Copenhagen Cooking

For our last wedding anniversary, we managed to escape from our duties and allow us, for once, a little vacation that didn't include meeting any relative: we went to Copenhagen, which is one of our most common travel destinations.
 Since we are boring, not only we chose a city where we have been quite many times, but we connected it with one of our passions: food.
 During that weekend, and in this period, small events are taking place in different parts of the town, with the red thread being food. The main event was Copenhagen Cooking.

Unfortunately, participating in some events was not ideal for us; apart the quite relevant cost, we had also our favorite ballast with us, Isabella. Hence, we could not go and enjoy watching "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" and our dinner experience was nothing too exotic.
 Despite everything, we managed to go assist the Knorr Cook Along, in Torvehallerne and participate in the Nordic taste event at Carlsberg Bryggeri.

Mattias checking food at Torvehallerne

The cooking along was not exactly cathing our attention. Once at Torvehallerne, we were hypnotized by the place itself and we went around scanning every little shop and searching what we want to eat.
We basically spent the whole afternoon eating. Salty food, sweet and pastry, smoothies. We tried a bit of everything even though we didn't try everything really :)

But that was the most fascinating food market I have ever seen! I was just drooling envying the people working in the sorrounding that have the possibility to choose something of that amazing buffet of tastes for lunch. We were so enthusiastic that we were almost deciding to move to Copenhagen ;-)

The amazing vegetable market

Some fish boutique

Our first purchase: a "fish tapas plate". Some things were very tasty, others so so!

An amazing raspberry pie, from the French chain Brioche Doree

A strawberry cupcake on the left and a passionfruit cupcake on the right, from Agnes cupcakes

A surprise in the cupcake... :)

Reaching the Nordic Taste event was not easy. Or better, it was quite ok, but it required about 30-40 minutes of walk. And being the whole Copenhagen Cooking undercommercialized, finding the way was like opening a mistery box.
Eventually, we landed in place and when looking around we saw that we were not alone....

The place was literally full with people and stands. Around 27 stands were offering mini portions of food and we had the opportunity to taste from 10 of them and decide which one was the best (for us, of course, although our opinion is always what everyone else should think ;D).
The food was both danish and swedish (or better, from Skåne), with small and big names presenting dishes. An interesting fact was that there was a big tent with smaller stands not competing presenting all sort of food, fruit, vegetable and more from Skåne. The Danes are crazy about those things :) And we too, and hence we are very glad to live in the right part of Sweden ;-)
Unfortunately, it was quite stressful for us being there, since Isabella was very restless in the stroller and it was not funny to walk with her in the crowd and we forgot to take some pictures of what we were eating :-(
However, among what we tasted there were three or four small dishes that caught our palate and, a bit for supporting Skåne, a lot because it was very good, we gave our fork/vote to Brösarps Gästgifveri.
Still, I haven't found who won that day...but it must have been what we have voted, of course!!!

An birthday duck at Lemongrass

It took my birthday for finally going to Lemongrass, a quite well-known and popular restaurant in Malmö. For years, I heard colleagues telling me how lovely the food was there. And if at first, the "asian fusion" confused me, then I taught that the popularity was possibly well deserved.
And finally, with our little Isabella, we decided to celebrate my 33rd birthday (sounds like the last supper...).

Located quite central in Malmö, it is not in a very beautiful building, however, the restaurant itself is quite cozy and welcoming.
The staff was very nice and polite, from tipping us on the fact that we could close the window to avoid smoke to intoxicate all of us, to recommending us to not take the tasting menu, in order to avoid to starve. Luckily, we followed the waitress advice and decided to try a bit of dishes, a plate of sushi, 3 appetizers and two main courses.

The appetizers and the sushi

The rice paper wrap, or better the vietnamese summer rolls, were ok. Just ok. We are used to the ones of another restaurant and those are great! And the hoi chi min sauce is much tastier. And for the same money we can get four times more rolls.
Another disappointment was the green papaya salad.  Ok, we are not in Thailand, but it lacked some sting in the taste and unfortunately, had quite little to do with the fantastic salad we still remember we took the first day in Nai Harn.
If these were the lows, we were enthuasiast instead of the spicy beef sallad. Finally spicy, finally fresh, had a fantastic sauce and the meet was nice and tasty. Yummi!!! Pity it was over too soon, but then there were four very nice pieces of sushi awaiting our mouths. Ok, it is not the sushi from Sushi Zanmai in Tokyo but for being in Sweden it was approved.

