I ate the 6-course tasting menu with accompanying drinks this evening at Mattias Dahlgren (the Matsal, the restaurant proper, not Matbaren). I had eaten in Bon Lloc a few months before they closed and that was a very memorable meal, but Dahlgren has stepped up his food enormously since Bon Lloc, in my (and obviously others') opinion. (Names of dishes as they appear in the English menu) Truffles, corn, nuts The nibbles with drinks: popcorn that tasted of truffle, delicious; burnt Macadamia nuts that were at such a consistent level of burnt-ness that it was obviously intentional, but nonetheless, just tasted burnt to me. Cheese with fennel, radish, cress The first of two amuse, served together. Cheese was smooth & flowing, reminiscent of tallegio but runnier. Very well combined with the garnishes. This was the mouthful when I knew that this food was going to be special. Smoked salmon, ginger, soya Also very good. More or less standard flavours but well executed. Served with the cheese, above. Taste & scent of the wood burning oven We were told this is Dahlgren's earliest food memory: bread & butter as a three-year-old. (You can see a a sort-of picture of this here). A little nugget of bread was given to each person at the table, served from a wooden block resting on a glass. When we had each taken the nugget, the block was removed and the smoke that was contained in the glass was released around the table. It did indeed smell very pleasant, and made the whole restaurant smell very nice throughout the evening as the various tables got this treatment. The nugget was absolutely loaded with butter, more than I expected, which was a surprise on the bad side of surprises. Perfect toast was served with excellent salty Danish butter, surprisingly (in a good way this time) fresh rapeseed oil, and whipped bacon fat that was delicious with the rye bread. Very enjoyable all in all. Pickled herring and beet root; potatoes flavoured with beer, capers, onion, veal gravy This was sill, one of Sweden's national dishes. Every Swedish restaurant must serve sill by order of the national board for sill compliance, or so it seems to me. I find it very dull and stifling of innovation. Yes, it was fine. Yes, I like sill. But for God's sake, serve something else. The veal gravy (consommé en gelee) was excellent. "La Goya" Manzanilla This was an inspired choice with the sill. Perfectly dry. Artichoke & Swedish lobster; seasonal salad, browned butter, dill, lemon Claws and tails of lobster were chewy, cold and delicously freshly tasting of lemon. The combination with two sorts of richness; the artichoke puree and the browned butter, was fantastic. Nussberg Alte Reben 2005 This Austrian white was apparently a mix of different varietals that all grow together in one vineyard, so you never one what proportions they're in. It sounded like a recipe for anything but consistency to me but had the requisite richness to stand up to the puree and butter. Soup of corn, rye & wheat; organic foie gras, truffles, apples This was phenomenal. It was probably the best treatment of cold foie gras I've ever had, and I love foie gras. The "soup" was extremely thick, and I honestly thought it was mushroom but obviously it was the truffles in it I was tasting. The dish was very helpfully served in four little piles of foie, apple, truffle and a crispy thing that you could scoop up with your spoon. The combination of sour, crunchy, crispy, smooth, rich was superb. Shea Vinyard 2006 This Pinot Noir from Oregon was in retrospect an unusual choice with the foie, but the corn soup was so meaty and truffley that the earthiness of the pinot worked really well with it. Handcut tartar of beef & oysters; watercress, tallow vinaigrette, black pepper This was also phenomenal. I've never had beef tartar but by all accounts this was a very unusual treatment of beef tartar. It was encased in the cress which got you over the pyschological factor of a heap of raw mince in front of you. The oysters were combined with the beef and they provided a stunning saltiness to the meat. I couldn't really perceive the tallow vinaigrette which at the time they told us was tallow mayonnaise, though it sounded awful. Porter, from Norway This was, with the sherry, another absolutely inspired choice. The tartar was so light in flavour and texture that it was a bit of a step back from the meatiness of the foie; this porter stepped up to that meaty richness and was utterly unexpected and perfect. Fillet of deer seasoned with juniper berries; celery, endive, honey This meat was stunning. The perfumed fragrance of the juniper pervaded the meat and also came through in the crunchy onion garnish. The endive was soft, roasted and yielding and with the rich jus and celery puree elevated the deer. Immensely satisfying. Interestingly was served with raw, grated mushroom that was almost neutral in flavour but provided a lovely additional rubbery texture to this dish. Barolo Bricco Parussi 2001 Big, brassy Italian was undrinkable without food, with which it worked well. Cheese A cheese course isn't included in the six-course menu, so we added it (upselling at work). Swedish cheeses and Swedish cheese boards are rubbish. They refuse to serve French cheese like they serve French wine but I was sure that if anyone would have good Swedish cheese, Mattias Dahlgen would. Turns out there just must not be any decent Swedish cheese. Hard, dry, dull, and ammonia. One soft cheese reminiscent of reblochon was good but that was out of seven-odd. Served with nice melba toast with black sesame seeds and a dried date, which was nice. VT Gewurz, Alsace, 2005 The waitress recommended port but we plumped for this instead (so I didn't get the producer). Very good. Frozen Arctic Angelica & sea buckthorn Pre-desert: Two sorbets, one herb, one "sea buckthorn" which is an orange berry with an usually savoury flavour. These were both superb, and bridged excellent the savoury/sweet divide. Swedish cheese cake of goatmilk; cherry sorbet, tonka ice cream, cream This desert was superb aswell. Parts of it were genuinely salty, which proved utterly delicious in an unexpected way. Fruity, fresh, light, moreish. Vin Doux Naturel Rasteau 2006 Too much. They got other unusual drink combos right; this one wasn't. Coffee candy; raspberry bush and creme of gold A teaspoonful of 'creme brulee'; creme with broken shards of caramel on top, with gold leaf. Eating gold leaf at the end of a meal is a very enjoyably luxurious experience.
