The Food Capital of the World

Paris is a 'has been' as far the foodie world goes.  Copenhagen is the new king of the dish pile.  Noma has been the number one restaurant for the last two years.  Of course, this meant I had to try to experience this culinary capital during our stay.

The first night we dined at the new kid on the block, Louise, in the Nimb Hotel overlooking Tivoli Gardens.  This is one of those places where you are served over the course of the evening twenty courses of bite sized delights.  They made sweetbreads delicious, burnt hay intriguing, and onions seem normal for dessert.  Each presentation was a work of art, almost too beautiful to touch.  The optional wine pairings included mostly French offerings we could never find back home.  This adventure took a little over two hours with one offering immediately following another.  This is not to say we were rushed, we were encouraged to take our time and enjoy each morsel.  What a great start to a culinary tour.

Lunch the next day was at the classic open face sandwich Mecca of Schonnemans.  This off the beaten path, below the street, lunch only diner has been serving up their classic Danish foods for decades.  I have a confession: while I profess to eat almost anything, herring has always scared me.  Well that has changed since the soulfull curry herring I had as a starter.  It was a meaty and not fishy delight.  Next up for me was the classic tartar with raw egg yolk and capers.  The boys had more of the traditional open faced sandwich, the chicken salad looking particularly yummy. Washing it all down was pints of house made ale and aquavit (their version of vodka).  Another not to be missed meal.

Tonight found us in the ultra hip meat packing district.  Kødbyens Fisekebar is a happening  bar and fish restaurant with both small and large plate offerings.  My scallops (3 to an order) were sweet and tasty while David's salad was fresh with local greens.  My second course of langoustine bisque had an ingredient( fish sauce?) that I was unfamiliar with, leaving a not altogether good taste in my mouth.  David's fish and chips using smoked cod was much more to my liking.

We actually broke my rule of not having Mexican in regular restaurant, wanting to see what the Danes take would be.  Their nachos were on a bed of nacho flavored Doritos type chips, surrounded by sour cream, guacamole, and salsa.  Salsa is usually what makes or breaks a great Mexican meal and this one was more tomato sauce than salsa.  My wrap was filled with a chicken fajita mix with similar accompaniments.  For a place so far from the mexican border, they did a pretty decent job.

Our final dinner was up an alleyway at a local bar called Tight.  I believe the name came from the seating arrangements where the maximum numbers of dinners are shoehorned into at least four rooms in this multilevel place.  The food was pub fare, with mussels, smoked salmon, hamburgers(a specialty David enjoyed) and my cod in papillote.  This place was just plain fun.  The wait staff was warm and friendly and fellow dinners shared touring tips.

One last food item I would be remiss in not mentioning - the Danish.  Bakeries abound with each corner offering more baked delights.  I felt more like I was in France with coissant offerings bidding from the store front bins.  Our sampling left us questioning why Tulsa doesn't have some kind of upscale bakery options.  Waking up was easier knowing that a little pain au chocolate awaited me.

In the end, our culinary tour was deemed a success, eating in places where we were the only English speaking diners and dining on a variety of Danish delights.  

Bikers Mean Business

We spent our first full day touring the old town of Copenhagen. There's a wonderful pedestrian mall that passes by many of the important squares. It is lined with both large chains (think Gucci on the high end and H&M on the lower side) and local stores and restaurants.  You'll find your typical fountains dedicated to long ago kings and your not so typical ones of a mother and son, water squirting from her breasts and also his penis.  Oh, those wild and crazy Danes.

Hans Christian Andersen is a big name around here as he's a native son that's made it big.  There's HC Anderson Boulevard, a displaced American tour guide that dresses like him and gives free tours, and several statutes of him.  The symbol of Copehagen, The Little Mermaid, is one of his most famous (and stolen, thanks to Disney) stories.

