Archive for the 'Restaurant' Category

CPH Crawl 3/6: The Paul

Next up was The Paul, named after head chef and owner Paul Cunningham. Tivoli is closed at this time of the year, and the restaurant is only open on special occasions and for private parties. Brown paper bags with candles inside lit op the snow and led us around the glass house to the back door as the main restaurant entrance was closed.

Chef’s table was set for us and we had the view to the kitchen wherePaul Cunningham and one chef cooked our two-course menu.

Laurent filming…

Mr. Cunningham

Diebolt-Vallois Brut Rosé Champagne

Octopus, Læsø langoustine within, caviare reduction – rossini

The first dish was very intense and quite heavy to my taste. The delicate langoustine was stuffed inside the squid but the flavour of it was overdosed by the caviare reduction and the mushrooms. There was thin black cracker which was a bit too salty. It’s the black thing at the top of the photo.

2005 Duijn, Pinot Noir, Baden

Quail, coquus with pumpkin. Bresse fat, orange, ginger and browned butter.

The quail was nice, medium cooked and had a delicious taste with the spices on the top. Sorry to say, but I have no real recollection of the pumpkin and the yellow puree.

The ambiance was wonderful and it was like being invited to Paul’s private home, because no one else except us were there. Candle lights all around decorated the room in a lovely way.

Anyways, time to move on once more, noma was waiting, and Paul’s kind sommelier luckily got us a van that fit all six of us, and which was available to us also later in the evening.

Thank you so much, Paul, for letting us in!

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CPH Crawl 2/6: Herman

Second stop on our tour around the best restaurants in Copenhagen was Herman at the Tivoli Gardens run by head chef Thomas Herman. Steve Plotnicki was  already waiting for us when we got there.

I very much like the dining room at Herman. It’s classy and stylish and the professional, yet human and warm atmosphere makes me feel good and delighted just to be there. We were immediately welcomed with a delicious oyster prominently served on a glass bowl.

2005 Nicolas Joly, Les Vieux Clos, Savennières, Loire

Bisque of cep mushrooms with scallops from Faroe Islands,

funnel chanterelle, ash, fresh cheese and sherry

A wonderful balance characterized the bisque, juicy scallops, earthiness from the mushrooms and acidity from the subtle Sherry.

The crawlers

2007 Louis Carillon, Puligny-Montrachet, Les Perrières 1er Cru

North Sea turbot as lobscourse with winter truffles,

potatoes, butter from Nimb’s dairy and beetroot

The sweetness and the crispy textures from the cooked and raw pieces of beetroot were great with the delectable turbot, which was covered by a beetroot jelly. The black Melanosporum witt truffles were grated over the butter and offered an intense truffle flavour when it was spread on a piece of the excellent bread. Awesome.

Æbleskiver – batter balls

I completely felt seduced that night at Herman. Everything went completely smooth, both the dishes were stunning and the wines were so enjoyable. In fact, I was so delighted that I’m going back there for a full meal tonight!

Being the second restaurant on our tour and thus menu-wise at the entrees stage of the meal, I may have wished for lighter fish courses. On the other hand, these courses did match-up with Kiin Kiin’s street food, so in that sense it worked well. And really, the fact that the food was so good is the most important thing to me.

Too soon it was again time to leave and the sommelier Emil kindly escorted us across the dark and snow-covered garden to the next restaurant of our crawl: The Paul.

Thank you so much, guys!

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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!

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The CPH Crawl – In Search of the Perfect Dinner

Inspired by Steve Plotnicki’s crawls in New York City with first chef Sergio Herman and later the food critic Jay Rayner, Laurent and I organised a crawl of CPH’s best restaurants on 4th February 2010. To visit six places on one evening would be another way to discover restaurants, food, service, local products and what a city has to offer in term of fine dining experiences. That’s the reason why we sat it all up.

So, who took part besides me?

High-End Food Ingo, German food blogger

Food Intelligence Bruno Verjus, French food blogger

Opinionated About Dining Steve Plotnicki, US food blogger and restaurant guide owner

Gastros on Tour Guillaume Coppin & Laurent Vanparys, food bloggers

Sensum.be Laurent Vanparys of the Belgian restaurant webguide

And this was our crawl plan:

- 17:45: Kiin Kiin *
- 18:30: Herman *
- 19:30: The Paul *
- 20:30: noma **
- 21:30: MR *
- 22:45: Søllerød Kro *

At Kiin Kiin we ordered snacks and the Thai street food. Herman, The Paul, noma and MR would serve us raw and cooked fish courses and at Søllerød Kro we would have a meat course and desserts. What were my expectations? First of all, I was looking forward to trying something I had never done before. It sounded a bit hectic from a logistical point of view, but it also sounded like good fun and possibility of comparing the restaurants and the food, service in a new way.

One city, one dinner, six guests, six restaurants. Stay tuned for more…

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