noma (Part Six)

It's here. noma (Part Six). Here's hoping you enjoy it more than Gene and Roger enjoyed this awesomeness.



While we were away, noma wrested the title of best restaurant in the world back from Celler de Can Roca. It's a bit surprising considering that this also happened this year. Perhaps it's all the new buzz they're getting from this blog. According to this article, bookings have increased five-fold since the announcement. 

We are - as you've probably noticed - trendsetters. If you missed it - or if you just wanted to read them again, imagine that!? - please enjoy parts one, two, three, four, and five.

Today we finish it. I promise. Unless there's an afterward. Or is that a coda? Let's get to the desserts.

Emily and I have a long history of watching Top Chef - Collin shakes fist angrily at Nicholas Elmi's obnoxiously arrogant sweaty face - and for some reason, desserts are often an afterthought. Most of the chefs haven't had much experience doing them and / or don't care. I think that's unfortunate and - because I have watched too much Top Chef - stupid. I mean, you know that you're going to have to make dessert. HAVE AT LEAST ONE DESSERT THAT YOU CAN MAKE IN A PINCH. Now I feel much better.

At noma the dessert-as-afterthought issue is happily not a problem.

Aronia Berries and Söl

This one tops out as one of my favorite strange flavor combinations of the evening. Arronia berries look a bit like a blueberry but are far more bitter. The icecream was made from söl, an icelandic seaweed. This worked tremendously well and I throroughly enjoyed every bite.

Going through all of these pictures again reminds me that I should really have more fun serving plates.

Potato and Plum

Zang. Here we have - from left to right - a cream made from plum stones, a sweet potato mousse, and a plum mousse. I loved this so much that I've forgotten what it was sauced with. At this point we're nearing food-coma levels.

In terms of strange but delicious dessert combos, it reminded me of the first time that we ate like this, at Charlie Trotter's in Chicago. We had one dessert that was some sort of ridiculous roasted beet / chocolate combo that was, in my very best Kirstie Alley voice, decadent.

At this point we would have been quite happy with the evening, but here's where we had a few nice surprises. Our server proceded to lead us to the lounge / bar area. Upon arriving, we were seated at a small table in low, comfortable chairs and enjoyed some very nice - Ethiopian-style I believe - coffee. 

Then came the treats.

Yeast "Toasts" and Skyr

These were little caramel-yeast-fudge-toasts. The "white" in the bowl is icelandic yogurt - skyr - with some jam hiding below. Yes please.

A Play on a Traditional Danish Pastry

This is one that I don't have enough memory of to properly describe. I liked it but cannot for the life of me remember much of anything about it. Emily can help with out with this.

Chocolate Covered Fried Pork Skin w/ Berries

This, however, I remember in all of its glory. Did you ever want to see Jimmy Kimmel and Stringer Bell cook chocolate fried pork skin with René Redzepi? Did I even have to ask? Take it away Rene.

I'm pretty sure that they weren't cranberries in our version. Maybe blueberries? Or aronia again?

So that was it, or so we thought. After paying the bill, we received an excellent guided tour of the entire facility. It was really great. I am terrible with names and immediately forgot the super nice / talented chef that showed us around. I suck. He was from Guatemala and is currently working in - and I'm probably forgetting this as well - pastries.

As you'd expect, it's an extremely orderly place and there are all sorts of different stations where different parts of the operation take place. It was fun to see some good ol' Weber grills hanging out in the back for any needed grilling. Fun fact, they previously had several Big Green Eggs but something like four of them cracked under the pressure of heavy usage. That's disappointing.

We were taken upstairs to the staff area. They've recently redone the staff eating area. I've never worked in a restaurant - and I likely never will - but staff meal is one of those restaurant things that I envy. Something gets whipped up by someone, and - much of the time - it's that someone's notion of home. I would like to sit around at noma and share a staff meal.

As I think I mentioned before, noma's kitchen is completely international. This may seem like nothing, but in København, it's something.

And there we are. I surely didn't do the experience justice, but I tried goddammit. At least I did that.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing this with us! As always, direct any and all questions my way. If you're ever in Denmark and feel like treating some friends to a night at noma, you know who to call.