the Nettle wrap.

Cabbage and samphire (a seaweed from Denmark's beach)

Mahogany clam and grains.  This clam is over 150 years old.

Monkfish liver.  This was frozen and shaved and so temperature sensitive.  It was one of my favorite dishes.

This dish deserves a description.  Chef Rene Redzepi goes to MAD every year.  It is a not for profit organization to expand knowledge of food to make every meal a better meal and to move those ideas from theory to practice.  To do this they put on symposiums and talks for those interested in making a better meal.  One year they had a symposium on insects.  Chef Redzepi interpreted what he learned in the below dish...

Black garlic and wood ants.  The ants have a lemon flavor that go beautifully with the black garlic.  The two flavors actually and the preparation of the ants create a fruit leather taste and texture.  The ants are mashed and then dried.  

Sweet shrimps wrapped in nasturtium leaves.  This was a soup.  The soup was poured over these nasturtium tortellini like so...

Pumpkin, rose petal and caviar

Vegetable flower

Lobster and nasturtium

Roasted bone marrow

How you were to eat the roasted bone marrow.  It was like constructing a fajita.  

Berries and greens soaked in vinegar for one year to eat after the fatty bone marrow to cleanse the pallet.

Rhubarb and sheep milk yogurt

Forest flavors, chocolate and egg liqueur

Homemade egg nogg.

Cherry and apple schnapps, an alcohol that the Dane's are known for.

View from the noma lounge

noma lounge

Contemplating a delicious and artistic meal in the noma lounge over coffee and schnapps