Post apocolyptic Australian fine dining

The good folks from Noma in Denmark decided to move the (former) number 1 restaurant in the world to Sydney for a few months this year. We in Australia could feel special about this - but in reality, I suspect this was just an elaborate ruse for a whole group of Danish chefs to avoid a Copenhagen winter and learn to surf. The limited time (10 week) restaurant sold out it's entire run in just a measly four minutes.

Thanks to a willing co-worker (okay, I'm his boss, he didn't have a choice) we hit up the website on a number of phones to try to get a booking (after the office internet chose that moment to die) and managed to get one phone through on the booking system in that elusive four minute window. That was October. Five months later, I got to have lunch.

The menu was quite different to the previous two meals I've had in Denmark in 2013 and again in 2014 . Not a surprise given their penchant for foraging ingredients in the local area. 

Even the wines were local - and for us very local. We were particularly intrigued by the sparkling wine made in Belconnen. Cook to be exact. Who in Cook is whipping up sparkling wine in their backyard?

The decor in the restaurant was similar to Copenhagen, with an Aussie twist. The animal skins over the backs of the chairs were wallaby, and the centerpieces were distinctly Australia. At least we were not asked to eat the centerpiece this time (though Jason tried...).

After the aptly named "snakebite" aperitif, it was time to get into the food. The first dish was unripe macadamia nuts with spanner crab. Turns out Tracey is NOT allergic to macadamias and the epipen was a (thankfully) superfluous guest at our table.

Next up was wild seasonal berries flavored with gubinge.

This was followed by desert oak wattleseed with saltbrush. Or to quote Riin - "I feel like a posh koala (eating this)".

Next up was a seafood platter - complete with crocodile fat. There may have been some issues with identifying what type of animal a croc is. Okay, so I may have accidentally called them a mammal, and then corrected myself and said amphibian. REPTILE BELINDA. They are a reptile...

Someone apparently got to forage snow crab from half a kilometer depths on the WA coast, and these were served up with cured egg yolk and fermented kangaroo. Yes, fermented kangaroo.

Next up they decided to give us some quintessential Australian fare. A pie. A pie made from dried scallops and nasturtium flowers and a seaweed pastry. The fudge like pie filling was frozen. And yes, we ate the flowers too. Rather peppery.

The next course was essentially a bush tucker taco. The ingredient list included burnt milk and magpie goose. The filling was a form of lobster.

We then moved on to sea urchin with dried tomatoes and pepper berries. Sea urchin looks like a tongue up close. Do you have any idea how hard it is to eat something that looks like a tongue?

In yet another homage to their Australian surroundings, the next course was an abalone schnitzel with bush condiments. Or an "abby schnitty" as we informed our waiter. Some of the seaweed acted like popping candy in your mouth. Riin took a disturbing level of interest in the knife that came with this dish.

This. Was. Amazing.

We then moved on to dessert. First up was a fruit course - including whiskey soaked pineapple and the most Queensland mangoes ever - covered in green ants (it is not a trip to Noma unless they make you eat ants).

A few other fruits were added. We were warned that the "toothpicks" would numb your mouth if chewed, but despite Jason and Riin's best efforts there was no evidence that dentists could use this in lieu of anesthetic.

The next round of dessert was my fav of the sweet dishes. The Noma version of a lammington. Aerated rum ice cream. It was unbelievably light and easy to eat. Riin described this as "the best air I have ever eaten".

The second dessert was the "Baytime" - an ice cream made from peanut milk and freekah (no, that is not chocolate on the outside - but roasted freekah). The stick was lemon myrtle.

There was even a surprise filling (which Jason mistook for hummus...though in his defense he had had a few alcoholic beverages at this point).

Last, but not least, was their specialty coffee (or tea if you are Tracey) and bonbons.

A quote from Jason aptly summarises the experience - "this is what fine dining would look like in a post apocalyptic Australia".

Playing Tourist

Usually when I have a weekend in Cairns it is focused around stocking up at the shops, running errands and eating. But given this is a tourist town it seems wrong to not every now and again join in the fun and pretend to be on holidays (even if it is just for the day).

So how did my attempt at playing tourist play out? Well it started with sadness. We all know that when it comes to eggs benedict I am a connoisseur. I am still recovering from an incident a few weeks back at home when I was served hollandaise sauce that was simply clumps of butter (yup, Duffy Cafe missed the mark that week) so I had high hopes stepping into a familiar Cairns cafe on Saturday morning. Sadly, though, we are on tough economic times where the volume of sauce needs to be scaled back. This was the saddest eggs benny I think I have had in a long time. If I wanted poached eggs on salmon I would have just ordered that....

