NOMA

We were fortunate enough to have friends in Copenhagen who worked to get a reservation at Noma. Noma serves reinterpreted Nordic/Scandinavian cuisine and has been rated as the world's best restaurant (now that El Bulli is closing). We had very high expectations. The restaurant is located in a former warehouse in the Christianshavn neighborhood across from the tourist center of Copenhagen. We were greeted by chef Rene Redzepi who has worked at El Bulli in Spain and French Laundry in California. The first course was preceded by a series of snacks. The first was a malt flatbread in the form of a twig and juniper creme. We were instructed to pick the flatbread out of the table's centerpiece. Clearly this was not going to be your typical fine dining experience. The flatbread was followed by fried moss as you see above.

The next snack was a seabuckthron leather (fruit rollup-esque) with pickled hip roses.

Then a cookie with lardo and currant. Ok, so it was weird and interesting, but was it going to be good?

The answer came in the form of this: rye bread, chicken skin, lump fish roe and smoked cheese. Remarkable.

Next came pickled and smoked quails egg and radish with edible soil and herbs. The eggs were gorgeous and silky and wonderful. The radish and "soil" seemed a bit gimmicky to me.

Then it was time to get Nordic. Aebleskier, a traditional Danish Christmas treat, this time with a little fish I forget the name of.

We ate 'em whole and they were great.

After the snacks, which were served with a delicious Danish white wine (yes, Danish wine) came the first course. Leek with sea weed jelly and bits of kelp reduction. Really unique.

Then razor clam and dill oil with buttermilk and horseradish powder. These were served with a 2009 'Corps de Garde' Goisot Cotes d'Auxerre.

Next was my personal favorite of the evening: thinly sliced and jerkyed scallops with beech nut, watercress, barley and squid ink. Absolutely otherworldly. Served with a 2009 Bourgogne Aligote Alice et Olivier de Moor from Chitry

A close second was the shaved chestnut and lojrom (Swedish caviar) with cress and walnut. Rich! Served with a 2008 Riesling Federspiel "Steinriegel" from Wachau.

Then things got challenging. The "Oyster and the Ocean." Oyster from north Jutland steamed with seaweed and rocks and topped with herbs picked from the beach the oysters were foraged from.

This dish was like being transported to the beach in summer time. The smell was incredible. The taste was good. The texture, a challenge. But it was beautiful.

Then a little respite. Onion and unripe grape juice with thyme and tapioca served with a 2009 Klaus Zimmerling Weissburgunder from Saxony.

Celeriac with truffle with a 2008 Riesling Auslese trocken

You will notice an extended focus on vegetables and white wine. It was light, Nordic, and very un-French. I loved it. The most beautiful dish was the pickled vegetables and bone marrow.

The single meat focused dish of the evening was the Reindeer tongue and apple with malt and browned butter and blackened apple seeds, which was totally spectacular and served with a 2003 Barolo 'Giachina' from Piedmonte. The sole red wine served.

Then dessert started subtlely, with the pear tree. Grilled pear with raw pear on top, seasoned with juniper and verbena. The green mass was a pine infused angel food cake-like accompaniment. Served with a 2009 Riesling Spatlese 'Von Horn' from Mosel.

Next was the little snowman of sheeps milk and elderflower ice cream.

Murder the little guy and you got an explosion of berry.

Finally a little walnut ice cream dust and berries with frozen cream, served with a 2009 'Le Cormier' from Coteaux du Layon. Pretty and sweet.

I have never had a meal like this in my life. Thanks to Nan Na Hvass for her beautiful pictures (my camera died halfway through plus I am beginning to think I need to take a class in indoor night food photography if this blog is going to ever look decent!) I will go back to Copenhagen and Noma, without a doubt. What a special experience.

VILLA NECCHI CAMPIGLIO

I just saw Luca Guadagnino's I Am Love, staring Tilda Swinton. An Italian melodrama full of passion, haute cuisine, chic fashion and Milanese architecture, the film features the Villa Necchi Campiglio, an imposing home built between 1932-35 in an art deco meets rationalist (also known as fascist) style. The movie was fantastic, for many reasons, but the production design by Francesca Di Mottola is utterly phenomenal.

Di Mottola and Guadagnino show Milan in all it's sharp, aloof grayness. The house is a brick an mortar incarnation of the strange, intensely private and intensely privileged lives of the industrial elite in northern Italy. Everything that feels vaguely depressing and oppressive about the city seems honed into a glossy marble slab in the film. The house is currently a museum open to the public, but for filming was made into a rich, luxurious series rooms that, one after another, each seem to invent yet another shade of brown. I can't get it out of my head!

I cannot wait to visit the house the next time I am in Milan, and I will most definitely be seeing the movie again to soak up the visuals a second time. For more images and information, check out the T magazine article written by Armand Limnander.

