Norwegian Seafood Gala Dinner 2016 - My Salmon Quota for 2016 Is Filled

Every year around mid October, an invite will appear from the Makan Fairy Godmother, for this annual seafood fest at the Mandarin Oriental, hosted by Hans Ola Urstad, Norway’s Ambassador to Malaysia.  The foyer of the ballroom will be filled by the glitterati of the town, dressed up to the nines, with air kisses permeating the air with the same intensity of the french perfumes worn.

As part of the "media" we were allowed a sneak preview into the vast spread before the doors to paradise were opened, and the hordes of diners rush in.

Spectacular ice carvings, a viking boat, I presume, with raw seafood that ranged from beautiful to hideous, (by hideous I mean in a beautiful way,...ie beautifully hideous)

Ambassador  Hans Ola Urstad giving his welcome address, with a tinge of sadness because this is his last year as Ambassador to Malaysia, having finished his 5 year term.

 Dishes included Norwegian salmon done like 20,000 ways,  Norwegian cod, king crab, lobster, crayfish, scallops, mackerel, Atlantic halibut and monkfish (that's the beautifully hideous fish I was referring to), among several other varieties done in both Western and Asian style,

The feast was orchestrated by renowned Norwegian chef Frank Naesheim and his team of culinary professionals from Norway, Malaysia and Singapore and one tonne of fresh seafood was flown in from Norway...Probably some of the marine life on the banquet table were still enjoying their meal of krill and plankton a day earlier in the Baltic....

Chef Frank giving his welcome address...

This year the emphasis was on sustainable seafood and Chef Frank introduced a line of smoked salmon with new flavours.

Salmon in every form imaginable...I've had my Omega Oil quota filled for the year I reckon

Salmon Jerky

See, I kid you not when I said there was Salmon done 20,000 ways...

This platter of lobster like creatures, but the size of a prawn, looked most tempting, but honestly, hardly worth the effort of peeling, for the end result is a mere shrimp....

King Crab ...I would have preferred it with salted egg or chilli crab style....

Salmon...

And more salmon...

This dish never fails to amaze me, because of the labour of love that must have gone into stacking these shrimp like this....the shrimp makes a lovely old school shrimp cocktail, drowned in 1000 island dressing.

This is the aforementioned hideous but beautiful fish alluded to earlier...I think it's a monkfish.

Ice Sculptures take on a different look, with these fish immortalized ..much like a scene from ICE AGE ....

The entertainment for the night was  Rio Yamase,  playing the Hardanger fiddle, a traditional West Norwegian musical instrument. Rio, who is from Japan, was born in Malaysia, and is also an accomplished violinist.

Rio Yamase studied the violin at the Toho Gakuen University in Tokyo. She learned to play the Hardanger violin under famous fiddle teachers in Norway and started to perform with it in Japan. She was invited to hold concerts and lectures introducing Nordic music in various parts of Japan and Scandinavia.

She also started concert activities in Malaysia, her birthplace. In 2015 she released her 10th anniversary CD ‘Love Song from the Fjords’.

And of course, to wash down all that seafood, a variety of desserts, but first you have to cross paths with this cutie Polar Bear.

Norwegian Seafood Fest

I have a dream, a song to sing....to help me cope, with anything.....I believe in angels, something good in everything I see.... - Scandinavian Pop Group of the 70s.

Yeah, unlike SOME JETSETTERS, I can only dream of this scene.

(Photo courtesy of Gard, friend of AWOL)

Alas, the closest thing I've come to Norway is probably Ikea, and the closest glacial experience I've had was an old refrigerator with no frost free function. Such is the life of a peasant. So, you can imagine my delight, when Hooi Khaw (what would I do without this dear lady? My life would have a dearth of worthy eating invitation) invited us to the Annual Norwegian Seafood Fest at the Mandarin Oriental. Us meaning Masak Masak, who couldn't make it, AWHIFFOFLEMONGRASS (Voted for her yet or not? If not, too late, forever hold your piss), CUMI& CIKI, and ME, the FBB.

The mother of all seafood buffets, she said it was going to be. And boy, was she right.

Sometimes, it pays not to pay attention to details. I don on a casual shirt, and slacks, and brave the Friday evening traffic jam headed into town, and arrive 10 minutes late, but obviously, the Europeans are very punctual, and the foyer of the ballroom was already packed (like canned salmon) to the brim with gentlemen in suits and tuxedos, and ladies in ballgowns. FORTUNATELY, Cumi& Ciki were also dressed like me, ie, the rabble. Why it pays is, as Ciki pointed out, it would look odd if I were in a suit with a camera, snapping away. So twas a blessing that we were casually dressed, and looked the part of PRESS. AWOL of course is always dressed for a ball, so she fitted in quite well with the rest of the ladida.

