Paris by Liza et Vie part two

What, is this where we are staying? What not to do when booking a trip, where to brunch, where to snack, and a bit of sightseeing and shopping.

In Paris by Liza et Vie part one I wrote that we were heading back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep, did that happen, no no no. The hotel walls was so paper-thin and guests coming back late at night sounded like they were going to stomp into our room. Guests checking out stomping down the stairs, and banging their luggage against the wall on their way down to the reception desk. It was like this every night and every morning. To get enough rest we slept in and our day did not start untill noon. My fault, this was a last-minute thing and I looked for a cheap bargain on Expedia, I found a Hotel close to one of the places we wanted to visit Boulangerie Raphäelle. The pictures of the rooms looked decent and we were just going to sleep there. To make life a little easier I booked a car to pick us up at the airport and to pick us up at the hotel on the day of departure. When the driver stopped outside our hotel and told us that this was our stop, I was a little shocked, it was a dingy and littered street. What did I really expect our trip was 400 euros per person for round trip ticket and four night. Next trip I think I have to do some more reasearch and maybe ask around. My past trips to Paris I never really booked anything my self, I left that to my better half and yes I was spoilt. Oh well, I am now an experience richer. Know where you are going before you book a trip.

The third day of our stay we went to Eggs & co in the St. Germain de Prés area for brunch, this is also a recommended place to enjoy a nice plate of Eggs Benedict.  A small two-story cafe with a low ceiling. We ordered two of the brunch specials, a main course served with a hot beverage and orange juice followed by a pancakes with a click of butter served with a fresh fruit salad. The brunch specials were from 20 euros and up, maybe not the cheapest brunch, but you got a lot of food, and you won’t leave hungry, this was our main meal that day. MiniMe is not very fond of gravy on her food, she ordered scrambled egg with bacon. Her scrambled egg came in a bowl with the bacon mixed in, it was almost like a porridge. My first thought was, oh oh, will she eat this, she did and she ate a lot. When asked if we wanted tea or coffee, the waitress saw that MiniMe hesitated and asked if she wanted hot chocolate instead. I call that observant and super service. I give this place a thumbs up. We had to pay down stairs at the counter and along one of the walls there were three jars with sweets. The lady behind the counter saw MiniMe looking in that direction and told me that she could help herself to the sweets. This place was even a hit with my little pride and joy.

Leaving Eggs & co. we walked around the, did some shopping. and then MiniMe tugged on me and said “Mom I need to use the rest room”. Where to go? We found Poilâne, as I understand it also a reputable boulangeri, but not one of the ones Paul Hollywood visited. We went in to tne café next door,  also called Poilâne. We went in and asked for the rest room and ordered some snacks. I felt that I had to order something, previously at other places people did not look to happy when you asked if you could borrow their rest rooms. The waitress told me that she could just use the fasilleties and that we did not have to order anything, that was very kind of her but we ordered a few things anyway. A flan and cappuchino for me and a fresh fruit salad and barley infussed apple juice for MiniMe.

Poilâne opened in 1932, at that time there used to be 5 bakeries on Rue du Cherche-midi and now it is only one. I guess that the young baker from Normandy managed to convince the Parisians that his traditional French sourdough bread was a contender to the baguette that everybody loved and prefered. There was a dual advantage to Poilânes four pound loaves: they kept longer and could be cut into large slices. The bakery continued to bake this bread using stone-ground flour, sea salt from Guérande and a wood-fired oven.  As you can see from the picture below, you can buy slices of their famous bread. They weigh the amount you want wrap in a bag and you leave them with only what you need.

I was so tired after the brunch, shopping and snacks, we had hardly slept the past few days because of the noise in and around the hotel we were staying, when we walked passed a church, I looked longingly towards the entrance. I wanted to go in and pretend to pray so I could doze off a little, we didn’t. I told MiniMe a little jokingly about this idea and she looked at me shockingly and said “But mummy what if we fall of the pews, no that it is a bad idea”. Ha ha ha, I don’t think falling off the pews would be the worst part.

