A weekend in Amsterdam

I consider myself lucky to have my old college buddies also working in Europe, and as a by-product, we get to travel to places together. A short 2 weeks notice that goes 'hey, let's go to somewhere together this summer, a short weekend'; and we found ourselves on our ways to Amsterdam.

Our trip was not planned with detail itineraries, more of a 'see as we go' trip, not necessarily covering all essentials of Amsterdam but we had great great time. Honestly, I miss travelling with friends, not that Mr.T is not a good travel companion but being in old friends' company where I'm also comfortable with, is a precious experience.

We started walking around Rembrandt Square, scouting for the recommended Indonesian restaurant but to find that it's not open for lunch. So we had some Argentinian mixed grill with a bottle of red Argentinian wine instead. My friends set off with plans to make me drunk but one of them has even lower alcohol tolerance level than me, so he always ended up the one pulling the stop sign, so much for their ambition :)

After a satisfying meal, we went for a walk (in the drizzle) along one of the many canals, and then eventually switch to shopping street which leads to the palace. The weather is not our side, so we decided to take the tram back to hotel to take a pit stop. I've never try to take a metro yet but the tram is really really convenient and provides a good view on the street, no reason to skip the scenery, isn't it?

Well our supposed 'rest' turns out to be rounds & rounds of card games (winner gets to use the toilet first) and some internet surfing. The hotel room can accommodate 3 guests (2 on the double bed & 1 on the sofa bed), so we have more time to get 're-acquittance', talking from daily life to non-sense, and sharing old time jokes. Oh, I already miss the times!!

When it's getting late for dinner, we set off again to the recommended Indonesian restaurant - Indrapura, to try their infamous rice table. Apparently rice table is just the conventional way we eat rice back home, where lots of dishes were served to be shared among diners. Why Indonesian food? well, simply because there're so many Indonesian immigrant (Indonesia being an old Dutch colony and all) in Amsterdam, some of their restaurant is bound to be good.

We went for the spiciest option available, a bottle of rosé, and had a great 2hours dinner. Food is great and service is good. We started practising a bit of Malay/Indonesian with the waiter :) When asked about recommendation of coffee shop, he pointed us to one just around the corner from the restaurant, so we thought we'd give it a try some time during our stay.

Well, if you have been to Amsterdam, or have read about it somewhere, you'd probably know that coffee shop in Amsterdam sells more than just coffee, they sell weeds too. The only thing they cannot sell is alcohol, hence naming the shops as 'coffee shop' rightfully reflect their side products :). Magic mushrooms are also available, at 'souvenir shops' or 'smart shop'.

Instead of trying weed, we went to the red light district. Women dressed in skin revealing illuminating bikinis or luring under-gourmets poses themselves in front of glass windows. Curtains down, then business is on. I never know the price and my friends don't seem to be interested to try (maybe because I'm there?). The quality of the 'show women' differs, although most of them seems to posses silky smooth skin under the special lighting effect, and almost all of them have perfect figures, argh!!! I'm not sure if photography is permitted but I don't want to try my luck, so no photos to share.

After our round of 'window shopping', we caught the last tram back to hotel, feeling too tired to continue the day after having to get up at 4am in the morning (to catch the plane). And the next day is to be continued...

The Laundromat Café

The laundromat café, as the name implies, is a café with self-service washing facility. It started out as a washing facility and then the café section's business is blooming so much that it has now become the major income of the 'café'. The seeding idea is to provide customer with good means of killing time while waiting for their laundry, plus food & drink. One stop location for stomach, chores and relaxing, very decent idea.

The café is crowned as the hippest laundromat in the world and boast the title of best brunch service from AOK (a Danish website on everything in Copenhagen from food to fashion and events) in 2007. There are two laundromat café in Copenhagen, Denmark and one of them is just around the corner from where I stayed. Sadly, after living at current address for more than a year, walking past it daily on my way to work, seeing the crowd flocking the café throughout seasons, I have never set foot on the café until recently.

One fine Sunday afternoon in summer, Mr.T and I visited the café, just to see what the fuss is all about. The outdoor seats are totally occupied, so we have to sit inside, which is not bad at all. Soft music playing in the background, a couple of table of guests minding their own stuff, reading one of the thousand books available, chatting and surfing internet.

Menu is placed near to the cashier, orders are to be placed by the counter and will be brought to your table, bills to be settled prior to leaving (or if you prefer, you can always pay up front). The café serves brunch until 4pm, and it's quite a good deal. One day I'd have to wake up late, go for a 3pm brunch and skip dinner ;) If you want something sweet to sink your tooth in the afternoon, there's no lack of option here too.

