Superb lunch. Frantzièn is one of Stockholm's premier chefs to experience and wanted to try the…read moremain resto on my last visit but couldn't get a reservation. Like Noma in Copenhagen, Frantzièn is booked for months at a time. Next day, I found his gastropub, the Flying Elk. Here you can sample the cuisine of Stockholm's favorite chef. The space is warm, open windows in summer; it's next to the water-- an optimal space to enjoy the breeze while getting a bite to eat, sample brews, an Aquavit and maybe another dish. And I did just that.
For starters I had the Pan fried scallops, truffled scrambled eggs, smoked brown butter, pomme paille, covered with bonito style shaved truffles. Get this. I could have had 3 of these dishes easily. I think this is perfection of sea and earth with layer upon layer of earth manna: scrambled eggs with truffles, brown butter, the thinnest crisp potatoes and to add insult to the experience shaved tuffles on top. The dish wants you think it's Japanese, it's not...but so beautifully earthy, beautifully tasty and beautifully satisfying.
My next dish the Veal Schnitzel Björn Frantzén: veal with triple cooked fries, roasted anchovy butter, red wine jus and sorrel salad was a symphony of taste contrasts: the panko-crisp texture of the veal with red wine jus (grapey delicious sauce albeit slightly overcooked cutlet), roasted anchovy butter with triple cooked fries (crisp into unctuous browned butter with a hint of anchovy) and the nicely tart (and teasingly pungent) sorrel salad.
For dessert: "Eton Mess" Vanilla ice cream w/ raspberries & pink pepper meringue, strawberry & hibiscus mousse scented with roses . This was my fave dessert this trip. It's not just vanilla ice cream, it's amazingly well made silky yet subtle vanilla ice cream, that framed the summer raspberries; you scoop the strawberry/hibiscus mousse with a slightly pungent pepper meringue, the complex crumbles on your palate and you swear you've never had anything like this. The flower petals and dried raspberries on top of this "mess" sealed this dish for me as one my favorite desserts ever. A sauterne and a coffee later, the day seemed perfect. I loved this dish so that on one of my other visits to Gamla Stan, I ordered it to go, to seal the flavors in my memory as we strolled through the cobbled streets of this magnificent city, giddy.
Loved it.
Coming back.
Visits: 2
Tip: Come hungry.