birthday RoF stuffing - Statholdergaarden!

As tradition dictates (gourmet RoF-stuffing rather than gifts), husband of feitpingvin took me to Statholdergaarden for my birthday dinner. Statholdergaarden has one star in the Michelin Guide; they are located in the city center, in a building originally built for the Master of the Mint in 1640...

We had quite an excellent evening; both we and our RoFs were very satisfied. Dinner included the following:

Aperitif (house specialty) – Tia Maria and bourbon topped with Cava

Amuse bouche #1: Salmon tartar with dill cream.

Gone in one bite ;-)

Amuse bouche #2: If I remember correctly: a mussel and a tiny salad in the spoon; creamy seafood soup; veal croquette.

We ate them in the “wrong” order – just as well to eat the hot food first – and started with the croquette. Yummy. The soup was like drinking a tasty bowl of seafoody cream :-D

First course: Grilled scallop served with artichokes, cauliflower, and marinated snow peas. Pomegranate vinegar and saffron foam.

Wine: Weingut Knipser Riesling Kabinet trocken 2008

The scallop was perfectly prepared. It was seared just so on the edges, but raw inside, although warm. The wine was very citrusy and refreshing, and went nicely with the scallop...

Second course: Foamy shellfish soup served with halibut, fennel and feve. (husband of feitpingvin had king crab instead of halibut because the fish was encrusted with nuts)...

Wine: Vicar's Choice Sauvignon Blanc 2009

More creamy seafoody goodness, this time with tasty bits of perfectly cooked fish. The (NZ) Sauv Blanc was absolutely lovely. We really should do a wine safari in New Zealand...

Third course: Fried cod served with Welsh shallot cream and a spinach and leek- tomato samosa. Garlic sauce.

Wine: Meursault Domaine Michelot 2006

We also got a glass of Terras Gauda Albarinio Rias Balixas 2008 since we told them we aren't overly crazy about Chardonnay. We thought this was a better match...

This was in the running for favorite dish of the evening. The cod was very fresh and perfectly cooked; the skin was nice and crispy too. The shallot cream was flavorful and caramelly savory-sweet. The samosa was crispy on the outside, flavorful on the inside... wonderful! I could have easily gobbled down several more servings!

~ Peach ice and blackberry sorbet ~

The sorbet was especially lovely... mmmmm....

Fourth (main) course: Honey and lime-glazed breast of duck served with glazed quince, pickled oyster mushrooms, walnut purée (husband of feitpingvin got a similar purée, but without the walnuts), and bok choi. Cranberry sauce.

Wine: Barbera d'Alba Carlo Giacosa Lina 2007

This was probably my favorite dish; it helps that duck is one of my absolute favorite meats! The walnut purée was especially amazing with the tasty, tender, perfectly prepared duck meat...

Om nom nom nom!

Fifth course: Well-ripened cheeses garnished with banana bread and fruit compote. (We each got different cheeses due to allergy issues.)

Wines: Markus Molitor Riesling Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Auslese 1994 and Pineau des Charentes Lheraud

My cheeses were very delicious, and husband of feitpingvin was also very happy with what he received. Also, I really liked getting two different wines for this, one to go with the first two, the other to go with the other two. The Pineau des Charentes Lheraud was especially interesting. It is made from the same grapes used to make Cognac. It smelled like Cognac and tasted like Cognac, minus the high amount of alcohol. I really enjoyed this one. But the Riesling was also quite excellent...

Sixth course: Cherry mousse on mazarin and blood orange, crispy almond pastry, and yoghurt sherbet.

Wine: Tokaji Aszú Royal Tokaji 5 Puttonyos 2005

I got my dessert with 'Gratulerer!' written in chocolate. For my birthday and all :-) My favorite part of the dessert was the pieces of blood orange. I could have dropped the rest of the dessert stuff and just eaten a big bowl of the blood oranges... yum! The wine was also quite nice, very cloudberry-caramelly... :-)

Coffee, amaretto for me, whisky for husband of feitpingvin, petits fours

Aside from the meal, the service was amazing. Our main waitress was actually an apprentice (she wore a badge that indicated this), but if she were not wearing the badge I would have never guessed.