I love the environment there. There's nothing grand about it but the simple use of bright colour, books that are arranged in colour order and the random pictures/posters of the wall just make this place so comfortable, it's almost like sitting in my own living room (except with strangers). While waiting for food to be delivered, one look behind the counter and I found some games available: yatzi, card games, and even chest set. Never tried yatzi before and it was fun, even with just 2 people.

I wanted to try one of their more creative 'healthy' drinks so I went for the mango, elderflower and mint juice; and I like it. Mr.T ordered the elderflower in bottle but being a healthy café, their elderflower drink is not sweetened, and trust me, you don't want your elderflower drinks unsweetened; it taste funny.

We had dinner planned out so can only go for a lighter food, hence a portion of nachos to share. Comes with sour cream, guacamole, salsa and meat sauce. The cheese topping is definitely on the stingy side, I've seen much better ones and the sauces are, frankly, below average. The guy next table ordered a grilled sandwich and he seems to be enjoying it very much, maybe next time I ought to try the award winning brunch or the sandwich instead.

 

During our dining, playing, chatting session at the café, a foreigner came for the washing. To be honest, I was actually surprised, I thought the laundromats are more 'for show' than for use; but he changed some small coins with the cashier and started washing. Then I was thinking, maybe this is a place that ought to be recommended to tourists who needed to wash their laundry and yet sink into a nice environment with some food & drink, won't it be nice?

This place screams cool and score well on environment but the food? hmm...I think I have to try out the brunch to know for sure; but I'll be back again.

New Food Blog

I've travelled to quite a number of places within the past months without any update to the posts: Tromsø, Monaco, Brussels, Lake Como... and I'm also struggling to maintain my blog's 'personality'. I'm trying not to make it looks like another food blog but my food enthusiasm and the increase amount of cooking I'm doing is really not helping, so I decided to create a new blog, solely focusing on food: kitchenblueprint.blogspot.com

Restaurant visits will remain on this post, together with my 'everyday' scribbles & travels; while all food related recipes (including cake) that I have experimented with, (be it a success or failure) will be published in the new food blog; partially also to ease my own archiving, don't want to live through the pain of searching for recipes from scratch again every time I wanted to cook something that I've tried before. Plus, the original recipe might not be a best fit case anyway and I don't want to miss out any more personal notes.

As for the older recipes that I have already published in this blog, hopefully, one day, I will manage to migrate all of them to the food blog, else, they'll just remain here to remind myself how I manage to lost control of maintaining a blog.

So then, here's an ambitious thinking to maintain 2 blogs from the lazy owner of one less than frequently updated blog. May god bless :)

Copenhagen Flooded

Being born and raised in a tropical country, thunder storm is no stranger to me but here's something new. In midst of a fine summer day, the Danish weather forecast predicted 20mm of rain but heavy thunder storm with more than 150mm downpour in less than half an hour happened instead and turned Copenhagen into a 'canal-city'.

I was out visiting a colleague's place outside of Copenhagen and it was impossible to walk across the street without getting totally wet. I hopped from regional train to S-train, and then to bus, all without getting myself too wet (with a struggling to survive umbrella) but the final stretch home is the real killer. 

Corners of the streets and road surfaces are over-flown with water because the drain system simply can't handle so much water at a time. It's not a pleasant feeling having to walk through pools of at least ankle depth water knowing that those are actually rain + drain water. And thanks to the wind, I'm half wet after a short 50m walk. 

Compare to some motorist /cyclist, I guess getting soaking wet is not such bad situation. Some insurances don't cover water damage so aside from the inconveniences caused, there's also the money matters in account. The rain then followed by hail, Tivoli and Palads had to shut down with fear of electrical disturbance. Lighting, thunder and heavy rain is a bad bad situation for an amusement part.

Networks were down, a lot of house hold lost land line telephony, highways are shut down, traffic is heavily affected. It's not like the movie 2012 kind of disaster but it's enough to cause a lot of trouble for Copenhageners. Well, on a lighter side, Danes has a very literal way of naming such down pour. They called it skybrud, translate to cloud breaks; I find it cute (the name of course, not the situation) :)

Candy Megastore

Having used to popping caramel popcorn in cinema in Malaysia, it was devastated when I realized there's only ordinary buttered salted popcorn in Denmark. Alas, after 3 years, there's a new shop in Strøget, the Candy Megastore that sells some American candies is selling caramel popcorn (with peanuts even) at DKK29, a must try for me...

