Saturday, August 16, 2014

Argent

The friends hadn't been to Argent Restaurant either. We took a chance with it for an early dinner since it was at a most convenient location. Apparently this restaurant was closed through July for summer holidays and only reopened three days ago. Their menus naturally follow the season and this menu will last a month till September 14th.

By now I already know that the earlier-feared crazy alcohol prices in Oslo are nothing compared to Singapore's out-of-this-world prices. A quick browse at the bottle shops and a quick scan of the wine lists confirmed that drinking here, isn't going to be an issue. A Laphroaig Quarter Cask retails at NOK549.90, which is approximately S$112. (I've been told Sweden's about SEK459; ~S$84) HAHAHAHAH. If not for the Customs quota at home, I'd have swept those shelves clean. Even the fine-dining prices aren't that horrifying. It's probably a hit and miss thing of prices (i.e labor and minimal wage) versus quality of food. It's just that in Oslo with a population of 650,000, the range of restaurants isn't that exciting yet.

Love these new-to-me flavors of Scandinavian cooking that of course uses local produce. The table ordered loads of small plates to share. Forget the soups. There's something salty about European soups that I'm generally not fond of. It seems to be the same here. I can't do these soups unless used as 'dips' for bread.

The sharing plates were awesome. Gamely took a slice of that wild boar with walnut pesto and purple onion compote. Tender and beautifully grilled. Especially love the Frøya Norway lobster with cucumber ice-cream, pickled fennel and shellfish foam. The Norway lobster is a langoustine. The cucumber ice-cream was more like a sorbet and very crisp and fresh with the crustacean. Yummy. A cheese platter with homemade jams finished the meal. Pity it didn't come with little info cards so that we didn't know where the cheese came from or its names. We could only identify it as a soft cheese (camembert of sorts), a hard cheese (like an emmental) and a pungent cube that was complex but much nicer than a Roquefort or a Blue Stilton.

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