The Next Thing: Nordic Cuisine

Reindeer Blood and Sheep Sorrel

Shrimp & Sea Urchin Powder

Trout Roe in Pig's Blood Pastry

Wild Greens with Dried Cod Roe and Sheep's Cream

Interesting dishes.  I keep reading about Nordic Cuisine . . . Chef Rene Redzepi (and his restaurant Noma) and Chef Magnus Nilsson (and his restaurant Faviken Magasinet).  There's a big story on Faviken Magasinet in the September issue of Bon Appetit. 

Below are a couple of excerpts from a recent New York Times article on Nordic Cuisine.  I wonder how the it will translate here in the U.S.  Does anyone know of a restaurant employing these ideas/techniques?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/dining/new-nordic-cuisine-draws-disciples.html?_r=3&ref=dining

The style of cooking is most closely associated with FoodCamp’s host chef, René Redzepi of Noma in Copenhagen. It is sometimes called “new Nordic,” although he and some other chefs from the region prefer the broader label “authentic cuisine.” It is earthy and refined, ancient and modern, both playful and deeply serious. Instead of the new (techniques, stabilizers, ingredients), it emphasizes the old (drying, smoking, pickling, curing, smoking) with a larger goal of returning balance to the earth itself.

Using rutabagas and whey; pine and juniper; and shells, hay, and twigs as its kitchen tools, it seeks to turn the culinary dial back toward the natural world.

Evidence of the Nordic invasion is everywhere, once diners know the signs: cellared vegetables, unripe fruit, conifers, buttermilk and whey; rocks, shells and twigs used as serving pieces; garden scraps like radish leaves, turnip tails and nasturtium pods whorled, piled and clustered on the plate as if by waves or wind. In the era of El Bulli, high-end plates looked tight, geometric, slicked-down; the new Nordic dishes have bed head, with artfully ruffled herbs and tufts of grass sticking out everywhere.