OKO is a beachfront restaurant outside Tallinn proper – even further out than NOA (q.v.), its sister establishment, and likewise blessed with a fine of the sea as well as Tallinn across the bay. It is probably even better at night or during sunset, but as we were there for lunch all we got to enjoy were the sea, the sand, the sun, the raucous cackling of the gulls, and the wind. The wind! It was intense and seemingly localized to OKO’s front porch, which leads me to suggest that the design of the building and its surroundings is creating a wind sheer effect that makes an otherwise mild wind much worse. However, this blog is about food and not architecture (Edificing Estonia? Must look into it) so on with the eating!
As a starter we split a plate of avocado and hummus with lime, which might not sound like the most auspicious combination of flavors, or even cuisines, but the dish could easily have been one of the best things I’ve ever eaten, had I not already been dining out in Estonia for the past couple of years. As it is, it’s still an impressive achievement. The avocado, perfectly ripe, was ringed with sesame seeds and hot and sweet chili flakes and could stand as a dish on its own. The hummus achieved a unique balance of flavor danced delicately with the avocado and the lime, as if Minuet of the Fusion Cuisines were a long-lost piece from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite.
My counterpart ordered and subsequently shared a pizza caprese that, in audacious defiance of tradition, came also topped some guacamole (there’s no such thing as too much avocado, you see). Overall it might have been a merely good pizza, perhaps nothing to write to Naples for, but the guacamole addition blended with the pesto, arugula, and cheese in a very complementary way. If avocado in general and guacamole haven’t already taken off as gourmet pizza ingredients, they will soon. You ate it here first, or at least we did.
I had the OKO salmon soup, which featured a fish broth with chunks of potato and carrot, a sea of leek, and of course chunks of fresh salmon. On the side there was sour cream, so delicious and so fresh I am not sure how they managed to sour it at all, which I assumed was meant to be added bit by bit to the soup as I ate. As with everything else at OKO, they blended wonderfully, with the soup warming the sour cream up just enough and adding some texture. Two pieces of bread, not Estonian black bread but something along the lines of a crispy baguette, still warm, were also on the side. They were delicious with a bit of sour cream, dipped into the broth, or simply eaten plain.
We split a Kapuziner Non-Alcoholic Weizen beer. It tasted just like a real wheat beer, including the banana/bubble gum flavor that ale yeast sometimes imparts, even without the alcohol (it was a work day).