They are also into their royalty.  They currently are ruled by a Queen that is by all accounts well loved.  We took an hour to visit the castle of Rosenborg where the crown jewels are housed.  The castle offered a glimpse into royal life and the jewels were stunning. Many other castles are here for the viewing including the one from Hamlet, but one was enough for our very short stay.

Day two found us focusing on another ancient people - The Vikings.  We caught a morning train to Roskilde, home of the Viking Museum.  This very cute little Danish town was once the capital of Denmark.  The Cathedral, located in the town square, houses the remains of the Danish royalty.  They lived in luxury and died in luxury!  The crypts are made of marble, gold and silver.  We ran across a family making a pilgrimage to the Viking Bluetooth's grave in complete period garb.  The parents looked like they were having the time of their lives with tourists snapping pictures and the local press interviewing them.  The kids, however, looked like they wondered how they had been born into a family of crazy people, looking to make a quick escape if possible.

The Viking Museum is built around 5 Viking ships recovered from the floor of the local channel where they were sunk to prevent intruders from coming into port.  While none of the vessels were found intact, you can get a good idea of what they looked like.  They also had workshops scattered throughout the museum where craftsman recreated long gone trades ala Silver Dollar City.  All quite interesting on a beautiful, sunny day.

Our final stop after arriving back in Copenhagen was a visit to Tivoli Gardens.  This is one of the oldest amusement parks in Europe having been built in 1843.  During the day, it's a fantasyland type park with characters from Hans Christian Andersen filling in for Disney and at night, an adult entertainment venue.  What struck me was the low key way the Danes approach their leisure.  No long lines or harried families trying to ride every ride and eat every food on a stick.  Families lounged in the beautifully maintained gardens with not a care in the world.  Refreshing!

I know you've stuck with me through my boring vacation retelling just to find out if I had an encounter with the 'mean' bikers in the title.  The answer is no, but we were close to being run down several times.  These are Hell's Angels with pedals.  They are everywhere ( with a 180% tax on cars it's easy to see why) and they are serious about their bike lanes.  They also don't find a need to invest in bike clothing or helmets.  This is transportation not entertainment for them.  And yes, they have a problem with texting and driving.

Next: The Food Capital of the World

Welcome from the land of the Danes

Our travel to Denmark could not have been easier.  All flights were on time, we didn't have any long airport layovers and all our luggage arrived intact.  I know I'll pay for this somewhere down the road!

Our driver from the airport decided to use our travel time for a little Danish economics lesson.  While both he and his wife are Danish citizens, they have moved to the south of France to start a new company.  Apparently the tax rates are so high here that it was cheaper for him to move and commute back twice a month for his job than stay here to start his company.  If you make up to $60,000 your tax rate is about 50%.  The next $20,000 puts you up to 60% and over that it's 65%.  For that you do get a lot of social programs provided like health care and education.  Out of 5,000,000 people 1,000,000 still buy additional health insurance.  Kindergarten costs $500 a month but it's free for the later grades.  The Mercedes that we were riding in, an S400, costs $400,000!

The moral of the story is Denmark is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live here.

Next: our eating adventures begin 

Three days with a weeks worth of work

We leave in just a little over three days and I'm far from ready.  Between house purchases (another topic all together!), tax returns, kids going back to college, etc., this trip just hasn't been a top priority.  A little thought has gone into what might be thrown into a suitcase, but no full blown packing has occurred.

What did occur early on was restaurant reservations in Copenhagen, the new foodie capital of the world.  While not actually making a trip to the current number one, Noma, we are visiting a restaurant run by one of their former chefs.  We're also going to the up and comer, Louise, in the hotel Nimb.  I've been told that the Danes have a way with a sandwich, so a stop to the Schonnemann's is in order.

Fortunately, Copenhagen is a very manageable size, so we should be able to cover a lot of territory in a short period of time, assuming I don't get lost or there's isn't some international conference clogging the streets.  We tend to be a little "Forrest Gumpy" in that we seem to be at the right place at the right time (or wrong place if you have something else on your agenda).  It looks like a no fail destination with a plethora of sights to delight the eyes.