I'll update the tasting review after I try it, need to pick a nice movie first ;)

The selection of American chocolates and candies / sweets are actually rather limited, but I spotted the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup that I like, that's DKK17 for 3 pieces of butter cup, quite pricy. Hershey kisses are also available but sadly, local department stores in Malaysia offer even more than Candy Megastore :p

So if you're dying for a caramel popcorn fix in Copenhagen but for any reason, can't do it on your own, then you know where to purchase it now ;)

Geranium

Reservation at the world's best chef (Rasmus Kofoed)'s restaurant - Geranium, Copenhagen, is not easy. I put myself on waiting list for weeks (months ahead) and was finally called to be notified that there's availability in May. The restaurant only opens 4 evenings weekly, one seating, on 8th floor of a building next to Fælledpark in Copenhagen, providing a nice escape from normal daily norm and aerial view of the city.

We were greeted warmly by the hosts when the elevator reached 8th floor and were lead to a seating place in the lounge. As we were comfortable seated, two lovely looking snacks were served: the orange crispy carrot sphere with carrot mousse filling which is sweet and the texture brings out the taste of carrot, nice sensation; nonetheless, I fail to see the extraordinary part of the apple wrap, tasted to me just as ordinary thinly sliced green apple, the filling didn't leave lasting impression either.

As we were sipping our champagne (not complimentary, of course), we were given menu and the well informative host explained the selections in the menu. While studying the menu, a few platters (or stones :)) of finger food were served with the host explaining the finger snacks individually.

The only slight complain I have is the missing of wet towel / serviette, I'd like to wipe my fingers after picking up the finger food, something that they might want to add in future? Anyway, here's what we get:-

Crispy pig's ear with powdered mushroom

Potato chips with seaweed, surprise :)

Salted cheese sticks. Taste good on its own, double delicious with the cream cheese onion dip.

Cream cheese onion dip.

Pickled cucumber wrapped in gelatin, beautifully garnish.

Mr.T dipping cheese stick into the onion cream.

One of the things that I like dining in a fine restaurant (aside from good food & wine, attentive service & nice environment) is the little extra snacks or inter-course servings that sometimes served surprisingly, compliments of the kitchen. In Geranium's case, I'm absolutely pleased with the finger snacks quality. We were then guided to our round dining table. Seats are very comfortable, we got the couch seats and a small cushion pillow is thoughtfully placed right at our backs, comfy.

Soon, a humble looking egg starter is served. Opening the top cover reveals the egg to be caviar, served with crab meats and green strawberry. If you haven't try this combination, you've got to. It looks so simple, the ingredients are so straight forward, but the taste just exploded when you have a spoonful of all the ingredient in your mouth. Good start!

Next is the beautifully presented clear tomato juice, lemon thyme, wild flowers and gelled ham. I was so reluctant to destroy the beauty of the dish but as I dig in, the wonders of gelled ham really surprises me, in a very good way. Absolutely fantastic transformation of otherwise ordinary looking ham into a pleasant looking dish, disguise as gelled ham. Even the garnishing local flowers has its own function of bringing out the taste of the dish, nicely done.

The next dish is asparagus beer with its accompanying dish of smoke cream cheese and verbena. I'm not a big fan of beer so Mr.T had the share of what's mine as well. The asparagus dish with cream cheese is very good, I almost want to lick off the plate. Sweet freshness of green asparagus topped with verbena is perfectly paired with the slightly salty smoky smoke cheese.

We were then served the first juice from the pairing juice menu - green apple, cucumber & celery juice; no artificial sweetener / fragrant, just pure refreshing juice. The accompanying dish is the wizardly 'Summer of Feelings' - salted mackerel, dill and horse radish. Dill is grind into fine powders and cooled at extreme cold temperature with liquid nitrogen, and thus releasing the dreamy fogs. The mackerel tastes like a top cut of sashimi despite being salted, I have no idea what the black stuff is but everything just taste so good when combined together, my favourite dish of the evening!

Then comes the dish that pays its tribute to wheat - mini buttermilk wheat bread with sunflower seed. The pipping hot mini bread smells so good; taste even better when dipped with the onion butter cream. The onion butter cream is part 1 of 'Onion & Grain' dish with accompanying juice that's apple based but I can't recall what else, too many new things to remember in a single meal >.<

Snap shot of kitchen with Rasmus Kofoed

Part2 of 'Onion & Grain' is a mixture of charred spring onion, pickled red onion, pearl onion, and other onion associates served on bed of salted cheese. The dish was served half complete & the waiter add the final touch of the dish by pouring the wonderful cream sauce on the other half of the plate. The onions are simple to my opinion (not knowing how much work to prepare them in the kitchen) but the sauce is so wonderful that I wish I can lick off the plate, again.

