CPH Crawl 1/6: Kiin Kiin

The evening of the CPH Crawl on 4th February 2010 began for me when I precisely 17:45 entered the doors to the modern Thai cooking restaurant Kiin Kiin. After a warm welcome from the staff and owner Henrik Yde-Andersen, I was shown to the wine cellar where Ingo was already waiting. A few minutes later Bruno, Guillaume and Laurent arrived.

Pork cracklings with dry curry

Popped tapioka with seaweed and oyster mayo

While Henrik told us the whole story about the restaurant we nibbled pork cracklings with dry curry, popped tapioka with seaweed and oyster mayo, lotus roots with lime leaves and soy roasted cashews with the Dim Sum beer brewed with lemongrass. Especially the cracklings and the tapioka were delicious.

Jelly fish salad with sesame

Then we moved up one level to the lounge. This was a surprised, since I thought we were staying downstairs for the entire time. But next was jelly fish salad with sesame, which was spicy and had a funny chewy texture but a really good taste.

Beef roll with spicy marinade

The chef, Morten Bojstrup

Fish cakes and cucumber chutney

Scallops in coconut milk and lemongrass

Then followed beef roll with spicy marinade, fish cakes and cucumber chutney and then scallops in coconut milk and lemongrass. All very tasty and proved to me that the kitchen is still improving. The food was accompanied by a 2007 Thai white wine Hua Hin, which was light, fruity and had a slight note of green olive to it.

Oyster with shallots and Thai sauce

Time flew, I thought we were about to leave for the next restaurant, but the staff told us to go up the stairs to the dining room. The waiter poured the very nice Charpentier champagne into our glasses and soon after a fabulous oyster with shallots and Thai sauce arrived full of distinct and balanced flavours.

Frozen red curry with lobster and lichee

We drank a glass of the excellent and very aromatic 2008 Zind Humbrecht Gewürztraminer with the final serving of the signature dish: frozen red curry with lobster and lichee. The lichee was placed under the curry and worked as a refreshing finish to the spicy taste.

Time to leave, we were a little behind schedule, but the kind staff had organized taxis for us waiting outside. Henrik handed me a bag with five cans and spoons and instructed me in opening them with the little coin to be found in the bag too. So, on the move to the next restaurant we enjoyed a very delicious dessert of Earl Grey and Jasmine tea ice-cream which also contained some crunch. It actually worked as a cleanser and prepared my palate for the next dish.

At Kiin Kiin they had planned a crawl of their entire restaurant and even integrated the transportation to the next place. It was awesome, very good fun and amazing how much effort they had put into making this a great initiation of the CPH Crawl. It was far better than I had hoped for. What a fabulous beginning. Many, many thanks, guys!