Restaurant manager James Spreadbury explains the Noma signature dish

René Redzepi was quoted about his experience working at the previous number one restaurant in the world, elBulli:

“I didn’t come back to Denmark thinking: I’m going to put a gel of a gel of a gel on my monkfish liver while I whip my guests with burning rosemary,” he said. “I just came back with a sense of freedom.”

The restaurant is situated by the water near the town of Christianhavn, in a converted warehouse space by the water. The whitewashed, exposed wooden beams and contrasted by the smooth dark wood floors. The decor is organic yet modern with very distinct Scandinavian designs – smooth wooden chairs with no perfectly straight lines and fluffy sheepskin throws on every other one, smoked oaked tables with no linen and the changing natural light from the floor to ceiling windows, first bright, then dusk, and then swallowed by the warm glow of the votives lightly reflecting off natural surfaces.

We were seated at our table, beautifully located on a window corner, decorated with a vase adorned with green, leafy herbs and branches, and usually large stalks of what looked like a cross between lemongrass and heart of palm across our charger plates. After navigating through a long list of boutique organic and biodynamic Champagne houses did our server explain that the first two ’snacks’ of our evening were in fact the ‘decorations’ on the table. The serving of the ’snacks’ move quite quickly, a different shared plate is presented in front of each diner, making it quite an interactive experience of exchanging your plate with another until everyone on the table has had their share.

While there was a shorter, seven course menu available, we opted for the twelve course ‘Noma Nassaaq’ menu for the full affair.

Bulrush
dipped in goats curd and hazelnut praline

Malt flatbread and juniper
Dipped in fresh cream

Moss and Cep

Cookie with lardo and currant
Presented in an old fashioned cookie tin

Mussel
Where the bottom shell is edible (made with malt flour and moulded in between 2 mussel shells)

Rye bread, chicken skin, lumpfish roe and smoked cheese
Served on felt, crisp rye bread on top, dry crisp chicken skin on bottom.

Seabuckthorn leather and pickled hip rose petals
Seabuckthorn is a type of berry which tastes in between passionfruit and apricot. The ‘leather’ is made similar to a fruit roll-up: pureed and air dried into thin sheets. This was very delightful!

Pickled and smoked quail eggs
Smoked on apple wood, the smoke puffs out like a magic show as you open the egg shaped box. Instructed to be eaten within 10 seconds of opening.

Radish, soil and herbs
A classic Noma dish – A terracotta pot plant with green leaves popping out from soil. We are told that everything is edible, by hand. Once we pull a cluster of leaves out, a rosy pink radish is revealed, alongside a brilliant green cream beneath the “soil”. The soil is made from beer, hazelnut and malt flour, the green cream made from sheep’s yoghurt flavoured with tarragon, chives and chervil.

Toast, herbs, smoked cod roe and vinegar
The crispy toast was sprinkled with salt and vinegar powder, which was a nice contrast to the fresh herbs

Æbleskiver
A common Danish Christmas dish, but in a savoury variation – warm beignets with baby herring and cucumber filling

Söl and rye bread
Warm bread served with lard and pork shavings

Shrimp and sea urchin powder
frozen, finely grated sea urchin, raw sweet baby prawns atop frozen seawater and river pebbles, dressed with dill oil and fresh biodynamic cream. Garnished with wild flowers and regional herbs. One of my favorite dishes of the night.

Scallops and beech nut, Watercress and grains
The dried scallop slices reminded me of the Chinese dried scallops, but sliced very thinly as a cross section. A very peppery and fresh cut grass sensation of raw watercress puree with lentils

Tartar and sorrel, Juniper and Tarragon
Another famous Noma dish that used to be made with musk ox instead of Danish beef. It is eaten with the hands as you use the sorrel leaves to pinch some of the tartare, smearing it in the tarragon sauce and then swabbed onto the juniper powder.

Langosines and seawater
Oyster mayonnaise, parsley and seawater emulsion, and rye crumbs. The Noma signature dish, where the barely cooked, seared to perfection langoustine is served on a warm basalt stone and is eaten by hand. The flesh is like nothing I have tasted in a shellfish before, perfectly sweet and plump, bursting with juices upon biting into the white flesh.

(added photo from Rene’s twitter account)

Oyster and the ocean
Steamed oyster sprinkled with horseradish, capers of elderberries, wild onion seeds, beach cabbage served in a pot filled with sea shells and pebbles. When the lid is lifted we are filled with the aroma of the sea through the hot steam.

White and green asparagus, Cream and Pine
Green asparagus sauce, pine tips (made with pine vinegar, pine oil and smoked with pine wood)

Pike perch and cabbage, Stems and ramson

The hen and the egg
This was a very interactive and fun dish where each person fries their own sunny side up duck egg. A side plate of herb butter, spinach, ramsons, and herbs was placed at our table. A hot skillet placed on hay was served alonside s a duck egg, a half eggshell containing salt, and some potato crisps. Our server squeezed a drop of hay oil onto the hot skillet and we were told to break the egg on top. A timer was set to 2 minutes on the table, and once the time was up, we added the herb butter and the spinach to the skillet. A sorrel sauce was poured over afterwards, and we crushed the potato crisp and sprinkled over the top. I seasoned mine with the salt provided.