Lightly smoked peas with lovage covered in new potato soup, topped with potato crisps is served next with an accompanying drink that is light in flavour, also apple based but I cannot remember the ingredient :s. To me this is one of the more ordinary dish, nothing spectacular but just simple execution and presentation.

We were then served sprouts of cabbage stalks, langoustine (Norway lobster) and rhubarb. The langoustine head where it usually contains the orange looking paste like compound (I have no idea what it's called in English but in Chinese we named it 膏) is transformed into drops of orange pastes, the langoustine was grilled to perfection, and the foamy sauce brings out the taste of sea, wonderfully executed on the overall presentation, the only down side is that it's too salty to my taste but yet it goes perfectly with the pairing light pink rhubarb juice.

A closer shot of the langoustine

Beautiful colour palette of some of the juices

At this point, despite the small serving portion, because every dish is served slowly, our stomach is reminding us that it's approaching it's dinner limit. Soon after the thought pop up, an intriguingly good wood burning smell grew stronger in the air, following the waiter serving pieces of chicken wing (de-boned) with burnt pine wood. Instead of serving the chicken, they were just left on the table while the pine woods continue to emit wonderful fruity burning scents.

While we're still intrigued, the waiter appear again with serving plate portioned with morels, truffles and mixed mushrooms. The chicken was then transferred to the serving plate and viola. Morels were perfectly done, mushrooms are delicious with the sauce, but...but, I can hardly taste the truffles despite the generous slices and the chicken is too salty, again. This time we have the sweet sour juice to pair and didn't really take away the salty edge, sorry Rasmus.

After the main course, we were served the cold palette cleanser: elderflower soda with carrot pearls. Now, in order for food to be presented / served best, a good tool investment is a must. The container keeps the elderflower soda chilled throughout the whole time; the sour sting of elderflower soda and the refreshing carrot pearl is a really good palette cleanser, no doubt.

And then we were served the first dessert, synthetic strawberry with rose-hip & yoghurt, cold dish. Yoghurt made into ice-cream, rose-hip sorbet and also iced rose-hip dusted with powdered sugar plus the synthetic strawberry. Rose-hip sorbet tasted 'neutral' but gives the extra texture, yoghurt ice cream is slightly sweet & the synthetic strawberry is made to be slightly sour yet with absolute taste of a fresh strawberry. How and why, one may ask. I have no idea how but why go through all the effort to make it synthetic? I think a reasonable answer could be...

Strawberry taste alters from fruit to fruit individually but if you make a synthetic strawberry, deciding to the decimal millilitre / milligram of each component, then the taste (how sour, how sweet) is under the chef's absolute full control. I declare this kitchen is run by perfectionist! Not to forget the pairing juice, a beautifully bright red rose-hip & apple juice, very very nice.

Finally, we have come to our last course. Pairing with the pear cider (still with a bit of apple base), is the milk in mysterious way. Milk cake, milk ice-cream, drained milk, sour milk, caramelized milk and dried milk on bed of milk jelly with tonka beans. Too bad I didn't zoom in, the small flakes, those are dried milk, I'm pleasantly surprised that milk can be made into flakes. They were 'shaked' out of a milk box, I'd call it the new 'milk-shake'. Despite the excitement of seeing different types of milk presentation, the dessert does it job to end a very very pleasant meal but it's not to the extend of great. I know I might not be fair to the preparation work going behind this milk dessert but taste buds don't lie. I'd like the cake to be fluffier and perhaps removed the sour milk, I like my dessert traditionally sweet, but that's just me :)

So, when I was thinking of getting the bill, Mr.T has the urge to go for coffee. Geranium only served French pressed coffee, freshly made, of course. Three bean choices, Søren recommended the more full body rich Columbian coffee but we went for the rounded Ethiopian coffee instead. We were lead out of the dining room, back into the lounge where the coffee is then served with complimentary caramel chocolate ball dusted with pine powders. Normally I'm crazy for chocolate but, sorry, not this one, really sorry, it tastes too weird for me.

All in all, it's a wonderful eye opening experience in a nicely set environment with best in class service. Our dinner cost DKK4000 in total, definitely on the steep side. Is it worth it? Yes. Will I dine there again? Most probably, on special occasions & with different menu. I must give compliment to their overall presentation, not just when the dishes are served but even when we started to eat or 'dig into' the dishes, the presentation & composition still remain nice if the 'guide' to try have a little bit of everything in every bite is followed. I cannot remember how many times I stopped to ponder at the beauty of the dish half way through eating :)

So if you're in Copenhagen looking for a quality assured restaurant and don't mind the high price, Geranium is one of the best option. Bon Appetite!