On instagram the past years I have seen a lot of posts of delicate macaroons from Ladurée, and when we walked by  a store in this area, we went in. I had to try some and compare them to the ones I knew from Pascal and Sebastien Bruno in Oslo. What I really wanted was to sit down and rest, but I could not  eat another morsel so we just bought a little box with six macaroons to enjoy later. With all the treats we had eaten the past days and hardly any vegetables I saw a oppurtunity to fill up with some vitamines and minerals and finally sit down and rest at the Juice Lab on 11 Rue Jacob in St. Germain. Fresh cold pressed juice from fruit and vegetables that has become very popular these past few years, a nice way to fill up on your 5 a day.

A little rested after our pit stop at Juice Lab we  walked towards the Louvre. It was the same here as the other historical buildings, the lines were long and when I asked her if she wanted to go in and see Mona Lisa, she said “Nah, I just did a project about that painting at school, I have seen it many times”. I probably should have said something about how many paintings we could count running around inside the museum within a time period, that would probably made her want to go in. She much rather go to Sephora to do some shopping, she had been googling things she wanted to buy with her vacation pocket-money. The children always get some extra pocket-money from some family members before they go on holiday, it is for ice cream, souvenirs etc.

She made me buy products we could pamper us with that evening  while we ate the rest of our snacks we bought that day. Who wouldn’t run towards the candy colored wall with Sephora mask products. I did find something else at this store, but that is for another time.

This concludes our day three in Paris, hope you enjoyed reading about it

 

Genki

Genki desu ka?元気ですか？Or Genki for short is the closest thing to “How are you?” in English.  But in Japanese it literally means, “Are you fine/healthy?”

One of the newest  addition to Oslo’s restaurant scene is Genki (元気). A japanese restaurant located at Vika terasse not far from the main street of Oslo Karl Johans gate and the Royal Palace. The restaurants head chef Vladimir Pak and his team mix the long and old nippon traditions smootly with Nordic flavours, giving you a taste voyage through traditional Kaiseki setting in a new and innovative way. They strive to use only Norwegian and Japanese produce that you can enjoy in a modern and pleasant environment.

Clock wise from top left: 1. Rice cracker with lemon and pepper, from the kaiseki menu. 2. Salmon tartar and wakame. 3. Maki with tuna tartar, ox tongue tartar and king crab. 4. Ceviche miso, from the kaiseki menu

At Genki you can lower your shoulders, relax and enjoy the staffs informal interaction with you, were they make sure that you will have and enjoy a wonderful and tasty experience. In Vladimir Pak hands you will surely get a quality meal, he secured a third place in the World Sushi Championship last year.

Kaiseki is a traditional multi course Japanese dinner. The term also refers to the collection of skills and techniques that allow the preparation of such meals, and is analogous to Western haute cuisine. Genki offers three different menus for dinner, a fourteen course kaiseki menu, you can enjoy all fourteen or sample two or three. If you are vegan, you too can enjoy a few dishes too and if you are vegetarian you can enjoy a few more. They also serve a set three coarse meal and maki menu with a vegetarian option.

Price wise this place is decent. The fourteen course meal cost NOK 825,-  about US$ 98,-  or Euro 88,- in today’s currency exchange. You can see two of the dishes in the second picture from the top.

You can also go and enjoy lunch at Genki. The lunch menu is shorter and not so elaborate as the dinner menu, you have the choise of four meals to choose from. The bento box in picture above is from their lunch menu, crispy tonkatsu, ceviche miso with toasted pumpkin seeds, mixed salad with sesame dressing, vegetable maki, fried maki with salmon and steamed rice. As my bento box was placed in front of me, an older petite japanese lady came in the door. I could hear her say that she had just heard about the place and wanted to try it out, she happened to order the same as me. I could not help myself and as she was paying I popped by and asked her if she enjoyed her meal and how she would compare it to a traditional japanese meal. She said it was very tasty and she enjoyed it very much and it was a lot of food, she was not used to so much for lunch.

Vegetarian maki

Genki shares a kitchen with Omakase by Alex Cabiao the newly opened Oslo version of the only Michelin stared sushi restaurant i Norway, Sabi Omakase in Stavanger wich is runned by Alex’s  previous apprentice Roger Askila Joya. The Oslo based Edomae style restaurant as the name suggests will be headed by Alex Cabiao the grand master of sushi here in Norway and among the top sushi chefs in the world. He has trained every renowned sushi chef in this Nordic country.

