Nyborg and Odense- Denmark

All right, sorry for the long break there.  It's just that it is summer- heat and all that.  It also means that I haven't had much of a desire to write anything since I have been having to much fun eating, drinking and sightseeing.  Right now, we are in Bulgaria on the Black Sea just chilling out with all the Brits (more on that later).  But, I do know that you are missing a month and a half here, so let me take you back.

A long, long time ago in a city (and country) far, far away...

Odense, Denmark- home of Hans Christian Andersen.  We actually stayed in Nyborg, Denmark, another town about an hour and a half away from Odense.  It was right on the water, so we were able to see all the boats and cars coming across the loooong bridge.  It was actually beautiful.  We got there just in time for their celebration of Midsummer.  There is a witch burning (a doll with fireworks in her head) on a bonfire.  We ate dinner at the hotel that night.  The food was good, but not great, so there is no need for me to tell you all about it.

On to the villagers with torches!!

It was a fun evening.  I even got to throw my torch into the bonfire.  Anyway...back to the food and drink.

The next day we headed into Odense to see the home of H.C.A.  It was raining and chilly out, so it didn't make it a really fun day for sightseeing.  For lunch, we ended up at Den Gamle Kro, which has been serving people since 1683.  I forgot to take pictures of the food, but hopefully you can all find it in your hearts to forgive me.  I did remember, though, to take pictures of the restaurant.

The food was very good.  I had schnitzel with some roast potatoes that were shared and a salad.  We just opted for a glass of the house wine instead of a bottle/glass of something else.  The restaurant had a certain charm to it and was very nice.  It did take you back in time.  All in all, a place that I would go back to.

The next day dawned and with it our last full day in Denmark.  We headed out for more sightseeing.  Of course, it rained some more, but that can't really be helped, can it?

For our meal that day, we ate at one of the few restaurants in Nyborg (apart from the hotel restaurant), Central Cafeen.  The inside is covered in various sailor style hats from high school graduation caps to work hats.  It also is very dated and seems in need of some sprucing up.  But don't let that fool you!  The food was some of the best that we had in Denmark.

Quick side note- since winters are very harsh, when it is summer people are outside in full force.  If people can sit outside to eat, they will.  When we went inside, our waitress kept insisting that we sit outside.  We didn't want to and she just didn't get it.  She kept giving us strange looks as if to say, "What the heck is wrong with you people."

We had some Italian wine that wasn't very memorable, or so much like the others that we have had, that it didn't leave an impression.  It was good though.  I had the fried trout with a brown butter sauce.  Lynn had the salmon with roast veggies.  We also got some boiled potatoes to share between us.  My fish was whole save for the head and the insides.  And it was so good.  The fish was done perfectly and really didn't even need the butter that was on the side.  The salmon, I was told, was done perfectly as well.  The potatoes were potatoes...what can you really say about boiled potatoes?  For dessert, well, at first, we weren't sure what we ordered.  Our waitress didn't speak English all that well, and we of course, speak no Danish.  We knew it had rhubarb in it.  It was a rhubarb puree on top of whipped cream with amaretto cookies at the bottom.  It was gone in a few seconds flat.

Let me just say that I have never eaten that much rhubarb before.  In fact, while I have seen it on sale in the US, I have never bought it nor felt the need to.  This isn't because I don't want to, it's just that it can be so tricky to prepare.  However, eating as much rhubarb as I have in this trip has turned me into a believer.  So much so, that I will try my hand at it when I get back.

For the most part, I have enjoyed Scandinavian cuisine.  They take what they know and add different twists or just keep it as simple as they can.  Next stop: Czech Republic for two nights.  

PS- Be sure to check back everyday (follow me!).  I have scheduled a bunch of blog posts for the next few weeks.  All through the power of the internet.

Copenhagen and Michelin Stars-part 2

I know the last post was really negative.  That being said, there was a very good restaurant that we ate at- Kong Hans Kalder.  The top restaurant in Copenhagen (and the world), NOMA takes a year to get reservations at and, sadly, they aren't open now.  This is because they are cooking for the Olympics in London and won't be open again until September.

