Thursday 18 October 2007

Into the darkness

This is a picture of the meal and resturant i went to last weekend.

- actually its also a picture of the five friends who went with me seventy other diners a few waiters and any number of other things


No need to adjust your screens as i couldnt see anything either.


Ive just got back from a long weekend in Berlin for a friends hen night and one highlight has to be experiancing the Dark Resturant - Nocti Vagus (Literally translated night vagabond)

Its a little hard to explain dining in the dark but it was a huge rollercoaster on emotions and sensations. When i was told it would be dark, even by the waiter who prepared us, I still assumed my eyes would adjust a little but this was complete immersive darkness and for the full time I was eating i couldnt see anything at all.

We were led to our table and brought food by a blind waiter named benjamen and anything we needed from that point on we had to yell for him to help as leaving the table would have meant getting very lost and probably hurt. We could pick our food from three seperate set menus at the begginning of the night or opt for the SURPRISE which i couldnt resist. Turns out later my main meal was Crocodile, rabbit and Kudu (which i wouldnt have guessed probably even if i had seen it)

Eating in the dark was quite a learning experiance - we all seemed to start the night struggling with cutlery and dropping things and gradually decided that feeling things with our hands was much easier. As you cant see your food or anybody around you it allows you to let go of some inhibitions and really touch and taste your food.

The food was really amazing and we spent the meal mostly telling the others about what was on our plates. It took a while to feel settled but once you did i started to enjoy the sound of everyones voices and start to try to place yourself in the room. You could hear the waiters walking around us because they made clicking noises or snapped their fingers which was to warn the others where they were.

You find that that darkness hightens your other senses and you take time to feel and taste your food in new ways. My friends around me were disembodied voices but I was acutely aware of who they were and to pass anything across the table we needed to grasp hands and be much more tactile.



So this is us all dressed up on the train there which was probably not nessacary considering no one could see us and we were likely to get covered in food (im the one in black in the middle - for anyone but renee) Berlin was amazing and we did loads of other things over the weekend but "going into the darkness" as our waiter refered to the resturant will be one meal i wont forget.

3 comments:

dottycookie said...

Blimey, you're a braver girl than me! I am not sure I could have handled that - I'm not afraid of the dark, exactly, but the thought of that makes me feel faintly panicky.

Sounds like you all had a good time though!

I hope the parcel did arrive today ...

Wendy said...

That sounds so cool! Every once in awhile I take an entire shower with my eyes closed (probably not very safe) and it really does heighten your other senses and force you to be more mindful.

For some reason, my favorite part in your description is having to grab hands to pass stuff back and forth across the table. How lovely and intimate.

Misty Rain said...

ah, all my beautiful girls!!! missed you all soooo much and very glum that I couldn't make it!! *@$*