As it turned out, Saturday was also the start of the Cairns Festival. So, on Saturday night I toddled off the esplanade to watch the parade. 

Now the parade was...interesting. It started with groups of school kids in uniform riding bikes, which left me pondering what kind of parade exactly this was. Eventually the floats started to arrive. There was a theme of multiculturalism. Which, as you can imagine, led to awesome displays by groups like the PNG Wantok association, and the Indonesian association of Cairns. There were some interesting interpretations of the theme though. Like the school that just whacked up a hills hoist and put flags on it...

 Or the radio station that went full Australian...

The list of groups in the parade were eclectic to say the least. There were the home schooled children who dressed up as insects (clearly art and craft is a significant part of the curriculum).

There were wheelchair athletes pulling their float (impressive).

There was also a marching band dressed as minions playing Pharrell's "Happy" on repeat, roller debry demonstrations, cos play clubs, dog adoption groups, swimmers wearing sting ray shaped hats and beauty queens. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Miss Ellis Beach Surf Club, blowing bubbles to her loyal subjects.

The night was capped off with a fireworks show over the water, which I freely admit is the only reason I stuck it out.

On Sunday I went all out playing tourist, catching the Kuranda Scenic Railway up to the rainforest. It was a leisurely ride up the mountain, learning all about the construction of the railway in the late 1800s, and the many uses they found for it through the war. Turns out most of the suburbs between Cairns and Kuranda are named after the nicknames the workers had for the foremen on those sites (and not all are flattering).

The ride took us past Barron Falls, where the train stopped for 10 minutes and we all got to get out and stretch our legs.

When I got to the village I decided to hit up the wildlife sites. First stop - the Butterfly Sanctuary.

This place is amazing. Tons and tons of pretty butterfly's in a small habitat that are in no way afraid of you. In fact the only thing to worry about is making sure you don't hurt one that decides you look like a nice place to land.

Next stop was Birdworld. 

Here you basically walk into a giant aviary with a bag of food and hand feed the birds. There are a group of Macaws which are the only birds you are not supposed to feed. The parrots however know that humans mean food and they will come and sit on your shoulder demanding to be fed. they are so "friendly" to the humans that they ever make you remove your earrings, because apparently they will try to take them if you are not fast enough with the food!

Next door to Birdworld are the Koala Gardens.  These guys probably have the biggest group of koalas on display that I have ever seen in a zoo. There were about 10 the day I was there. All, in typical koala style, very sleepy.

For a few extra bucks you can 'cuddle a koala' and get your picture taken. Given the last time I held a koala I was a very small child (and only know that it happened from the pictures in that lovely pink velour tracksuit) I jumped at the chance. Koala's are heavy, and clingy. It will cling to you like a tree branch, and those claws are SHARP. I still have scratches on my shoulder a week later.

After a thorougher hand washing (Koala's are great carrier of chlamydia) I went to check out the other animals hanging out in the Koala Gardens. There were kangaroos that you could hand feed, and there were wombats!

There was also a reptile room. This wasn't like a normal zoo reptile room where there is a lovely glass box between you and the snakes and spiders. These guys were free range.

I was out of there pretty quickly.

There was a small market outside the Koala Gardens where they had all manner of traditional North Queensland souvenirs. Who could go home without buying a new fridge magnet?

Or perhaps you were looking for something to place on your mantle or bar?

Maybe what you really needed was a new bottle opener. One with balls...

I had read in the pamphlet they gave us that there was a great pie shop in Kuranda, which I managed to track down. The theme of marketing poor skippy to the tourists continued there as well...

After lunch I did a spot of shopping. The models in the hat store were a little different.

I also pondered if the owners of this Aboriginal art store understood the irony of the building that they were tennated in - or if that was a f*** you to the first settlers.

It was time to head back down to Cairns. And this time the mode of transport was the SkyRail. This is basically a canopy ride over the top of the rainforest.

This was the view back over the Barron River.

And the view of Cairns as we approached.

Back in town that evening I decided to head to the library after dark, where there was an illuminated presentation happening. It was a story of summer rain, and the way the ecosystem reacts.

With that, it was up very early the next morning to make the trip home. And a week later, I am still pondering the presence of these dinosaurs in the main street...