'Koala' Lumpur

Copenhagen has recently added a new tourist attraction - the ferris wheel (http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/content/tourist/news/news/ferris_wheel_to_copenhagen). Looks familiar to you (malaysian)? Well, that's probably because it's from the same company that's provided the ferris wheel previously in Kuala Lumpur.

The 'wheel' in Copenhagen is directly from the Place de la Concorde in Paris and will be in town until late October. Kuala Lumpur was mentioned in the Copenhagen's Ferris Wheel introduction page with the wrong spelling as: 'Koala Lumpur'.

I almost fainted when I saw it. How can such mistake been made on a tourist information page with high hit rate right? Especially not when it involves my home country! So I dropped a mail to feedback and it's corrected, so now it's Kuala Lumpur :)

A Roii Thai Takeaway

Copenhagen has a Thai restaurant that owns a Michelin star - Kiin Kiin, serving Thai food with a modern touch. The restaurant is of course not cheap, but to offer mass public with a more affordable way to enjoy their cuisine, takeaway is available at a more affordable price. The food selection is different from what's being offered in the restaurant but I believe it's from the same kitchen.

My friend stays a stone throw away from Kiin Kiin so we decided to try their takeaway on a Friday evening (of course have it as his place to ensure food's freshness). The takeaway, A Roii, has a small selection but I guess it's okay for a pre-Kiin Kiin try. We ordered: sesame fried prawn with wasabi dip; chicken satay with peanut sauce; green curry with salmon.

Pic: sesame prawn with wasabi dip

Pic: chicken satay with peanut sauce

Pic: salmon green curry

The order costed DKK235 (for a takeaway!). It doesn't taste fantastic to me, the prawn was crisp but I didn't taste wasabi in the dip; the chicken satay is nothing compare to those back home and the peanut sauce was watery; and the salmon green curry is definitely new to me. My friend seem to like the salmon curry but I prefer Thai food to be authentic, I think it's nicest that way.

Louisiana Museum

If you like art, especially modern art, then Copenhagen can definitely satisfied your need. Two of the most famous modern art museum within city limit is Louisiana & Arken. Both situated next to the sea with creative new designs and wonderful views.

I went to Louisiana museum with my friends for Max Ernst's exhibition. The drive along the coast to the musuem was absolutely fantastic. We stopped by a seaside small shop for a quick lunch. Sitting on outdoor benched, blue sky, fluffy white clouds, gentle breeze and breath-takingly beautiful sea view provides the best environment for our lunch.

Pic: Lunch bench

Photo shootings are not allowed inside the exhibition room (sorry, no 'in sight' reviews) but the permanent displays outdoor are free for shooting. Extended out into the sea, Louisiana café posses one of the best view in the country. Indoor & outdoor seats are available but the indoor window seats are always occupied...so be early or be fast :).

Pic: Louisiana café

Pic: Outdoor sculptur 1

Pic: Outdoor sculptur 2

Pic: Outdoor sculptur 3

Pic: The sculptur, the man & the sea

To me, the beauty of modern art is that they're product of experimental abstract art work. There is no limit on how you would like to interprete the art pieces (which might be just a piece of junk to someone else). My 'Louisiana trip' ended with an ice-cream stop over on the way back, again, another coast parlour. I enjoyed my trip very much and anticipatingly looking forward to visiting Arken.

Deep Fried Asparagus

Whenever I visit Thai restaurant, I'm always greeted with 'Sawadee ka', never greeted chinese in chinese restaurant though, sadly. Wonder is it because I look more thai than chinese?? or?? hmm... Anyway, I love thai food as much as chinese food, maybe due to the proximity of Malaysia to Thailand that brings some similarities in our food. Remember the tomyam, satay & green curry? yum yum...

There are a lot of thai restaurant in Denmark and fresh authentic 'exotic' ingredients flew from Thailand weekly to supply the local Asian shops. I won't say everything is available, but just about everything common are made available. Green curry paste or satay sauce can even be purchased in Danish grocery shops, which made cooking thai food at home so much easier.

I don't think the ordinary thai food in Copenhagen are as good as the ones in Thailand, even though they are prepared by Thai chefs; but, the fusion / newly invented ones are really nice. How about some deep fried asparagus? I tasted it in Khun Juk the thai restaurant and can never forget the great taste.

Attempted to 'duplicate' the same deep fried asparagus. My asparagus was thinner but just coat it with eggs & breadcrumbs, they taste heavenly. Thicker asparagus (like the ones I had in the restaurant) was much better but this will do as well, delicious :)

Sushi on the street

My very first time eating sushi in the middle of the road...


A small cosy sushi bar run by Japanese family in down town Copenhagen, Selfish, provides one of the best sushi in town at reasonable price. Fine cuts, fresh ingredients, matching drinks, good company & great weather, who cares about the passing by bicycles & cars? I enjoyed my lunch very much and frequented the restaurant ever since :)

Banana Cake

I'm sure every household will once in a while bump into situation where some 'accidentally excessively bought' fruits are getting too ripe and have to be thrown away. In my kitchen, banana's riping rate is always faster than its 'being consumpted rate'.

Normally I'll just buy natural yoghurt and make some banana lassi with the ripe ones. However, one of these days, the enticing fragrant of banana cake baking in the oven suddenly filled my mind and continue to haunt me for a week. So I finally decided to bake a banana cake with some super ripe (the skin is turning brown) banana.

Recipe is adapted from a proven trusted site and I just love the smell of banana cake mixed with the fragrant of walnut filling my apartment when it's being baked. The important trick is not to over mix the batter (it's not suppose to be smooth). Over mixing the batter will yield tough, rubbery cake.

