Happy birthday to me and welcome to my mid-30s!
For my birthday this year, Jess snagged a reservation at Aska, a super hot Nordic restaurant in Williamsburg (Brooklyn) that was just awarded two Michelin stars.
I’ve never been to Scandinavia, and our last tasty taste of Nordic cuisine was at Luksus (now closed) in Greenpoint. With the combination of unfamiliar flavors and new cuisine, I knew this dinner would be amazing.
The main dining room is only for tasting menus. You have the choice of a 10 course (about two hours) or 19 (about 3 hours) course menu. Wine pairing is available too, which you shouldn’t miss if you can.
Aska also has a cellar bar and garden for booze and a la carte small plates.
Here’s a recap of our 19 course menu
Bladderwrack (a type of seaweed) with blue mussel puree. It’s the two bites with the drops. Don’t eat the giant rock.
Roll made with malt and spices, manitoba with oats and beer, flat bread with rye and brown butter.
Langoustine cooked in aromatic herbs, nasturtium (a type of flowering plant), and sauce from the head. This is one of my favorites.
Pommes souffle (puffy double fried potato) with roe from winter flounder smoked in dried carrot tops.
Oyster from Wiley Point, Maine with green gooseberry, juniper, and chickweed. The juniper in this pairs nicely with the brine.
Toasted milk skin (the film that forms on top of milk) with sourdough, smoked hake, and sorrel.
Caviar with grilled onion, Finnish caviar from Carelia, lemon verbena.
Cured lamb heart burnt in bedstraw and pickled sunchoke. This is basically a pile of fine ash atop some creamy goodness. Inventive!
Scallop with elderberry and elderflower. Perfectly cooked.
Blood pancake, rose and rosehip.
Roasted king crab and potato burnt in leaves.
Kohlrabi compressed with linden leaf oil and linden flower vinegar, salad burnet.
Cured skate wing, celery root puree with its leaves, roasted celery root, unfiltered rapeseed oil and flowering dill
Chanterelle mushrooms, caramelized cream, preserved pine shoots, broth from mushroom seasoned with chanterelle vinegar.
Squid tart made with seaweed, charred squid and a dulse (a type of algae) puree.
120 day dry aged rib eye, preserved black currant and salted aged plum, cured beef fat.
Fermented blueberries, milk sorbet, and spruce resin.
Ice cream made from birchwood with pine mushrooms and woodruff. Wood ice cream? Why yes, I better see you at Whole Foods soon.
Sweets. Blood, rosehip and lavender. Carmelized white chocolate, Kronan Swedish Punsch (a sweet rum-ish liqueur), and sourdough malt powder.
Although every dish was on point, my top three favorites were the langoustine, cured lamb heart, and ice cream. Even with the new flavors and ingredients, there wasn’t a dish that I didn’t like.
Service was personable with the right amount of Williamsburg class and Brooklyn casualness. Yes, and I loved the refills.
Exploring Aska’s Nordic cuisine has inspired me to see what it is really like in Scandinavia. Perhaps a trip over the summer??
This isn’t a drop in on a random weekend type of place, but we’ll definitely be back for their small bites and cocktails in the cellar bar.
I highly recommend Aska. 5/5 in my books.
Aska
47 S 5th St
Brooklyn, NY 11249
www.askanyc.com
$145 – $215 per person (tip included)
$115 wine pairing
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