Vienna 1

City of music, UNESCO world heritage site, run through by river Danube and capital city of the Republic of Austria, I finally set my foot on the world famous city - Vienna. A city rich with Baroque, Gothic & Romanic architecture; quiet & tranquil parks; breathtakingly beautiful castles and is filled with art & music in the air.

My Vienna trip was short, very short indeed. It's meant to be a weekend trip from Friday until Monday but I was sick, spending most of the time in hotel room, so it's really really a short trip. All the 'master plans'? Ruin. Besides, the weather hasn't been 'lovely' in Vienna, it was flooded just a few days before my trip and was raining quite a lot when I was there.

Anyway, manage to pull myself together for some sight seeing time on Satuday afternoon and took a lot of pictures. As you'll notice, most of buildings are not in full view. Reason being the buildings are huge and my camera has reach its limitation (despite my brilliant skill). Of course under normal circumstances, I'd run across the streets to try to take a full view but I wasn't really up to it when I was sick. My 'friendly' travel companion 'kindly' remind me that I JUST need a wide angle camera and was showing off his camera's ability in this situations, ishh!!!

Some pictures to share but no stories to tell because I haven't have time / energy to really visit any one of these famous tourist attractions.

Pic: City town hall, seat of the mayor

Pic: Statue - goddess - monument

Pic: The magnificent parliament (with beautiful fountain) and statues on a park's fence opposite

Pic: The national libraries and lots & lots of tourist on different mode of tourist 'bus' / carriage

Pic: Mozart kugel - the famous Austria chocolate, you won't miss it. Can also get it at the airport :)

Pic: The state opera house - only the left wing...sorry

Pic: City street view - where old & new buildings co-exist

Walking the streets of Vienna, one needs to pay attention to the two-way bicycle traffic. In Copenhagen, most of the bicycle lanes are one way so I was nearly 'hit' when crossing the bicycle way...and they're not so friendly when a stupid sick tourist obstruct their way :(

Vienna is a well planned city with the old part being nicely maintained. Trees of greens intercepts between opera houses, theaters, goverment buildings, churches, streets and there's no lack of parks.

Being a famous city, one can only expect a lot of tourists, taking different mode of transports to explore the city. It's train / subway system is an easy one even if you don't speak German (under normal circumstances) and you'll be surprise to see the frequents of tourist carriages roaming Vienna's streets, providing a different way of city experience to tourists while the 'driver' will also serve as basic tour guide.

Pic: Found Goethe, notice his golden left shoe tip? Too many 'touchy' tourists

Pic: Also spotted Beethoven resting in the park

Pic: Albertina - 50,000 art pieces were moved from their basement due to flood before we arrive

Pic: Imperial Court Theater, again only one side view :s

Never had a chance to dine in a Michelin starred restaurant yet and it costs too much to do that in Copenhagen, I finally have the chance in Vienna where Restaurant Le Ciel provided the chance. I made a reservation even before my arrival and was treated with top class service. A slight dissapointment though, the food is not top class in my personal taste.

I went for a 3 course meal with lobster wonton in chilled lime yoghurt soup as starter, grilled veal with brown sauce (I change the parmigiano sauce away) for main; and a rose white chocolate ice cream with wild berries as dessert. There're chef's complimentary entré; pre-dessert & 10 pieces of fine chocolates in between.

Despite I find it satisfactory, I must give supreme high compliments to the veal, it was PERFECT. Menu changes frequently, wonder when I'll get to taste such heavenly veal again, sigh... More about my short Vienna trip in next blog.

Sankt Hans Again

23-June is one of the most colorful festive in Denmark, also in Northern Europe. Commonly known as Mid-summer festival or Sankt Hans. Not a public holiday this day but Danes will gathered to embrace the longest day of the year. Northen Europe 'suffer' the long dark night during winter, so the longest day of the year always has special meaning. Every evening on the 23rd of June, Danes will go to seaside, build up high wood stacks for bon fire and placed a 'witch' (a symbolic one of course, I've seen witch drawings & witch dolls) on top; the witch symbolize darkness and evil.

Approximately around 9 o'clock, the fire will be lit on, raging flame towering to the sky. People will dance around the fire, singing old ancient songs...that's what I was told it's suppose to be. I've witness it twice, all they do is just drinking beer & chatting around the bon fire, well, guess time change a lot of things :) I went to the seaside last year during Sankt Hans. The bon fires one after another along the seaside was really impressive.