Veal sweetbread and peas, Forest shoots and grilled garlic

Milk slice, sorrel
A perfect palate cleanser, where the sorrel carried us over gently to begin the desserts with frozen milk slices.

Carrots and sea buckthorn
Sea buckthorn flavored frozen spongey ice cream, shaved dried carrots, soft herbs

Brown cheese with beetroot ice, freeze dried black currents

herbal infusion tea, flødebolle
soft meringue covered in chocolate

Chocolate covered potato chips with fennel seeds

Bone marrow caramel
A package was given to us wrapped in brown paper, and revealed 2 hollow bones inside. With your fingers, you have to pop out the caramel on the bottom of the bone, sized like a smaller scallop, is a chewy caramel made with bone marrow. Different, and delightful.

One of the most striking differences I found at Noma was the relationship between the kitchen and the waitstaff. It does not follow the strict French institutional rules of a restaurant, nor does it have the heated, time constrained kitchen under pressure to please. To my delight, the floor and the kitchen work together harmoniously as one. Each chef knows just as much about the diners on each table as the servers (also largely due to the fact that each table, bar two, can be seen directly from the glass kitchen, which is a luxury that most restaurants do not have), and the chefs who are preparing the food are actually serving it directly in front of their patrons, explaining in detail how things are prepared with first hand knowledge. You can hear the genuine passion in their descriptions and not once do you get a snooty French accent giving you long fancy words while making you feel stupid if you asked for a definition. Once would think that this disruption between the front of house and the back of house would create some sort of chaos, but the semblance of it all was so effortlessly harmonious at Noma.

We didn’t get to meet Rene this time around, he’d just become a father to his second child only two days ago and thus he’s taking some time off. He also spends another bulk of his time researching and creating new menu items on his boat, which is berthed outside the restaurant. During our kitchen tour, Sam Neil has explained that Rene has trained each and every one of his chefs to taste every ingredient prior to cooking, so that Noma’s patrons are sure to be presented with each single ingredient at its very best.. All staff members take turns partaking in foraging trips three times a week, to travel to different parts of the country and collect edible plants of all sorts. Sometimes they would pick herbs on their way to work, or alternatively, a company van is available for any staff member to use on foraging trips. Sam explained the importance of tasting something at the prime of its season, and used the example of the broth he makes with onions that are in season – the taste simply cannot be replicated all the time. When he uses onions that are picked later in the season, the flavor profile changes, and he has to adjust the amount of onions used in the same dish up to triple the amount used previously, just to extract the same depth of flavor. At this moment, they have begun pickling fresh ingredients for the winter months.

Sam Miller and the indoor herb storage

We are told the story of Roderick Slone, the Scotsman who lives in Norway. He was originally trained as a cook, but now, in the bitterly and harsh cold winters, Roderick hand dives for sea urchins exclusively for Noma in -10°C waters, moving to the rhythm of the waves and placing each urchin inside a linen sack. The below freezing temperatures of the water means he can only dive 30 minutes at a time, one session after another, up to ten hours a day. The sea urchin we get to enjoy arrive from Roderick’s bare hands in the bottom of Nordic sea and onto our plates in under 48 hours, exclusively for Noma.

After an extensive tour of the various kitchen equipments, tasting different ‘ice creams’ from the paco jets, ingredient storage and just generally trying to enquire about the recipes for each dish, we stumbled upon a group of young stages, preparing for the bi-weekly project presentation. Each young chef is encouraged to design a project that they can present to their peers to express their creativity, their use of ingredients and the flavor of the project they create. Tonight, a hopeful razor clam dish served on celery halves is being prepared for the project.

Many people have asked, “how does Noma compare to elBulli?”. I have no answer, just as I have no answer to whether a wild valley is more beautiful then a perfectly manicured garden. The meal at Noma was profoundly delivering the heart and soul of true Nordic cuisine; and unless you are there – it is quite impossible to replicate such an experience, with the local ingredients, the setting, and most of all, such a heart warming team of passionate individuals who collectively deliver the Nordic terroir onto our plates. We all return home with very fond memories of this gastronomic experience.

Chefs at Noma

Can a girl be any happier?

Noma
Strandgade 93
1401 Copenhagen, Denmark
Tel: +45 32 96 32 97

What sets him aside from the rest of the three Michelin starred chefs is that Heston was completely self taught. He was inspired during the age of 16 after a visit to a French restaurant (L’Oustau de Baumaniere) and he had an epiphany – he wanted to devote his life to gastronomy. With a copy of On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee and spending every last penny dining at Michelin starred restaurants, he especially took a keen interest in the technique of cooking and the science behind how flavour is produced, and it was only a natural progression that he began to explore molecular gastronomy.

