OUR LUNCH AT NOMA COPENHAGEN

Hello again, my dear readers,

In this post I would like to share with our our experience at the number 1 restaurant in the world Noma in Copenhagen.

You see, my husband is from Cape Town, South Africa and whilst he immigrated to Australia, his parents chose not to move.  Hence, every year we go to Cape Town for about 10 days to pay them a visit.  

My husband is a bit of a food connoisseur who loves to dine at very posh, famous, Michelin starred celebrity-owned, ranked-top-in-the world restaurants in every city we visit. Sometimes it poses quite a conundrum as some of them require a booking to be made many months in advance, well before we start planning our holidays.  Sometimes you just get lucky.  When last year we were mapping out our European holiday, we decided to include Denmark in our itinerary.  And then, we naturally thought of how lovely it would be, if we can get a table at Noma while in Copenhagen .

We knew Noma had a waiting list of at least 3 months and we were only going to be there for 3 days, but my husband called them from Sydney and asked to be put on the waiting list regardless.  I continuously teased him about it, until on our second day in Copenhagen he received a phone call from the restaurant.  It turned out that someone had cancelled their booking and there was now an opening for lunch.  Needless to say, we both immediately shouted "YES"!  We could not believe our luck

.

People do not go Noma because they are hungry and are just after something to eat; rather, it's an opportunity to dive into the amazing and unique world of a super-talented man, to feel inspired by him, to share his unique approach to food and life, to taste dishes you cannot find anywhere else - in a gastronomic sense, that is.  We were served 17 dishes in total and, whilst they were all memorable, I will recount just a few. 

When the maitre d' showed us to our table, we noticed that the waiter was trying to re-arrange some flowers in a vase on our table.  We didn’t think twice about this until she pushed the vase towards us and there in the middle of the blooms were two edible snails, one for each of us.  It was challenge #1 and we had no choice but to tackle it, and tackle it we did.  I must say, the snail tasted good. 

Our next challenge was presented to us in a non-descript glass jar full of ice with the lid securely closed.  When the waiter opened the lid and showed us what was inside, we gasped.  There, on top of the ice cubes, laid two very much alive shrimps.  Yet again, we summoned up our courage and reached for the shrimps.  When I took my shrimp out, it was still waggling its tail.  The waiter saw the horror on my face and took mercy on me.  He pushed some sauce towards us and told us first to dip the shrimp in it and then swallow it.  I can’t honestly tell you what it tasted like but was relieved when it didn’t jump out of my throat.

The following courses were of less adrenalin-pumping but still astonishingly challenging and equally unpredictable nevertheless. 

At some point, they brought us raw eggs, butter, two small frying pans, a bunch of spinach leaves and a timer, and explained that we had to cook our own egg omelet. We had a lot of fun doing it and it tasted divine.

Another dish was a plate full of soil (edible of course) with some exotic garden vegetables.

The other – a recreation of the ocean bed with seaweed, shells and the like, every piece looked so natural that we had to ask a waiter for guidance as we couldn’t determine what was edible and what was just part of the setting

Fried shallots with Garlic

As much as we were admiring the food, I couldn't wait for the dessert, my favourite part of the meal. First, they served us chocolate buns in a tin box that were in the shape of snails.

Then one of the waiters brought us a parcel wrapped in plain brown paper and when we unwrapped it, we found two pieces of bone marrow.  Puzzled, I gingerly gave it a little bite and to my delight, I tasted white chocolate and salted caramel, both of which were utterly delicious.

After the last dish was served to us, we looked at eaht other with the sad realisation that our delicicious, delightful, exciting, unforgettable and totally unique experience had come to an end.  We had to leave this delectable paradise and return to planet Earth. Now I understand why they call it Food Porn.