The team of chef at Genki right to left Jonathan Romano, Alex Cabiao, Mark Subia, Vladimir Pak

A not so known member of this Sushi family is Mark Jayson Subia who also is an apprentice of Alex. He won the Global Sushi Challenge in Oslo in 2015 and represented Norway in Tokyo. Praised by both Alex and Jonathan, they predict that we will hear more from this guy in the future.

I give this place a thumbs up and if you are in Oslo, Norway, I recommend that you come and visit these places.

Relæ, Copenhagens organic Michelin starred restaurant

Do you want to experience a fully organic Michelin starred restaurant?

Trout, chickenskin and mushrooms

Then you should go to Nørrebro, a neighbourhood in Copenhagen with a multi-cultural feel and a great nightlife, here you will find Relæ, a Michelin starred restaurant that prides itself on delivering a no nonsense gastronomic experience.

Relæ opened in summer 2010 at Jægersborggade 41 by Breakaway Noma-chef Christian Puglisi. In March 2012, Relae was awarded its first Michelin star, making it one of the most affordable gourmet restaurants in Copenhagen. In 2015 the restaurant is ranked number 45 on the list of the World’s Best Restaurants.

Hokaido pumpkin, seabuckthorn and hazelnut.

Since the beginning Relæ had already focused on healthy, locally-sourced produce, but in early may 2013 the Michelin-starred restaurant took it one step furter and offered exclusively organic ingredients. The restaurant is gold certified by Organic Denmark, That means that they can documents that 90-100 percent of everything served by the Relæ kitchen, including drinks, is organic.

“Good ingredients should be harvested organically with consideration for ethics, quality and nature,”  says Christian Puglisi, owner and head chef at Relæ.

Havervadgård lamb, swiss chard and seaweed

The place is small and informal, with simple decor, bare brick walls and no tablecloths. Relæ is often compared to Noma, but it stands out in its own right for its innovative set menus and simple dining philosophy.

Relæ is also vegetarian friendly restaurant and offers two set menus, one omnivor and one herbivore . Four courses from the set seasonal menu will cost you DKK 450 while a selection from the extensive wine menu that matches the DKK 396.

 

 

OKO resto

 

Photo:andershusa.com

In the marina of a beach village kalled Kaberneeme, just 40 km from Tallinn, Anders, Julie and I visited OKO an Estonian restaurant. This restaurant was awarded the title as the Best Family Restaurant 2012 in the Silver Spoon competition and, and judged to be the third best restaurant in Estonia in last year’s Eesti TOP50.

Grilled baby corn brushed with brown butter

OKO means “Welcome” in Japanese, and you will feel welcomed in this cosy, eco-friendly, rustic and quality-orientated restaurant.

Photo:andershusa.com

OKO Resto offers familiar flavours and pairs it with flavours they are inspired by around the world. The restaurants chef tries and pride themselves to surprise their customers, showing that an excellent places to eat, can exist regardless of the location.

The Head chef at OKO Joonas Koppel is also quite young, only 25-year-old and he gets most of his inspiration from the nordic countries and specially Copenhagen, Denmark.

The food at OKO was innovative and different compared to traditional estonian meals, and the ingredients and presentations were clearly inspired by new Nordic cooking.

 

Photo: andershusa.com   The salty whitefish, toast, whitefish roe in sour cream, wakame and onions.

Click HERE to read about Art Priori another Estonian restaurant with young chefs.

Photo: anderhusa.com  Chopped venison tartare, cheese cracker and parmesan.

Click HERE to read Anders Husas post about restaurants in Estonia

Smoked eel, cottage cheese, cucumber, potato and hollandaise.

Photo: andershusa.com  Coffee treats, small biscuit in the shape of a chanterelle, with a salty mushroom caramel inside.

I must admitt that I liked the the food here and even tried to make my verions of them.

If you go HERE and HERE you will see what I made

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hot panzerotti from Luini in Milan

Feeling a little peckish or just plain hungry, if you are in the vicinity of the Duomo in Milan walk straight and take a left when you have passed Rinascente and follow the crowd, you will happen up on a small shop called Luini. This is a must go to place if you are in Milan.