After the recent debacles The Fat Duck restaurant experienced, I thought it would be easier to secure a table. Boy was I wrong! It was booked out for the next two months, so I was on a waiting list for a 2PAX at any time during my three week stay in London. Luckily, reservations emailed me days before, and I had secured a table for two on a Tuesday night.

Unlike elBulli, dining at The Fat Duck was not one of those trips where I spent months and months anticipating for, as I probably spent more time worrying how to get out of central London during peak hour traffic after work. I also missed out on tickets to Heston’s talks during last year’s Melbourne food festival, so I’m not as familiar with his concepts as I had hoped for. It was probably a blessing in disguise, because sometimes when you read too much into the chef and his creations, the meal itself is like watching a Harry Potter movie – you’ve read all the books, everything looks great, but you inevitably know what is going to happen next.

The Fat Duck is located just outside of London in Bray, under an hour’s drive from the city. It is near Berkshire, where Heston grew up and still resides with his wife and three children. The restaurant is a humble, cosy Tudor styled building with low ceilings and exposed timber beams, around 15 tables or so occupying the living room sized space. It seats a maximum of 45 people, and there is almost a one staff to one diner ratio.

“I love what I do,” Heston laughs. “I do think that it doesn’t matter how gastronomic food is or it can be. I think you should be able to have fun. If one word that a customer could say to me to describe the experience of the restaurant it would be fun, to have a sense of fun.”

Heston was right. It was indeed the most “fun” I’ve ever had during a meal, where he doesn’t miss a single detail of the story that unfolds through my palate during my 18 course tasting menu. To transcend diners as the role of Alice in Wonderland (and you’ll see the references he makes to that story later) and having tea with the Mad Hatter was all part of his charm. Perhaps, with his whimsical approach to cooking, he relates to the role of the Mad Hatter, only to swap the top hat for a chef’s hat?

The Wine List

The 18 course tasting menu (the only option for dinner – he had recently removed the a la carte menu) plays with every theory he’s found from scientific studies of how to trigger memories through smell, taste, touch and sounds. Once it was combined into a multi-sensory affair, we add in all our own memories and experiences to the table, giggling and interacting with the ’story’ our own way, from the prologue right down to the appendix. Every dish was inviting and had its own unique comfort zone, and I can’t really imagine anyone who wouldn’t enjoy it as much as I did.

(click on any photos to see a detailed, full-sized zoom)

After settling wth some olives and vintage Rose champagne, our meal begins with a spectacle of liquid nitrogen, like a magician’s grand entrance, followed by a spritz of fresh lime perfume in the air amongst us that lingered and refreshed our senses. The waiter “poached” the lime mousse inside the liquid nitrogen until it resembled a very cold piece of meringue, sprinkled it with green tea powder using a powder puff and asked that we eat it straight away with our fingers.

LIME GROVE
Nitro Poached Green Tea and Lime Mousse

RED CABBAGE GAZPACHO
Pommery Grain Mustard Ice Cream

JELLY OF QUAIL, CREAM OF CRAYFISH
Chicken Liver Parfait, Oak Moss and Truffle Toast (Homage to Alain Chapel)

We were first presented with a bed of moss on a wooden box, with two packets of what resembled Listerine Strips with the label “Fat Duck Films”. We let the thin clear strip dissolve on our tongue, immersing it with flavours of wooden oak undertones, while our server poured a liquid onto the moss that turned our dining table into a mystic forest.

The truffle toast and the chicken liver parfait was served - my ebony Laguiole knife started to gently disappear as the mist thickens on our table. It was like dining amist the Yorkshire moors.

Quail jelly, langoustine cream, foie gras parfait and pea puree – such a perfect combination, the truffle toast with just the right amount of crisp and dark truffle notes that complimented so well the oak.

ROAST FOIE GRAS
Gooseberry, Braised Konbu and Crab Biscuit

This is possibly the best foie gras dish I’ve ever had, blended with flavours of soy and konbu (the thin membrane on the bottom is also a slice of konbu), crisp crab biscuit and the sweetness of the gooseberry puree.

MOCK TURTLE SOUP (c.1850) “Mad Hatter Tea”

“Have you seen the Mock Turtle yet?”
“No,” said Alice. “I don’t even know what a Mock Turtle is.”
“It’s the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from,”

It looked like a golden pocket watch in a large cup, which was attached to a teabag string labelled “Mad Hatter’s Tea”.

It was served with a miniature terrine of calf’s tongue, Colonnata lardo with a Mock Turtle egg, which is a turnip mousse with a swede puree, and little enochi mushrooms to signify the Caterpillar’s toadstool that was reminiscent of a storybook scene.

Using our ‘teapot’, we were instructed to pour hot water over our golden pocket watch.


The gold started to magically float away while the ‘pocket watch’ (a stock cube) dissolved into a fragrant veal consomme. Poured over the main dish, it was such a beautiful dish  when the baby herbs floated with the gold flecks shining under the softly lit dining room.

