Ethereal Food

Months ago, in order for us to properly celebrate my other half's birthday, I put us on the waiting list for a table at NOMA, a restaurant with two Michelin stars in the centre of Copenhagen. I had tentatively put down the date that my in-law's from France were staying with us due to a lack of local babysitters, and we planned to go out whether we got a table at NOMA or not!! However, that afternoon I got a call to tell us our luck was in, and a table was available at 7.30... My husband is nuts about good food and has wanted to go to NOMA for quite a while, so although it was an extravagance (we are calling it our compressed weekend away), it was a once in a Copenhagen-time experience, and we loved every minute of it! Had I not been trying so hard to look cool calm and collected while I tried to work out exactly how to eat some of the amazing creations in front of me, I might have taken some photographs, but I didn't I'm afraid. Noma is all about Nordic food sourced locally, so we got to try some food that I didn't even know you could eat!! It was all beautifully presented and tasted so fresh and clean! In place of water we had birch-sap to drink, apparently this is only available for one month of the year, usually March (slightly delayed this year due to our bad winter!) when the tree is preparing to bud after the winter. It's used as a health elixir in Scandinavia and other countries such as Russia. I had never heard of it before, but thank you tree, it was very nice! If I was recommending a restaurant to a major desert fan, I might not tell you to come here as it's really not your usual hot chocolate fondant type of place (one of our deserts was made out of celery and celeriac!), but if you think you would enjoy extremely good, fresh and creative Scandinavian food and impeccable service to go with it, I can highly recommend it! It was certainly one of the best meals we have ever had and a fabulous and memorable evening for us both...