Oh, and here's a crap photo of yours floozie. Bad angle, hair from hell (hat hair + winter static electricity), but otherwise not bad for 39, right? ;-P

my tits are blue...

quack quack nom nom

As tradition dictates, husband of feitpingvin and I celebrated my recent birthday by going out to eat at a gourmet restaurant. This year, we went to Le Canard (anda/the duck), which has one star in the Michelin guide.

The restaurant itself is located in Briskeby, one of the posh parts of Oslo. The dining room is spacious and airy; there is ample space between the tables. The tables are also spacious (you're not elbow-to-elbow with the person next to you, and there's plenty of room for the food and wine), and the chairs are very comfortable. Leading to the dining room is a bar with a fireplace; it is possible to come just to sit at the bar and enjoy a glass of wine or whatever.

Anyway, we started the evening with a glass of champagne, which we sipped as we studied the menu. This was served along with a little plate of thin potato chips with a truffle cream; I was told that the truffles used were winter truffles from Piemonte. I really don't know what truffles are supposed to taste like (for some reason, I think "mushroomy") and while the cream did have a distinct flavor, it wasn't an overwhelming flavor...

We ended up ordering the 6-course menu of the week. No regrets at all! Here's what we got:

Amuse bouche
Warm king crab salad, topped with foam. A tasty start!

First course
Butternut squash soup, scallop (from Trøndelag), mushroom & truffle ravioli
Wine: Albarino 2007 Lagar de Costa Rias Baixas

This was my favorite dish. Everything was perfect - the soup was pleasantly sweet and creamy, the ravioli was perfectly cooked, and the ravioli filling was very tasty, as with the scallop (I love scallops!). I enjoyed the wine almost as much as I enjoyed the food; it's one I plan on buying in the future. It had some fruity sweetness but at the same time it had a pleasant bitterness (grapefruit/pomelo peel) that made it a perfect match to complement the sweetness of the butternut squash. It's also something I could very easily and happily quaff on its own.

Second course
Roast halibut (from Langesund), braised endive, caper & clam beurre noisette
Wine: Chablis Dom. Chantemerle 2006

Halibut is one of my favorite fishes. I wasn't overly crazy about the sides, but the fish itself and the bit of shellfish that was with the side dishes were perfect. The wine was an excellent match, but it's not one I could drink on its own.

Third course
Cocoa crusted sweetbreads, parsnip puree & licorice jus
Wine: dom. Michel Juillet Mercurey Clos des Barraults 2005

OK, so sweetbreads are the thymus gland of the animal (veal in this case) and that kind of thing freaks some people out, but I think they're quite OK. The sweetbreads we were served were very delicate and pleasant, and the parsnips and liquorice sauce were an excellent complement. The wine was also an excellent match. I'm also interested in buying some of the wine. It was served from a half bottle; our waiter told us that wine matures faster in a half bottle.

Cleaning the palate
Shaved ice flavored with Earl grey tea and cranberry. Mmm...

Fourth (main) course
Venison from Røros with caramelized apple, red cabbage, chestnut & red wine jus
Wine: Chocapalha 2001 Vinho Tinto

Delicious! The venison was so tender that it melted in my mouth. The only "complaint" I have is that the wine (which was amazing!) was better suited to the caramelized apples than to the venison itself. Not that it was a bad match, but I think it could have been a little better. (And yeah, I want to buy this wine too! :)

Fifth course
Cheese from Affineur H. Mons
Wine: S.A. Prüm 2007 Riesling Spätlese Graacher Himmel

Cheese is one of those things where we always have to make sure they don't throw in anything that will make us sick. I can't eat blue cheese, husband of feitpingvin can't eat chèvre. So I got the chèvre, he got the Roquefort, along with some other very tasty cheeses (don't remember what they were... grr... there's one in particular I'd like to sink my teeth into again), as well as some nut bread and apricot jam. Yum yum! And the Riesling... sweet but not nasty sweet, balancing well with the tanginess of the cheeses. I love how Riesling is versatile like that...