“SOUND OF THE SEA”

Presented with a large sea conch and an iPod tucked inside, we were encouraged to immerse ourselves with the sounds of the sea. The use of the word “sounds” was probably inadequate as Heston wanted to engage all the senses – sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. While listening to waves crashing and seagulls squawking and reliving a ‘Lord of the Flies’ moment, a glass plate of malty tapioca “sand” made from dried eel, sashimi, samphire and different textures of seaweed, with a “sea” foam is served.

There were no shellfish (razorclams being part of the ingredients) as this was the infamous dish that caused the food poisoning scare.

SALMON POACHED IN LIQUORICE
Artichokes, Vanilla Mayonnaise, Golden Trout Roe and Manni Olive Oil


I never thought salmon, liquorice, vanilla and roe would complement each other so well. This dish was another one of my favorites – the salmon was poached to such perfection it’s hard to describe how smooth and tender it was.

POWDERED ANJOU PIGEON. (c.1720)
Blood Pudding and Confit of Umbles

TAFFETY TART (c1660)
Caramelized Apple, Fennel, Rose and Candied Lemon

THE NOT-SO-FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST (1 of 3)
Parsnip Cereal
Our server walks up to us and said “Good Morning” with a smile, “We will be preparing some breakfast for you today”. We were given a small box of  cereals with milk on the side.


They were small flakes of parsnip which were pressed to look a little like rolled oats or mini cornflakes. Milk was then poured on top, very cute.

THE NOT-SO-FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST (2 of 3)
Nitro-Scrambled Egg and Bacon Ice Cream

This was the part I was waiting for, the infamous smoked bacon and egg ice cream! Our waiter wheels a trolley next to our table with eggs and a frying pan atop a cooper burner. She breaks an egg into the frying pan, pours in liquid nitrogen and stirs with a wooden spoon and says “They’re cooked!”.

I later found out that The ice cream custard is injected into an empty egg shell, which is then cracked at your table and ‘cooked’ or frozen with liquid nitrogen into clumps of scrambled egg like ice cream.

THE NOT-SO-FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST
Hot & Iced Tea (3 of 3)

I was told that the hot and cold tea is made by removing the ions from water, which turns it into a fluid gel. With a partition down the middle of the glass, hot gel down is poured down one side and cold gel down the other side, and the the partition is removed while the gel stays still. An interesting characteristic with de–ionised water is that when it is standing on the table it is somewhat solid like jelly, but when tipped on an angle (while drinking) it turns to a liquid. The two different temperatures swirling in your mouth is a very unexpected sensation.

CHOCOLATE WINE “SLUSH” (c.1660)
Millionaire Shortbread

Another old recipe – this one from the 17th Century, an ice slush that tasted of red wine and chocolate, and went amazing well with the Millionaire shortbread, which was soft oozing toffee in between two thin layers of chocolate.

WINE GUMS
Historic Trade Routes of Britain

I love this concept! A picture frame arrives, with an old map and gummies stuck to the surface of the glass.

The gummies tasted exactly of Mead, Cognac, Madiera, Sherry and Rum. It’s amazing how the flavour of each is captured so well in a gummy.

Cheese from the cheese trolley (optional)

We still had red wine leftover, so why not?

“LIKE A KID IN A SWEET SHOP”

Heston makes sure we do not leave empty handed, so we are given a bag of ‘goodies’ to bring home. My favorite part was the “Queen of hearts” which was in a tiny envelope sealed with wax. It looked just like a playing card, but it is actually a flat piece of white chocolate with the pattern printed on both sides, and in the centre was filled with a fresh berry compote, which was quite amazing – Another Alice in Wonderland moment.

At a mere £130 per head, it’s of extreme good value compared to a degustation at a 3 hatted restaurant in Sydney, in my honest opinion.

If I were to describe a meal at The Fat Duck in one word, it would be memorable. The sheer theatrics and the presentation alone is sure to impress. Save this one for a special occasion!

To make a reservation please call +44 (0) 1628 580 333 between 10am and 5pm Monday to Friday (including bank holidays).

We accept reservations as far as two calendar months in advance and the restaurant is closed on Sunday evening and all day Monday.

We had appropriately fasted for the whole day, having nothing but an artery clogging breakfast at our hotel early that morning. It was 8:30pm, and nothing had been eaten for over 11 hours. We were well and truly prepared in anticipation for the 34 course extravaganza that awaited us when our waiter said:

“Ferran has prepared a special menu for you tonight” in his heavy Spanish accent. “Please let me know if you have any dietary requirements. We will be serving a large range of things, including razor clams, sea anemones… Is there anything you don’t eat?”

“Absolutely not.” I replied, “We will try anything!” (I am Chinese afterall)

our table

The senses Ferran wants to engage with his diners is none than the usual: Sight, Hearing, Touch, Smell, Taste… but what makes him a stand out from the rest is his clear intention of stimulating The Sixth Sense. Before you try to say “I see dead people” in Spanish, his concept of the Sixth Sense is actually about the stimulation of the mind – provoking it for a deeper response or a desire to analyse a dish: whether it triggers memories of childhood, or makes a cultural connection to other styles of cooking, if it challenges you to overcome fears of new and strange things, or it’s cheeky and playful with the things you are used to. When you are presented with one dish, your senses always fail to initially predict the outcome as it significantly contrasts your own knowledge and experiences, which really makes every bite truly mind blowing – or mind boggling.

