A Quick Trip to Copenhagen

Copenhagen has been on my travel list for a long time so I was unbelievably thrilled when the Copenhagen Cooking & Food Festival and Visit Copenhagen invited me, Michelle, and Adrianna to eat our way through their beautiful Scandinavian city. It was a quick trip, just four days, but we packed in so much tasty food, perfectly poured coffees, and Scandi design shopping adventures.

 Let's recap! The first night was kind of a blur as we all tried to adjust our jetlagged bodies to our new temporary timezone, but we powered through and had such a lovely dinner at Spontan/Brus - a beautiful restaurant and brewery combo - with wine and beer pairings to go along with. The most memorable dishes of the night were the first - a perfectly, incredibly sweet scallop brushed with yuzu and served with tomato consomme and the most beautiful pile of  cress sprouts and borage which was paired with the crispiest-tastiest Reisling I have had in recent memory - and the last - the creamiest little scoop of geranium ice cream with caramelized white chocolate and seriously luscious crushed raspberries over the top. They also served bread made with malt from their beer brewing process - and a mound of perfectly soft butter. I love when restaurants serve their butter at the correct temperature, a small detail that not everyone gets right.

Can we take a moment to appreciate these insanely beautiful raspberries we spotted at the farmer's market outside of Torvehallerne, an indoor food market a lot like NYC's Chelsea Market. I went crazy photographing all of the beautiful fruit - surprise, surprise....check out my instagram for more of that biz.

Above: Smørrebrød tasting in the Meatpacking District of Copenhagen. Yes to rye bread topped with delicious pickled things, and lots of schnapps too! We got to vote for our favorite! 

Coffee and croissants - and the interior - at Mirabelle were A+, but the coffees we had from Copenhagen Coffee Lab were low-key my fave. Coffee beans are one of my favorite souvenirs when I travel, and I'm so glad I brought some beans home with me. They are dope. Thanks to Ashlae for the rec!!

My favorite meal may have been the most relaxed. We gathered with a group of lovely folks in the back garden of Skagerak to eat a meal cooked by chef Mikkel Karstad. It was a family affair - his wife and two eldest kids helped cook and serve and the littlest ones occupied themselves by cooking bread on a stick over the fire pit. Mikkel served the most delicious vegetable-heavy meal, but my favorite dish was the roasted cauliflower with a creamy almost buttermilk-style dressing, cress oil, radishes, little cress sprouts, and toasted buckwheat groats.

We also got a mini Danish lesson from one of our hosts and learned how to properly pronounce "hygge" along with many other key phrases, which was very counterintuitive to our American ears and mouths...I usually consider myself to be pretty good with languages and accents, but I was really struggling with Danish! Thankfully, everyone very graciously spoke perfect English with us :)

We rode on a solar-powered Go Boat to grab lunch one day, something I highly recommend if you ever find yourself in Copenhagen. Anyone can rent/drive one, and it was such a fun way to see the city!

My favorite afternoon was our last, which we spent in Norrebro. We cruised around on Go Bikes (Copenhagen's bike share program) and ate the most delicious lunch of  tartar (with nasturtium leaves!) and perfect little vegetable dishes at Manfreds accompanied by some seriously funky and delicious natural wines. It was the kind of place that I would totally make my local if I lived close by. 

Then we made our way down the street to sample caramel fresh off of the cooling table, and just pressed bits of warm black licorice at Karamelleriet. Man, I love that salty black licorice - it is a seriously under appreciated flavor. The afternoon was topped off by a coffee from Copenhagen Coffee Collective and a few bites of pastries and surprisingly delicious apple juice with buckthorn from Meyers Bageri, which happens to have an outpost right down the street from me in Brooklyn!

Check out Adrianna and Michelle's posts to see more of our adventures!

Thank you so much to Copenhagen Cooking and Visit Copenhagen for hosting us and covering our airfare, hotel, and meals while we were visiting! I can't wait to come back.