After an early start, I was quite grumpy, but I loved the cool hotel room, and the thought of Wifi and Facebook certainly cheered me up!
Our first meal was at Nimb, a beautifully ornate building, complete with a giant pumpkin on its spire, which wouldn't have been out of place in a Disney movie, part of the famous park, Tivoli.
We sat by the window with a fabulous view of the gardens, and what looked like a comical pantomime, which we then later had to check out. I tried a dish of wild mushrooms on toast, which was marvellously filling after a few hours of lugging suitcases. The creamy mushrooms had a great earthy flavour, and a creamy finish, and served on crispy toast, they were delicious.
My mum chose a tasty plate of salmon tartar, with dill, radishes and pickled cucumber. Being a big fan of sashimi, I found this truly scrumptious, and would certainly go back for more!
That evening was a busy one: we first headed over to Bojesen, the restaurant at Copenhagen's Opera House, to whet our appetites. There, we had a selection of five, quick before-the-show tapas-style plates. They were quite tasty, but not particularly interesting. The mullet (2nd from right), however, was very well cooked, with a great crispy skin.
The concept was great, for a quick meal before the Opera, but we weren't actually seeing a play, so it slightly defeated the point. On the other hand, the building was quite spectacular, I think resembling the giant peach from Dahl's novel with bridges crossing up the four floors to the restaurant floor, which looked over the centre of Copenhagen from across the river.
Then we caught the bus down to the centre again, and walked to Kodbyens Fiskebar, where we had a fantastic meal. Although it didn't look like much, in the middle of the deserted old meat market, once we were inside, past the open fire, the casual atmosphere was great.
We started off with some oysters, which unfortunately I didn't particularly like, but I tried them anyway, and I'm sure they were very good, if you like raw oysters! Next we had my favourite of the courses there, a trout tartar, which I'd never had before, and was fabulously fresh tasting.
We also had some bream, which had an amazing crust on the skin, and the fish was great because it just flaked apart.
Then we had fish and chip shop style battered fish and chips, wrapped in newspaper. The batter was really delicious, I think made usual special Japanese breadcrumbs, and the chips were lovely and crispy.
The desert there was also fabulous - very pink rhubarb ice, with caramelised rhubarb in a custard sauce. Yum yum!
However, the highlight of my trip was of course lunch at Noma. After some skillful map-reading, determined not to get a taxi, we found our way to the riverside restaurant. The interior was very cool, with wooden beams stretching across the ceiling, and sheepskins hugging the backs of chairs. René and his lovely waiters greeted us at the door, and we discussed foodie goings on. Then, we were escorted to our table, modestly adorned with a pot of flowers, and beautifully heavy ceramic plates. Then we were plunged into the culinary adventure of a lifetime:
First off was nasturtium and snails (with a vegetarian adapted mushroom filling for me!). What was really cool was that these nasturtiums were the actually flowers in the pot on the table from when we sat down! It was a strange feeling, eating the table decoration, (and I'll have to remember not to do it at home!), but they were actually very tasty. My picture is terrible, but they were small red flowers, with a little dusting of a powder of mushroom, and were great to get the taste buds going.
Then came the difficult choice of what to drink. I went for the full juice menu, and wasn't disappointed. With every dish, I tried a different juice, all made there on the day. My favourite was probably the apple juice, because it had a fantastic crisp and also subtle sour taste - best apple juice I've ever tried.
Next up, on our pre-menu of snacks was sea buckthorn leather and pickled rose hips. These had a very interesting texture, which was actually quite leather-like, and delicate. I'd never eaten sea buckthorn before, but the orange fruit was soft and delicious!
Then we tucked into some tempura-style fried leeks. This was an interesting twist on leeks, which are usually soft and a bit squidgy, but this time were nice an crisp, whilst keeping their same distinct flavour.
Now, something that I wasn't so sure about: fjord shrimp, with butter. But the interesting (and disgusting?) thing was that they were live, and almost frozen, yet still wriggling around in a jar of ice. Not my cup of tea, but my mum was happy to crunch them up. Apparently, between mouthfuls, they were "mmm guurd".
