Top Five Dishes of 2019

The happiest place on Earth is at the Carolina Renaissance Festival

Scallionpancake Top Dishes of 2019: 
In addition to our top five restaurants of 2019, we decided to spice things up and rate our top five dishes of 2019, like we did last year. Sometimes, we really love a particular dish at a certain restaurant, or something smaller at a casual place that is worthy of the title of "best dish," when "best restaurant" doesn't quite make the cut. Without further ado, here are our top five dishes of 2019! 

Jason

1. PARMIGIANO

Schwa, Chicago, IL

This dish blew our minds. Parmesan, banana, nori brittle, and honey combined for an overload of sensory experiences. I think about this dish at least once a day.

2. Salted and Dried berries from the summer

Noma, Copenhagen, Denmark

My favorite dish of the seafood season at Noma was the dessert of sheep’s milk and dried berries from the previous summer.

This dish reminded us of a dish we had at Noma Under the Bridge a few years before, except this was taken up to 100. A classic Noma dish - so simple, yet so complex.

3. Lamb Rump

Haar, St Andrews, Scotland

The surprise restaurant of the year for me was Haar in St Andrews, and would have made my top five restaurants list if we didn’t go to so many crazy places.

Everything here was amazing, but the lamb rump with cafe du Paris sauce was the clear winner for me. I ordered this twice in two days.

4. Octopus

Pujol, Mexico City, Mexico

We went to Quintonil and Pujol on the same day, Pujol being second which tarnished our experience because we were so full from Quintonil. But this Octopus was the single best thing I had in Mexico.

The octopus is smothered in a paste made of chintexle, which is a chile, and chapulines, which is grasshopper. Grasshoppers are served everywhere in Mexico, and they are delicious once you get over the whole eating bugs thing, which I admit did take me a few tries.

5. Hot Chicken Sandwich

Hattie B’s, Nashville, TN

It wouldn’t be a top five list for me without a sandwich, and this year’s best sandwich went to Hattie B’s hot chicken sandwich in Nashville.

Served with pickles, coleslaw, and comeback sauce, this sandwich lives up to all the hype. Even my dad liked it—enough said.

Yvonne

1. Salted & Dried Berries From the Summer

Noma, Copenhagen, Denmark

The baby pinecones are back, BABY. I freaking love dried fruit, and this was slightly dried, slightly macerated fruit goodness with those sweet and sour chewy pinecones and the sheep’s milk. DO NOT PASS GO DO NOT COLLECT $200. Ugh. I wish I could eat this every day of my life. Swoon.

2. Apricot

Schwa, Chicago, IL

I probably could have picked three things from Schwa (this, the banana/Parmesan, and the raviolo), but I’ll edit myself to just this one.

I loved the sweet apricot with the earthy Taleggio, and the light and floral wine sauce that pulled the whole thing together. Just fab.

3. Scallops in the Shell

The Kitchin, Edinburgh, Scotland

The Kitchin may have just one Michelin star, but I would like to go ahead and give this dish an honorary three stars.

The puff pastry was doughy, and the creamy sauce surrounding the scallops hit every single one of my tastebuds. And the presentation when it was cut open table-side?! OY VEY. A masterpiece. I think about this dish often.

4. Mole Madre

Pujol, Mexico City, Mexico

Even though Pujol didn’t make either of our top fives, it was still delicious. It just happened to be up against some real contenders this year. The mole madre alone, however, is worthy of a visit to Mexico City.

I loved the mole madre on its own, mixed with the new mole, on the fresh flour tortilla, and straight up on a spoon. To. Die. For.

5. Black Truffle Explosion

Alinea, Chicago, IL

Okay, okay – I know I snubbed Alinea on my top five. And I feel terrible about it, but overall it just didn’t wow me as much as it did Jason. It was all solid, but not over the top. The signature Black Truffle Explosion dish, however? Um, yup. Sufficiently blown away by the amount of flavor packed in this tiny bite. A++++.

I know Jason won’t be pleased at this, but I am going to do a secondary top five for my non-fancypants dishes. He would say they should all be on one list and that I should choose. Well, I won’t and I didn’t. SORRY JASON. Love you, tuna.