Japanese Desserts

If there is anyone who can turn desserts into art, then it must be the Japanese.

Look at these desserts, I'm amazed with their adorable forms but don't feel like eating them at all, think I'll feel guilty when I take the first bite for destroying the art.

I mean, of course dessert should look appetizing but when it's too nice to be eaten, can we still call it dessert? or shall it be re-labelled as 'art'?

Mowing

Very warm sunny Saturday, perfect for a garden BBQ. Since I live in an apartment, the desire can only be fulfilled by visiting others who have a garden...except this particular friend's garden needed a little 'house keeping', look at the wild flowers & weeds :p

Being a first timer in using the mowing machine, I'm so eager to try it out. Except the 'look-so-fun' mowing activities very quickly turned into a boring tiring activity. While I battle with the mowing machine, the owner of the garden is obviously happy with a stupid free labour, isshh!

I love cherries and am thrilled to find a small cherry tree in the garden with some 'not-so-ripe' cherries (but the birds have already eaten almost half of the available ones). I'm not less desperate than the birds and basically 'took care' of all available cherries, hehe...

As for the BBQ, with a one time grill, some sausages, potato salad & baguette, the basic of the very basic (since none of us are good at grilling), there's nothing to shout about. Anyway, it's the nice company that counts :)

Danish Confectionery

If there is one thing that you shouldn't miss while in Denmark, then it definitely is their confectionery (konditori in Danish). Two of the most famous confectionery in town is Konditori La Glace & Konditori H.C.Andersen.

Konditori La Glace holds the name of the oldest confectionery in town for over a hundred years. Cakes & coffees are no doubt expensive here but also undeniably good. However, personally, I prefer Konditori H.C.Andersen much more for its lighter flavour. La Glace cakes are baked mocking fresh style where the cakes are rich and heavy while in H.C.Andersen, the cake is lighter and taste even better (to me).

My first attempt in H.C.Andersend was their platter of yearly cakes. Normally marzipan is not my cup of tea but they're use quite a lot in H.C.Andersen's year cake series & they taste just perfect, not overwhelming but you'll definitely notice its presence.

One of my favourite in H.C.Andersen is their vanilla fromage (pictured). I had to take some quick pictures with my mobile phone so don't let the look deceived you if the cake doesn't look nice to you. I think I can easily eat 2 in a row without any issue.

Ice Age 3 - 3D

Watched Ice Age in 3D some time ago, it was pretty cool. A DKK110 movie ticket (with loaned 3D glasses) took me through the movie in a fun ride. It was definitely cool to see the subtitles in 3D as well. Some scenes are particularly good in 3D (eg: the scene where the squirrels are trapped in bubble) and I really enjoyed it. Especially when Ice Age is quite okay itself.

I noticed the horizontal movements are a bit fuzzy in 3D, wonder if it's a technical limitation? Vertical movements are absolutely fine. Initially I thought it was my glasses, after several wipes and a verification with my friends, we all have the same feeling. Guess it must not be all of us who has horizontal movement coordination issue right? hmm... Also I don't think I can watch 3D movies for more than 3 hours, it's stressing my eyes a lot. Nice but always a limit, that's all.

Looking forward to the next 3D movie. Actually, also looking forward, so so so looking forward to Pixar's "Up" (well, every movie is showing slightly slower in Denmark), definitely going to watch it. Check out the trailer, very promising.

Vienna 2

More about Vienna...

St.Stephen's church in the old town city centre, again my poor camera can only capture half of the church, there's a much taller gothic style 'spike' on the right. Some parts of the church is also under 'reconstruction / maintenance' but the Austrians definitely have a nicer way of covering the under construction parts than the Spaniards :)


I do not know what this building is, I'm guessing it's Hofburg but I can't be sure. Didn't even walk into the building, sick & tired...


Really like this statue right beside 'Hofburg' though, I wish my pictures are stronger but that's all I've got :s


Karlsplatz, an underground station turned tourist attraction. I think it's nice for a station but a little under the bar as tourist attraction. The church a stone throw away was pretty nice though.


I like this picture of Karlskirche, had some other ones but decided to post this one :p Again, too little time because the day was planned for Schoenbrunn Palace, and I didn't regret sacrificing visiting Karlskirche for it.

Schoebrunn palace is huge, and I mean HUGE! Just the entrance will require at least 10 shots to make a complete paranomic picture so I decided to shoot a quick video instead. I think Google / wikipedia has a better 360 degree picture, but then again, mine is MINE :)

Lots of toursists flocking the palace but still you don't feel over crowded, kind of shows how gigantic the place is isn't it? Aside from the huge palace & the Sisi museum, the back garden is impressive. If it's your first visit, I guarantee you'll be stunned, at least I was. A majestic fountain stands at the end of the garden and stretch your eyes to a strikingly impressive gate on the hill top overseeing the palace. The palace also houses a zoo, yes, a zoo. Unfortunately, being still sick in rainy day, I really didn't make much out of this trip. If anyone were to travel to Vienna and miss Schoenbrunn Palace, that's a really big regret. I'll definitely plan a trip back to Vienna again and a day solely for this palace.

Back to the city and walked pass the famous Café Central. How about a cup of Wiener Melange and a piece of Viennist sweet cakes for a poetic afternoon? Sounds nice isn't it? Well, next time, I guess.

I like Vienna, even though I think it's more 'artificial' than Budapest / Prague with all the huge nicely crafted buildings & statues but undeniably, it's a city full of music and arts. Just by walking on the street makes your head feels lighter. The only remark is: a weekend trip to Vienna will be unfair to both the city & to yourself. Spend a week at the minimum... or at least that's what I plan to do again, sometime in future :)