Eating involves the use of all the senses. Each sense can be seen as a separate creative method, but in many cases it is the interaction between different senses that produces the most interesting results. This can occur not just within one dish, but also over the course of a sequence of dishes that engages the senses in different ways. – A day at elBulli

The 34 course tasting menu is a theatrical affair. At times, Ferran’s humour will make you laugh; it will surprise you when the unexpected jumps at you; At other times, it will shock, questioning the norms you are once used to. The culinary journey you embark on is full of emotion and new experiences. The degustation is explained by some to consist of four main acts.

Act One usually consists of a welcoming cocktail, aperitifs and “snacks”, usually served on the terrace, all dishes served without cutlery and eaten by hand. 

So the curtain opens with a cocktail…

(please click on images for enlarged gastronomic food porn view)

cane: mojito - caipirinha

This was no ordinary cocktail, but a cocktail infused inside sticks of sugarcane – one flavoured with a mojito, the other with a caiprinha.

gin fizz

The gin fizz was a mixture of warm and cold liquids- the foam was warm, almost milky, and the liquid below was almost gelatinous. When you drink it, both layers combined in your mouth for a strange combination of temperatures and textures.

After our cocktails, we selected a 1996 Billecart Salmon for the reminder of the evening, one of our favorite vintages for Champagne.

spherical olives

spherical olives

passion orchid

rabbit ear crunchy

mimetics peanuts

tomato biscuit

This tomato biscuit reminded us of the red sprinkles you find on Arnott’s pizza shapes, but so much more decadent garnished with gold leaf. The flavour doesn’t taste artificial as it is derived from freshly dried tomatoes.

"averantos"

Averantos (I’m still unsure as to what it is) is somewhat like puffed sesame seeds and a smoky flavoured seasoning like bacon. It was very lightly held together and can only be picked up by holding the paper and consuming it in one bite.

black sesame sponge cake with miso

The fluffiest, lightest sponge cake, made by siphoning batter with nitrous oxide into plastic cups, and microwaving them, as shown in one of Ferran’s presentations during the most recent book launch. He mentioned that this was a recipe that only took him “minutes to develop, but others – many years.”

beetroot and yogurt meringue

The meringue with flavours of beetroot light as air, filled with a whipped yogurt centre. This is served with a spoonful of beetroot essence (seen in the background of the photo).

essence de betterave

An intense shot of beetroot liquid in a measured spoon – all part of the “instruments” used in his kitchen.

oyster leaf with dew of vinegar

This leaf had a remarkable resemblance to the taste of an oyster, so when served with red wine vinegar “beads” and some eshallots, it was indeed just like eating an oyster! Ferran has visited places like the Amazon during his off-months hoping to discover more fruits and vegetables with new flavours.

Unpictured: Gorgonzola Mochi (link to someone else’s photo here)

Looks just like a bocconcini, but was a liquid filled sac that was fragile like a small water balloon. The waiter presents it on a metal plate for us to carefully pick up, and it is to be eaten straight away. A very intense explosion of gorgonzola flavour lingers, made possible by a type of spherication (please correct me if I’m wrong) where liquid is encased in a membrane.

grilled strawberry

The grilled strawberry was served in a contrast of temperature with the gorgonzola mochi. It is rather unexpected that it was filled with a warm liquid, salted and somewhat alcoholic in flavour.

After the selection of snacks, the waiter began to set our table with cutlery, in preparation for the next act. Act Two is the most substantial part of the meal which consists of savoury, tapas-styled dishes. It flows uninterruptedly one after another, at times a little too quickly. There was a moment between the 20th and the 21st course where I really just needed a gastronomic breather, so my brain could catch up with the information my stomach was trying to process. Naturally, the waiter seamlessly organised for each course to be brought out slower.

haricot bean with Joselito's iberian pork fat

The haricot bean was reconstructed using the same spherication technique as the mochi, only this time hot liquid is encased in the membrane. The thin translucent layer with paprika floating on top actually a slice of ham fat, all submerged in a smokey ham broth.

cuttlefish with pesto ravioli

Baby cuttlefish, served withpesto “ravioli”s, which were also liquid contained insidea membrane that bursts in the mouth.

parmesean frozen-air with muesli

"muesli"

parmesean frozen-air with muesli

We were presented with a white styrofoambox, just like ones you find in takeaway ice cream stores. Our waiter lifted the lid and revealed something that looked like a frozen white cloud. In the plastic bag we were given sprinkles of berries and other dried ingredients that have a crunchy texture, and we were told to scatter it on the “air” a little at a time. The frozen air was cold, but as soon as it enters the mouth it melts into almost nothing, leaving behind the salty bite of parmesean cheese, just like it was freshly grated from the block. The museligave it another depth in texture and a citrus sweetness to it. Highly enjoyable experience.