As part of the PRESS, (actually, we were very blessed, out of 600 odd guests, there were only us 4 motley food bloggers), we were allowed into the ballroom to photograph the untouched buffet. Time spent on reconnaisance is never wasted, says the old army adage.


A shrimp platter that could have fed a hungry Orca. When we did eventually get to demolishing this hemisphere of prawny delight, yeah, it was good, and went well with the sour cream dressing.


Samples of Norwegian seafood produce on display. These were the raw ingredients, but all of them had been used in some way or other in the huge array of stuff that laid before us. If I was a piscetarian, I think I might have thought I was in Paradise. Heck, I WAS IN PARADISE.





We were to discover that salmon can take on many forms. Sashimi, obviously....


Lots of interesting decorative items. The Indian elephants hung above the Salmon Tandoori.


Salmon Tandoori. Yup, no Asian cuisine was spared in the fusioning of Salmon. There was even Salmon Satay, which I forgot to photograph.


I wonder who first thought of serving these horse divorce (hors douvres?) in little chinese soup spoons. Very quaint, but what a nightmare to wash up. At least its environmentally friend and recyclable. These were topped with a gorgeous sauce made with liquid nitrogen. Made by these chappies. Whom Ciki wasted no time in getting acquainted with.







The flying culinary circus. Apparently this troupe of chefs travel the world to perform their culinary magic.



Its not a pizza. Some salmon tartare dish. Lovely tangy sauce.


Platters and platters of Salmon. I began to feel like spawning.


Salmon with Olives


Salmon smoked in more ways that you can say Dunhill.








Some vegetables for the non fish eaters.


Sushi galore.


My vocabulary has run out for ways to describe salmon, but I actually think this was herring. Not so red.


Lobster salad. Or very large crayfish.


Poached quails eggs in salad. How lovely is that! I simply must try poaching quails eggs. Oh wait, too much work.



Copied from the Press Release

Chef Frank Naesheim’s seafood dinners have become the annual highlight of the Norwegian business community in Malaysia and Singapore. He has worked in two and three-star Michelin restaurants in France and was chef de cuisine at the Bagatelle in Oslo when it was awarded a Michelin star, the first restaurant in Norway to be honoured this way. Known as the Salmon King in Asia, Naesheim first came to work as executive chef at the Vikings Restaurant in Singapore in 1987. A few years later, he established Snorre Food Pte Ltd, to import quality Norwegian seafood and focused on promoting it in Asia. He launched cooking competitions, focusing on salmon, as part of the Salon Culinaire, a high-profiled Asian culinary event in Singapore. Naesheim’s Salmon King title is well deserved. He has written a cookbook, Norwegian Salmon in Asia, produced recipe booklets for salmon and organised the Salmon Buffet of the Century in Singapore. He has been guest chef in numerous food promotions in Asia and Norway. Naesheim has been serving on the Singapore Bocouse D’or committee since 2000 and is the director of Continental WACS Asia (World Association of Chefs Societies).

A lot of work goes into these events. I wonder if these sculptors have to sit in a freezing cold room to chisel away on these ice blocks. OR, are they made in moulds?





Just look at the ship....even complete with Poseidon's trident in the background.


Caviar, and lots of it. Okay, so it's not Beluga or Sevruga, but hey, a lot of baby fishies had to still give their lives okay.


Ciki was arguing with me if the dish at the buffet was crab or lobster. I insisted it was crab, but she said it was lobster. Ahem, I won. It was actually King Crab, similar to the Alaskan or Hokkaido deep water King Crab, and OH SOOOOOO DELICIOUS!!!!! It was done chinese style, ie, with salted egg yolk. YARMEEE. Forgot to take pics!


My first round.


They even had foie gras (free flow) on pieces of white fish. Halibut I think. I really should start taking notes if I aspire to be like Anton Ego.


Plump Juicy Scallops. I love scallops.

And there's always room for dessert.


Norwegian donuts.


Waffles. At this stage, one chooses unique desserts that do not occupy a lot of stomach space, so waffles wasn't high on the MUST TRY list.


Chocolate Lollipops, with a lovely mint filling. Had a few of these. Dark Choc, of course. I hate white choc, and milk is just too sweet.


Riskrem, a traditional Norwegian dessert, that is a bit like rice pudding. Very nice. Oh, and not photographed, but very yummy too was the cloudberry ice cream.






I dunno what these last two items are. Talk about slack blogging.

Anyway, I had a lovely time, but couldn't stay on for the rest of the proceedings, which included a performance by a norwegian diva, awards ceremony for best brand, (Digi won I think).

But really, it WAS the mother of all buffets. Again a special note of thanks to Hooi Khaw for so kindly inviting me. Meanwhile, I think I shall stay away from salmon for a few months. But let's keep spawning ya.