Smogen

Saori and I went out to dinner Friday night at a very nice restaurant named SMØGEN. It was kind of a celebration meal for the completion of my first assignment at work, and for my first month-ish here in Stuttgart.


The restaurant was strange and charming, located in an old building in the red light district, small and upscale, with a kind of library feel to it. A giant wooden propeller spun lazily over the foyer to move air around. The food is gourmet Scandinavian with a Michelin star awarded chef presiding over the kitchen. Which was strange because up to that point, I thought I was making reservations for a really nice Italian restaurant by the name of Irma La Douce, which was the former restaurant there.


Anyway, the meal was delicious, but probably the most visually appealing and strange I've had in a long time. They brought out complementary salmon sushi, a thin slice on top of rice, except the rice was a variety neither Saori nor I had ever seen, and green to boot.


Then they brought out a small clay pot with a sad looking plant in it. It turned out to be another appetizer- the plant was actually two small radishes with stems, planted in a bed of wasabi cream topped with what we assumed was toasted rye bread crumbs which were crunchy, but not burned, and nearly coffee ground black as the "soil." It was delicious as we actually used our spoons to keep dipping into the pot of soil after we'd finished the radishes.


I had some incredible scallops and Saori got a veal tartar, which was a very precisely shaped bed of veal tartar topped with green sauces and microsalads like a mini playground. For our entrees, I ordered venison with berry sauce and Saori got turbot with yuzu sauce. Saori's plate was arranged like a painting of sauces, mostly in greens, but the entire plate looked like a oceanic themed painting. The peas that came with her dish were actually a bit crunchy, and the best peas Saori had ever had. My venison was butter tender, and sandwiched between thin slices of potato. With the savory forest berry sauce, I felt like I was in the forest with every bite. It was served with the tip of a spring of pine, which had a cluster of tiny new pinecones, each the size of a pin, which were edible, piney, and incredibly delicate to nibble on.


Desert was fascinating. They brought out a shallow bowl filled with fresh sliced strawberries, small round goat cheese pieces, bits of white chocolate, and a fresh herbs including things that looked like clover and tiny white flowers. The server then filled the bowl with a water made from an infusion of the white flowers which was also sweet and citrusy, and we ate the whole thing with a spoon, including all the little white flowers.


The second stage of dessert was two more "potted plants," this time served in small galvanized pails the size of cups. The plant was young rhubarb, and below the sweet crunchy soil was rhubarb ice cream.


The final stage of dessert looked like chocolate cake at first glance. Actually, it was a very rich aerated chocolate, like they took chocolate and extruded it like Styrofoam. It was a little cool to taste, but instantly melted and fizzed on the tongue. It was served with two small cubes of lemon jelly.


There are many expensive restaurants, and many that serve good food like a fantastic risotto or some really killer lasagna.  However, I'm happy we went to someplace where we each ate food we'd never tried before. Which is saying something for the two of us. I will not soon forget the dessert of a bowl of flowers, nor the tiny pinecone venison.