I asked my friend The Operasinger “If I want to taste something that is a must try in Milan, where should I go?” She answered “Luinis” and then she showed me where it was.

“Oh, is this it?, I have been wanting to try this place every time I have been here, but the line has always been too long or it has been closed.” I can remember being curious to see what they were selling, but has always ended up going somewhere else to get a bite to eat.

This time we were lucky the line wasn’t so long, and I finally got to try some.

Luini has become somewhat of an institution since they opened in 1949.

Panzerottis that Luinis is famous for has become a staple meal for businessmen, students and children a like, people keep coming back bringing the next generation to pass on the tradition.

These turnovers wasn’t known to Milan before Mrs. Josephine Luini brought the recipe from her home region of Puglia. In Milan she started producing and supplying bread for restaurants and downtown hotels. But her interest was for  the traditional baked goods from home. One day, looking through the recipes passed down from her grandfather, she found the recipe for these popular turnovers.

Everybody wants these soft and doughy turnovers filled with savory or sweet filling. Pazerotti is like a cross between carlzone and a beignet.

There is always a line during opening hours, but the place is popular specially among students, like these girls below and non of them are Italian. Luinis fame has gone beyond the italian border.

My favorite was the one filled with mozzarella and tomato

Art Priori

Aesthetic and excellent food together with high-level art and an interior executed in a modern twist of Tallinn’s Gothic architecture describes Art Priori to a tee. The  restaurant has managed to link the old world with the new in a modern way.

Art Priori is ranked as one of six top restaurants in Estonia. It is not just a place for dining, the place consists of three separate rooms where original art is exhibited. You can enjoy looking at paintings from the past up to todays contemporary art while you savor the excellent menu that the young, dedicated and creative kitchen team prepare for you and savor wine from their diverse colletion.

Some  of the art exhibited when we were there are from Jüri Mildeberg a self proclaimed hedonist that really enjoys what he is doing. This widely  recognized autodidact artist is best known as an illustrator and designer of children’s books and has won several prize. He has had numerous exhibitions both locally and abroad.

You can also delight in original art pieces from Flemish and German masters while you dine at Art Priori.

For the restaurants picture gallery click HERE

Photo: andershusa.com Left: Mart Klaas 25  Right: Orm Oja 23, picture taken at Tøyengata Bodega

The dedicated head chefs Orm Oja and Mart Klaas are only 23 and 25 years old, but already quite experienced in cooking, the youngest of them Orm has already been cooking in a professional kitchen for 7 years. Living in Norway I was curious about Orms name and if it was a common name in Estonia, he told us that it was not and that his mother got it from the book Kristin Lawransdaughter by Sigrid Undset, no wonder the norse connection.

Left: dish from Pop up restaurant, right: dish from Tallinn Estonia

The Guys tell us that they are inspired by the New Nordic style of cooking and by the east. They combine their new found knowledge with Estonian traditional ingredients to make tasty scrumptous dishes.

 

Amuse bouche 1- Nasturtium leaves filled with smoked eel, cream cheese and ramson capers

During Estonia’s restaurant week I got to go and visit Art Priori and I must say I was delightfully surprised considering my first encounter with the restaurant.

Photo: andershusa.com. Amouse bouche 2-Traditional black bread served with inked chicken liver pate and peppered lemon butter

I was invited to Art Prioris pop up event at Tøyengata Bodega in Oslo with Julie and Anders. The restaurants two head chefs  had come to Oslo Norway to present Estonian fine dining at its best.

Grilled romaine lettuce in a roasted potato consume with sous vide duck egg yolk and tomato.

I have to admit that we were a little disappointed. The dishes that we got served did not resemble the pictures from Art Prioris web page, and the food was decent but not exquisite. From what we understood the menu was the same as the one in Tallinn, but I guess that in an unorganized Bodega kitchen the guys met some challenges. Their working conditions was quite different here from the well organized cooking space that the guys were used to.

Photo:juliesmatblogg.no Miso soup with sea bass, enoki and ramson dashi

When we got the opportunity to go to Estonia for their restaurant week, we said yes but we were hesitant, needless to say we did not have to worry. The food was fabulous, reminiscing about our evening at Art Priori I can still remember the different layers, texture and taste from the different dishes.