yolks

This was one of my favorites of the night: reconstructed egg yolk (shaped like mini-bullets in the photo), egg whites, floating in tiny fish caviar with different flavoured Japanese seasoning around the plate, such as shiso, yuzu, wasabi and white sesame. Each seasoning gives a different perspective to the dish which was a phenomenal fusion of Japanese flavours.

lulo

lulo

This dish was served with spoons that were frozen in liquid nitrogen and steaming like dry ice, a truly fascinating spectacle. The plate was presented to us with three segments of a fruit called lulo, a very acidic Columbian fruit (texture like peach, but extremely sour), and it is topped with shaved foie gras fat. The only way to shave the yellow fat like chocolate curls is to do so at a very low temperature and served frozen. As soon as you eat it, it melts back to its original oily consistency, much like butter.

garlic with coco

Garlic with coco probably wasn’t one of my favorites, (perhaps I felt a little disappointed as the usual version is presented with caviar) three cloves of garlic cooked in three stages of temperatures (firm, roasted, charcoaled) in a coconut soup reminiscent of Chinese desserts. The flavours were very intense and different textures were integrated.

tomato - basil

tomato - basil

Roasted cherry tomatoes in a black olive (?) sauce, topped with a dried basil leaf, which was strongly seasoned with basil powder, intensifying the flavour ten-fold.

razor clam with seaweed

Another personal favorite: extremely fresh, juicy and sweet raw razor clams on foam served with a mixed seaweed salad. Very well balanced and truly fantastic beyond words!

asparagus with miso

White asparagus on whipped miso cream, wrapped in clear rice paper and garnished with fresh edible flowers. This dish reminded me of the Chinese white rabbit candies my grandmother gave me when I was young. This was eaten by hand as a whole mouthful.

abalone

Ferran, an avid fan of Chinese cuisine, mentioned that his favorite restaurant in Sydney was Golden Century, he liked it so much he paid a return visit for dinner. I can see the heavy Chinese influences in this abalone dish. Served on a bed of enoki mushrooms, black seaweed stems, with layers of ham fat in between slices, and topped with baby shimeji mushrooms.

sea cucumber with mentaiko and rhubarb

The texture of the sea cucumber was different to those found in regular Chinese restaurants and was more similar to shellfish such as clams. It is served with rhubarb, which balanced out the flavour of sea water, and topped with mentaiko, which is a spicy Japanese cod roe.

sea anemone 2008

One of the things you have to keep while dining at elBulli is an open mind. This dish consists of raw rabbit’s brains and sea anemone, both ingredients I’ve never tried before. It is also served at room temperature, which proved a little more challenging for me to process mentally.

rabbit's brain

sea anemone

I love how there’s a red vein popping out of the brain on my plate, how else would you know it’s fresh? I felt like a child trying something for the first time, and I playfully giggled to Aaron and made him try it first. We both recorded our reactions to the dish on video (click for the youtube link). While many of you may think this to be a horrible experience, it certainly is our most memorable and most talked about part of the meal, which I think was the Chef’s intention. All I could describe from this dish was “a lukewarm taste of the ocean”, yes, it was slimy but it wasn’t all that bad. If only there was more seasoning to the dish that just the flavours of the fresh anemone!

gnocchis of polenta with coffee and saffron yuba

We breathed out a small sigh of relief when a vegetarian dish was served after the previous dish. The gnocchis are actually polenta encased in a membrane in a creamy sauce, and is surprisingly complementary with the coffee powder on top. It is served with capers, and a saffron infused egg.

suckling pig tail

The suckling pig tails were very similar to crispy Chinese roast pig, with a sweet sauce. It is served with a ham consomme containing tiny cubes of silken white tofu and rockmelon (cantaloupe) and petals. The soup itself was very salty, but with the rockmelon, it was perfect.

Act Three opens with a transition towards the sweet notes. Avant desserts are served, followed by the desserts. The first avant dessert looked like a classic Monet painting.

water lily

This was a beautifully presented palate cleanser which looks like a lily pond, with edible flowers submerged in a floral, perfumed cold soup. Refreshing and full of spring flavours, sprinkled with aforementioned “averantos” seeds. A visual delight and a nice beginning after the savoury performers.

mango ravioli

By now, we are no stranger to the explosion-in-the-mouth sensation, and the mango ravioli delivers just that - but we are never tired of it! It was spherized to look just like a raw egg yolk, so the mango flavour was a surprise.

coco

coco

But just as we thought nothing could surprise us, a giant white shell was brought to the table – which I thought was something like an ostrich egg. The shell was then cracked with a spoon and sprinkled with curry powder. We were to break pieces off and eat it with our hands – and tasted just like the flesh of young green coconut on a tropical island, frozen, but creamy.

amber

Amber is a honey jelly which encases a single floret of Elderflower, just like a large crystal marble. It is visually stunning and almost rolled off the table when we tried to pick it up with the leaf.

ices

Ices was a watermelon dessert served with syrup and yogurt ice cream, topped with a snowflake shaped sugar icing layer, with a thin sheet of ice that rested on top. The sheet of ice is cracked with your spoon and gives a sorbet effect.

