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Adiós Micro, Hello Norse Foraging

The fascinating scientific techniques of microgastronomy (as at Ferran Adria's now-closed restaurant near Barcelona) are suddenly passé. The latest hot hot restaurants are in (or near) cold, cold Stockholm, Copenhagen, and even Finland.

They're the ultimate in locovore -- the chefs typically insist on using very few products from outside a 50-mile radius of their restaurant. They go out and forage every day for the bounty of the forests and the marshes (lichens, nettles, greens, etc.). They serve seafood in empty clam shells, they use local juniper for smoking, and they flavor their food with things such as hay and grass and pine needles, not to mention reindeer blood and moose roast.

And from October to April, they serve that bounty smoked, cured, or pickled. There's nothing to forage during a snowy Scandinavian winter, so they've become experts in preserving local bounty when it's still bountiful.

It's hard to see how this might affect local cooking. Top S.F. chefs are already cooking locovore, and they don't have to stop and pickle everything for winter. But then, the micro trend had only a minor effect here, too. Oh, by the way, some of those new Scandinavian chefs do use foams.

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The fascinating scientific techniques of microgastronomy (as at Ferran Adria's now-closed restaurant near Barcelona) are suddenly passé. The latest hot hot restaurants are in (or near) cold, cold Stockholm, Copenhagen, and even Finland.

They're the ultimate in locovore -- the chefs typically insist on using very few products from outside a 50-mile radius of their restaurant. They go out and forage every day for the bounty of the forests and the marshes (lichens, nettles, greens, etc.). They serve seafood in empty clam shells, they use local juniper for smoking, and they flavor their food with things such as hay and grass and pine needles, not to mention reindeer blood and moose roast.

And from October to April, they serve that bounty smoked, cured, or pickled. There's nothing to forage during a snowy Scandinavian winter, so they've become experts in preserving local bounty when it's still bountiful.

It's hard to see how this might affect local cooking. Top S.F. chefs are already cooking locovore, and they don't have to stop and pickle everything for winter. But then, the micro trend had only a minor effect here, too. Oh, by the way, some of those new Scandinavian chefs do use foams.

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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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