Middag på Emmas drømmekjøkken - Tromsø

Middag på Emmas drømmekjøkken literally means 'Dinner at Emma's Dream Kitchen' not the use of the possessive apostrophe doesn't occur in Norwegian and while this is no Michelin starred restaurant it is certainly the longest meal we have eaten this holiday, so it is getting its own blog post like the Michelin Restaurants do. [Co-pilot's note: I, dear readers, wanted you to have tea breaks while reading this blog post, so you could have it in real time and get the full experience!!]

I had booked the restaurant in May, noticing the big gap between our fine dining experience in Trondheim on the 9th and the next one in Stockholm on the 22nd. So I looked at options in Tromsø and this looked like the highlight of the ones available, hence the booking.

We hadn't even tried to see where the restaurant was when we were walking past the Lutheran Cathedral this morning and saw it across the road - I told you Tromsø is small! Here is the photo we took in passing.

We left the hotel at 6.50pm for the three minute walk to the restaurant, but enjoyed the delay of a women pushing her stuffed polar bear into her shop. Seeing someone pushing a polar bear by the bum, even through a stuffed one, is not something I'd expected to see ever, let alone on this holiday!! 

We arrive at the 'Dream Kitchen' on time 

We are greeted from behind the bar of the downstairs wine bar with the bar man checking our names and saying: "Find your way up the stairs and someone will sort you out."

We went up the stairs

Where we are greeted by a lady who says: "hang your jackets there, if you want to", I think I'd been rather expecting  "can I take you jacket for you" but still, this isn't a michelín place and may well not be trying to be!!

We are sat at the table and Drew comments on the lovely view of the cathedral we have. [Co-pilot's note: It has a lovely clock, dear readers.]

As usual I opt for sparkling water. Unusally the provider, name at the bottom right corner of the label is the famous local brewary - Mack, who claim the title - The worlds northernmost brewery. I can't think of many breweries who have water in their supply range. But, not I've written that I'm sure one or other of my friends will know of one or more! 

As the ingredients show it is boring water. 

i.e. tap water with carbon dioxide, rather than the specific source water of a Brecon or Ty Nant or even the Norwegian Eira. 

Drew's apperif choice as also interesting. The conversation went like this:

Waitress: would you like an non-alcoholic aperitif
Drew: Yes please, could I see the drink's menu
Waitress: No, we don't have one of those, tell us what you'd like and the barman will make it.
Drew (in questioning tones): Well what type of things do you have?

Waitress: It depends if you like sweet or sour

Drew: OK, sour then!

[Co-pilot's note: It appears, dear reader, that I could have asked for any flavour and they would have tried to match it, which I thought was quite clever.] 

It turns out he had a Ginger beer, apple and camomile syrup drink 

happily Drew really enjoyed the flavour.

We were then presented with our amuse boche

This was a croustade of alcohol free beer pastry with cream cheese, cod caviar and dill, they clearly had made an effort to respond to our no-uncooked alcohol request. This little taster was excellent, with a hint of spice and a saltiness from the caviar.

Our next dish was a Carpaccio of veal. 

This delicious plate of food had the meat, yes Drew did remnember the 'it's a bit underdone joke!', with garlic cream (Swedish), crispy sourdough crumb and cured eggs yolk, chives, mustard leaves, pickled beets and pickled shimeji mushrooms. An amzingly inventive slection of textures and flavours that shows signs that Emma, or whoever the chef is, really can dream well. 

We then had Dill infused Salmon

The rolled Salmon was served with sour cream underneath, cucumber and radish, fresh dill, fried shallots and a pungent dill oil. I can't think when I have ever had so many rich flavours being held together by tangy local salmon - a triumph of a dish.

Some time later (it was a surprisingly long 20 minutes), the next course arrived, this was crusty wholemeal bread with butter sprinkled with leek ash

This was served to accompany the pumpkin and carrot soup

This was served with roast pumpkin seeds, bacon and micro coriander and little drops of fresh cream. The creaminess of the pumpkins were delicious, the crunch of the bacon gave an additional salty tang and the coriander radiated its flavour throughout. A wonderful soup, so rich and so generous.

