Issue1 TasteBound compressed - Flipbook - Page 96
FAR FAROE AWAY
Ziska’s approach to cooking hasn’t changed. He remains
a born-and-bred Faroese boy: a product of a remarkably foodfocused society, where children learn slaughter and selfsustainability alongside their ABCs. ‘We have a really old food
culture that’s still very active,’ the 35-year-old explains. ‘It’s
rare today to find a whole nation that eats very traditionally.’
His menu is a monument to Faroese cuisine – knitted
with Japanese, Nordic and French techniques – and it brims
with the unfamiliar. We’re served sea snail, slivered alongside
skate and rutabaga (swede). The soft flesh paddles in a milky
chamomile gel, with pert floral notes from elderflower,
gooseberry and wild coriander.
The langoustine is symphonic, its shell powdered and used
to coat its fat pink tail. Pan-fried, it’s brushed with a deeply
reduced langoustine bisque, and served with celeriac juice
and brown butter. The dish is a delicious ouroboros; basted
and breaded in its own body with inventive aplomb.
The standout, however, is the fulmar. These seabirds, a sort
of gull-albatross mix, are plentiful and locals have long caught
94
TA S T E B O U N D
and eaten them. During the August fledging season, many
young fulmars plummet from the island’s wind-honed
cliffs straight into the livid sea. Unable to relaunch, they
await their fate from creatures below or above, including
fishermen who scoop them up.
Their diet makes their meat fishy and ripe: a cod-oil-andoffal flavour that’s too much for many outsiders to stomach.
Not so at Paz. Ziska counteracts the natural pungency by
curing the thin breast in shio koji, a Japanese fermented
seasoning. I taste only rich succulent meat and the sweetest
sweep of barbecue sauce and beetroot.
This ‘too much’ refrain echoes about the sculptured
coasts and mist-lost mountains of these 18 harshly beautiful
islands. The Faroese palate abounds with pungent flavours,
so chefs and producers – rather than eschewing local tastes
– are simply finding ways to adapt them for the uninitiated.
A broader audience certainly beckons, as direct, two-hour
flights from London are now running twice a week, making
a weekend gourmet jaunt to the Faroes finally possible.