Halfway through the snacks, and we were presented with some sandwich-like-looking...well...sandwiches. Crispy rye bread(and chicken skin for my mum) enclosing a pea purée and smoked cheese centre. It had an interesting texture - yummy!
Then was the beautifully presented picked and smoked quail's egg. A large quail egg arrived, which I opened, and whispers of smoke started creeping out. The hay-smoked eggs had a great flavour.
And then, something which could have quite easily been plucked from our garden: a flower pot with radishes and carrots, complete with soil. Except this wasn't your average soil... made with malt flour and some other strange ingredients, this was a weird concoction which could have fooled anyone. You dipped the carrot/raddish with the stalk into the soil, with a herb emulsion, which allowed the soil to stick to the vegetable, and munched away. A bizarre sensation, but very pleasurable, and tasty too!
Æbleskiver followed. This completely unpronounceable, hot, pancake-like, doughnut-looking ball, had a pickled cucumber in the middle, and two fish called muikko sticking out either side. I wasn't so keen on these, but they had an interesting taste and texture, and I liked the pickled cucumber!
Then the main menu started...
A mountain of fresh hazelnuts rested on a field of grilled salad. The hazelnut, which looked a bit like almonds, had a really fresh, clean taste, and was lovely scooped up with some of the salad purée.
The next dish was great: fresh sea urchin with intensely green dill ice, beautifully white cream ice, and cucumber wrapped in the ashes of its own skin (weird eh?). The whole dish was very fresh tasting, and I particularly loved the dill ice, since dill is my favourite herb!
Then I had strange-looking dried scallops sitting on a hazelnut and watercress sauce, with biodynamic cereals. The crispy scallops still had that great taste of the sea, and mixed with the grains, it was like a mix of the earth and the sea.
Next, the dish with the best smell: oyster served in the ocean. A massive pot was placed under our noses, and the lid lifted, and the aroma of smoking seaweed, seashells and stones filled my nostrils. Then I tucked into oyster, which I normally don't like, and was served with herbs and pickled ramson onion. The oyster wasn't too slimy, and was like eating the sea (if that were possible!), and I really liked the ramson onion.
Next was a cool, and slightly surreal-looking dish, with two year old potatoes. Yes. Two year old potatoes. Once they had grown, they decomposed, and then new, tiny ones grew from that. Two year old potatoes. :) These were with potato crisps, and mash under milk skin (the stuff that forms on the top of milk), and lovage. A great exploration of potatoes - on par with Massimo Bottura's "potato who wants to be a truffle"!
Slow cooked celeriac and black truffle, with garden sorrel. Wow. This was the perfect combination of deep, earthly flavours.
After that, I had pike perch, with my new favourite garnish, pickled ramsom. The fish was great, with a crisp skin, but soft flesh, and the accompanying cabbage was well cooked, with a great creamy sauce.
And then the desserts...
A "tree" of lightly cooked pear with a contrastingly crispy caramelised pear skin, pine granita and a delicious pear sauce. The pear, one of my favourite fruits was great - cooked but still with the fluffy yet crisp texture and clean taste. The pine granita was amazingly fluffy and cloud-like, with a really interesting flavour, and gave a nice kick to the dish. The sauce, also, was fabulous, with a really pear-y taste.
Then, getting even more sciencey - I tried this walnut powder, walnut ice cream and redcurrant powder. I wasn't so keen on this course, but the redcurrant powder was nice and tangy.
After the four-hour epic lunch we moved to the bar area to enjoy a couple of snacks.
First, a flødebolle, which is a tea-cake-like confectionery, a speciality in Denmark, which after trying René's adaptation with a marshmellowy yoghurt inside, and coated with chocolate, we took to the streets, searching for the original. They were fairly similar, and both very tasty!
Another interesting snack was some crisps covered in chocolate and dressed with fennel seeds. It was quite a strange idea, but the combination of all three was a great surprise.
Thanks René for a fantastically interesting and inspiring meal, and a journey that I will never forget...
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