You probably already know about Julebord from my last year’s text, so this year I present you something different.

Five friends and culinary colleagues, who have worked together in some other restaurants, are currently running one Michelin star restaurant in the Frogner neighborhood in Oslo. Five of them in the kitchen and five of us for a six course tasting menu. Not bad 🙂

We started light, with some snacks like salted, dried and cured lamb leg with lingonberries and celery juice.

The lamb or fenelår, a traditional Christmas dish actually, was very good, but the dish in total was a bit sour. It was not just the celery juice, but also the lingonberries that have rather sour taste as well, so we were somewhat not impressed on how we started. Luckily, it was the first of many dishes 🙂

The second snack was flatbread with pear and blue cheese from Stavanger.

Although blue cheese is often very strong in the taste, this one was quite mild, but strong enough to dominate the whole dish. Or the pear was tasteless, because no one tasted it.

The problem with the Norwegian ingredients is not only that they are missing, but they are also very tasteless, except for the traditional ingredients like root vegetables and berries because not much can grow here in this harsh temperature and altitude.

To play and make something versatile and creative with scarce ingredients requires skills, imagination and experience. The New Nordic cuisine is all about that, but it still misses ”something”. But as long as the chefs are trying, right?

We witnessed the creativity and imagination in the dishes that followed, especially the first appetizer made from potatoes (Norwegian ingredient number 1), sour cream (Norwegian ingredient number 2, they put sour cream like EVERYWHERE…soups, sauces….), mushrooms (Norwegian ingredient number 3, Norway has a lot of forests, mushrooms grow in the forest :)) and crispy chicken skin (one of less traditional Norwegian ingredients because lamb, fish and wild animals like moose or reindeer are more common).

The creamy combination of mushrooms and sweet potato taste was fantastic, but what took our breath was the crispy chicken skin. Oh, what a delicacy! It was so good, that I was thinking about the flatbread from the previous dish and this creamy filling to end the dinner right then:) But there was still a lot on the way for us.

The third appetizers was langoustine with watercress emulsion and broccoli al dente.

Very light, but still very satisfying and delicious dish.

The first main course was fish. Halibut is very popular here and it’s offered in the majority of restaurants that should not surprise you because it’s the world’s largest flatfish.

The halibut in Galt was fried and garnished with baked turnip and lovage. There was also some green sauce that I don’t remember what it was, but all in all very good. Not crazy over the heals good, but good. I mean what can you do with fish to blow your mind, right? Solsiden 🙂

On the other hand, second main course or reindeer with grilled Jerusalem artichoke and horseradish was absolutely fantastic!

It was my first time to try a reindeer steak (I have already tried hamburger patty and a stew) so I was pleasantly surprised with very tender and juicy taste, kind of like a beef steak.

The last course was milk ice cream with plums and verbena crystallized chocolate.

Although with chocolate it was very light, fresh and not too sweet. The plums gave very nice taste and the chocolate did that crunchy note at the end 🙂

Although very full after six courses we decided to take a plate of Norwegian cheeses for the final ending of our first together Julebord with friends in Norway!

Looking forward to the new year and a couple more of Michelin starred restaurants in Oslo 🙂

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GALT

O Julebordu sam pisala prošle godine, tako da ću vas ove godine počastiti našim  iskustvom u Michelinovom restoranu u Oslu.

Petero kuhara i kolega, koji su skupa radili u nekim prijašnjim restoranima, trenutno vode i rade u restoranu u Frogner kvartu. Njih petero u kuhinji i nas petero za stolom bilo je savršena kombinacija za probni meni od šest sljedova. 

Počeli smo lagano, s grickalicama, poput sušenog janjećeg buta s europskim brusnicama i sokom od celera.

Janjeća šunka je bila izvrsna, pikantna i slana, ali cijela kombinacija nas je ostavila malo kisela. Doslovno. Europske brusnice same po sebi su kiselkastog okusa dok je celerov sok pojačao tu kiselinu više od onog što bi bilo ukusno.