By now, the word gluttony doesn’t do any justice to the way we were feeling. To our surprise, Act Four (named “morphings”) was served in a theater of its own, and “lasts as long as the after-dinner conversation”.

Morphings...

Morphings... (other side)

Every table gets their own box of hand made chocolates, and being a table of two – this was a lot of sweets considering the 8PAX next to us received the same offering. Chocolate mint leaf, eucalyptus chocolate, cinnamon slices, peanut brittles, chocolate raspberries, chocolate truffles,  pistachio chocolate slices, strawberry chocolate… we were overwhelmed with selection and determined to try every single one, despite the fact that we were on the verge of bursting! Every single piece were infused with only the freshest of flavours, and so carefully handcrafted by each Chef.

Morphings...

Morphings...

My two personal favorites were the pumice-like white chocolate which crumbled in the mouth but melted like chocolate, the “coral”, which were hand made chocolates covered in sour cherry powder. LOVED it!

We proceeded to finish our champagne outdoors, it was almost 1am by now, the air was balmy and stars glittered across the clear sky on the night of St John’s festival.

Champagne

But alas, all good things come to an end… Many of you have asked me what the bill came to at the end, well, you can see for yourself:

The final hurrah

It was certainly the most expensive meal I’ve ever had so far in my life, but nothing that 30 odd hours of waiting tables didn’t take care of. The beauty with making a reservation 15 months ahead is that there’s always plenty of time to work towards that memorable trip - and it was worth every cent.

My tastebuds never felt so alive.

Like the butterflies you felt in your stomach after your very first kiss, A meal at elBulli was equally similar to those once in a lifetime experiences that leaves you reminising for that one moment, hoping it lingers on. One doesn’t have to describe too much when the name elBulli comes up. It is famous for being the best restaurant in the world, for the third year in a row according to the San Pellegrino’s top 50. It has also been holding a 3 Michelin star rating since 1997. I’m about as mathematical as an asparagus but even then I knew the chances were very slim.

El Bulli Kitchen

Reservation requests are made via email, and I’ve been told that more than 2 million requests come in every year, with room for only around 8000. The exclusivity is largely due to the size of restaurant, as it seats around 50 covers every night, and it is only open from June to December. The other months are spent on researching on new ideas and food preparation. I originally sent my email request straight after I attended Ferran’s lecture when he visited Sydney last year, and sadly, it was rejected. Funnily enough, I consoled my disappointment with a very dear friend of mine, and with some divine intervention (or his excellent contacts in Spain) he was able to secure a booking during June 2009 for me through Juli Soler. I believe that a reservation request coming from Spain has a much better chance than internationally, as the requests are normally split 50/50 between Spain and all other countries. Knowing how to write an email in Spanish certainly helps too.

El Bulli Kitchen

If there was one thing I learnt from Ferran’s lecture, it was that he did not like to use the term “Molecular Gastronomy” to describe his methods, because simple things such as baking bread or boiling water is considered just as ‘molecular’ to him. Ferran prefers to call his technique of cooking “Nueva Cuisine” or “deconstructivist”.

“Obviously what we are trying to do is create more than just a fine meal. You can eat very well at many places in the world, but to have it be a unique experience – not that many.” – Ferran Adria

We arrived a little early and was warmly welcomed by the manager. He gave us a small tour of the kitchen, and we were personally greeted by Ferran. He was very friendly and full of smiles as he shook my hand with both hands with some words of thanks in English (his English has greatly improved since his last visit to Sydney!). He posed for a quick photo, using his signature pose – the same one he strikes on a nightly basis for speech-stuttering chef groupies like myself.  We watched him instruct his kitchen staff for a few minutes and moved onto our table.

Aaron Powdrill, Ferran Adria, Amanda Ibrahim

We were seated in the centre of the restaurant, just by the entrance to the smaller dining room. It may not be the best window table in the house, but for Aaron and I (both dabblers in hospitality industry) it was a more rewarding experience to be able to watch how the staff worked. elBulli employs 70 members of staff to serve 50 patrons a day, and according to Wiki, the restaurant itself has been operating at a loss since 2000, with the actual profits coming from cook books and guest lectures conducted by Ferran around the world. When you see all the effort that goes into preparing for our 34 course, 5.5 hour experience, you will no doubt appreciate all the meticulous, labour intensive work the kitchen puts in; there is a separate room just for cleaning all the delicate silverware and specialised plates; one waiter station between every two tables… and above all, the energy and flow of the staff in the room is seamless and efficient.

view from our table

A highlight though, was a dish I had at the wedding – and I rarely eat anything amazing at weddings, due to everything being luke warm, dry and overcooked.

Shark fin soup, served on a layer of steamed egg (chawanmushi style) with crab meat. You can’t see the steamed egg in the photo as it rests on the bottom of the plate, but the silky egg and crab meat complements the thick, rich soup. Garnished with a full piece of shark’s fin, goji berries and “silver” bean sprouts. Decadent and divine!

