Food Orgasm in Salt & Brygga

It's been quite some time since I have experienced a meal like last night's triumph in Salt & Brygga.  Winner of numerous awards since it opened, this restaurant is a little bit special.  Most ingredients are local and organic, coffee is fair trade, organic and utterly delicious.  All of the waste produced by the restaurant is seperated for recycling and, get this, organic waste is ground down with compost mills, decomposing it and turning it into biogas.  You might expect the result of all this 'do-gooding' to be a bit earnest and um...dull, but it's not.  It's incredible.

We visited early on a Monday night, so the atmosphere was a little bit on the quiet side.  I was, admittedly, nervous about this, as I thought it had the potential to ruin the evening.  In the end I was so blown away by the food I don't think I would have noticed if there was a wild party going on around me.  

So, what did we have? Mountain Man and I both went for a set menu option, which started with 'Smoked wild duck from Skåne with sea buckthorn and pickled onions'. That description does not do this dish justice.  The duck was sublime, delicately smoked and tender.  The orangey blob in the middle of the plate is sea buckthorn sorbet.  Oh my God.  Somehow the chef managed to achieve a creamy sorbet that held together without melting all over the plate.  Wow.  Pickled onion slivers were a treat, but so too were the nasturtium leaves and delicate radish slices. 

Our main course was even better, if that is possible; 'Venison with lingonberries, preserved chanterelles and cider sauce'.  The smell seduced me all on it's own, as it wafted it's way to the table.  The menu didn't mention the incredible smoked turnip mash or the gorgeous edible nasturtium flower.  I savoured every bite of the perfectly cooked venison (not easy to achieve, I've tried and failed a few times at home, turning it rubbery and nasty) and our incredibly friendly and knowledgeable waitress recommended a dark, locally brewed beer 'South Plains' APA to complement the dish, which was perfect - rich, mellow and...6%

Dessert was the most unusual dish I think I have ever had.  For a 'modern style Skåne apple cake with apple sorbet'  I was expecting a slice of tart or cake, with a scoop of ice-cream or sorbet on the side.  How wrong!  Instead this little piece of heaven arrived at the table. I'm not sure how to describe this, but I'll try.  Close your eyes and imagine this...a collection of apple desserts - another non melting apple puree like sorbet, chunks of apple bread, apple ice cream, crunchy caramelised pieces of appley meringue and sugar and...I'm not sure how to describe the final element - a frothy dry appley foam that disintegrated in the mouth.  Oh my God...heaven.

The aforementioned fair-trade, organic and delicious coffee finished off the meal with a final whiskey for himself and a Baileys for me.  The only moment of disappointment was when we realised that while spirits are priced per 1cl on the menu, unless you specify otherwise, 4cl are served.  So, we thought we were getting an amazing bargain for our after dinner drinks and...we didn't.  They were about the same price as you would expect anywhere else.  Once we understood the system we were pretty impressed.  Imagine being able to order a quarter of the usual bar measure?  Clever.  As we headed outside to unlock our bikes and cycle home, we were already planning a return trip.

In fact, I think this place is more than a little bit special.  It is sublime.

Welcome to the House

So...we made it.

Mountain Man, little brother (not so little anymore) and I left Ireland last Saturday, got the ferry to France (somehow reminding me of that Kerrygold Ad) and drove for 3 days across France, Belgium, Germany and Denmark, arriving in Malmo on Tuesday at 5pm, local time.

Some might call it an amazing adventure.  I would call it pretty tedious to be honest.  Miles and miles of motorway, ugly motorway motels, bad food.  I would generally make a big effort with food for long road trips, to avoid eating rubbish from service stations, but this time the packing got the better of me and all I had were some nuts and a few packets of Nak'd Bars.  My digestive system is still considering whether forgiveness is an option.  A good friend of mine could probably find movie material in it, but I am very very glad that part of the 'adventure' is over.

Yesterday we registered with the tax office - very important if you want to function in this country.  Without your 'personnumer' you cannot open a bank account, buy a mobile phone on contract, get insurance for anything... We were so chuffed with ourselves we bought a double scoop of home made icecream from Dolce Sicilia, a Sicilian ice-cream parlour around the corner.  I think this must be the best ice-cream I have ever had, made with organic ingredients, they also serve amazing fairtrade coffee to boot.  Worth a visit if you are ever in Malmo.  Watch out for the icecream, I suspect we will have to resist finding an excuse to have one every day...

 Something else we achieved yesterday was to buy some vegetables and yoghurt in the little health food shop on the ground floor of the building in which we are renting.  Outside, the perimeter of the shop is littered with small squash and gourds - obviously Autumn is something they celebrate here!

 It felt so good to be shopping locally and most of the produce seemed to come from Denmark, Sweden and Germany.  Lovely.  To top it all off the gent who served us was an absolute delight.  When he realised I hadn't a clue what he was saying, he switched to English and asked that next time I'm in, I remind him and he'll adjust for me.  I mentioned, excitedly, that we had just moved in upstairs and he made my day with 'welcome to the house.'  I couldn't stop smiling.  What a beautiful sense of community.