Omnivor

Noma in Copenhagen has recently voted the best restaurant in the world on the St Pellegrino worlds 50 best restaurants list. Their interior is very stylish, no table cloth, nothing unnecessary standing around...dinners are dressed casual and really seem to enjoy themselves and especially the excellent food! I take this as a good sign . People should feel comfortable when dinning not having to wear anything they normally would not! I personally think it would be much more important to not allow people in reeking of perfume! I don't mind what fellow dinners are wearing, but I do mind how they smell. Too strong perfumes can ruin a whole evening, since you can't taste your food properly any longer. I am afraid I have to say that in my experience there is a strong positive correlation between wearing a suite or sticking to the stiff dress-code and the obsessive use of perfume of any kind! This is actually the main reason why I avoid restaurants with dress-code.

Usually only salt and pepper touches a good steak, but every once in a while a nice soft herb butter can be wonderfully delicious as well. I simply mix finely diced garlic, chopped fresh rosmary, thyme and oregano with a good butter, season with salt and pepper and adjust the "freshness" with a squirt of lime. I think now I know what I gonna have tonight

That was the most exciting experience I ever had! I have tears in my eyes when I think back to the culinary fireworks on my palates!! The experience started with 5 amuse-bouches so delicious one could only dream of what to expect next! YKL pictured the starters in his 18August report (thanks again for your great pictures and reports!!). The 5th starter was the Danish squid dish with pickled kohlrabi, beach herbs, parsley cream. One word:extraordinary…the squid consitency was just fabulous, melting in your mouth. The main courses and the accompanying wines were: Seaurchin ovaries from Limfjoden and malt Fresh cream and pickled cucumber 2006 Muscadet Sévre et Maine ‘Expression de Gneiss’ Domaine de l´ Ecu (Guy Bossard Loire Cauliflower and elderberry capers Fresh cheese and brown butter sauce Radishes from Lammefjorden 2007 Bourgogne Aligoté Catherine & Dominique Derain Saint-Aubin Sea weed and egg yolk NV (1999) Champage Brut Nature ’Entre Ciel et Terre’ Francoise Bedel Crouttes-sur-Marne Mashed potatoes and truffle Whey and smoked speck 2005 Blaufränkisch ‘Lutzmanns Burger’ Moric Burgenland Short rib of beef and roses Beets and malt 2003 Bourgueil ‘Les Perrières’ Catherine & Pierre Breton Loire Snowman from Lammefjorden 2006 Riesling spätlese ‘Von der Lay’ Rita & Rudolf Trossen Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Truffles from Gotland and Kvark “Branches” and Meringue 2001 Huebuhl Domaine Marcel Deiss Alsace I think most of the dishes have been discussed in an excellent manner by YKL and his pictures are beautiful copared to my blurry attemts therefore I would like to only comment on the bits I feel they need some more commenting and advise you to look at YKL's pictures to get an Idea of what it looks like. First the sea-urchins: It was announced as oysters on the internet menu, so I was surprised when they served sea-urchins instead. I haven’t had the dish with oysters, but I can not imagine a better fit than the sea-urchin! Its creamy rosy taste combined just perfect with the very light and frozen cream and the slightly acidic cucumber…a real treat to your palates. The wine was in my opinion another highlight of the evening…very minerally, almost salty, a perfect companion to sea food (I could imagine that it fits even better to the oysters)! Second the seaweed dish with Icelandic moss: I was really curious about the moss so I started off with trying a bit of the moss on its own…that was bitter! BUT combined with the yolk and especially the seaweed-cream beneath the seaweed balanced this bitterness into something lifting this dish to real culinary heights! I think this slight challenge for my palates made the difference to me! Fabulous!! All the other dishes were real treats as well and I really could not find anything to complain about! The wine menu fit the dishes perfectly by underlining the dishes flavour, but never drowning it! I did not note down the nose and taste of every wine since I was sure I could remember (bad mistake), but after a champagne to the amuse-bouches seven glasses of wine, a glass of Cognac to the more than delicious coffee (I normally only drink espresso, but I would consider drinking coffee on a regular basis if I could have the NOMA stuff) and a glass of whiskey at the bar my memory turned into one big mess off happiness and sense of delight! I hope there will be a next visit soon and I promise that I will note down all my thoughts before I go to the bar

Only 2 more days and I can finally enjoy a dinner at Noma on my own!!! Even though all your pictures look really appetizing I am starving now to see those dishes for real and even more important taste them!! Man I am excited!!! I just checked the menu for this week and it pretty much overlaps with YKL's last post, many thanks for this report! Can't wait until Thursday

My mothers skills in the kitchen are really perfect, her tools are not! She is working with knifes sharp as a toothbrush. Chopping onions is most effective if you use the blade upside-down. I once tried to solve the problem by buying her a nice new knife,..... what a fault. She was cutting everything (including the trees in our garden or the grass-edge to the flowerbed) with this knife until it was absolutely blunt again. A sharpening was senseless, because the blade had become the shape of a saw. I started bringing my own knifes when I am cooking with her to avoid getting crazy because of her blunt ones. Since I bring my own knifes I really enjoy being in the kitchen with her again. She has so many useful tips and so great ideas (for example for knife usage ).

Did you already think about Falafel? I think you can prepare really nice dishes with this crispy little balls.

To my opinion it doesn't matter to much what you are listening to while cooking, as long as it is your music and no radio music, so you can be sure you will enjoy every single track you are listening to. You can easily use your shuffle and it doesn't matter whether classic, jazz, folk, metal...... pops up, you will adapt immediately, its your music! If you prefer to choose the music yourself and let not the shuffle decide for you, make sure the music doesn't take your complete concentration, like the Goldberg Variations played by Gould. Choose something which allowes you to concentrate on cooking, nevertheless it should make you happy. I like to listen to an interpretation of the Goldberg Variation by the Canadian Brass (it don't requires your concentration this much), for example. It is different while you are eating. Here one really has to dicide the music played very carefully, no way of shuffling the playlist. It shouldn't be off-beat music(I think it is not a good idea to start noding while eating). Off course metal isn't a good idea than as well (head banging while eating is quite challenging). I thing something smooth is perfect. Something in between Jazz and Classic, for example. I for myself found Jaques Loussier the perfect attendant for eating (gives you again a possibility to listen to the Goldberg Variations in a very different interpretation). But of course this is my way and everybody has to find his way!