This is What It's Like to Eat at Noma (Pt. 3)

In this week’s previous posts, I chronicled the entrance experience as well as the first 11 courses at NOMA. I continue today with courses 12-19, and the beverage offerings.

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12th Course: Nordic Yuba and Beach Greens

I had a dish like this several years ago in Bray, England - we ate at the former “Best Restaurant in the World,” the Fat Duck. Vegetables and greens that grew near the sea, dolloped in a foam reminiscent of the teeming, foaming edges of gentle waves you find seaside.

At the Fat Duck this dish was effective and memorable because each guest was given headphones that played an ambient soundtrack captured seaside of lapping waves and the persistent hum of a solitary walk on the beach. The inspiration was explained by the staff: it was evocative of the chef’s (Heston Blumenthal) childhood. The dish was fun to eat, fun to look at, and fun to remember.

I understood this version from Noma to be greens and vegetables from the region, some foraged and some harvested, layered with a sheet of Yuba (the skin of fresh tofu) and some foam.

Although I imagine this was meant to be evocative of a similar stroll through a Nordic forest (or perhaps a mossy Japanese region), it wasn’t nearly as effective.