This year, I choose to go to the lakes in Copenhagen (there're 5 conjuctioned lakes), wanting to see something different. I was told that the bon fires will be lit on in the middle of each lakes, and that it'll be nice to walk along the lakes. I was there early and even have time to observe swans, dissapointed to find out that only one lake has bon fire.


Right before sunset, some men paddle a small boat to the middle of the lake and lit on the wood stacks that marks the beginning of Sankt Hans celebration.
Well, honestly speaking, the bon fire is a bit too small for such big lake & big crowd. So if you are interested in seeing a real Sankt Hans celebration, go to the beach.

Ayam Masak Merah

Ayam masak merah (in Malay) which literally translate to 'red cook chicken' is one of the first dish that I learn in cooking way back to high school period. I've never cook it since then. Not that I don't like it, on the contrary, I love it..but it's so easily available at any Malay food stall / shop and often taste good, why bother all the hardwork??
I cannot find Malay restaurant in Copenhagen, well, it probably won't have a lot of customer even if it really exist since there're not many crazy Malaysian like me around..and almost all my Danish colleagues don't like Malay food (which kind of represent the vast majority of Danes liking). I've been reading the Ayam Masak Merah recipe a lot of times but always stopped by the complication in preparation.

After battling with my craving for 1 year and never had a chance to eat it when I travel back to Penang, I can't take it anymore!! I must eat ayam masak merah. So I find the easiest possible recipe (without too much compromising) and finally cooked it. Didn't manage to get star anise & cardamom so mine was some ingredients less. Nevertheless, I still love the end result.
The only problem I had was the 'splashing' oil during deep frying. My little kitchen was covered with a layer of oil after the cooking, not to mention the pain when the oil came to contact with my skin, sob sob... It took me almost the same time to clean up as the cooking preparation time. I'll try to sustain my crave for ayam masak merah for another year (fingers crossed) unless I can find a way to fried chicken without having 'splashing oil'. Maybe I should fried with cover? hmm...

Oh...I must stop writing & stop looking at the chicken's pictures, else my crave will start again.

Tour Guiding

Friends from Berlin in town couple of weeks ago. Knowing Copenhagen a little bit more than them, I have to take up the tour guide responsibility. After spending 4 days 3 nights in Copenhagen, their comment is: Denmark has a complicated public transport ticketing system (the zones are confusing to them).

Well, I was thrilled to have visiting friends and also thanks to their presence, I get a chance to see more of the city I live in now. Normally I just won't walk into tourist spots even though I haven't been there. Weird isn't it? When you're living in the city, you tend to know it visit it less (at least the tourist attractions).

So this round, spending day 2 (well, day 1, they arrive at night, doesn't count) in the city centre, typical Langeline walk from Little Mermaid to Amelianborg, Nyhavn and then Strøget. Little detour to the romantic Rosenborg Castle & Botanical Garden. Had a nice coffee break on top floor of the post musuem and end with Korean bulgogi dinner.

Pic: Round tower view from the Post Musuem Café

Day 3, we up north to Helsingør to Kronborg Castle (the Hamlet's Castle) where the nearest point to Sweden is only 4km. Met with the famous Holger Danske, the guardian of Denmark and toured around the castle. Spent a quiet late Danish smørrebrød lunch in Helsingør before coming back to Copenhagen. Tried new smooth-tea in Baresso Coffee and surprisingly bump into a Ferrari owner gathering in town before going for Japanese sukiyaki dinner, and that's the end of day 3.

Pic: Kronborg castle, 1 km away...

Pic: Ferrari, Ferrari, Ferrari

Day 4, which, unfortunately is a Sunday where activities are minumal in Copenhagen, was spent on the Carlsberg Ny Glyptotek. I never know there's such nice collection in town. Considering the fact that the Glyptotek was initially just a personal collection, the amount of work pieces is actually pretty impressive. Admission is 50DKK but free on Sunday :)

Took some pictures during these few days but too lazy to select & publish them. You can have a look if you're interested at the album.

Home Cook Thai Dinner

My love for tomyam expanded when I moved to Copenhagen. Never knew I like it so much until I realize apparently I miss tomyam soup (even just after 2 days having one). Luckily, it's not hard to make with ready-made tomyam paste. There're also a lot of Thai shop selling thai products so I have no concern in finding more authentic ingredients (of course I have to pay more though).

