NOX: a feast – but not for the eyes
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On our recent trip to Singapore, we ate in Nox – Dine in The Dark’s pitch-black dining room, guided and served by blind or visually impaired waitstaff. It was a feast—but not for the eyes.
They say “You eat with your eyes first”, and never has this been more apparent to me than while sitting in complete and utter pitch blackness, trying to work out a) where my mouth is, and b) what the slightly salty, fishy-smelling gelatinous substance I have just placed in it actually is.
The bizarre set up is part of NOX – Dine in the Dark—a sensory eating experience the HerCanberra team and our lovely travel companions indulged in as part of our recent Singapore trip.
Located on the edge of Kampong Glam, the two-storey restaurant has a bar downstairs where you are welcomed, briefed and can calm your nerves with a cocktail.
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Then you secure your bags and phones in a locker, and are escorted up a flight of stairs by a blind waiter—each diner clutching the shoulders of the one in front in an awkward Conga-line as the stairwell gets darker and darker.
Once at the top you pass a heavy curtain and are almost completely without light, save for a small dull red glow in one far corner—perhaps an emergency light, who knows? I forget to ask because, quite frankly, I am freaking out.
Our party of six has mixed feeling about the culinary adventure we are about to embark on, and my overt anxiety plays out in nervous laughter, and a deep sense of foreboding.
Others seem calmer—although Danielle, a major foodie who is not averse to experimentation and who had ordered deer just the day before in Little India, is uncharacteristically quiet.
Of course, the journey up the stairs has us all in immediate convulsions of laughter as we try not to trip, or pull each other over. Plus we have to listen to instructions.
Bernard, our waiter, is—quite simply—extraordinary. After shaking his hand and saying our names, he knows our voices immediately. The restaurant is very careful about identifying dietary requirements—we have a pescatarian, gluten-free and vegetarian amongst our ranks—and these are checked multiple time before food is served.
Bernard guides us gently to our chairs and we feel our way to a seated position. I don’t know that I have ever been in such darkness. It is all-consuming and, ridiculously, I feel my eyes twitching as I open them as wide as I possibly can in order to snatch a tiny visual reference.
Bernard explains that we will receive four bowls arranged on a plate, and we should eat the one closest first and then move in a clockwise direction from bowl to bowl.
We tentatively try to move spoon to bowl to mouth. It sounds easy—and something we have done millions of times before—but more laughter ensues as spoon invariably meets with chin, or cheek, or nose.
What is even more gob-smacking, is the sensation of putting an unknown substance in your mouth.
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We are eating off the Appetizers menu and it is described as “a play on temperatures. Crunchy, tangy, sweet and savoury.” Without giving too much away, we immediately begin trying to determine flavours. There is olive, and asparagus. Some watermelon, octopus, seaweed.
I have enormous trouble engaging my tastebuds while my brain struggles to place my body in a communal dining experience that is taking place in a virtual black hole.
Danielle is the quietest she has been the entire trip.
The rest of us are less perturbed, and after a second or third mouthful, I can determine the pleasure in tasting and swallowing.
The mains are served the same way—four bowls to be eaten in a clockwise fashion. I taste fish, edamame beans, octopus and something silken and deep-fried. Delish.
As we get used to the concept, our conversation flows more broadly. Meanwhile, I have given up on my eyes-wide-open strategy and close them instead.
Bernard, who clicks his tongue to echolocate his way to and from the kitchen, is the master. He serves the food unobtrusively and gently hands us wine glasses. He has been blind for two years after suffering from retinal detachment in both eyes. He explains that after losing all sight in both eyes, he sees only a wall of white. It took him two weeks to be able to sleep properly, convincing his brain to switch off when it was saturated with light.
We ponder the sensory deprivation of blindness while we taste our foods. There is so much to think about.
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Finally, desserts arrive and they seem—of all the courses—to be the easiest to identify. Fruit sorbet, chocolate pudding, apple pie.
Who knows what the time is (we had to take off any digital watches which could double as torches)? But there is some sense of urgency to get out, out into the light. Bernard guides us gently from the darkness.
By this stage, three glasses of wine and the pent-up adrenaline from the experience mean we were laughing ridiculously. The sighted waiter downstairs can hardly get us to sit still enough for the debrief. We fill out forms on possible tastes and experiences before he uses an iPad to show us the food we had consumed. Many guesses were confirmed, some were surprises. My crunchy silky dish was deep fried oyster. I am not sure how I even feel about that. The fishy-smelling dish I didn’t continue turned out to be jellyfish. Good call really.
The food is definitely pleasant—prepared, as it turns out, by head chef Desmond Lee, who has worked internationally at Michelin-starred restaurants around the world. But looking back now and discussing it amongst ourselves, we all agree we might have enjoyed it more had we been able to see it first. Certainly, the link between seeing and anticipating a taste is lost in those first fumbling, scary moments as you turn the unknown substance over in your mouth. For instance, I love lobster, and would have appreciated it more, had I known that was what it was exactly.
Of course, we are also now acutely aware that sight is a gift not all of us have. And one of the most special aspects of the experience was the way in which Bernard becomes our eyes for the evening. Several days later and I am still thinking about it all. It is certainly a feast for the mind, if not exactly for the eyes.
the essentials
Nox Dine in the Dark
269 Beach Road Singapore.
Reservation only
noxdineinthedark.com
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