Oven baked quail, celeriac, broccoli florets and smoked beetroot sauce

The restaurant also boast of a wood fired grill that gives flavor nuances to their dishes and when I took a peek through the kitchen viewing window I recognized a Big Green Egg in their neat and organized kitchen, nothing was out of place. Art Prioris contemporary kitchen is oriented on fresh seasonal produce and their menu is constantly changing, offering the best of what is available during each season.

Pork belly, crunchy buckwheat sprouts, wood sorrel and calvados sauce

All I can say is that the dinning experience at Art Priori exceeded my expectations and if you ever go to Tallinn this is a must go to place.

Pickled pumpkin, yoghurt, blood orange and lemon myrtle.

Tallinn in Estonia has a lot to boast about, the city has a lot of history and there are a lot to see.

Photo: andershusa.com. Coffee treats Reindeer lichen covered in chocolate and crunchy peanuts and woodruff rocks.

Photo: andershusa.com   Precision plating.

Julie and Anders

Bloggers sunday at Rotisserie, Anders Husa

 

Team analizagonzales.com consisting of my two youngest Sam, MiniMe and I went to bloggers take over sunday at Rotisserie in Oslo.

Rotisserie is still a fairly new but a very welcomed addition to Oslo’s restaurant scene. The restaurant was established earlier this year of 2015 and has grown to be a respectable restaurant in a short time. As the name suggests they grill their fowl the french way, on a spit and in an rotisserie oven. To celebrate their success the reataurants french owner Loris Giannitrapani opened shop on Sundays and invited a few foodbloggers to design their sunday menu for this fall.

Loris Giannitrapani. Photo: Anders Husa

First foodie out is Anders Husa who got to do the September menu. HERE is his Rotisserie post.

Photo Ander Husa

First dish was 64 degree duck egg with butter fried chanterelle, crispy parsnip chips, Comté and toasted black pepper. A hearty, robust and flavorful dish where french and norwegian flavours are balanced nicely together.

My pride and joys did not want the starter, but I had them try a bit of mine. Their eyes begged for more but they only got that one bite, mummy wanted the rest to her self. No, I did not let the children starve, since we came early we had to wait and since I am a foodie and they are the children of one we ate somewhere else first.

Photo: Anders Husa

Main course was: Rotisserie duck with celeriac puree, baked shallots, crispy kale and a red wine sauce reduction with black currants and liquorice by Johan Bülow. The black currants for sweetness and acidity and liquorice syrup for salt and umami.

MiniMe got a special plating, many 7 year old children do not like to mix their food so she got everything separated, that what I calle service. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of her plate since I was a bit incapacitated plus I was to busy snapping the meal. Nice flavours and a lot of contrasts.

Photo: Ander Husa

The desert was: Madeleines with an almond mousse, sea buckthorn gel and meadowsweet. A desert with a lot of contrast, crispy, soft, sweet and tart.

This dish was MiniMes favorite, she even instructed her older brother how to go about eating the desert so he could experience all the textures and flavours and when she popped her spoon in to her mouth she looked like she had gone to heaven. And yes, it was she who talked about textures and flavours, sounds like a future foodie.

Rotisserie and Anders Husa and Rotisserie gets three thumbs up from us.

There is only one Sunday left so if you want to experience Anders Husas Rotisserie menu you still have to be quick about it. You can book a table HERE.

Next month Helle from Helles’s Kitchen will be in charge of the menu. She and her husband Erik came the second sunday and tried the Anders Husas menu. You can read HERE about their experience.

 

Afternoon tea at Cafe Christiania

Do you know how tea was discovered?

I was fortunate enough to be invited to Afternoon tea and tea tasting at Cafe Christianias 10th anniversary and where Stephen Twining 10th generation Twining held a little lecture about tea, his family’s tea history, fun facts and trivia.

It is as simple as this, about five thousand years ago a chinese emperor used to boil his drinking water for sanitary reasons and one day leaves fell into his pot of boiling water from surrounding trees and it was not just any kind of tree but the tree we know as Camellia sinensis. The leaves gave his water a fragrant aroma and taste and thus began the history of tea as we know today.

