after dinner sneeze

t says: Last weekend, g and I hit up Noord with bw and some mutual friends.  We had heard great things, and because we were itching to BYO-it-up, it was the perfect opportunity.  When thinking of which wines to bring, we encountered a little bit of difficulty.  While I gravitate towards red as a matter of preference, and while the weather favors drinking a nice rich luscious red, I couldn’t help but wonder whether something white would go better with Noord’s foods.  But wait – isn’t it cold in the North Sea?  We had no choice but to bring one of each: bubbly rose, white, and red.  And what a great decision it was:

November 2013, Sunday Dinner, Party of 5.  Right off the bat, the five of us encountered a serious problem at Noord.  What to order!?  Each of us had first, second, and third-string choices.  And then there were some great-sounding specials on top of that! (There was a striped bass that sounded amazing).  In the end, we did finally manage to make our selections … from which here is a selection of photos:

Uitsmitjer (?”Oits-might-er?): open faced egg sandwich.  This was a wonderfully heart and homey way to start th emeal.  Actually – it was so oomphy, that I could have eaten it as a main course for a breakfast or a lunch.  I enjoyed it quite a bit – reminding me quite a bit of the now-gone Cochon’s brunch fave, Eggs Cochon.  And the side salad almost made it feel healthy – with the crunch of fresh vegetables and the sour of vinegar.  I paired it with an Australian dry Riesling that was quite nice – some good petrol zip and lightly tropical fruit (kind of like a lighter New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc).  Altogether, the course was rich, but with a certain amount of restraint, but not at all “delicate”.  Hell – it was just a piece of bread, some egg, some cheese, and some pork – so I’m just going to move on …

Two of our tablemates split this appetzier which was an assortment of smoked fish, all served open-face style.  And I know what you’re thinking: is everything an open-faced sandwich at Noord?  No – but when they’re this interesting, why not? 

My main was a massive piece of pork.  Sure, there were some veggies underneath, but the star was clearly the slab of meat – and what a wonderfully ?braised? slab it was.  The meat was fall-off-the-bone tender, but permeated with a nice stewed apple sauce.  It was like fall on a plate.  Big props to Noord for doing right by that hunk of pig.

There were other items, like a celery soup that g enjoyed, and the rabbit leg confit bw had … but let’s be honest – mine won.  My only regret was that I wasn’t more hungry.  It’s ok – I sense that I’ll be making me some braised pork omelettes later this week – yum!!

Now, as for dessert, I have to say that I wasn’t quite as impressed as Laban was.  We ventured the doughnuts, which were a little more dense than I enjoy (Talula’s Garden kills it when it comes to dooughnuts) as well as the apple pie thing.  bw, a masterful baker and general dessert enthusiast (although he did reveal to us his disdain for light-and-airy-cakes), did find that perhaps it was a caramel issue: he suspected that they could have “pushed” the caramel further, getting it to be a bit darker and deeper-flavored, and we all agreed – it was missing that last little bit of warmth that a darker caramel provides.

In all, we enjoyed the food at Noord.  I’m not sure it’s going to replace any of our go-to’s, and it’s probably not going to replace Serpico as our newest “eat-here-now” fave, but if they do undergo a menu change next season, you can bet that we’ll be there!  Their food was interesting and fun and worth getting to at least once!