Copenhagen - Day 1

My visit to Copenhagen has been off to a good start. The only hitch is the wi-fi in the hotel, which does not seem to want to play nice with my laptop. I keep getting these brief spurts, but then it cuts out. As a result, I have not been able to post to the blog for 48 hours. This has been very frustrating, since writing the blog entries has become a regular part of my day. So I’m going to try writing off-line with the hopes of getting connected in the morning.

Getting here from Ireland went very smoothly. Fr. William was there and ready to go to take me to the bus at 7:00 am. The bus itself was fine, but fairly crowded. I ended up in the back seat with a family of 4; and, by the time the two-hour trip to Dublin airport was over, I was feeling pretty cramped .Check in was interesting, because, for the first time I my life, I was behind a group of people who were checking guns onto the plane. Obviously, they were headed for the hold, but still, I was amazed to see how involved the process was. The flight itself was relatively short, less than two hours. Flying over Ireland is a thing of beauty. When the clouds part and you can see the crazy –quilt patchwork of fields dappled green by the sun; it evokes such a response in me. I don’t want to pretend that it calls forth some long-lost memory, but it does have a very real effect on me. There was cloud cover most of the way that broke just as we approached Denmark. Looking out at the tidy (and quite brown) fields below me elicited nothing more than interest at best. We landed, I met my driver and soon I was being deposited at my hotel.

Be forewarned . . . The food report is about to begin.

The first order of business was to find and ATM and at the same time, possibly somewhere to eat since it was already close to 6:00. The hotel is fairly close to both the central train station and one of the commuter lines; and, from my window, the neighborhood looked fairly active. A friend of mine had given me the name of a restaurant not far from my hotel, so I thought I would locate it. I did, but it was pretty full and it was still just a little too early to eat. Additionally, it was rather warm and I’m not sure that I felt like traditional Danish food.

I kept walking and eventually found an ATM that looked safe. As I walked down a side street, a saw a place with tables outside. The sign said: Øl & Brød, which I knew meant Beer and Bread. I seemed to recall looking at this place on the Travelocity website, so I walked a little closer and checked out the menu. Seemed like modern, Danish farm-to-table cooking.  It seemed interesting, so I went inside, and, as luck would have it, they could take one solo diner. This was a good start.

The place was small and decorated in the style of a farmhouse kitchen. The wait staff were all young, female and pretty – which seems to be the rule here in Denmark – and spoke impeccable English. Once I had the menu, I realized that this place was associated with a beer bar I was interested in visiting. I had a nice IPA to start.

The "

consumption"

One of the options was the chef’s choice: appetizer, main and dessert of the chef’s choosing. There was nothing on the menu that I wouldn’t eat, so I thought, “Why not.” That turned out to be a very good choice. My appetizer was a tomato consommé (billed as a tomato consumption in the English version of the menu J)  with bits of cherry tomato, mozzarella, basil oil and raw mackerel. I was rather like an insalata caprese soup with sushi. I was a bit wary of the mackerel, but everything combined wonderfully; and it was the perfect starter on a warm evening.

The pork

My main course was sublime. It was pork shank with asparagus, peas, and mushrooms in a sauce that I can’t quite describe. It was, without a doubt, one of the best things I have eaten in a long time. Dessert was thinly sliced strawberries in a white chocolate and ginger cream with toasted rye – I’ll call them mini-croutons- for lack of a better word.




You get the picture.