Afternoon tea is Cafe Christiania most popular item on their menu and the reataurant has done a little research about afternoon tea and gone to some of the best places in England so that they could serve their customers an afternoon tea as authentic as possible. How did afternoon tea come about?

Scones with cream ans atrawberry jam

Afternoon tea, the most quintessential of English customs is a relatively new tradition. Tea drinking dates back two three  millennia BC in China and was popularised in England during the 1660s by King Charles II and his wife the Portuguese Infanta Catherine de Braganza.

The concept of afternoon tea did not appear until the mid 17th century. The custom started with Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, in the year 1840. At that time they only had two main meals in England and The Duchess would become hungry around four o’clock in the afternoon. The evening meal in her household was served fashionably late at eight o’clock, leaving a long period of time between breakfast and dinner. The Duchess would ask for a tray of tea, bread and butter and cake to be brought to her room during the late afternoon. This became a habit of hers and she began inviting friends to join her.

This meal with tea became a fashionable social event. During the 1880’s upper-class and society women would change into long gowns, gloves and hats for their afternoon tea which was usually served in the drawing room between four and five o’clock.

From what I understand there are eally no set rules about the content of a traditional Afternoon Tea menu, but it usually consists of sandwiches and a variety of sweet items. A typical menu might look like this:

Traditional Afternoon Tea Menu

A selection of freshly prepared finger sandwiches

Warm scones with clotted cream and preserves

A variety of homemade cakes and pastries

Your choice from a range of teas

The types of sandwiches often served with Afternoon Tea

The classic selection of sandwiches served with Afternoon Tea are:

cucumber

egg mayonnaise with cress

smoked salmon with cream cheese

Ham and mustard

Cream Tea.

A ‘Cream Tea’ is generally scones, clotted cream and preserve served with a pot of tea.

Champagne Afternoon Tea

Many hotels and restaurants  offer set menus that include a glass of Champagne with the Traditional Afternoon Tea, or the option to add a glass of Champagne for an additional charge.

Tea blends used

The range of teas on offer can vary from half a dozen to over a hundred, including some very rare and obscure ones. Some of the common teas on offer will include the following:

Assam: A strong full-bodied tea from India, which has a distinctive, ‘malty’ flavour.

Darjeeling: An aromatic and astringent tea from India, with a hint of almonds and wildflowers.

Earl Grey: A blend of black teas scented with oil of bergamot named after Charles, 2nd Earl Grey, who was Prime Minister from 1830 to 1834.

Lapsang Shouchong: A Chinese tea fired over smoking pine needles, which produces a striking smoky odour and flavour.

 

My first afternoon tea was at The Conrad in Hong Kong in 1997 right before China took over. I remember it as a luxurious, decadent and never ending meal and served a little different from just the items mentioned above. The girls and I had a five course meal including the traditional afternoon tea servings. Whenever I go out for afternoon tea these days the experience always get compared with The Conrad and to be fair I just compare the typical afternoon tea items.

As always when I go to these events I meet fellow bloggers and journalists HERE is a post in Norwegian written by Bord for to.

 

 

Taqueria

The Tex mex I got in California is whats closest to my heart. Every time I read about the new taco places that have been established in Oslo, I dream myself away to a time when I sat in the sun and got served pico-de gallo with homemade tortilla chips while waiting for my ordered.

My Boss and I went and tested Taqueria at Paleet in Oslo for lunch

Me: how would you classify the food you serve here, Tex mex, mexican mex?
Waiter: What do you mean?
Boss: You see she is a foodbloger.

Oh please someone hit me over the head with something hard and i just smiled and flushed. Yes I had to admit I wrote about food.

Waiter: Oh I see, it leans more towards the Californian style of coking what we serve here.
Me: Fun I have lived.

We order drinks while we try to decide what we want to eat. Ta difficult task for I would have loved to taste everything, so we asked the waiter what he would recommend

He suggested a the Taco Tasting platter with four different tacos and a quesedilla

When the waiter comes back with our drinks to our table, he places three different sauces the table, one tomatillo sauce, a tomato sauce and a Diablo sauce made of Habanero.

