NaNum Ceramics meet Ferments

Jinok Kim, owner and good soul of the NaNum restaurant in Kreuzberg in the immediate vicinity of the Jewish Museum, has quite a special aura about her. Even if you haven't studied her CV, you can tell her home is the stage. At NaNum, however, she is not only the host but also a creative force.

Unlike other restaurants, however, owner Jinok Kim is not in the kitchen but in the workshop: Jinok Kim's passion, besides music, is ceramics. In her restaurant, the former and often award-winning contralto has found her new stage - and offers it as much to Korean food culture as to her ceramic art. 

Thus, NaNum is restaurant and gallery in one. What sounds like a strange mixture at first actually fits together quite well - after all, ceramics and food have always been related. At NaNum, it's hard to decide which of the two is the stage here.

This is also due to the fact that a significant factor in Korean food culture is fermentation. At NaNum, those ferments and vinegars are made in-house. Many foods that find their way onto the handmade ceramics at NaNum grow in Jinok Kim's garden and enrich the kitchen with garlic blossoms, quince, flowers, goutweed or spruce needles from surrounding fields and meadows, and are dried, boiled down - and fermented.

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Jinok Kim also initiates people here into this high art, so it's hardly surprising that representatives of neighbouring establishments, such as Nobelhart & Schmutzig, also like to visit the gallery to be inspired by NaNum.

Thanks to the use of many ferments, the cuisine at NaNum is characterised by acidity. That's where the outstanding natural wines we taste as part of the wine pairing fit perfectly into the exceptional taste profile. So we start with two different Pet Nats. However, natural wines make a lot of sense not only because of the high use of fermented foods: organically produced wines that ferment spontaneously on their own yeasts are stubborn, untamed and surprising wines - and that also fits perfectly with the cuisine at NaNum. 

Through the garden, the cuisine is always closely linked to the rhythm of the seasons. So, when we visit, a little spring freshness is already shimmering through in otherwise earthy-wintery aromas: in form of a hearty kale soup with DönDsang, i.e. fermented soybeans, which elegantly weaves together the elements of sea and soil. By the way, fermented celery cannot only convince the celery-unenthusiastic companion, but it also adds a touch of welcome freshness to the rather original soup.

We particularly like the next dish: perfectly (!) cooked rice, which we wrap up with some dried nori seaweed and the first spring-fresh wonder leeks of the season. A little DIY sushi kit, so to speak (without wanting to sound disrespectful), phenomenally weaves the spicy flavours of the first tender spring herbs with the homeliness of the rice.

A feeling of cosiness comes over us - childhood security at grandma's kitchen table, even if she cooked in northern Germany and not in Korea. This dish can evoke this feeling like only a few others. Although the dumplings with shiitake, spring onions and chilli oil cannot repeat this experience, they are delicious.

Just like the fabulous orange wine Orang by Fritz Salomon, especially fantastic from the stone bottle, it convinces with strong dried fruit aromas, orange biscuits with chocolate glaze and yet very dry - exciting and impressive. 

Before our main course, we enjoy a kimchi drink in bright purple as a refreshment and palate cleanser: the DongTzimi demonstrates everything fermentation can do. It is refreshing, stimulates digestion, tastes much milder than you think and is very healthy in a perfect way. We would like to always have some of this in the fridge as a magic potion.

In the main course, as in every ever-changing menu of the gallery restaurant, NaNum opens the competition between meat and vegan: sous-vide-cooked pork fillet competes against homemade tempeh and tofu. However, with its intense flavour combination of soy sauce, fermented garlic stalks and some wonder garlic, the vegan dish is undoubtedly in no way inferior to the meat dish in terms of intensity and warmth. 

We also like this miso intensity exceptionally well in the DönDsang ice cream made from soybeans fermented for six months with caramelised soy sauce. In general: more miso in the ice cream! The remarkable umami depth suits the dessert quite well. Incidentally, Jinok Kim is already working on new ceramics for the upcoming menu upstairs at NaNum. After all, spring is now well underway, which means that the menu at NaNum will soon adapt to the plants in the garden again. 

Ronja C. Kolls

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