Pre-dessert
A little cone filled with a refreshing apple and basil sorbet. This was quite cute!

Sixth course
Chocolate crème brulee, passionfruit sorbet & foam
Wine: Capitel Santa Libera 2004 Recioto Classico

The chocolate crème brûlée was amazing, and I really liked that they didn't spare the vanilla. The passionfruit sorbet was pleasantly tart; I'd like to be able to make something like that at home! It was served with some kind of crispy chocolate "ribbon." We also got some kind of passionfruit mousse topped with chocolate cream. The wine was nice too...

We ended the evening with coffee - I got amaretto coffee and husband of feitpingvin got an Irish coffee - and petits fours.

It was a very enjoyable evening. As were were on our way out, husband of feitpingvin and our waiter discussed whiskies (he had commented the bottles that were at the bar), and our waiter let husband of feitpingvin taste a Bruichladdich from 1973 :) He says it was absolutely lovely.

My general impression is that Le Canard is more on the "traditional" side of gourmet, unlike Restaurant Oscarsgate (also with one Michelin star) is a bit more "playful creative" (we got a gourmet mini hot dog there, among other things). Not that I'm going to complain about it ;-) It's nice to try the different places with their different ways of doing things...

Next up... Bagatelle? Or The Fat Duck? (to continue on the duck theme hehe)

Mmm... pasta...

We tried a relatively new restaurant for lunch - Brunello. I had ricotta and spinach-filled ravioli with three different sauces - pesto, butter and sage, and tomato. Husband of feitpingvin had pizza with different kinds of cured meat, mushrooms, and gorgonzola. The pasta was very good and cooked to a perfect al dente, and it was nice having the three different sauces for different kinds of tastes. (Sometimes it can be a bit "much" if you have a huge portion of pasta, and the taste gets monotonous.) The portion size was decent but not extreme, which is something I also appreciated. Husband of feitpingvin's pizza was also quite nice (I managed to get a few bites of it :).

The general atmosphere was cozy, and all the staff spoke Italian to one another...

Brunello is definitely going on our list of alternatives when we go out to lunch or dinner with friends...

Here's a review in Norwegian if you're interested in knowing more...

Friday's fishy feast at Fjord

On Friday, February 29th, we ate dinner out at Fjord, a new fish restaurant here in Oslo. Having only opened right before Christmas 2007, it's being touted as the best fish restaurant in Oslo. As we had an excuse to go out and do something interesting (ending one job to go to a new job), and as we love fish and seafood, we decided to check this place out...

We started with a glass of Franck Bonville Blanc de Blancs grand cru champagne and an amuse bouche platter. Let’s see, if I remember correctly... from the left it was potato with crème fraiche and roe, quail egg, gazpacho, salmon tartare, and something or other with avocado. All very nice and RoF-stimulating…



As for the courses:

1. Salmon sashimi with papaya salad, ginger and wasabi sorbet, and an interesting soy sauce with toasted sesame seeds. Served with Bourgogne Aligoté 2006 Saint Aubin. The sorbet was, um, different but tolerable for me (I can't really deal with wasabi or any other kind of horseradish). The fish was fresh and tasty...



2. Crab and scallop with apple purée, petit pois purée, and chorizo. Served with Schloss Lieser Riesling 2006. The scallop was absolutely perfectly prepared. The dots of apple and petit pois were a bit too small in my opinion. I would have liked more of those tastes...



3. Skrei (Lofoten cod) with mushroom soup, shitake mushrooms, and asparagus. Served with Domaine de la Sancesse 2006 (Côtes du Rhône). The fish was also cooked perfectly, and the soup was nice and creamy-foamy with lots of flavor...