Images via travelpod and habituallychic.blogspot.com

BDAY, PART I

This weekend we hosted a birthday dinner for a friend.  It was a group effort; other friends cooked (more on that tomorrow) and we crammed 12 people in our tiny kitchen.  I made three little simple arrangements for the table.

Peonies, ranunculus, and black berries.  Not grown locally, as obviously it is not peony season, and thus not very earth-friendly, but it was a special occasion.

I am actually not a big lover of complex flower arrangements (maybe because I am not so skilled at making them).  My preferred look is just a simple bunch of one type of flower thrown in a vase.  This time, however, I felt like the combination of these two blooms and one fruit was just perfect.  I arranged them in the some pottery handmade by a friend's mother.  The reds against the dark blue and turquoise of the pottery makes me happy. 

I got some dark navy napkins as well.

Maybe it's time to invest in some more bowls, plates and cutlery.  Another generous friend had to bring some of hers so we would have enough place settings.  I like an eclectically set table, so I am going to start looking for some interesting dinnerware to coordinate (but not match) what we already have.

PIERRE BERGE AND YSL

A book I purchased at the V&A Museum that has nothing to do with British decorative arts, but is my new favorite possession: The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge by Robert Murphy. Yves Saint Laurent and Berge spent a lifetime curating the 20th century's most impressive collection of paintings, one of a kind furnishings, curios, sculpture and rare books: their own.

After Saint Laurent died, Berge auctioned off the whole lot, wiping the slate of his life clean and at the same time rescuing the faltering high end auction world. The auction in Paris was said to be, literally, the sale of the century.

Everything they collected was special, exceptional and unexpected. The book, with vivid photography by Ivan Terestchenko showcases (some of) their residences: three in Paris, and one each in Normandy, Tangier, and Marrakesh.

Saint Laurent's cabinet of curiosities.

Levels of taste I can only hope to achieve someday.

One small aside... the preface of the book calls Saint Laurent and Berge "friends and business partners," which I am sure they were. They were also husbands who spent their lives building something truly amazing together. Let's call it what it was, please. In a related note, thanks a lot, Maine.

Images by Ivan Terestchenko via art and auction.com, artnet magazine, Harpers, Interview and artinfo.com

EATING IN LONDON, PART I

I spent the last 6 days with friends and loved ones visiting London.  This is a city that, until this trip, was far from my favorite in Europe.

My first trip, in college, was a disaster.  There was the hostel near the train station, lots of Heinz baked beans and disgusting bland sausages, greasy fish 'n chips, and smelly pubs that closed early.  A second trip a few years ago was better, but still focused around stale, beer soaked venues and pubs.  This time we did it right.  The weather was great, the parks beautiful, the hotel comfortable and well located, there was a nearby coffee place with the best espresso I have ever had, and every meal contained either pork or snails or steak tartare.  Yum.

Dinner the first night was at Bistrotheque in Cambridge Heath.  I had the steak tartate (above) followed by the pork belly (below).  That skin/fat was so sweet and crispy it was like eating candy.  I finished up with a glass of chilled tawny port.

The following night we ate at St. John's Bread and Wine, in Shoredich.  This meal was secretly the impeuts for the trip, and deserves it's own entry, coming soon.

For fun one afternoon, we had high tea at Claridge's Hotel in Mayfair.  I realized that sometimes ritzy in London makes ritzy in New York seem like ritzy in Erie, Indiana.  

London has a wildly large selection of ancient, traditional shops focusing on the finest quality goods available anywhere.  Shops like George F. Trumper, James Lock and Co., Fortnum & Mason, Paxton & Whitfield, and, of course, Harrod's have been selling the best of their respective bests for as long as the US has been a country.  When you come accross a sundries shop that is older than your nation, it really can make you feel you are in the most civilized city in the world.  I won't be moving any time soon, but I officially like London.

Scone, clotted cream, stawberry preserves and Marco Polo tea.  Fan-cy!

JEAN MICHEL

He may not be from the south of France, but speaking of things French means I have to bring up designer Jean Michel Frank.  If you are familiar with interiors or furniture, you know his work.  If not, he is the original genius behind what nearly all of the last 10-15 years of mainstream high-end interior design owes it's inspiration.  Christian Liaigre, Armani Casa, Peter Marino, Calvin Klein Home, Jed Johnson, Jacques Grange... they all owe Mr. Frank a great, great deal.

This is an interior he did for Marie-Laure de Noailles, a notorious, eccentric client: parchment walls, straw marquetry inlay, bleached leather upholstery, perfect proportion, clean lines, super luxe materials.  How French.

He liked color too, despite what many think.  Here is the apartment he did for the Rockefellers here in New York.

That chair is lined with shagreen, which is made from stingray skin (bad) but was once made from shark skin (worse).  Jean Michel didn't know about design for sustainability.

Exotique!

If you are so inclined, read up (and pay up) here or here.

Images via 2thewalls, Christie's, AD Magazine