24.3.07

exotic ingredients...

Hmm... what does one serve with a rabid salad?

mmm... gourmet local dives...

We have a new informal-yet-gourmet joint in the hood... Vognmand Nilsen... As we couldn't be bothered with cooking dinner last night, we ate there instead...

Rule number one... when a new restaurant in the hood gets great reviews in the papers, book a table... we got a table in the bar area where we could also eat, but that was less than ideal... (we eventually were able to move to a regular dining area table)

Anyway, we had a three-course meal. We could choose courses from the menu of the week. We had the following:

(Amuse bouche: jellied crab with aioli on flatbread)

Starter: grilled lobster tail with purée of petit pois, citrus-marinated julienne root vegetables, and shellfish foam for me, fried halibut with orange-glazed "poor man's asparages" (not really sure what this is), spinach, and white wine sauce for boyfriend of tuxette. We ate half of each...

Main: roast veal with sautéed artichoke hearts, port-marinated lentils, roast potatoes, and creamy truffle sauce...

Dessert: cheese plate with apple compote and fruit and nut bread...

Wine: we shared a bottle of Allesverloren Cab Sauv...

Absolutely delicious food - seafood and fish cooked perfectly, tender and tasty veal, perfect al-dente vegetables... The sauces were especially noteworthy; these were probably 1000 kcal per drop ;-)

The restaurant itself was cosy and unpretentious, and quite bustling... it's the kind of place where you don't have to get overly dressed up for... definitely a place to go back to :-)