I wish I could’ve stayed longer! I did stop by a restaurant named “Devi’s Corner” which was recommended by the hotel concierge to have really good Nasi Lemak, thought it really wasn’t anything to write home about, as the Malaysian place down the road from my office in Sydney would’ve done an equally (if not better) job.

Every foodie’s dream come true – to have the top restaurants in Sydney serve sample sized signature dishes in a beautiful outdoor setting. The autumnal weather was crisp and perfect last evening… and so begins the adventures of Miss Pac Man (where you go around a maze and eat continuously… until you win!)

But the first stop – Flowing chandon inside the VIP Emirates Lounge, to wet the whistle.

And here’s just a few (ok so we had a lot, don’t judge me) dishes we sampled yesterday. Check out the rest of the restaurant menu’s here

Yellow fin tuna with ruby grapefruit and sweet crackling pork by Flying Fish

Tempura ricotta filled zucchinni flower with basil pesto sauce (left) by Jonah’s, Spicy pork betels leaves with pickled ginger (right) by Longrain

Gundooee organic grass fed wagyu beef burger, eton mess with summer berries by Becasse

Arancini of truffle rissotto and buffalo mozzarella, spinach and fennel sauce by Berowra Waters Inn

Fagottino di carne – homemade sausage bound with parmesan and truffle egg, finished with lemon EVO by Buon Ricordo

Vanilla panna cotta with lavender honey and fresh pomegranate by Jonah’s – here’s the video!
  
It is hilarious, the way it moves!

There are also amazing food stalls from providores (I bought some amazing straccino from Pasenella!), butchers, organic farmers, so there is plenty of time to walk off your full stomach while you’re… buying more food to eat for later. I picked up some incredible wagyu steaks (marble score for $30 each! The cute staff member gave us a discount. Now who doesn’t love a good looking man who knows his beef – and then proceeds to let you sample them.

  
I want to treat him like a piece of meat.

Hopefully you Sydney siders will get a chance to attend this amazing event!

Salad of free range chicken, spiced peach, keflatori, rocket and pancetta

Chilli soft shell crab, asian salad, papaya salad and red chilli nahm jim

Oven baked flathead fillets, fries and tartare sauce

There is also a small shop in the cafe which sells gourmet produce and modern beach house interior decorations and gifts.

78 Cyrus St
Hyams Beach 2540 NSW
Phone: (02) 4443 3874

And the best thing – an after lunch dip in the ocean!

Smoked mussels in thai marinade served on cos lettuce leaf

Chilled Blue Swimmer Crab & Crystal Bay Prawn Remoulade with Pickled Cucumber

Greenwell Point Rock Oysters natural

Seagrass Kilpatrick with Fresh Lemon

Special of the day: Ocean trout

Grainfed Eye Fillet with Lyonnaise Potatoes and bernaise sauce

Rocket, Reggiano Parmesan Salad

Jaffa Affogatto

Wicked Nutty Belgian Chocolate Terrine with Chocolate Ice Cream

• 13 Currambene St
  Huskisson 2540 NSW
• Phone: (02) 4441 6124
  
• Show street map

The Berry sourdough bakery is a perfect spot for a stop-off if you’re driving down south for Sydney. Owned by Joost and Jelle Hilkemeijer – their philosophies and influences are “Quality ingredients, time and simplicity”, and they couldn’t be more correct. Set in a rustic country house with terracotta floors and old wooden furniture, this isn’t your average bakery. All the breads here are handcrafted organic sourdough loaves, made from local organic food products without the aid of moulding machinery. The cafe menu is also packed full of interesting food, using as much local produce as possible – and always at their freshest. I was most impressed with the dishes created here – it’s possibly one of my new favorites! The service was also very relaxed, friendly, yet extremely professional. I never give ratings but they are at least 8/10 in my books!

Local Oysters with red wine and eschalot vinegarette

Homemade chicken liver parfait with sourdough toast with papaya salsa

Zucchini, haloumi fritters with cured ocean trout, roe and cucumber


oozing with deliciousness… oh my god.

Spinach and ricotta ravioli (?) with Mittagong tunnel mushrooms – perhaps my memory will come back to me, as this was an amazing dish

I have been searching for Mittagong tunnel mushrooms everywhere as I’ve heard such raving reviews about how tasty they were. And they were right!

Address: 23 Prince Alfred Street, Berry, NSW, Australia.

Phone: (02) 44641617

fois gras cotton candy here we come!

From: Juli
Date: December 13, 2008 6:40:54 PM GMT+01:00

HOLA XXXXX, BUENOS DIAS

SI LES VA BIEN, GUARDO MESA PARA CENAR EL MARTES DIA 23 DE JUNIO A LAS 20,30 HORAS
MESA PARA 8  PERSONAS

SI ESTA OK, LA BLOQUEO
DESPUES SOLO LES PIDO DE CONFIRMAR UNOS 15 DIAS ANTES DE LA FECHA

SALUDOS, Y FELICES FIESTAS

JULI SOLER