Kong Hans Kalder is located in a 13th Century cellar (hence Kalder).  It is white washed walls with soft lighting.  The tables had white table clothes and simple settings.  We started with a bar snack, since we opted to just go straight to the table.  It was pork rinds and fried Jerusalem artichokes, mixed nuts and a mayo dip.  I tried the dip, but it wasn't the best.  But the rest was.  It was also served alongside freshly boiled quail eggs and pickled quail eggs (the brown ones).  Both were done well and slightly sweet.  This was followed by the amuse bouche- fresh radishes served with smoked shrimp on top of a cream cheese and Jerusalem artichoke puree with fresh dill.  The shrimp were presented with a glass bowl on top, where you could see the smoke just billowing around.  They lifted the glass off at the same time for both, and you (at least I was) transported to a back yard smokehouse- a smell like home.  It was very tasty.  

For our starters, we both got seafood.  I got lobster with tomatoes and topped with crumbled, dried black olives.  Lynn got the fresh oysters.  The presentation was meant to mimic the sea in the morning.

The oysters, Lynn assured me, were fantastic.  They even gave her two extra ones.  The lobster, even though it was from Canada, was fantastic.  It was done just right, and I didn't have to mess with the shell.  The tomato sauce that went with it was superb.

For our main courses, I got the beef with greens and mushrooms (that were deceptively large- top photo).  It was so good.  There was a good amount of beef on the plate and it was cooked to perfection.  Lynn got the guinea fowl.  She said that it was very tasty.  We didn't quite manage to clear our plates, but we did save room for our desserts.

I opted for the chocolate and black currant dessert (top).  Most of it was good.  There were some bits where the black currant was more dimeatap then currant.  However, it was a good chocolate fix.  Lynn got the vanilla cream.  It was topped with chopped nuts and fresh herbs and served with some ice cream.  Lynn said the cream was good, but that the herbs just didn't do anything (who wants salad with their dessert?).

Overall, it was a much better meal than the one at Relae.  The service was professional and prompt.  The food was excellent, and nobody wanted me to eat sous vide chicken wings.

Copenhagen and Michelin stars-part 1

We are getting so close to not living out of our car, I can almost taste it!  We have been going for a few weeks straight, and as much as I like dinning out, doing so every day can get a bit old.  Thankfully, we only have a few more days to go before we are in Krakow for the month of July.

A few things about food in Denmark.  It is still as expensive as it was in Sweden and there are a few more Michelin starred restaurants in Copenhagen (14) then there are in Stockholm (12).  Our first meal is one that we would rather forget for the most part.  Lynn and I called while we were driving from Kalmar to Copenhagen and made reservations at Relae, a newly-starred Michelin restaurant.  We had made reservations at Kong Hans Kalder for the next night, which also has its own Michelin star.  So, tired and hungry, we made it to Relae.  It is located in an up and coming area of Copenhagen, about a 10 minute drive from where we were staying.  Just as a side note, I am glad that I didn't waste space on my memory card for pictures of their food.

We arrived and were seated at the bar, which was the only space they had for that night.  The bar wasn't your traditional bar, but a window into the kitchen, which was all open.  We were able to look in and see the students preparing.  And no, I am not demeaning them.  They were students who had gotten apprenticeships at the restaurant.  It was nice to see that they were from all over the world (really).  Anyway, we sat down and ordered some water, two glasses of champagne and their appetizer, which was a bundle of fresh herbs with pistachios.  It was very good and, of course, fresh tasting.  Now, I have to gripe about something.  If I order sparkling water, I get that you are going to charge me.  But, when I order tap water and you charge me $6 per bottle, then there is a problem.  I know it was tap water, because I saw them pouring it from the tap into my bottle.  Yeah, $6 per little trip to the tap for some water.  We had two bottles that night.

