noma, here we come

We often plan our trips around food, and as you can imagine, noma is a restaurant we just couldn't miss (especially after missing out El Bulli, big time!).

On one of the Saturdays in January, DH (for dear husband) got up at 4am EST to secure a reservation in April, and here we came. We arrived at the Copenhagen airport from Amsterdam, with our unsatisfied stomachs (the food in Amsterdam was unimpressive) and enormous excitement.

To our surprise, we enjoyed Copenhagen much more than Amsterdam. Just like what Matt Orlando, the noma head chef later told us, Copenhagen felt like Brooklyn. Indeed! People here are cool, low key, no BS, and enjoy life. Who dresses up for a fancy restaurant?!

Settling down at the hotel, we walked towards the 350 years old warehouse where noma is located.

 The spring drizzle finally stopped, and the sky all of a sudden opened up

 Yes, we have one of those in Brooklyn too, just not this old!

 Here is a quiet harbor facing noma

 Wood introduced warmth into the old warehouse

 Malt flatbread and juniper

 Moss and cep

 Crispy pork skin and black current

 Blue mussel and celery

 The top shell is not edible, but the bottom is

 Cookie with cheese; rocket and stems

 Shrimp and brown butter

 Potato and chicken liver

 Rye, chicken skin & lumpfish roe

 Pickled and smoked quail eggs

 Can you see the smoke rising from hay?

 Radish, soil and grass

 Edible soil

 Herb toast & smoked cod roe

 Æbleskiver & muikku

 Essentially a munchkin with a cucumber center + fish

 There is only one seating per night and we were one of the first

 Interesting wool felt cover...for the bread

 Sour dough

 This is the first main course: Spring peas and tea

 Brown crab, egg yolk and herbs

 Dried scallops and beech nuts/Biodynamic grains and watercress

 Onion and thyme/Grooseberry juice

 Asparagus and pine (the green sauce is made of green asparagus)

 Pike perch and cabbages/Verbena and dill

 Pickled vegetables and bone marrow

 Roasted turbot and bitter greens/Celeriac and mushroom

 Pear tree!

 Walnut and dried berries

 Ice milk, yorgurt, and herb-based cream

 Gammel Dansk - caramelized bone marrow

 More candies!

 Interesting candles

 Where amuse bouche is "assembled"

 

 Kitchen upstairs

Employee dining + party area + food R&D center

So, how was it?

It was amazing. It was a lot of fun. It's different from Alinea's fun. Alinea is all about theatrical performance and reactions; noma's fun is people watching, not being too serious, really savoring the local and new to us ingredients, and have a great time.  Dishes are all prepared in simple ways, yet the plating is the most beautiful I've seen. It's not so "produced", but it's so earthy and naturally beautiful. 

All dishes were cooked perfectly, and the turbot was especially impressive. It was pan roasted with skin on, and then the chef cut out the meat only for the dish. I'm not sure if there was a timer on their work station, but the delicate white meat was cooked to perfection. And the mushroom sauce! It was deep, earthy, and rich. So good I can still remember the taste.

Here at noma, chefs brought out their dishes to guests. It's not a place where cooks cook and servers serve. Here the artists introduce their work to you, with proud. I love the connection here.

Matt Orlando couldn't have been a more generous host to us. (Did I mention how attractive he looked?) He showed us the kitchen, and explained how noma works. We greeted to their apprentice upstairs, and we tasted some rare (and live!) ants. (Okay, I didn't dare to, but DH did - tasted like lemongrass he said.) We couldn't wish for better. We just want to visit again.

Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and, noma! (I)

Fast forward to April, we visited Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

The trip was planned around noma, the best restaurant in the world. For now, let's leave the meal to a separate post, shall we?

Just to continue from the previous post, we again traveled light. We knew that we would be walking on pebble stone streets, so I wore my converse (with new shoe laces!) and packed a pair of N.D.C. and a pair of Manolo Blahniks.

When traveling, layering is key. The weather in northern Europe would be in the F50s, so I brought a few sweaters and a cashmere shawl.  

I need to be prepared to hide my camera from the rain, so I carried Herbag in Vibrato with me. The bag is rather petite, so it can pass as a purse. I can carry it with hand or shoulders, so it's a very versatile bag. Besides, Vibrato is not super sensitive to rain drops, so I don't need to worry about the leather as much (my other "fun" H bags are Togo and Clemence). In short, I don't need to baby it.

