After that, it was time to go clean up, put on some nice clothes, and head back down to Koks, easily the most upscale and expensive restaurant in the Faroes, that recently moved from the hotel in Torshavn (and Copenhagen before that) to a renovated house in Kirkjubøur:
Koks is a fine dining restaurant that prides themselves in (like many other fine restaurants) local ingredients and traditions. It's just that here, chef Poul Andrias Ziska is using the local ingredients and traditions of the Faroes, which are quite interesting indeed.
They've gotten a rather large number of awards, including multiple wins of the "Best Restaurant in Scandinavia".
It's quite the elaborate tasting menu, with 7 appetizers, 6 main courses, and basically three desserts.
The food was interesting, to say the very least.
I'll have to say, the view itself was awesome in itself:
After settling in the tasting menu with wine (which turned out to be one of the most awesome wine pairings I've ever had), they launched into the appetizers.
First up: greytur, or "porridge", but in this appetizer, the porridge has been deep-fried in little cubes. This worked surprisingly well:
Next up: Kufiskur. Mahogany clam with dill oil auce and thin slices of radish. This was absolutely delicious (and I don't usually care for clam):
Then, our first divisive course: Oda. A shaved, dried horsemussel served over a "cracker" of dried cod skin. Despite my generally dislike of such things, I actually enjoyed it a bit. Carol rather disliked it.
Next, one of the big attractions: I finally got to try a variety of Skerpikjøt! Here was it served over a bed of dried reindeer moss. This was another divisive dish. While I thought of the Skerpikjøt as "extremely gamey" and not really my thing, and the reindeer moss texture being odd, I actually enjoyed this dish a little. Carol? Not so much.
Next was an odd little dish: Fermented leek slice served up with greens. This is hard to describe, it tasted kinda like eating a rotting onion, but in a good way. I actually liked it:
Next up: Garnatalg. One of those little dishes where the description defies simple translation, basically, this is a spread made from fermented lamb's fat mixed with cheese and topped with dried fish flakes. I enjoyed this
way more than I thought I would:
Usually when I go to these sorts of fancy restaurants, there's one course that has me going "That's it?!". In this case, it was two nasturtium leaves with a dollop of rhubarb compote. Not bad... but also something I literally have at home.
This one was bizarre but good, but almost impossible to capture with a photo. Razor clam, pea puree, and greens, under what was described as a "burnt leek cracker". Which was
exactly that. Very much to my surprise, this actually worked really, really well: the clams were delicious and tender, and the little bits of burnt leek actually worked a lot like caramelized onions. Alas, once you started picking at it, you couldn't really photograph it any more.
Steamed crab with puffed buckwheat and elderflower: again, a perfectly cooked bit of crab with an interesting sauce:
And here was the masterpiece of the meal. They brought out a pair of covered bowls, each containing a langoustine, an actually burning chunk of dried spruce, and several hot, wet rocks. This was absolute perfection: I've never had a more delicious and perfect piece of langoustine, and the soft spruce smoke notes add just the exact amount of smokiness:
And skate with peas and lovage pesto. Not one I'm use to trying, this was cooked to absolute perfection:
For some reason the next course was served up with a traditional Faroese whale knife, even those the dish itself was halibut (and, didn't really need a knife, it was fork tender). Still, the knife was neat:
And the halibut with nettles was absolutely delicious as well:
Then, there was the Fulmar.
I'll stop here and mention one of my biggest mistakes as a food photographer.
I forgot to photograph one dish, and it was easily one of the most memorable dishes I've ever had: fulmar breast served up in a nest of beetroot and rose hips.
Memorable in a bad way, mostly. I say this, because.... Fulmar (a seagull-like bird inhabiting many of the cliffs of the Faroes) is seriously one of the most disgusting bits of bird I've ever eaten. It was like bad grouse reeking of urine and rancid mackerel. Way worse than puffin. Uggh. I will definitely be tasting that for a long time.
Interestingly, Carol thought it was okay.
Since several other diners have taken pictures of the dish, I'll have to find one of theirs for my review. (You can look here for another diner's photo a week later), although I can't seem to deep-link it:
http://www.lifeandall.org/?p=283 )
Meanwhile, this lemon verbena tea was quite pleasant, and *almost* washed the rancid nasty taste of fulmar out of my mouth.