Tomyam soup is easy but I can't bring myself to just having soup without any 'more decent' main course so this round, I settled to chicken cashew nut. American-Chinese dish but fairly easy to make. I can't find 'raw' cashew nut but the salted ones will work fine and they're available almost everywhere.

Ingredient (as shown in picture): cashew nut, chicken (I cut them in cube, marinated in some soy sauce, oyster sauce & some corn starch for 20mins), bell pepper (optional, I just like the colour combination), onion (sliced), spring onion (cut into about 2" length), garlic (sliced) and some red chilies (to add the omphh). Some recipe calls for the chicken to be coated with corn starch/flour & fried first but I'm a lazy cook with low requirement, so...


My way: Heat a tablespoon oil in wok, throw in 50g of cashew nut (I love cashew nut hence I use more, the amount can always be adjusted to personal liking), fried until fragrant (not burnt). Then put the garlic + onion in, stir for ~2minutes. Add bell pepper in (I like mine softer, if you prefer it crunchy, then add in after chicken), quick stir for a minute & add in the chicken. Stir fried for a minute & add in 2 tablespoon of sherry/rice wine & a tablespoon of soy sauce. Stir-fry the dish for about another 2 minutes. Add 2 tablespoon of water if it gets too dry. If you don't like raw spring onions (like me), you can add them to the dish at this time. Otherwise, remove the dish from wok, garnish with spring onions, and serve.


Now if you have pay sufficient notice to the 'ingredient' picture, you'd notice the existence of prawn which was never used in the chicken cashew nut. So why is it there? Remember the whole purpose of my dinner -- tomyam soup? Well, the prawn find its place in the soup which is made simply by adding 2 tablespoon of tomyam paste into a 2 cups water (plus some chicken stock & few drops of fish sauce).

I baked some frozen 'european style' spring roll and serve all with white rice as dinner. My friend has no complain about the meal at all despite being forced to wash dishes after meal, so I guess the food turn out fine to others as well :p

Braised Tofu

I like tofu, and they're vastly available in various preparation / style in Malaysia. The luxury of going out to order a nice tofu meal is not so easy (tofu in restaurants here are usually too dry) in Denmark. In fact, getting tofu was not so convenient for one often can only get it in Asian shop. I have one of those powder type that I can make into tofu cube but I've never try it yet.

Nevertheless, my desire for tofu is made easy when a local chain supermarket (Føtex) begins to put tetra pack tofu on their 'Exotic' food section. Not cheap but definitely convenient. To remove the soft tofu nicely from the box without any damage, simply cut the box opening per instruction & run a slim line of water through all 4 side gaps. Flip the box around, the water will 'wash' the tofu out, nice & square :)

Now what do I do with the tofu? Well, I found a nice one - Braised Tofu in Wine Sauce

Ingredient:-
500g firm tofu
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
6 slices ginger
green spring onion cut into 2.5cm pieces (volume per personal preference)

Sauce
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp chinese rice wine
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sugar
salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
slurry made from 1tsp cornstartch & ½ cup water

Method:-
1. Cut tofu into 5cm square x 1cm thick slices. Drain on paper towels.
2. Mix together teh sauce ingredients while the tofu is being dried.
3. Heat oil over medium heat in a non-stick pan. When oil is hot, add tofu & pan fry until golden brown on one side, then turn tofu over & fry the other side. Remove tofu from the pan.
** Tofu contains a lot of water in them & can easily cause a lot of splashes. Keep the heat moderate and use long long long spatula :)
4. Add garlic, ginger & green onions to the pan and fry till fragrant (there should be about a tablespoon oil left in pan after the frying).
5. Add sauce in & stir well to combine.
6. Add the tofu back into the pan & 'submerge' the blocks into the sauce.
7. Cover the pan & lower the heat. Braise for 3-5minutes. Serve.

Media License Fee

Being 'the proud owner' of a 14" donated small TV, I am now required to pay a media license fee of DKK 1100 every 6 months. On top of a TV, if a person owns a radio / a mobile phone with radio function / a personal computer with more than 256kbs Internet access rate, he/she has to pay the same amount of media license fee as well.

It's not that I cannot afford the money but I just don't feel like I should be paying, not at all! I do have high speed internet at home but I don't have any personal computer, so the term: personal computer with more than 256kbs... does not apply on me. And I just have to return the TV to the kind donor when he's available (while becareful of not opening my door too wide to prevent peeping eyes) and I'll no longer be liable.

Consider these as cost saving acts, I've just save myself DKK2200 per year, hooray!!!