Yvonne’s Non-FancyPants Top Five

1. Greg Collier’s Chicken Skins

Charlotte, NC

I don’t know where I am going to get these now at Loft & Cellar is done for, maybe at Leah & Louise? I need them in my life. Chef!

They have a similar seasoning to his Tennessee fries, and they are so chewy yet crispy, savory yet sweet, and just intensely flavored. I LOVE THEM.

2. mushroom Toast

Borough Market, London, UK

A stall in London’s Borough Market sold mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, but they also had two hot food options. One was roasted asparagus with a cream sauce, and the other was a giant vat of the most beautiful mushrooms I’ve ever seen in my life.

They served the sautéed mushrooms with grated cheese, herbs, and a piece of sourdough toast. It was the coolest thing to watch, and one of the best comfort foods I’ve ever had. So simple and savory. I wish I could have this for lunch every day!

3. Buffalo Pizza Sticks

Flip-a-Lo’s, Charlotte, NC

I cant’t really overhype Flip-a-Lo’s Buffalo Pizza Sticks, because they are worthy of all of the praise anyone has to offer. Freshly made bread. Fresh (not frozen) chicken wing pieces, and gooey mozzarella. If you are in Charlotte and you haven’t tried Flip-a-Lo’s yet, you are missing out for real.

4. S’mores Cake

The Batchmaker, Charlotte, NC

There are not enough words in the English language to describe how sweet Cristina Rojas Agurcia is, or how decadently delicious her baked goods are. This is hands-down the best bakery we’ve ever had in Charlotte.

MOIST cakes (yeah, not only did I say the “m word,” I capitalized it), fun flavors, a perfect amount of sugar, interesting textures. Just good-gash-darn. She’s a bakery legend in her own time, and we’re lucky she calls Charlotte home.

5. San Lorenzo Pasta

Capishe, Charlotte, NC

It would be a shame if you slept on Capishe. Don’t let it get lost in the Charlotte restaurant waves, people. Everything is made fresh, and the amount of spice and love that Chef Cavalier puts into this San Lorenzo pasta gets me daydreaming about it on the reg. My favorite pasta in Charlotte, easy.

Noma: A Review of the Vegetable Season Menu

Update: We went back to Noma for the Seafood season. You can read about that here.

Background:
Back in 2015, when Scallionpancake was in its infancy, before we really knew anything about fine dining or the world food scene, we took a trip to Copenhagen because we knew the number one restaurant in the world was there. About a month before that trip, being the idiot that I am, I tried to make a reservation at Noma. Of course, it had been fully booked probably five times over, months before we had even contemplated a trip to Denmark. We had some good meals on that trip, but the whole time it felt like we had the weight of Noma's ghost overshadowing our stay. 

Last year, we returned to Copenhagen, this time smarter in our knowledge that you can't just stroll into Noma on a whim, but unfortunate in our timing, as Noma was closed for a complete overhaul of the entire restaurant; however, luckily for us, the Noma team was doing a pop-up under a bridge in Copenhagen that I had smartly booked the moment it became available. You can read about that experience here. It was an amazing meal, our favorite of the whole year, yet it still felt that even though we had a taste of the magic, we hadn't experienced the real thing.

When we decided to spend a month in Europe this summer, I started to devise a plan of how I was going to get a reservation at Noma. I did some background research which basically said: you have less than two minutes to make your reservation, or it's going to be gobbled up faster than a piece of meat being dropped to a pack of hungry wolves. So there I was, on March 5th, a full four months before our trip, frantically refreshing my screen at 9am EST (3pm Danish time), waiting for the Tock reservation system to turn on. Yvonne was on her computer doing the same, and we were on the phone coordinating like Navy Seals praying we could get something, anything, in July. I had a strategy, which was go for a mid-week reservation as those would be less desirable than a weekend reservation. As soon as the website switched to "go," I clicked on Tuesday, July 10th, and magically, a two-person dinner reservation for 5:00 pm was still available. I swooped in on that faster than you can say Smørrebrød, and two minutes and $700 later we had our golden ticket. Scallionpancake was going to Noma! (In case you were wondering, Yvonne was too slow and couldn't get any reservations, even clicking on a week day, so it just shows you how lucky we were to get one).