4. King fish with lentils, chestnut purée, savoy cabbage, and anise and olive sauce. Served with Moulin à Vent Maison-Blanche 2006. Interesting combination of flavors, but the king fish was rich enough to tolerate them all. Yum yum...



5. Cheese with fig preserves, nut bread, and candied nuts. Served with two different wines - Andre Brunel (Rhône) and a sweet dessert wine - Henri Ramonteu 2004 Jurançon. Boyfriend of feitpingvin had roquefort on his cheese plate. As I'm allergic to that, I just got larger portions of the other cheeses...



This was followed by some chocolates, though we didn't have any coffee to go with it. I don't even think we were asked if we wanted any coffee...



Not having been asked if we wanted to order coffee is among the little annoyances about this place. The other annoyance was that I felt that they moved through the courses too quickly. Which I suppose they had to do if we were going to chow down in time for them to clear us out and clean up the table for the next seating. They have two different seatings - one at 17:30 and one at 21:00. I guess it's to get as many customers as possible, but they're both annoying times to eat dinner out, and I don't like being rushed...

Otherwise, the food itself was lovely and the atmosphere was lively. I don't think I'd call it the best fish restaurant in town, but it's not the worst...

UPDATE - Ms. Freaky Beaky

NEWS FLASH!!!

Nebbeline(*), otherwise known by her stage name Ms. Freaky Beaky, was spotted early this afternoon at her usual hangout at Aker River. She was seen with a handsome drake with a shiny green head; he seemed to be the jealous type, not letting anyone else go near her! Will he smash the paparazzis' camera lenses with his shiny yellow beak? It's risky business, the duck entertainment world!



We were still able to bring Nebbeline her treat, some hand-selected crickets from the local (gourmet) pet supplies store. She ate them deliciously; no eating disorders in the duck entertainment world! She even fended off some crazed fans (pigeons) who wanted to steal her crickets as a souvenir, ramming them with her pink tongue!



All is well with her it seems. She looks healthy, strong, and in love!


(*) nebb is the Norwegian word for beak, hence Nebbeline ;-)

Ms. Freaky Beaky

Boyfriend of feitpingvin and I discovered this unusual female mallard while baiting the local ducks with bread, in order to take some photos of them.



At first we didn't know whether she had somehow gotten her beak snapped off or whether it was some kind of birth defect. Upon closer inspection, it looks like some kind of birth defect. Her beak is very short and curved up, and her lovely pink tongue sticks out. It was so sad to see...



It seems like she's doing OK though. While she's slightly smaller than the other ducks, she most certainly does not look unfed...



Ms. Freaky Beaky was also a lot tamer than the other mallards. Or perhaps desperate for food due to her strange beak making it more difficult to find food? Anyway, she didn't even hesitate to eat food right out of the palms of our hands, licking them with her funny little pink tongue...

While it was cute and all, we decided it would be best to just throw her the food. She's still a wild bird and it's not really that good of a thing if she's too trusting of humans...

RoF-stuffing at Palace Grill

We celebrated my birthday a little bit early, and the usual tradition is to go out for a no-holds-barred gourmet meal. (Not really something I want to do on a weekday.)

This year's meal was at Palace Grill. The restaurant at Palace Grill used to serve more simple fare such as burgers. Now days, they serve an up to 10-course gourmet meal. But they do not take reservations. This means you have to get there early in order to secure a table. As long as you get there around 5-ish to 5:30-ish, you should be OK. There's a (somewhat popular) bar next to the restaurant where you can hang out and have an aperitif while waiting for your table...

Oh, and the setting is somewhat informal, so you don't need to wear a suit and tie or a fancy dress. Actually, it would be a good idea to wear something that allows you to eat a lot of good food hehe...

We did the "full package" of course. This is what we feasted on (note: click the photos to see larger versions):

1. Dish: Oysters. Raw on the half-shell, served with vinegar and slices of lime. The oysters were very nice and fresh and tasty...
   
