I swear February has got to be the best month of the year. No, not because it’s your girls’ birth month or that it also is Valentine’s day, but the fact that it is the shortest month of the year! You finally feel you are getting over the January blues; you feel spring is closer (even though in reality it really isn’t lol) Still, the ‘somewhat’ longer days and the fact that we are all WILLING spring weather to come, makes it slightly better to endure right?
We generally don’t get caught up in the hype of love day, we usually have a meal planned and that is about it really. And today we are at Noni where Maltese and Mediterranean food is interpreted into an absolute foodie delight! Little wonder, it is a Michelin star because Chef Jonathan and his team, showed out!!!
Without wanting to sound cliché but from the outside the restaurant looked unassuming (most of them usually are, but trust and believe that magic happens behind the most unassuming walls)! The restaurant is over 2 floors, going down the stairs you really don’t expect that it will be that spacious, but it is. It could be that the layout has changed as per COVID-19 rules (6 feet apart and what not) but it was a well utilised space. Décor was simple and a blend of stone walls and leather furniture, I loved it!
Igor (our sommelier) presented us with the a la carte menu but we asked for taster menu with the wine pairing and OMD😍! Our eight-course menu started with a glass of bubbly, a 2017 Cassar de malte brut and snacks from the kitchen. Snacks, generally, double up as an introduction to what Chef Jonathan and his team were about to unleash on us, and boi! Six snacks that included cauliflower and vanilla soup, foie gras sandwich (that sold it, you lot know how we feel about foie gras!) homemade bread, seaweed haddock, olives and gold-leaf local pecorino, I mean woah!!!
And then, Chef sends us complimentary oyster! Like the snacks was not introduction enough, Chef was like “nah, I still got more to whet your appetite” jeez!
Sea Urchin, our first course, was served with cured egg yolk, niori jam, and N25 Oscietra caviar. As far as shellfish go, never had one with an egg yolk much less a cured egg yolk or Jam? With caviar too? Like how? It was an explosion of taste and texture.The yolk disintegrated into the urchin and the caviar popped in your mouth 😲😱!
The only other place where we have had caviar that popped and I mean ‘pop’ like rice krispy’s cereal pop was in restaurant Nigrum. We had to ask where the caviar was from, turns out it came from Germany! Ha!
Ravioli is one of my favourite pastas because there are so many variations for the filling – sea food, veg, meat, et al., yet, what I have not had is ravioli with dashi. Usually, ravioli is served in a sauce and sometimes truffle or such like, but never with a miso-type soup, no, broth and that is exactly what this course was. Ravioli with tome de chevre, broad beans and dashi (which was poured at the table) and served with 2019 French Chablis! Whilst the dashi was very much umami, the al dente texture of the ravioli coupled with the acidic dry flavours of the Chablis, gave a very balanced taste on your palate.
Pagru was the course we didn’t see coming! It was ‘Aliotta’, local prawns and garlic blossoms. Aliotta is a traditional Maltese fish soup dish and when this course was being introduced, I expected fish soup with prawns and garlic, makes sense no? boy, was I wrong! Yes, the Aliotta was fish soup made with sea brim (catch of the day), the prawns and garlic did not look like what you would expect from prawn and garlic. The prawn was made into a type of prawn foam sauce and the garlic was like a ‘prawn cracker’! see, it makes no sense!
And then this was served with pinot noir, a 2019 Alsace!
I mean fish and red wine?🤷♂️ I am beginning to think this is a Mediterranean thing specifically, Italian, because we had fish and red wine in Sorrento at Don Alfonso’s.
Nothing beats having shaved truffle on your food! This became a thing for me when the man himself, Simon Rogan (Chef extraordnaire, my food boyfriend🥰😉) shaved truffles on my artichoke and sake dish at L’enclume. That is still in our our top-rated food adventure. I think it’s time we had a garmanvsfood top 10 list type blog entry, hmmm? soon come! Right, back course number four. Aged beef, which was sirloin cut, global artichoke and perigord truffle (yes, this was shaved on the beef at the table) and accompanied with local Maltese wine – 2018 Marnisi, yummy!
I know I said Pagru was the course I didn’t see coming, well I lied. The pickled dates? Ohhh it was a sleek dish – toasted rice foam and blood orange,
Nothing really sleek about it yes? well the blood orange was spritzed on the rice foam!
It was essentially the palate cleanser! now that is pretty sleek if I do say so myself! I have seen some pretty dope palate cleansers – the dairy, la colombe, restaurant Nigrum, but this right here, like I said, sleek with it!
Pudding was Mgarr strawberries essentially unripe strawberries, trifle and sorbet. It was a layered strawberry delight served with 2017, passito pudding wine! Delicously sweet!!!
Petits fours was almond cake, macaroons and jelly which I had with chamomile tea and Disarano for Neal.
The perfect ending to an awesome taster menu! Bravo!!!
Happy love day people
Cheers
Ndidi
p.s. Just when we think Chef could not really pull anything more out of the hat, he sends us on our merry with a goodie box as a thank you! Not only did he autograph our menu, we got a goodie box! Top man!!!
p.p.s photo dump of the wines and ting
Loorrdddtttt …. just put me in your hair and let me experience one of these. 😍😍😍😍
ha ha ha ! no worries, done! …. We make a plan