I was a little skeptical and this made me think of a time I was in Houston Texas and would taste different salsa from a local producer. “You should try this one, it is the same as what our toddlers eat” the lady at the store said with her southern twang. I tasted the toddler hot sauce and that was it, no more hot sauce for me that day.
I like spicy and hot, but I do not like pain a little tingle yes but not pain.
The waitress told us that there were tomatoes in the sauce, so it was not as strong as pure Habanero sauce he reassured us.I just had to test them, a teaspoon of each sauce.

I started from the right, the green first, then the red and finally yellow.
I had to take a huge breath after the yellow Habanero, it was reasonably strong, but I did not have to beg for milk.

The sauces were tasty and perfectly matched to the food.

We got two tacos in corn tortillas with delicious lobster salad, lime mayonnaise and crunchy fried onions and onechicken adobado, pico de gallo, manchego and oregano.
Two served in wheat tortillas with prawns, garlic, Habanero, mintslaw and tamarindsalsa and the other was with tender pulled pork, pineapple, red cabbage relish, onion and garlic chips
For our last dish we went vegetarian, quesedilla with Manchego, Portobello cream, truffle and corn.

I can not rally remember the food like this during my four years in California and
we concluded that Taqueria probably served a modern California Mexican menu, with little influence from around the world. Ha ha ha, I do not think truffle was something they had on their quesedillas at the Mexican cantina just across the road from the school I attended. Mint and tamarind are a combination I know from my favorite Indian restaurant in Hong Kong

Anyway, the food was delicious with interesting flavor combinations, but does not

recommend having Diablo sauce on everything. I think my taste buds were a bit shocked when I left that place.

I do not have any criticism or bombastic claims that this is not so and so because …. as some others have said about similar places in Oslo. Traditions are made to be broken, we evolve ,we explore and make use of the raw materials that are available.

Although I have lived in California for four years it does not mean that I am an expert on this type of food and besides, it was 22 years ago, things have changed over there just as it has done here at home.

Maybe we should call this Nouveau Mex instead 🙂

PS. I have googled the word after I wrote this post and it’s actually something called nouveau mex, ha ha ha and maybe a perfect description of Taqueria on Paleet in Oslo.

Nimb, a place for worshipping refined taste

 

I can still taste the braised veal brisket, so tender that it almost melted on the tongue. A surprising dish, when I put the knife and fork to it, my first thought was eraser.

That thought did not last long though, as soon as I bit in to it I changed my mind, it was tender, flavorful, wonderful, heavenly and other superlatives I’m can’t remember right now.

Tivoli’s Arab fantasy castle is named Nimb after William and Louise Nimb.A husband and wife team leading the gastronomic scene in the late 1800’s Copenhagen in Denmark. They ran the restaurant Divan 2 by Tivoli’s lake and were the first to put the Danish open faced sandwiches on the menu. Danish Rye bread sandwiches went from small low to high well piled.

The Nimb family traditions and spirit lives on in the Moorish palace with delightful gourmet experiences and everyday luxury.

When I was there, I enjoyed this season’s menu

Smoked creamy Brill
Apple, dill oil and pickled celery

Braised veal brisket
kale, artichokes and sauce blanquette

Chocolate mousse
Cocoa Sorbet, white chocolate cream and sjokoladecrumble

The starter reminded me of an upscale open- aced sandwich but with out the bread.
It had the elements of a typical Danish sandwich garnished with a modern twist.
A salad of smoked fish and apple, dill oil and pickled celery, the ingredient them selves screams Danish open faced sandwich.The main course was the most tender veal brisket, kale, artichokes and sauce blanquette. These are wonderful good old-fashioned ingredients that has come alive today.For desert we had a bomb of a chocolate dis. If you love chocolate, this is the dessert for you.
Chocolate sorbet, white chocolate cream, chocolate mousse, chocolate crumble and crystallized white chocolate. I personally would have wanted some more acidity to this dish.

The restaurant interior you sence the carnival magic and yet still it has a warm Nordic feel.
They have payed attention to detail, the guests experience a pleasant quiet environment with relaxing comfort.
The restaurant has undergone many renovations, the latter gave it a modern Nordic breath with warm colors and natural materials, but its “Moorish” origin is still preserved.

This place scores high with me, good food and good atmosphere. I was there on a Tuesday so the place was not very crowded and the staff had plenty of time for us. The price of the dinner was not something to be deterred by DKK 360, – without drinks