When you arrive in Copenhagen, it's impossible to miss Noma's influence on the city. There's a long list of former Noma chefs who have opened restaurants, including Relae, Amass, Studio, Geranium, Radio, Sanchez, and many more. The alumni page of Noma reads like a who's who of Copenhagen food royalty, not to mention some of the rest of the world. There is a palpable sense that no matter what restaurant or bar you go to around town, somehow its origin or influence leads back to Noma. In Italy all roads lead to Rome, but in Copenhagen all roads lead you to Noma.

Noma's influence goes even further than the Danish capital. Noma started the local food revolution and foraging food revolution, and its culinary impact is felt globally. René Redzepi, Noma's founder and head chef, is considered the most influential chef in the world. Redzepi is also revolutionary in how he uses social media, often posting behind the scenes videos and pictures that really connect with his followers. The restaurant has received numerous awards, most notably being ranked #1 in the world four times: in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014. If I had to put my money on it, I'd bet that in 2019 it regains the number one status yet again.

In late 2016, Redzepi decided to shut down and move the restaurant to a new location in Copenhagen. He felt like the restaurant had become a bit stagnant, and the team needed to innovate even further (read this Bloomberg article for a great chronicling of why Redzepi did what he did). This is a big risk for a chef with an expensive payroll and perennial top five status. The construction and building lasted the entire year of 2017, with Noma doing a pop up in Tulum, Mexico and Under the Bridge in Copenhagen during this time. The new Noma (or Noma 2.0) opened in February and has received nothing but rave reviews from almost every critic around the world including The LA Times, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, GQ, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal.

Cue the music: looks like we made itttttt

Eat This:
Noma has one menu that changes seasonally. There are three seasons at the new Noma: Seafood (Feb - May), Vegetables (June - Sep), and Game & Forest (Oct - Dec). We dined in July, which meant we were there for the Vegetable Season. What was unique was that there was no meat served during the menu at all (except for a grasshopper mole), which seemed to inspire the chefs to come up with an exceptionally creative menu, even beyond their usual standards. 

As soon as you sit down, the dishes begin to come out at a frenetic pace. In all, we had 21 dishes in little over two hours, which is the fastest pace we've ever experienced at a restaurant of this caliber. It made for an exciting, adrenaline-filled meal that kept us engaged and interested for the entire time. 

Potato magma

Boom. As soon as you sit down, a potted plant with a straw is put on your plate. We were instructed to drink the new potato soup and smell the herbs simultaneously. This dish was a full sensory experience, and such an exciting start.

Nasturtium Tart &

sea Buckthorn & blackcurrent Butterfly

Does it get any prettier than this? On the left was a one-bite tart encased in a thin potato shell. On the right, a beautiful dried fruit creation that was like a gourmet Fruit by the Foot--really!

seasonal pickles

At Noma, they forage pretty much every ingredient, so everything on this plate is foraged, with the exception of the white asparagus which is from a special farm they partner with. Our favorite part of this dish was the pickled pine cone. It was essentially candied, which made it so soft, sweet, and tangy.

fresh seaweed

You know when you have fish that tastes fishy? Normally with seaweed you have the same, but this seaweed was so fresh it had none of the bad sea taste. This one-bite seaweed tart was meant to be eaten after taking one bite of the asparagus.

Barbequed Onion

This was our little special dish that only a few tables got, I think because we were going a little faster than the other tables. A barbecued onion which was opened up and cooked with elderflower. You only ate the inside, and it was so good I picked it up with my hands and ate it like a cave man.

Cucumber skin & Parsley

This was Noma's play on a grape leaf. The leaf was made entirely of cucumber skin which had been formed into the texture of a greek grape leaf and filled with parsley and flowers. What creative genius, and this wasn't even in the top five most creative dishes of the night.

quail eggs & Hip Berry chorizo

The berry chorizo tasted like meat chorizo, with a slight hint of sweetness. This was a life-changing little bite.

preserved morels from spring

They told us they got 70K morels in the spring that have been fermenting in the lab. I only got two of them, but would have happily eaten the other 69.99K

marigold flowers with a whisky egg-nog

After the meal, while lounging in the hygge room, we made friends with an amazing couple from Australia--Alisha & Matt. Even more amazing? Matt is a chef at Attica in Australia (#20 restaurant in the world for 2018! Don't worry, we're already looking into reservations). Matt explained to us how incredible it is to get these marigolds to fry in one piece, since the flowers are so fragile. Not pictured here is the whiskey egg-nog sauce that you dipped this in. This was like eating a donut with a rich egg custard. It tasted so decadent and rich, and it was perhaps my favorite dish of the night.

