The food: Pickled and Smoked Quail’s Egg
Where to find it: Noma, Copenhagen, Denmark
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It’s been a long week for you. Oh, Friday evenings. You savor this moment when you return home and seek a plate of deliciousness to energize your weekend. You truly do live for your weekends, your freedom and your food. Each Friday I will post inspiration for your globe-trotting, food-exploring spirit. Today, I will hatch Food Fridays.
And what better way to crack open the Food Friday series than with this pickled and smoked quail’s egg? Served during the blustery 2010 winter season at Restaurant Noma1, the waiters of this Copenhagen restaurant marched to our table with porcelain eggs. They cracked it open and a waft of smoke emerged2.
This dish embodies the restaurant’s ethos and approach to food: local and fun. Not only does the smoke-enwrapped quail egg beg curiosity, but its hay-laden bedding echoes images of a nearby Nordic farm. “Noma” is a combination of the Danish words Nordisk, which means “Nordic,” and mad, which means “food.” Quite literally, Noma serves only Nordic food. You won’t find foie gras at this fine dining establishment. If the food cannot be found in the Nordic terrior3, then the restaurant will not serve it. Instead, guests have found live ants and shrimp as pre-meal snacks. Odd? Yes. Fun? Hell, yes.
And you may be wondering why a place that serves stuff you could dig up in your backyard would be named “The Best Restaurant in the World” for the past three years? Well, I can distill it down to one word: innovation. Yep, if you know me well, then you’d know that I’m a sucker for the innovators and entrepreneurs of this world. In the future Food Fridays and posts about Restaurant Noma, I will dive deeper into how this restaurant is the most innovative in the world.
Welcome to Food Fridays: a place of food, travel and innovation.
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1 Within a couple days, one of my good friends will stage (or intern) for this restaurant. I only wish him the most of success and innovation. Who knows? He might introduce cockroaches to the menu.
2 Check out this visual of a guest opening the egg.
3 Coming from the French word terre, which means “land,” terroir describes a location’s geography, climate and conditions that affect how plants and food grow. It’s the reason why grapes grow best in the Napa Valley and olives thrive in Greece.