Ali, dobro, to je bio tek početak. Ono što je uslijedilo definitivno je nadmašilo sva očekivanja.

Sljedeće pod nazivom grickalice bio je beskvasni kruh s kruškom i plavim sirom iz Stavangera.

Iako je plavi sir poznat po vrlo pikantnom i jakom okusu, ovaj uopće nije bio takav, no bio je dovoljno jak da dominira cijelim jelom. Ili je kruška bila bez okusa, jer se uopće nije osjetila.

Problem s norveškim namirnicama nije samo u tome što ih nema nego su neukusne, osim ako se radi o tradicionalnim namirnica kao što su korjenasto povrće i bobice jer malo toga uspijeva na norveškim temperaturama, ovoj visini i ovom tlu… Kombinirati i igrati se s malim brojem namirnica zahtijeva maštovitost, vještine i iskustvo. Nova nordijska kuhinja temelji se upravo na tome, ali i dalje joj nedostaje ”nešto”, no glavno da se trude, a u to smo se uvjerili u narednim jelima, pogotovo prvom predjelu koje se sastojalo od krumpira (norveška namirnica broj 1), kiselog vrhnja (norveška namirnica broj 2, kiselo vrhnje stavlja se u SVA JELA, od juha, umaka, buzare…), gljiva (norveška namirnica broj 3, Norveška ima puno šume, u šumi rastu gljive, kužite? :)) i hrskave pileće kožice (jedna od norveških netradicionalnih top namirnica, tradicionalne su janjetina, ribetina, divljač).

Kremasta kombinacija gljiva i vrhnja, slatkasti krumpir i prehrskava pileća kožica konačno su nas ostavili bez daha. S tim da bih ja sve natovarila na onaj beskvasni kruh od prethodnog jela i stala tu, ali trebalo je dalje, a što se mora nije teško 🙂

Treće predjelo bio je škamp s mrvicama raženog kruha, al dente kuhanom brokulom i emulzijom od potočnice.

Vrlo lagano, ali opet zasitno i ukusno predjelo.

Prvo glavno jelo bila je ribetina. Naravno. Iverak je vrlo popularan u Norveškoj i nudi se u gotovo svakom većem restoranu što nije ni čudo jer se radi o najvećoj morskoj plosnatoj ribi na svijetu. Rekord od 233 kg iverka ulovljen je, pogađate, u norveškim morskim vodama.

Iverak u Galtu bio je pržen i poslužen s pečenom repom, ljupčacom i nekakvim zelenim umakom kojeg se ne sjećam. Ali riba i travetine su bile sasvim zadovoljavajuće. Riba baš treba biti super ekstra da me oduševi, ova je bila samo dobro pečena i dovoljno začinjena.

S druge, strane, drugo glavno jelo ili odrezak soba s hrenom i hrskavom jeruzalemskom artičokom bilo je presavršeno.

Tad sam prvi puta kušala odrezak soba (jela sam hamburger i gulaš nekom drugom prilikom) i iznenadila se kako je bio mekan i sočan, a okusom ništa drugačiji od bifteka. Možda me i zato razveselio? 🙂

Posljednje jelo na degustacijskom meniju bio je mliječni slatkač s kristaliziranom čokoladom i šljivama.

Iako mi je sladoled više ljetno osvježenje, ovaj je više bio kao krema, ali posebno nas je oduševilo što nije bio presladak. Kad jedete nekoliko sljedova za redom, najmanje vam treba šećerna bomba na kraju. Iako čokoladan, šljive su dale kaganu kiselinu, tako da je desert bio ugodno lagan i osvježavajuć.

Nakon kratkog vijećanja, četvrtina društva odlučila je za doslovni kraj večere uzeti i porciju norveških sireva koji su bili odličan završetak zajedničkog božićnog druženja i našeg prvog posjeta Michelinovom restoranu u gradu u kojem živimo.

Ima ih još, bez brige, samo da se popuni budžet! 🙂