Yesterday, as mentioned in my 'ode to Copenhagen' post, we attended a discussion between David Chang and Rene Redzepi.  When we arrived at the event each seat was topped with a goodie bag and a sheet with excerpts from the new Noma cookbook.  I paid no heed to the self-restraint demonstrated by others around me and dug right into the goodie bag.  If the quintessential kids' goodie bag is full of candy and toys, this goodie bag was the perfect take-away representation of Redzepi's Noma.

The bag, carefully stamped with the now familiar Noma typography, was full of carefully foraged carrots, radishes, a Maine kiwi, seaweed, sorrel and other herbs--all food found directly in the wild, ready to be eaten!  During the discussion, we watched several videos of Redzepi picking herbs or plucking carrots out of the ground, dusting them off and biting into them.  During the presentation, we were encouraged to enjoy the foraged snack, which had been carefully put together by Chang's staff.  I managed to save some of the foraged goodies for a few pictures.

Before the event started we bought the Noma cookbook.  After the event ended, we had the cookbook signed by Redzepi.  I'd love to spend an entire afternoon reading the book, as I'm already completely enamored with what I've read and seen (and touched--the pages' texture is amazing).  I wanted to share one quote I find particularly apt:

"Everyone eats, everyone has an opinion about food.  But taste is not exclusively a matter of individual perception, and food is never 'just food'.  Whether we like it or not, what we eat affects how the world looks.  And that affects the way we understand it.  When we look at a plate of food, we should see the greater ecosystem too.  If we find out where the food comes from and where it goes to, maybe this knowledge can be made into a kind of flavour-enhancer."