Kristihimmelfartsdag

It's 10pm and the sun is just now setting on  Kristihimmelfartsdag, which is the name of the national holiday today. This is the first resurrection and takes place ten days prior to Pentecost. Danes had the day off of work; but not this mother and daughter author team! We were hard at work on our book, though eating and talking to chefs can hardly be called work.

A field of rapeseed with the Danish flag flying

We began the day by visiting with both daughters of our family friends, including their little ones (3 years and 2 months old respectively). Then we headed for the small island of Orø. On the drive we were treated to many views of stunning bright yellow fields of rapeseed, which in America is known as canola. The island is home to around 500 people and you have to take a short ferry ride to get there.

At the Hotel Orø Kro we had an enormous lunch which was well-photographed (again, patience!) before being devoured. I started with a salad and then had the stjerneskud m/stegt og dampet fisk which is (from bottom up): a piece of toasted white bread, lettuce, steamed plaice (fish), fried fish, red dressing, shrimps, 2 different kinds of caviar, a garnish of tomato, lemon, and asparagus, and a sprig of dill. The chef, Kasper Kallerup Hansen, was very kind and allowed us to photograph him preparing several of the dishes as well as holding them afterwards. 

Food styling and photography session

Among other dishes ordered, we also had dyrlaegens natmad, which means the veterinarian's night-time snack. This is a smørrebrød (open-faced sandwich) topped with pate, aspic, ham, bacon, beets, and onion. 

Stjerneskud m/stegt og dampet fisk

At dinnertime we were not very hungry, which has been a common theme, but had a very lovely meal (I believe it was the very first on the trip not to have been photographed though it was delicious) at the home of the mormor (grandmother) of our family friends.

Tomorrow, which also happens to be my birthday, we've got a full day of appointments with four different restaurants, all of very high caliber. Three of them are at Tivoli Gardens, which is where we'll end up the evening with a birthday dinner, and one is with Denmark's first female chef to earn a Michelin star, Anita Klemensen! Stay tuned for the full report...

We went to noma!

noma!

Well, we went to the building that noma, rated the best restaurant in the world several years in a row, is housed in and we took some pictures and peered into the windows. But at least we can say that we went there. As my mom said, we join the ranks of no-mads, those who are upset about not being able to go there. According to our guide from the museum yesterday, they open up reservations exactly three months in advance and they normally fill up immediately that morning. It is definitely worth checking out the menu which is considered Nordic cuisine (noma is the abbreviation of nordic mad which means nordic food). Notice the price, 1500 kr which is around $260.


For lunch we ate at Aamanns, an upscale smørrebrød restaurant (literally this means buttered bread but is the word that represents traditional Danish open-faced sandwiches). I had the daily smørrebrød which was a trio of fishcake, chicken salad with asparagus, and pork with rhubarb. Delicious! We all had to be patient when the food arrived so that I could photograph the dishes - which will be a trend throughout the trip.

My trio of smørrebrød

After lunch we had our very first "official" restaurant visit for the book, at Marv og Ben which translates to bone and marrow. It was a brief stop where we met the chef, Frederik, and chatted about a recipe that we might be able to include in the book (there will be around 24 recipes total). They're having some publicity photos taken this week so we're off the hook for taking those ourselves.

Next we walked to the main shopping area of Copenhagen to go to the Royal Cafe which is the cafe associated with Royal Copenhagen, a high-end porcelain company. They specialize in "smushi" which are small sushi-shaped smørrebrød (hence the name). We didn't try any since we were full from lunch but did have a very pretty latte and some tasty treats.

Latte at the Royal Cafe

We've got some very exciting days coming up - I won't give anything away now but here's a hint: a Michelin star-rated chef is involved so I would suggest staying tuned!

Our first full day in Denmark

We're drawing to a close on the first full day of our trip to Denmark. Yesterday we both arrived safely and had a delicious home-cooked dinner of chicken stuffed with parsley, boiled new potatoes with gravy, pickled cucumber salad, and rød grød med fløde (red soup with milk) for dessert made from rhubarb and strawberries. This is a traditional spring dinner and it was a delicious welcome to our spring visit to Denmark.


This morning we woke up having both slept many hours in order to battle jetlag and took the train into Copenhagen, after a traditional light breakfast of rugbrød (rye bread) with oste (cheese). We met up with Lykke, a wonderful employee of the National Museum, or Nationalmuseet (and apparently often shortened to nat mus which means black mouse in Danish). She took us to lunch at the employee's dining area where we had buffet options of pork and potatoes with gravy, crepes with jam, many cold salads, bread and cheese, and of course herring! I had curried herring which is the only way of preparation that I personally eat herring - until today when I also tried a new type which is fried, then put into brine and served cold. Very tasty! After talking extensively with Lykke about Danish cuisine and various trends, we walked around an exhibit with her that focused on Denmark from 1600-2000. We saw some interesting historical cooking tools such as a wooden beer ladle shaped like a duck from the 1700s.


After our full day at the museum we took the train back home and had another traditional home-cooked dinner, this time of frikadeller, a meatball made from pork, onion, salt, pepper, and thyme, served with pointy cabbage in a cream sauce and boiled new potatoes. For dessert we had a butter milk concoction poured in bowl over small crunchy cookies (called kaernemaelkskoldskål).


After dinner we took a walk in the woods with the dogs (three very well-trained black labs) and came across a very sad sight on the path, a deceased baby deer. It did not appear to have been injured so we're not sure how it died. At the end of the walk one of the dogs was not with us (they're off leash in that area of the woods). Since they've very well trained, this was odd. Our friend went back to see if perhaps it had gone back to the deer and as it turns out it had; but while we were expecting to see a bloody mouth upon return, it turns out the dog had been sitting there, keeping watch over the little guy.


So as not to close this out on a low note, here are some photos from the trip so far, taken only with my phone - the good ones from the fancy cameras will be reserved for the book!

A fruit drink in the 7-11 with a pretty good marketing slogan!

The many different kinds of pølser (hot dogs) that you can get at a pølservogn (hot dog cart)