Tag Archive for 'CPH Crawl'

The CPH Crawl – Conclusion

Trine / Published on April 25, 2010 in Restaurant. 0 Comments Tags: .

To wrap up our restaurant crawl of Copenhagen here’s some thoughts I had during and after the evening of what worked well and not so well.

First of all, if we had arranged with the restaurants what exactly to eat each place, then the whole menu would have been more balanced and better structured with light and raw dishes first followed by more comprehensive courses towards to the end and before the desserts. However, not knowing what would be served made a surprise each time and that was so amusing about it. You know foodies love surprises. Well, I least I do.

I liked the fact that we we moving ourselves for about every third serving. It provided a pause in the feast, fresh air and gave room for more food, I believe, and kept me awake. We moved seats every time we seated our selves at each restaurant which was nice and sort of boosted more energy into the party, also.

Of course, the need for transportation at (almost) each shift added an extra cost – I guess it’s the price you pay for having  6 different chefs cook dinner for you. Probably I would hire a minibus for the entire evening next time, so we could all go together and while driving from one place to the next, all talk to each other about the food, the experience etc.

In search of the perfect dinner, and explore the restaurant in another way. I cannot say that it was the perfect dinner, mostly because of the order of the food. But I found it exciting to visit so many restaurants in one evening.

Would I do it again? Yes, but there would have to be a new twist to the crawl. A special theme of something, new restaurants, perhaps. Anyhow, I’m most certainly happy that I took part in this event, and I really had a fabulous evening.

So, thank you all for food, wine, patience, company – everything!

CPH Crawl 6/6: Søllerød Kro

Trine / Published on April 25, 2010 in Denmark and Restaurant. 0 Comments Tags: , .

So, Søllerød Kro was our last stop on the CPH Crawl. Before jumping into the van and drive up north I rang the inn to inform that we would be fine without a meat course. According to our plan we would only have been eating vegetables, fish and shellfish by now and had thus asked Søllerød Kro for a meat dish, main course if you will, as well as the dessert(s). But because of the late hour and the fact that we had eaten so much already, I felt bad about keeping the chefs in the kitchen all night just to cook for us.

It felt so good to see Jan Restorff again. Jan is the essence of the perfect host or maitre d’. He simply has the ability to make me feel good, comfortable, he is kind and friendly but never lose his sense of professionalism. And he remembers everything which is rather amazing. What I ate and drank when etc.

Jêrôme Prévost, La Closerie, Les Béguines Champagne – awesome

Sorry, I need to refer to an old post to show you the first course we were served of Jerusalem artichoke with celeriac, pear, and Macadamia nuts to start off with.

I guess I was too distracted and forgot to snap the dish. Anyway, I loved the freshness and deliciousness of the cleanser. The artichoke ice-cream matched with the fresh and crunchy celeriac combined with the sweet pear and the slightly salty Macadamia nuts.

Pigeon, celery, onions and black truffles

Then followed the most marvelous pigeon, one of the best I’ve eaten lately, full of taste, not too gamy, fine quality without tendons. I was glad they hadn’t listen to my request and even though I really wasn’t hungry I enjoyed it.

2007 Philippe Pacalet Gevrey-Chambertin

The wine that accompanied the bird was served blind. I was amazed that one of the guys was able to guess exactly what we were drinking and this only by sniffing the wine. This was his first visit to Søllerød Kro. I should have guessed that it was a Pacalet Gevrey-Chambertin for I’ve been served exactly this wine at Søllerød at least once before.

After the sea buck-thorn and carrot cleanser it was finally time for the delectable desserts we were waiting for.


Apples, crumble, cream

Each dessert was so good in its own way. I loved the first one which was a new interpretation of a Danish classic of apples, crumble and cream. It’s a perfect balanced taste with sweetness and acidity from the apples with the crunchy crumble and then the cream to round the flavours. Yummy!

Cocoa, caramel, apricot?…

Chocolate, caramel, orange sorbet

The yellow ball here is the most fantastic orange sorbet I have ever eaten. It was bitter but not too much, it tickled my gums, and it was an excellent match to the rich chocolate.

There was one more dessert to go, but at this point I was way too full and too exhausted. I had to head it back to town and get some sleep before work the next morning.

That was the end of a wonderful evening. Conclusion will follow this post.

Warmest thoughts and thanks to all of you!

CPH Crawl 5/6: MR

Trine / Published on April 4, 2010 in Restaurant. 0 Comments Tags: , .

