When you get lucky enough to snag two seats at the world’s best restaurant at the last minute, you take a detour from wherever you may be and head straight to Copenhagen. You happily accommodate the change in plans because the experience at this restaurant more than justifies the considerable hype around it. The revolution that has taken place within Nordic cuisine should be an example to other regions to not be afraid to work with the local and fresh ingredients available to them. There must certainly be a time forthcoming soon when chefs in Southeast Asia stand on the cutting edge of acclaimed gastronomy using only locally sourced ingredients. After all, we have some of the best vegetables, spices and seafood in the world. The food philosophy and imagination of chef René Redzepi must be emulated. Now, don’t come to Noma and expect to consume a large amount of meat. The only meat during the whole Noma experience was four small slices of wild duck. As a meat lover, I was pleasantly surprised to realise that I wasn’t the least bothered as everything prepared was seriously exceptional. I have definitely been awoken to the deliciousness of fresh local vegetables!

The menu at Noma is the same one for both lunch and dinner. Be prepared for a four-hour attack on your olfactory senses. And I mean that in the most enjoyable way possible. You will be bombarded with over 25 different courses , and yet at the end of the meal, one does not feel over-full – instead, at the end of it, you’d leave with just a wonderful sense of extreme satisfaction tinged with a hint of regret that the experience is over. And more importantly for me, it inspires you to realise that you can create the most astounding food by just sourcing from the best local ingredients around you. In fact, it get can you to the very top of the best restaurant list in the world.

Each course was presented on its own plate or podium, and they follow one after another other at quite a quick pace, which was perfect for me, considering the fact that they were all bite-size dishes. Another great aspect of the experience is that all food is served to the guests by the chefs themselves – so if you have a question about the dish, the detailed attention and enthusiasm that they bring with them are exhilarating.  This unpretentious way of serving the dishes makes one feel at ease and truly on par with the experience. There is no time for posh at Noma.

And everything was truly delicious: The menu for the afternoon included gems such as malt flatbread and juniper (main picture), reindeer moss with cep powder, blue mussels with celery, potato with duck liver, caramelized milk with cod liver, pickled and smoked quail eggs, and leek with cod roe. There was rye bread with virgin butter, and towards the second half of the meal, brown crab, egg yolk and herbs, sea urchin toast, oysters from Limfjorden, wild duck, pear, kale and beech leaves, brown cheese with sloe berries and potatoes with plums.

Ingredients were local delicacies that were sourced from only the best artisans, fishmongers and farmers available in the local region. I could only begin to imagine what we could do back home with the abundance of quality produce and meat we have. As chef René explains, “you become aware of the history of the raw material, the farmer’s passion and his involvement with the raw materials he grows for you. This encounter means you wouldn’t dream of manipulating the materials excessively. It’s about being able to feel the linkage to the producer, whether this is nature itself or a product of agriculture. We do what we do best if we succeed in creating a dish in which we showcase the history of the raw material and then put it in the right context. Without this connection, it makes no sense.”

Do we really need to purchase frozen pigeon or Roquefort cheese from a land 14,500 km away to experience to best possible meal? I think not. Noma opened my eyes to this reality.

noma
Strandgade 93
DK-1401 Copenhagen K
Denmark
Tel: +45 3296 3297
www.noma.dk

(Note: mouse over any photo for more info on the images)

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The curry mee I regularly partake in at the O&S Coffee shop in Paramount Gardens, Petaling Jaya is my security blanket. Comfort food is so much more than tracking back nostalgia or missing mum’s cooking. It’s an amalgam of senses that envelops us in safety,  calmness and satisfaction. This dish is the perfect representation of Malaysian soul food. And for me, nothing quite hits the spot like a bowl of curry mee. Curry mee is basically noodles (mee=noodles) – usually a choice between several types such as egg noodles and rice vermicelli – submerged in a rich spicy broth. It comes served with a variety of condiments such as blood cockles, chicken, as well as shrimp and fried tofu.

Malaysian hawker food should not just be comforting though, it needs to smack you with the right taste to properly compound the experience. Those suffering from an umami addiction know the call of a good curry mee can be irresistible. The curry mee at O&S is faithful to the Penang style, as are most of the stalls in the coffee shop. Unlike the creamy and rich curry bowls found elsewhere in Malaysia, Penang-style curry has a much lighter broth and less coconut milk. There is a secret though, to maximising the flavours of this dish. Ask for extra cockles and chili. This way, the umami in the broth is best exemplified, so you are still savouring multi-layered flavours along with the distinct slap of spiciness to get the party started on your palate. Two simple toppings complete this dish — shredded chicken and deep fried tofu.