There are only two choices for your meal at Relae- the standard menu with four courses and then the vegetable menu with four courses (two of which were the same).  There was also the wine tasting menu that went along with it for an extra $75 a person.  Each menu was also $75 a person.  When we asked if they had a wine list that was separate, he went to great, overbearing lengths to point out that the wines on the wine tasting menu were perfectly paired for the meal, and that the wines on the wine list would be the same as on the menu and it would be cheaper if we each got the wine menu.  We still asked for the list.  And he was wrong.  They had a much larger selection and better prices for some bottles then if we got ONE of the wine menus.  We settled on a French white, which later turned out to be vin ordinaire (read: table wine in France).  It was good though, much like some table wines in wine producing countries are.  Our waiter comes back over with our bottle then decides he wants to tell us all about the vintner.  Most times, I would be OK with that.  Not when I am hungry and exhausted.  I don't care that he used to be a photographer for Vogue.  Maybe tomorrow I would, but not tonight.  There was just a certain arrogance that prevailed there.

Have I mentioned that there were really only two waiters?  No?  Well, there were.  The rest of the service was provided by the student-chefs in the kitchen.

We ordered the regular menu.  Our first course can only be described as sushi, gone wrong, as envisioned by a Copenhagen chef.  It was raw hake with old leeks, horseradish and bergamont.  As I have stated before, I am not the biggest seafood fan.  And now I am eating raw hake with old leeks, whatever those are.  The only redeeming moment was when I got the one tiny bite with bergamont in it.  That brought it all together and made it work.  But it was only one tiny bite out of a dish with several bites that were disgusting.

Then came one of the two decent courses- asparagus with crispy buckwheat, pumpkin seeds and mint served with a lemon beure blanc.  Lynn and I both agreed that it was a very good course.

So, we were hoping that the "main course" so to speak, would pick it up.  Maybe the fish was just a fluke.  Nope.  Sous vide chicken wings with gizzards, liver and milk poached asparagus with a fish sauce.  Yeah.  I still don't get it either.  First off, sous vide just pisses me off for the most part.  Putting food into a bag, sucking out the air and then sticking it in an immersion circulator that keeps the water at a constant, low temperature in order to cook it is a waste of time for me.  I haven't ever eaten anything that I liked that was cooked sous vide.  Even in art culinare, when I was told that my beef was too tough after it had been cooked like that.  Anyway, back to Relae.  The gizzards and liver were not chopped evenly at all.  I'm pretty sure that's the first thing they teach you in culinary school- how to chop things evenly.  The chicken wings were cooked sous vide.  They WERE cooked through, but tasted and looked raw.  It doesn't take a lot to screw up a chicken wing, but somehow they managed.  They didn't get some of the skin off of mine when they removed it from the bone, and that was not a texture I wanted to deal with.  And the fish sauce?  What the heck?  I think that was the only good part of the dish, and even then, it just didn't work.

We finished off the meal with the only other dish from the menu that we liked, elder flower sorbet, rhubarb crumble and yogurt.  That was very good.  Just as a side note, elder flower is used a lot in making spirits.  It has a nice floral flavor that works well with white chocolate (in my opinion, as seen by the gelato pairings that I have made here in Denmark).

Then it was time for the check.  It took us several minutes (OK, 10 minutes) to get one of the two waiters' attention.  The whole bill for the two of us came to $300.  $300 for two menus, a bottle of French table wine, two bundles of herbs with nuts in them and two bottles of tap water.  That also included the fact that our dishes were explained to us by the kitchen students who had to come out and explain what we were eating.  No wonder the meal took 3 hours.

Hot diggity dog!

This is just going to be a quick blog post about the most amazing hot dog that I have ever had in Copenhagen (and maybe the world).

It was a grilled hot dog on a freshly toasted bun.  It was topped with English-style mustard (spicy), ketchup and remoulade (somehow, great on a hot dog).  Then there were the fried onions and the pickle slices.

It was so good that I wanted a second (and maybe a third- I was starving).  I could have done without the mustard, or at least had US style mustard.  But, beggars can't be choosers.

And since hot dogs remind me of home and July 4- Happy Independence Day, America!  I'll be drinking for you in Krakow.  And eating, of course.