just cooked peas with whipped cream

If all peas were served with whipped cream, I think I'd eat peas for every meal of every day. Half of the peas were raw and half were lightly scorched. Only small peas were used. The big peas are currently being fermented in the lab for experimentation with a pea miso!

berries and fava beans

This was described as a ripe fruit ceviche which contained raspberries, red and green strawberries, flowers, fava beans, and radishes. It was bathing in a white currant broth. Light, refreshing, and slightly spicy.

Umami Flatbread

This dish was special because it looked so simple, yet had maybe the most complex flavor of the night. The mustard greens and a chili spice that the team had brought back from their trip to Tulum both added a nice kick to the cracker, radishes, and fruit. Umami to the max.

carmalized milk & Cheese

The chef described this dish as a ravioli, except the "pasta" was made with caramelized milk skin. The inside was filled with brie cheese and the whole ravioli was topped with black truffle. When describing the food at Noma it's hard to not sound repetitive, but damn, this was amazing.

wax broth with pollen

We were speaking to one of the apprentices post-meal, and she was saying they were contemplating taking this dish off the menu, because some on the team thought it was more pretty than tasty. Both of us disagreed, and thought that the bee pollen flavor and texture was excellent, so much so that Yvonne picked up the bowl and drank it like she was drinking a Yoohoo. The bowl was even made out of beeswax. This one is a keeper, Noma! Love, Scallionpancake.

pumpkin seed curd and grilled roses

Like the Umami Flatbread, this dish was influenced by Noma's pop-up in Tulum, Mexico. The mole underneath was made of grasshoppers and walnuts, and the pumpkin seed curd was flan-like, made from tofu, and plated table side. The rose petals were salty and crunchy--all of the textures in this one! I literally told the waiter I was going to lick the plate, and he said I could, but I contained myself.

Shawarma of celeriac and truffle

The main dish was a play on a traditional steak, except the "meat" was made from celery and truffle. What a freaking mindf*@k. A few courses before this, a chef brought out the shawarma on a stick (see below) like you would see at any stand in Europe. This course had everything, yet looked so simple. I think that's the magic of Noma--most of the dishes are so thought out that they appear easy and simple, the way Lebon James makes basketball look, or Jay Z makes music sound. This is the height of culinary mastery and excellence.

Sour Dough

Just when we were almost done with the shawarma, a chef runs out and puts more of the truffle sauce on your plate and hands you this lovely sourdough and says it would be rude to not share the leftover sauce with you to soak your bread in. That would be rude, indeed! The sourdough is made by Richard Hart, former head baker of Tartine who is opening up his own bakery in Copenhagen in October.

berries & Cream

Our first dessert course. The fruit by the foot is back, this time plated with berries in a cool cream sauce. One of the Danish waiters told us this was a play on a very traditional Danish dish. The color, the textures, the taste were all excellent, but you knew that already, right?

mold pancake

This dish was special, even for Noma standards. The pancake was a tortilla that had mold growing on it, much like a brie cheese, and it was filled with ice cream and a balsamic fig sauce. The mold pancake protected your mouth from the cold of the ice cream, and the fig balsamic added a nice acidity to the dish.

Rose scented terracotta

We started where we ended, with a potted plant, except this time you ate the whole thing. The pot was a chocolate coated elderflower cake scented with roses. We were instructed to slice open the pot to reveal the cake. Maybe the coolest and most beautiful dessert we've ever had.

R0se Scented Terracotta

Open sesame!

After the meal you are brought to a "Hygge" room, where you can sit and drink snaps or whiskey for as long as you want. Sometimes, they allow diners to enjoy their cake in this room as well. Noma sat us next to the aforementioned lovely Australian couple, Matt Boyle (@boylemd) and Alisha Henderson (@sweetbakes_), who we immediately took up conservation with. We spent nearly two hours lounging and talking about food, traveling, and, of course, our mutual love of Somebody Feed Phil. Matt is a chef at Attica (see above) and Alisha has her own cake baking company! They were such lovely and warm people. When we went to Noma Under the Bridge last year, we had a similar experience with another couple (Hi, Marie-Eve & Frederick!), and all I can say is, Noma goes out of their way to make its guests feel connected and have a special meal. 