However, out in the real world, the Cathedral clock that Drew could see outside the window and whose little hand seems a little dropped was showing 8.33pm. We were an hour and half into the meal and it seemed to be slowing down, not keeping pace. [Co-pilot's note: Not quite exponential delay, dear readers, but close!]

At 8.45pm our halibut arrives:

The halibut with pickled carrots and strips of cabbage underneath and a butter, chive and citrus sauce with micro herbs on top was further evidence that a chef who loves her food occupies this kitchen. Strong halibut flavours were only enhanced by the other elements. Wonderful.

By this time Drew was getting really worried about how long the meal was taking. Still he valiantly continued when the palette cleanser, this one, unusually, between the fish and meat courses. It was pickled kohlrabi with whey cream inside dipped in lingonberry and blueberry dust.

It really did refresh the palette and was a reminder of the tastiness of kohlrabi. It really is a vegetable that is versatile enough to be used more often.

Next came the first meat course - given our location it had to be Reindeer 

This was cooked rare with Lingonberry jam, broccolini, chanterelle butter on top and a demi glaze sauce with chive oil around. The chanterelle flavour gave the deer an additional earthy richness which was like nothing I've ever tasted before. The sauce was comparatively sweet but worked with the deer, which probably ate lingonberries itself, adding a sharpness to the whole dish.

The second meat course was Grilled lamb

cooked with pickled plums, duck sauce and black garlic. I love lamb, how could it be otherwise, given lamb and sheep's role in Welsh culture. So, it was painful to admit that this Norwegian lamb was more tender and better flavoured than much of our national product. The unusual sauce and the sharply pickled plums just lifted the whole flavour range into a new orbit - wow.

Next we were served a cheese plate

This was made up of four cheeses (tiny though they were, we had eaten well by this time) From bottom to top above, Lofoten manchego style cheese, Tromsø regional cow's cheese, a Swedish aged cow milk cheese and, our new favourite, Stavanger blue all of the cheeses were tangy and punchy. Perfect for us. They were served with a savoury nut cluster, like a Knekkebrød but with more nuts than bread. It was now 9.48pm and Drew was raising my awareness of the long gaps, and he wasn't wrong. It was 10.17pm before the deconstructed Rhubarb Tart arrived.   

This tart was sharp with rhubarb, but sweetened by the rhubarb compost, cream cheese and lingonberry powder, yet it wasn't to sweet for me to eat. However the cloud berry meringue, essentially flavoured sugar was to much for me, so Drew had mine and his own of that. 

This was followed by a Dark chocolate delice 

This had a generous serving of delice, but being a dark choclate, no overdoes of sugar. It was served wth fresh Norwegian grown strawberries, oats, raspberry gel and mint. A tasty way to complete a meal.

But we weren't finished, we were yet to have a Apple liquor canelé, which we were assured had been cooked with non-alcoholic liquor. 

Given the time we thought we dare not ask for coffee, who knows how long that might taken. So, we paid and headed off. 

[Co-pilot's note: My recollection, dear readers, is slightly different to the above. My recollection is that someone suggested having a coffee and I tried to persuade said gentleman that it wasn't on offer. Which would have worked fine until the couple behind us asked for, and got given, coffee, the buggers.

A certain person spotted this and said: "Oh look, they do do coffee." To which I said: "Bus it has been four and a half hours. I want to go to bed. So, we paid and headed off.]

Once outside we saw that the Cathedral, lit against the almost twilight of Tromsø in August, was showing the, correct, time of 10.50pm. 3 hours and 50 minutes must be a record, even for us. Only a family Christmas meal when both my parents were alive might have stretched that long, surely no restaurant meal. 

Yet the food was wonderful, the company delightful, the ambiance pleasant, so I don't think I can really complain - I'll leave that to Dr. Drew. 

[Co-pilot's note: The food was lovely, the service was quirky but friendly. I like quirky; it is part of the charm. However, I struggle with dinners taking four hours and twenty minutes. I like to think, dear readers, that I am a patient old cove and have a high tolerance level - most of the time. But a dinner should not take four hours and twenty minutes. By the time you have finished, it is nearly time to start breakfast!!]