   Wine: Daniel Dampt et Fils Chablis 2006
   
   



2. Dish: sashimi of salmon, with salmon roe, cucumber, green onion, sesame seeds, quail egg yolk, and teriyaki soy sauce. The salmon was very fresh and flavorful. The quail egg yolk had quite a lot of flavor...
   
   Wine: Schafer-Frölich Riesling Kabinett 2006. This wine kicked ass! :-D
   
   



3. Dish: smoked eel, eel with sour cream, and salad and capers. The eel pieces were very tender and tasty...
   
   Wine: same as for the 2nd course
   
   



4. Dish: lobster soup with lobster and hazelnut ravioli, raw shrimp, mussels, apples, hazelnuts, and fennel. You could tell that the cooks spent hours reducing the broth for the soup. I would have loved a whole plate of that ravioli! The apple pieces in the soup were a very nice, sweet touch...
   
   Wine: Macon-Chardonnay Récolte, Clos de la Crochette 2005
   
   



5. Dish: halibut with caviar and mango greens. Perfectly prepared fish mmm...
   
   Wine: Chassagne-Montrachet Cru la Maltroie 2005
   
   



6. Dish: cod with oxtails, mushrooms, jordskokk purée, and red beets prepared in red wine. This was probably one of the most interesting dishes I have ever eaten. The cod and the oxtails were a very interesting, flavorful combination. Too bad we forgot to take a photo...
   
   Wine: Cote de Nuits-Villages La Montagne 2005 (pinot noir)
   
   No photo



7. Red currant and vodka smoothie (for cleansing the palate). Very lovely...
   
   



8. Dish: filet of venison, rutebega, lentils with chicken livers and bacon. This was absolutely divine! The venison was perfectly tender, and melted in my mouth. The lentils were also perfectly tender, and the chicken livers were an especially interesting and flavorful touch. The lentils were served on the side so they're not in the photo.
   
   Wine: Roda I Reserve 2003
   
   



9. Dish: cheese board with lots of flavorful, runny, stinky French cheeses :-) Served with nut bread and rye bread...
   
   Wine: same as with #8
   
   



10. Dish: Dessert - raspberry sorbet and a chocolate dessert, both with a passionfruit sauce. The crust of the chocolate dessert was a bit hard but it was otherwise good. The sorbet was fantastic, and the sauce wonderfully tangy and tasty, passing perfectly to both desserts...
    
    

Coffee afterwards.

All in all, a wonderful meal. I left stuffed and happy... :-) It was definitely worth the visit! :-D

owl in the city

This birdie was in my neighborhood, but I didn't get a chance to see it :-(

Be sure to click the link for photos goodness :)

City owl gets help

A wayward and apparently ailing horned owl has been rescued from city perils in downtown Oslo.

The Agency of Outdoor recreation and Nature management took the owl into care on Wednesday, after days of sightings of the endangered bird in the capital.

"It is a very unusual sight, spotting a horned owl in a city," said Agency nature manager Kjell Isaksen.

Isaksen saw the owl for the first time on Tuesday morning when he saw it being chased by a peregrine falcon over the rooftops of Oslo.

"That was quite a sight," Isaksen said.

The owl first drew attention when it was seen in downtown Grønlandsleiret on Friday, when it landed and stayed in the middle of a street.

"People could go right up to the bird, and that is very unusual since the horned owl is normally shy. This indicated that it was not at all well," Isaksen said.

Later the owl could be seen in downtown Tøyen Park, where it was being pestered by smaller birds.

"The horned owl was sitting in the open, being bullied by crows and magpies without reacting. That is why we wondered if it was sick," Isaksen explained.

On Wednesday the Agency, with much assistance from the fire department, managed to get the owl down from window sill in a narrow downtown apartment courtyard. The bird made no attempt to escape and allowed people to climb up next to it and toss a net over it.

"That's no way for a healthy horned owl to behave," Isaksen said.

The owl will now be fed and receive veterinary care before being released in its natural habitat, not the capital's cold concrete streets.

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 :-)