Yvonne in her hygge blanket feeling all the feels

Drink:
Noma offers a wine pairing ($210), a juice pairing ($155), or wines by the glass. I opted for the juice pairing, which was simply magnificent. I've had juice pairings in the past, most notably at Central in Lima, Peru. What I didn't like about Central's pairing was that some of the juices, although all unique, were just not that good. Here at Noma, all of the juices were amazing. The juices ranged from a bright red saffron and chili to a chilled mushroom tea. My favorite was the rose and berry kombucha, which tasted like a thick berry smoothie. Yvonne opted for for wines by the glass. Her favorite that she tried was an orange-colored wine from the country of Georgia, which the waiter described as being made in a very traditional way, like they made wines thousands of years ago. The bright orange color was something we had never seen from a wine before, and the taste was rich with minerality.

Atmosphere:
Noma is a magical fairytale food paradise from start to finish. When you arrive at the gate, you are greeted by staff, who stagger each party's entrance down a long, flower-filled path, so that when you open the main wooden door to the restaurant, you are greeted by the entire staff--including Mr. Redzepi himself. You are then quickly whisked to your seat. This touch was truly special and unlike any other restaurant we have tried. 

OMG hi

The vibe is very electric. The Vanity Fair article put it best when it said "You want order, you work Eleven Madison." It feels like you're in the middle of a bee hive, where each worker knows exactly what they are doing, but from afar looks like a chaotic symphony. You see chefs running down the hallways. You hear "Yes, Chef" yelled loudly from the open kitchen in the middle of the restaurant. Five waiters walk by your table every ten seconds. When you need to use the restroom, a server swoops you away seamlessly into the flow, like it was part of the plan all along. 

The main entrance to the dining complex

Mr. Redzepi speaking to our new Australian friends!

A view of the main dining room and kitchen from our table.

Their property is home to a greenhouse, fishtanks, an ant farm, a fermentation lab, and, of course, their famous test kitchen. Yvonne claims she saw "reindeer penis" written on the ingredient list for the team to try out for the game season, but this rumor cannot be confirmed or denied. Long bookshelves run almost the entire length of the compound, where anyone on the team can add anything to the collection. There are also random awards, creatures, bottles, and minatures ecletically sprinkled throughout. 

Large bookshelves run almost the length of the whole restaurant

Outside view of the hygge room

The famous test kitchen.

The entire compound from the gates to the main dining hall in the background.

Noma-foraged Hospitality:
From the moment you open the door and are greeted by the entire staff, to the last moment when you are escorted to the gate,  you are treated like the most important people on the planet. This is pretty typical for a restaurant of this quality, but what was different was the amount of team interaction with the guests. Every time you walked by a chef they would say hi and smile. Everyone seemed approachable and friendly, which is not always the case at a place of this caliber. The laid back attire of the staff, open layout of the restaurant, and general feeling of sheer joy among everyone who comes to Noma, made for a very relaxed and welcoming dining experience.

A chef shows us a presentation of the celeriac shawarma.

Frankie's Notes:
Noma might have over 20 nationalities on their staff, but no pugs??!! #notcool; The only other things that have lived up to Noma's hype were Machu Picchu and Oktoberfest; Mr. Redzepi is a god among men, and we want to live in the hygge room forever as his loyal subjects; Yvonne wants to know where she can purchase that hygge room blanket so she can relive her pear snaps joy every evening in Charlotte; We hope there really is a reindeer penis in Noma's future, but shhh, don't tell that we peeked at the list!

Rating: 5 out of 5 with 3 Michigan Pugs
Noma comes with a lot of hype: the prestige of a long-ranked number one restaurant in the world, an almost impossible reservation to score, and rave reviews from the top critics in the world--we were terrified it would not live up to our expectations. From the moment we walked on the grounds we knew it was going to not only meet our expectations, but overwhelmingly exceed them. Not one bite of the meal was off. There were no misses on the menu. It was, dare I say, a perfect meal. We contemplated adding another Michigan Pug just for Noma, because it is clearly in a class of its own among even the best restaurants in the world. We planned our entire trip to Europe around Noma, and we would do it again in a heartbeat.