The curry mee pictured here is chock full of flavours –- the soup is infused with the right amount of coconut milk to give it a creamy texture, while the spiciness of the chili and the fragrance of the spices never fails to satisfy my desire to consume it for breakfast or lunch. A bowl of this comfort food unequivocally rewards the eager palate.

O&S Restaurant
39, Jalan 20/14, Paramount Garden
46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Open for breakfast and lunch only.
GPS Co-ordinates: 3.107703, 101.624917

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Some things in life are a necessary indulgence. Shinji by Kanesaka (of famed two-Michelin starred chef Shinji Kanesaka) which exemplifies the best of Edomae-style sushi, essentially falls into this category. In particular, when one is bestowed the privilege of having Master Chef Koichiro Oshino cut for you. The evening was made even more special as some friends brought along some rare wine gems for us to pair with the sushi.

Anyone who has spent some time in Japan knows how seriously obsessed the Japanese are with the freshness and quality of their seafood.  The omakase at Shinji is consistently exquisite, with their excellent selection of fish directly sourced from the famed Tsukiji Market in Tokyo. Chef Oshino explained how each different type of fish (we feasted on a dozen or more varieties) was served at a different temperature in order to accentuate the texture and flavors of each particular fish. I truly love sushi. If it was my last day on earth and I had to choose a chef to prepare a last meal for me, I would not hesitate to humbly ask Oshino-san if he would do the honours.  To me, he is that good.

What made this evening extra special were three wines in particular.

Without any intended exaggeration, the Asteroide wine from the legendary domaine of Didier Dagueneau is among the rarest of fine wines available in the world. So rare that chances are, if you ask most wine merchants and distributors they will tell you they have never heard of it. But for wine geeks like me, it was like having a chance to take a sip from the Holy Grail. It has only been produced three or four times in the last decade from a small plot (ten rows) of ungrafted Sauvignon Blanc vines that are very fragile and require constant supervision.

We were fortunate to try the 2008 vintage, and it was a masterpiece of complexity with an incredibly harmonious balance and an almost impossibly long finish. For those who don’t think Sauvignon Blanc can be complex, well, this wine will reverse that impression.

Another rarity on the table was the 2004 Domaine d’Auvenay Chevalier Montrachet. This is among the classiest white Burgundies I have ever had the privilege to imbibe. This elixir delicately stained my palate with lemon zest, limestone and pears. This is Madame Lalon Bize-Leroy’s own private estate and her vineyards are all biodynamic. The vineyards may be a minuscule 0.16 hectares so there is not much wine produced, but everything offered from this vineyard is indisputably brilliant.

The Tondonia vineyard is widely considered one of Spain’s “Grand Cru” vineyards for its red whites but there is a tiny space allocated for the local white varietals of Viura and Malvasia, both of which are capable of long-aging beautifully as this 1957 bottle neatly elucidates. The bouquet alone left me wanting to stand up and twirl around in delight. Hints of honey, oranges, oxidation and herbal notes with a waxy texture. A rich, dense and vibrant wine that was a perfect pairing with the mantis shrimp.

The mantis shrimp was one of the food highlights of the evening. Mantis shrimp is one of the key original Edomae-style sushi ingredients. The mantis shrimp has to be poached immediately after it is caught, since it starts to literally digest its own body once it is fished out of the water. The meat is sweet with a deep flavour. Don’t miss this delicacy when it’s in season from Spring to early Summer.

While most sushi lovers consider otoro (the fattiest portion of the tuna, from the underside of the fish) the most desired part of the tuna belly, I actually find its high fat content distracting. I find a high-grade piece of wagyu distracting in a similar way. Too much fat, not enough meat! Usually, I prefer chutoro, which is is the belly area of the tuna along the side of the fish between the akami (the leaner flesh of tuna from the sides of the fish) and the otoro. I prefer this cut because I still get to fully taste the freshness of the tuna along with the succulence of the fat.

Can one have a pleasurable experience with wine and sushi/sashimi? Absolutely. There is a pretty wide spectrum of wine choices that work beautifully. Keep the textures and tannins light and you will have abundant choices. Beaujolais, Red and White Burgundy, Sancerre, Off-Dry Alsace and German Rieslings go nicely with certain types of sushi. Champagne works particularly well with white fish.

Of course, no meal at Shinji is complete without a cholesterol bomb. It’s a long running joke I have with Chef Oshino, where at the end of the meal, he creates  a bowl of hedonistic pleasure which we call the cholesterol bomb. A mixture of uni (sea urchin) rice topped with ikura (salmon roe) and blue fin toro (tuna belly). A rich and decadent way indeed to end a magnificent evening of necessary indulgences.

Shinji by Kanesaka
#02-20 Raffles Hotel
1 Beach Road
Singapore 189673
Tel. +65 6338 6131
www.shinjibykanesaka.com
Monday-Saturday 12-3pm, 6pm-1030pm
Closed on Sundays

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