The main dishes

But the horror crawled on our table as soon as the main dishes landed in front of our eyes. Well, in our mouths, once again.
I took roasted duck. But I don't know if I was older than the duck. Quack!
And if the spring rolls that were served together with it were indeed nice (but nothing compared to Mattias' own execution), I had some pak choi (theoretically light fried with garlic) that had seen garlic when the duck was alive! (that is a loooong time ago).
Mattias was luckier in his choice with a crispy beef. Probably chinese inspired, it had a very nice texture and it simply tasted good. However, considering my unfortunate experience with the duck and since the crispyness of the beef was given by a quite thick glazing, I had my doubts on the quality of the meat hidden down there...

As you can possibly read between the lines, the experience at this restaurant was far below our expectations.  This teaches me to not ever trust certain people about food ;-D
Indipendently from that, although the place is nice, the personal professional and some of the dishes quite nice, I concluded that it is way over budget for the quality of the food (and the quantity) and that it didn't match my expectations over the dishes. If I could give a suggestion to the owner, I would specialize in one asiatic kitchen, instead of covering almost a whole continent without catching the right tastes.

Attack No. 1, by Chikako Urano

Atakku Nanbāwan: 7 by Chikako Urano
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I manage to read the 7 volumes of this wonderful manga all at once.
I could not stop reading it, although I knew more and less what was going to happen and I was not surprised to find that the volleyball japanese team was quite strong :-)
But if one loves volleyball, this is just lighting up the passion even more; if instead one is not that interested, this could generate some curiosity.
Kozue is not a very classical character, although quite unlucky in love, she is very determined and focused and has the tendency to heat up quite easily.
She has a strong devotion for volleyball and she grows as the story goes, turning enemies in friends and learning more about herself.
What I love most of the manga is that it gives me the positive feeling to devote myself to my work or what I am supposed to do, with the same attitude as the characters of the manga. Maybe there is too much harshness in the story, considering how things are today, but I don't mind the respect for the authority and the capabilities that everyone has to accept fate and give always the best.
The only minor sides are that sometimes certain passages are drawn too quickly, although they are crucial too the story and to the character development.
I hope I will soon have the time to watch the animated version, I can resist without thinking that it has been too many years (maybe 20?) since I have seen an episode!

View all my reviews

Bikini Time

Unfortunately, we had to pack all in hurry. We worked on the house until the night before and the morning of our departure we were very stressed and having a clear lack of time. Just to help out, all our things are not in any "usual place" and having everything spread everywhere made us even more confused. Especially me, matrix-based. So, so far I have discovered that I left home a couple of items: the memory card for the camera (or at least, I hope it is home...), the charger for my incredibly old phone (no comment on this) and finally, two of my bikini. I don't have many of those, since our "seaside time" is very little every year, but having available just one is too much also for me. So, I went and bought one with the sales (but was it really on sale? I never understood that) at Tezenis.

I wonder, should I buy a new charger and a new memory card for my forgetful packing operation?

Clover, Kuroba, by Toriko Chiya

Kurōbā: 1 by Toriko Chiya
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I judge this number of Clover based on the fact that I have actually read the whole story.
It starts as an OL manga, but then ends up to be a bit more like a classical shoujo. This is even admitted by the author in one of the free speech parts in the last numbers. This is also due to the fact that the manga was published on different magazines, with different targets.
However, the story is pleasant to be read - some parts are a bit too long and trivial - but all together, there are some sparks and get surprised there and then.
The characters are very nice, since they develop quite much from the beginning. It is interesting to see how they mature in time.
In general, a pleasant reading, maybe not the most original piece of art, but for us "foreigners" it is a good key for understanding some parts of the japanese culture and daily life.

View all my reviews

Snails problems?

Have you ever tried to keep a garden and keep it free from snails (with and without shell)? Well, good luck to you! That and weeds are the most annoying thing I have found so far in our garden! But I have got a good suggestion for eliminating them without using pesticides or chemicals. Beer. Yes, they drown, they are drunk and they get out of your plants!

It is enough to put a container in the ground. Fill it with beer and wait :-)

Last of the Wilds

Last of the Wilds by Trudi Canavan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have started to read the book a long time ago, however I had to break it constantly (and in the meanwhile I also read other things).
I finally found time to focus on it, lately, and since then I enjoyed every single bit of it. I like the story. It is intelligent, interesting and I like the characters. I am starting to like more and more Auraya and realizing she could be one of my favourite characters, although I don't have a big recollection of the first book of the serie.
I am now looking forward to have the possibility to read the next book!


View all my reviews