noma (Part Three)

Here it is, the third installment recapping our epic noma experience. In case you missed it, here are parts one and two. Enjoy.

Last time we had just finished some delicious cabbage and samphire sandwiches and were ready to move on to the end of the finger-food section of the meal. Finger-food is probably an undersell and happily reminds me of those melted cheese sandwich appetizers that Navin was talked out of. Sophistication.

Æbelskiver (prounced A-bell-ski-ohr, or at least that's what it sounds like to my American ears) are Danish pancake like puffs that can be either sweet or savory. The sweet sort are quite popular around Christmas and they can be served with powdered sugar, jam, whipped cream, etc. They are cooked in a special pan that looks like this.

I've thought about buying one of these pans, but I have so many one-use kitchen implements already that I can't handle having one more.

noma has its own version of æbelskiver. While ours were delicious, I'm mildly disappointed that we didn't get to bite into these bad boys.

In Collin's America there will be more dishes with animals launching themselves through pancakes. This is what our æbelskiver looked like.

Æbelskiver with lovage and parsley

The æbelskiver are cooked in beef fat, brushed with a fermented sauce made from grasshoppers, and topped with seeds from parsley and lovage - the herb not the Automator / Mike Patton / Jennifer Charles project. Did I just gloss over fermented sauce made from grasshoppers? Yup. The first insects of the night!

This all wrapped around a wonderful spinach / lovage / shallot preparation. Awesome, buttery, deliciousness.

Sea urchin toast

So, this was difficult to eat and I looked like an idiot doing so and I don't care. It was worth it. As we learned later - stay tuned for part 6! - this was done outside on the grill. Toast topped with sea urchin topped with crispy duck skin. Have mercy.

Burnt leek and cod roe

This one is another where the staff saves the idiots at the table from eating the wrong stuff. The leeks are delivered "closed", at which point we opened them and found delicious leek / cod roe / blueberry paste. Open the leek first! These were also "burnt" out on the grill.

I'll digress here and talk about living with food allergies. As I'm sure that most of you know, I have both peanut and tree nut allergies. It's not a big deal, I get around it fairly easily. It's annoying when you go to these sorts of restaurants because there are certain dishes you miss out on but what can you do.

For some reason this one gave my mouth a bit of the itch, but I'm chalking that up to the burnt-ness hitting that nutty flavor. My mind getting the best of me once again.

That's the end of the finger-food / bites / starters. Tune in tomorrow for the next stage. Spoiler, it starts with bread!