NOTE: This restaurant has close down!

The fifth restaurant for us to visit was MR. We arrived quite late, not sure what the time was at that point. All the guests had left and we were therefore the only party in the restaurant, which was great as it gave a private and more relaxed feeling to it.

Oysters and Sake

Mads Refslund welcomed us and first served some skinny dipping oysters – oyster bathing in warm sake. I liked this marriage of first the cleansing taste of the sake with the burning sense of the alcohol, and then the after-taste full of sea-water with a slight mineral flavour to it. The experience of the two different tastes are separated, and I find that interesting.

Scallops with spinach, smoked egg yolk and bone marrow

Then he brought a basket full of hens’ eggs, covered by a big glass bowl. When he lifted off the cover, smoke infused the room and thrilled my nostrils and I love that, the scent of smoke. These eggs had been smoked for 48-ish hours or something like that. Mads broke the shells and poured one egg yolk on to each plate of spinach, bone marrow and scallops. It was a somewhat rich dish because of the bone marrow, but the acidity in the spinach balanced it. Very good.

Langoustine, seaweed…

Then followed a langoustine course with seaweed which I liked a lot, but I don’t remember much more about it, sorry to say.

2007 Domain Jean & Gilles Lafouge, Meursault Les Meix Chabaux – Very enjoyable

Too soon the taxi driver rang me up and told me he was waiting for us ready to drive us up north to Søllerød Kro – the last stop on our tour around the Copenhagen eateries.

Dear Mads & co, thanks for your kind hospitality!

CPH Crawl 4/6: noma

Trine / Published on March 13, 2010 in Denmark and Restaurant. 8 Comments Tags: , .

So, we arrived to the fourth restaurant visit this evening. Not that I was really hungry anymore, but I was still very excited and curious about what the second half of the crawl would bring us.

The agreement with Lau, restaurant manager, was that we would be sitting in he lounge. This explains the quality of these photos. The light was a challenge.

I could hardly wait for the food, when I first sat down. What would René be serving us?

Sea buckthorn

We first got a snack kinda thing of sea buckthorn rubber. The texture was a bit chewy like chewing gum, only edible. I liked the taste of it, not too bitter or sour, but it wasn’t something that I could eat a whole lot of.

I wanted to challenge the guys and had asked Lau to serve the wine blind. It was a test. I wanted to learned how my companions would describe a Danish wine, what grape they thought it would be, and what origin they would compare it to. Lau was serving them 2008 Arwen, named after René daughter, born the same year.

Arwen is made from the grapes Solaris (an early matured white wine grape), Sauvignon Blanc, Silvaner and Riesling. The guys guessed Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc and guessed Germany, not Denmark.

Cod milt, cucumber (I think), dill oil and herbs

The first dish was clearly inspired by René Redzepi’s trip to Japan where cod milt is a delicacy. It’s the first time I try cod milt, or cod sperm to be frank. (I will spare you for all the jokes the boys made and couldn’t stop making them laugh). To me it looked like brain, because of the winding intestine-like appearance. It is the rosa-coloured thing in the middle of the plate. The texture was soft and almost liquid, very creamy. It didn’t comprise much taste, though sea water with some creaminess to it was most dominant. Above all it reminded me of the first time I tried oysters. I wasn’t sure how I liked it. I don’t think, however, that I will be as fond of cod milt as I am of oysters.

Cod liver

The second serving was cod liver. The texture of it was very fragile and fatty, and the taste was quite fishy. A bit too much, I thought. The berries added some acidity and flavour-wise the dish was balanced.

Was I disappointed? Not really. I mean, with so many noma visits in my dining history I’m not sure yet another musk ox tartar or a langoustine on a stone would make this visit memorable. I was surprised and that’s a very important factor. The fact that I didn’t appreciate the food much was secondary to me.

We still had two more restaurants to go and needed to hurry up. But when I called the cap he was having a break. OK. Two taxis therefore took us back to the city centre and to MR.

Thank you Lau, René and every one for a great experience!

CPH Crawl 3/6: The Paul

Trine / Published on March 9, 2010 in Denmark and Restaurant. 2 Comments Tags: , .

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 where Paul Cunningham and one chef cooked our two-course menu.

Laurent filming…

Mr. Cunningham

Diebolt-Vallois Brut Rosé Champagne - lovely

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!

CPH Crawl 2/6: Herman

Trine / Published on March 4, 2010 in Denmark and Restaurant. 4 Comments Tags: , .

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!