Thanksgiving, 2005

While I'm writing about cool restaurants, I figured I would go ahead and blog about the coolest one I've ever been to. For Thanksgiving this past year, my best friend, Steph, came to visit me in Copenhagen. Her birthday was near Thanksgiving, so as a gift to her, I surprised her with a trip to Berlin, Germany (which is a 35 minute plane ride from Copenhagen)! We were there for Thanksgiving and we had our traditional dinner at a not so traditional place. The restaurant was called Nocti Vagus. The theme is that all the wait staff are blind or severely visually impaired. The dining room where we ate our dinner was pitch black. We litterally could not see our hand in front of our face, let alone the food on the table in front of us. When we arrived, we were greeted in the lounge (which was lit with candles). There we spoke with the hostess who explained to us what we were about to experience once we were taken into the dining room. We looked at a menu in the lounge so that we could decide what we wanted to order. Steph got the vegetarian menu, and I got the surprise menu. That meant, I had no idea what I was going to be served, and I couldn't see it once it was served to me. So we had a drink in the lounge before we were taken to meet our waiter at the door leading into the dining room. His name was Wolfgang (pronounced Volfgang, German). He met us in the pitch black room and led the two of us to our table. We couldn't see a thing, we just depended on Wolfgang to seat us safely. He did. He then helped us to find our silverware, and our glasses for our beverages. We were instructed to not get up on our own if we had to go to the bathroom. After a few drinks, of course I had to go. We called "Volfgang" and he came to us straight away. He led the two of us to the door and waited for us to return. The bathroom was lit, so we didn't have to do that in the dark. When we returned, Steph and I were, accidentally, in different positions than we were when we left. He seated us in each others seats because that was his way of remembering. We apologized and corrected him, and he switched us back to our own seats. For our Thanksgiving toast, we had to first feel for each others hands to make sure we didn't crash the glasses into each other and shatter them. We had to carefully pour the wine and stick our fingers in the glass to see how full they were. It was amazing. Then, the food. Remember, I had no idea what I was being served. I had to smell, feel, and taste to figure it out. The whole time, I was guessing what I was eating, but never was I sure. It was all delicious. Steph enjoyed her meal as well. While we were eating, there was entertainment. It was all in German, but it was still enjoyable to hear the sound of the mans voice and the laughter around us. Apparently, he was doing a naughty interpretive reading! We could tell by the way people were laughing around us. Mind you, we couldn't see anyone or anything, we could only hear. There were also such wonderful, calming, relaxing smells around us. All of our senses were stimulated to make up for the lack of vision. So, what an amazing way to spend a Thanksgiving Dinner! We truely witnessed first hand that we have a lot to be thankful for. Our vision is so valuable and something we all too often take for granted. It was awesome to spend an evening experiencing what it's like to walk in another's shoes. Oh and the menu I had, I'm sure you are wondering. Well, it wasn't your traditional Thanksgiving turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, with sweet potato pie for dessert. It was more like a lobster bisque for a starter, beef, crocodile, and rabbit with root vegetables that I've never tasted before for a main course, and a whole peach, fuzz and all, in a sorbet for dessert. The textures and aromas were excellent. It all tasted really good too, even the crocodile! So I was so anxious to share with Jamey my "unusual" Thanksgiving meal of crocodile and rabbit. He countered my meal and topped me with his Thanksgiving meal of Kangaroo in Latvia (which he also enjoyed). It is so much fun when people ask us what we ate for Thanksgiving in Europe and we get to tell them: Rabbit, Crocodile and Kangaroo. The expressions are priceless! ~Jac