There is orange color in the Vibrato leather, so I added yellow shoe laces to my Converse

 With J Brand skinny - also to pick up the blue in the Vibrato and Converse

Rich and Skinny jeans. They are my go to jeans

 I actually wear these N.D.C.s to work all the time. They are effortless and comfortable, yet business-appropriate.

Walking down a bridge in Amsterdam

Travel with style?

It's difficult.
I now have a system. I no longer pack a large suitcase of clothes because I've learned the art of layering. Traveling light is key. I also carry my nice bags overseas. Thanks to TPF, I got this Environsax tote to cover the 30 Birkin or the 32 Kelly. So my travel pictures would have some lovely accessories and pops of colors.

 

 How about some pictures of the Hermes FSH shop window display?

 Pavios - 90cm Dip Dye from the FSH store:

 And something simple:

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

A weekend in Paris

Out of all weekends, we "picked" the coldest days in the entire winter. We were determined, however, that we would have a good time. And we did.
We stayed in Paris for a full week in 2006, for our first wedding anniversary. Now that we've been married for 7 years, we've got more spontaneity and even more romance,  because we know each other better and love each other even more.
Not knowing a word of French, our first Paris trip was stressful. But this time around, I was able to navigate through the metro system with ease, and we were able to use some casual phrases to communicate. Needless to say, we had a great time, amid the 20 degree weather.

We stayed in the Opera area

In one of the evenings, DH was trying to capture the beauty of City of Light. I suddenly noticed this woman next to him, very alert as if she suspected that DH was paparazzi. Then I realized that she was Daphne Guinness!
She crossed the street and went to her car. And DH accidentally took a picture of her. He had no idea who Daphne was until I pointed out (giggling). 

No Paris trip is complete without seeing the magical tower! We were surprised to see the long line waiting to climb the tower. As much as we love Paris, we would rather go back to our warm and comfortable hotel :)

 By the time we woke up, Paris streets were covered with snow.

 How about some breakfast?

It was a low key trip, so we wanted to go to a low key dinner. L'Agrume was this perfect little spot for us to enjoy a casual yet delicious meal, with a very reasonable price.

 It's a very small restaurant, with a tasting menu and two seating per night.

The server had this chemistry with the Chef, and we suspect that they are a couple, just like our favorite local restaurant, Traif.

To be continued.

Hermes Cent Plis des Miao cashmere/silk shawl

I was late to the game.

In one of the bitter-cold winter days, I stared at myself in the mirror, in my usual winter black, realizing that I needed some color, desperately.

It was right before Christmas, and my trustworthy boutique only had a few designs. I tried all, exhausted my dear SA, but nothing made my heart sing.

Until I saw this hot pink shawl on Hermes.com. Then I realized that it was a design from 2010, and brick and mortar stores no longer carried them. So here it is, my first H item from the website. Did I also mention that it was my first Hermes Shawl?

 

Cent Plis des Miao features a "one hundred pleats" skirt from the Miao minority group, mostly living in Guizhou, China.  In this design, a skirt is laid flat, with folk art references. 

"Hearts and Crafts", an Hermes film, features this particular detail

This look perfectly soften my black Burberry coat

A perfect couple with my Tosca 30cm Birkin

My heart sings

New addition: Cheval Sur Mon Carre

Hermes reissued the classic Cheval Sur Mon Carre for SS2012. A perfect colorway for the spring:

The horseshoe print can be masculine, which brought some character to this design. It's also a great scarf for men, with the right color combination. A true Hermes classic.

Foodie Love!

One passion I developed in the past years is food. We went to so many great restaurants (Alinea, Per Se, Arzak and the like) and our taste buds were very spoiled. Unsatisfied by the "ordinary" food we used to eat, I started polishing my cooking skills along the way. Being able to cook makes me appreciate gourmet food even more, and when I saw the news about the book "Modernist Cuisine", I told DH that I really wanted the series.

Santa remembered the wish, and I received Modernist Cuisine as my Christmas gift!

I'm reading the third book right now, and I've learned so much from the series. If you love food and you are curious about how cooking works, I would highly recommend this book.

A new way of cooking I finally learned was Sous Vide cooking. It was really a "Duh" moment when the book commented on a few dishes cooked Sous Vide at Alinea. Of course! I should have known! Now I'm evaluating whether it's worth it or not to order a Sous Vide cooker. I can probably make better fish at home with Sous Vide cooking, but one thing has been bugging me: Sous Vide cooking always takes one extra step to "finish" the food. It's great to cook something perfectly, but the extra finishing step makes it less "pure". Please share your thoughts!

Warning: the series weighs 50lbs. I could barely lift it myself!