20 by 8 " ZERO WASTE "

In the beginning of last week I was invited to Tallin to a dinner at restaurant Neh and a concept they call 20 by 8.
Restaurant Neh is a restaurant in an old building in the outside of Tallin and is where the owners and crew from Pädaste Manor in Muhu Island and Alexander restaurant ( voted as best restaurant in Estonia 2nd time in a row ) is cooking in the wintertime when the manor is closed.
Neh, if I understood everything right is more in to comfy food and more of a bistro feeling than fine dining and to inspire and challenge the kitchen and guests they have started the on off dinners " 20 by 8 " with different themes. This night was " Zero waste " and was based on a reindeer they had got from the finnish lapland.

Head chef Peeter Pihel is a young talented chef that runs a kitchen with chefs that has been away to kithens all over and is now focused to create something they call Nordic Island cuisine. And it seems that people has started watching what they are doing, Peter was chosen by " Der Fineschmecker " as one of twelve young chefs to watch in the future...

First time in Tallin and I got the chance to see the Old town, just a shame that it was so cold but it seemed to be a nice city.
When I arrived at Neh the guests was were starting to arrive and we was greeted with a glas of bubbles and some mingling. One of the owners, Martin presented the evening and after that we took the stairs up to the diningroom and a big U table.

The dinner was as I told earlier based on a reindeer and this was what we were served this evening:

Appetizers served on a wooden tray
Salted and dried reindeer heart, smoked cod mousse with blood crust, blood and spelt crisps
liver and pork lardo foam and herb mayo

Bone marrow on roasted sourdough and White fish roe on a tartar with marinated ramson stalks

" Souvas ", 4 weeks cured reindeer slices with roasted pumpkin cream, marinated crosne from there own gardens
shaved Tridura cheese from Oviken in Jämtland and a raspberry vinegar - rapeseed oil dressing
Served with a small glas of vodka, hahaha ! maybe in the Baltics and Russia ;)

Brain and lung sausage ( made by chicken meat, potato starch, poached brain & lung, salt, pepper made in pacojet) and an
apple cream, kohlrabi and a bay leave foam

Poronkäristys
a classic finnish way of making a reindeer stew, there were some chefs from Helsinki who explained the way of doing it with snow.....

Reindeerrump with a Reindeer croquet of tongue, cheek, neck with marinated salsify, shallots baked in sea salt, rosehipp ketchup, Muhu soil and a hay ash cream with mushrooms

Quince posset with a raspberry vinegar marengue, caramelized butter ice cream and sea buckthorn sponge cake

The food was well cooked and as I have told you before I really enjoy this kind of dinners where you meet people you never would have met before. The best dish for me was the dish of brain and lung that worked really well with the apple and kohlrabbi.
I had a long and inspirational with Peter about scandinavian cooking in general and it will be interesting to see how they will progress in the future. Good Luck guys ( and girls ) !