AOC and Solo Dining

Noma restaurant, Copenhagen has been voted the best restaurant in the world the last three years.  As soon as I knew I was heading to the city for Europe's largest flea market I started writing emails and attempting to secure a booking.  Crickets.  Copenhagen has no shortage of Michelin-rated joints, so after a bit more research I opted to spend my evening of culinary delight at AOC.

Like Noma they are also known for utilising only local, in season ingredients (i.e. foraging the nearby forests for juniper berries and thyme) and serving them with visually stunning presentation. The menu is seven courses with a wine pairing at each course (!!!!).  The food and wine on their winter menu were out of this world, but this is also designed to be "an experience".  

Here's a little on how mine went, as a solo diner at a Michelin star restaurant:
Soul is smiling big, anticipation is bubbling.  I'm looking around the simple creamy room to take in every detail - in fact what I notice is absence of detail - only candles on the white table clothes and mod Danish lighting and serving trays.  It is located in the lower level of a restored historic building, so the archway details make the room.

I notice everyone is looking at me, trying to figure out who I am - feeling both a little sad for me and at the same time overly intrigued to meet me. I suppose it must be odd for an extremely beautiful woman to dine alone at their place (:-)); I imagine they think I must be somewhere between royalty, movie star, and acclaimed food critic.  Let them wonder.

Da da da ... Time passes and the servers begin to whisk out a precise series of five starters that come before the meal accompanied by the crispest, fluffiest champagne ever.  Each is a single mouthful - little jerky served on a twig, some other crunchy bit, tartar, pistachio cream filled milkskin (?), duck fat broth (eek).

As you do, I listen to other people's low chatter and my own thoughts intermingle with theirs.  Heard a girl say "Cuba".  I want to go to Cuba, but I want to have long hair and a base tan and, well, be 26.  I saw that flight out of Tampa to Havana.  Did they change the travel restriction?

Who comes to places like this? Well I guess now I do.  I think I like this crowd (well except that girl in the grape satin dress and string of pearls that keeps saying "like").  Sophisticated but not snooty, money but not showing off, taking pictures of every plate like me.   I see a Dad and his smart, you-raised-her-well daughter, a couple so comfortable they must be on their 50th visit, two Arabic men doing business, a younger couple more in my genre of "wow can't believe we're here, what is that?"

Most surprising thing for some reason is that every plate was delicious, and that I didn't leave hungry. I tasted each and every herb leaf (lemon verbena!), the brisket was as tender as I've ever had.  I wont go into the detail of every plate, but the skate dish with caviar was the prettiest dish I've seen plated.

I was served by the owner and sommelier himself (a move done I'm sure just in case I was the head writer for Food & Wine).  Ballsy wine list.  For me the wine pairing was as much as a treat as the food.  A tangy Austrian white and the reds were all out of this world, strong, berry heavy, exactly my taste -  Russian River valley Pinot (served with a truffled Jerusalem artichoke I will soon be attempting to replicate), a couple Frenchies to go with the brisket and duck plates, and closed with a Danish cherry wine served with juniper ice cream. Ta dah!

The owner was really young.  By "really" I mean, younger than me, wise beyond his years.  I know a bit about wine, but this dude has 100 vintages of champaign on his menu (and I mean bubbly from the exact boundaries of the region) not just a long list of anything white with bubbles in it.  His depth of knowledge and experience seemed beyond his years.

I did decide to offer my feedback on his greatness, and also my constructive criticism that his cloudy, organic white wasn't my taste.  When he said it paired well with yoghurt and cabbage my confidence was reinforced.

I heard that day that 60% of Americans are one pay check away from poverty (this glutinous meal could have fed someone for months).  I'm not really sure who I am right now.  I mean, I know me, but I am growing and changing and I'm letting my limits have no bound for a while.  We as humans (at least some of us) have a bad practice of looking at others we envy and thinking lucky for them, or subconsciously that we're not worthy, that life is for someone else, that we have to stay within some sort of pre-defined boundary. Fuey. You are who you make yourself to be.  Despite others' raised eyebrows, I was exactly where I was meant to be that night and I walked out feeling somewhere between royalty, movie starlet, and acclaimed food critic.