Cheese bubbles in the dockyards: My first Michelin star restaurant

While visiting Copenhagen with my foodie sister and chef brother-in-law, I visited my very first Michelin star restaurant. Since we knew there would be no possibility of dining at Noma on this trip, Sis did some research to find another excellent and accessible Michelin star restaurant. (Copenhagen has 12 Michelin starred restaurant; Noma is the only one with two stars.) Something about being named the best restaurant in the world makes it hard for plebeians, especially American ones, like us, to get a reservation. Go fig?! However, my sister had no problem making (and then pushing back) our lunch reservation at Paustian v. Bo Bech.

With my sister at the helm of the mission, we (three adults, one spunky, garlic-loving 6 year-old) hopped on a regional train, walked into the dock yards, through some fresh tar, and proceeded to get lost and debate (affectionately, of course) about the right way to get there. We had my sister's hand-drawn map from her earlier internet research and the occasional crude sign in the most inexplicable European language I've ever seen (and I studied Danish for 4 months!). We made it there--there being a very white, very Danish looking building, a high-end furniture store with a restaurant--sweaty, dusty, and hungry.

The servers wore hammer pants and bolero jackets and ours reminded me of Régine Chassagne of the Arcade Fire.

First off were some "cheese bubbles," which tasted exactly as their name would have you imagine.
Then, shrimp with chive blossoms:

And frozen grapefruit:

A beautiful slice of "ox heart" tomato with a vanilla-infused oil.

Throughout the meal we were offered three different kinds of bread: sourdough, licorice-glazed bun, and Swedish knäckebröd (crispbread), which tastes like an oyster cracker, communion wafer, and also nothing.

Between the four of us we ate every course offered at lunch that day. There was the smoked eel with spinach:
White asparagus slathered in...some kind of cream sauce, and served on a slate. Probably the most appetizing way to serve something incredibly unappetizing and dull.

And a braised leek atop lamp:


For dessert, vanilla ice cream with bitter wispy chocolate wafer and caramels:


Obviously my palette is not as sophisticated as the Michelin guide writers, but I enjoyed the first half of the meal far more than the last. The amuse-bouche were unique and tasty, the tomato was the stuff my (non-chocolate) dreams are made of, and the smoked eel might have made me an eel convert.

I think the restaurant closed the week after we visited, but will be reopening in a more central location, which seems like a wise idea. Thank you to my sister and brother for this culinary first! "Tak for Mad!"

Farmers' Market Glory

This week's buys: asparagus (the most delicate stalks yet this season), kale, 2 quarts of strawberries, a boule of chocolate cherry bread, and small seedlings of lemon thyme, basil, and Italian parsley. The seedlings have already been potted and the bread nibbled. This bread would make to-die-for bread pudding, along the lines of one of my mom's favorites--croissant bread pudding with chocolate chips and dried cranberries--but letting this loaf get stale seems like a travesty. Thinking about strawberry soup or strawberry pie...the eternal struggle between the new recipe and the tried and true.

I might have gone a little overboard, but it's better than buying shoes I don't need, right? This fresh local fare will nourish my body and spirit. (The shoes only work on the spiritual level.) I frequently suffer from buyer's guilt (variation on buyer's remorse), but never when it comes to my farmers' market purchases!

Gourds, gifts and Grandma

A collection of thoughts as the autumn rolls in (maybe).

...Think there might be a little bread baking on tap for this weekend.

...I've been looking for a ragu/bolognese recipe and missing my dear grandma. Wish I'd been old enough to really study her cooking.

...Also in search of a cheesecake recipe, but feeling slightly less desperate about this search because my mom makes a wonderful cheesecake and I need only replicate her recipe to find success. I'm just a researcher/shopper by nature; I like to see my options before I commit.

...Planning a celebration/gift meal has had me feeling a plethora of emotions: 1) confidence in the thoroughness of my research, 2) insecurity about my ability to actually choose the "best" recipe, 3) apprehension about choosing a dish that will end up being fussy, 4) excitement about eating the meal, and 5) a positive, yet to be fully understood feeling such as what a gift giver feels when s/he has considered so carefully what will make the recipient most happy.

...Feeling a bit more legit for actually having made the effort recently to read interesting/well-known/charming/witty food blogs. And so...

...Cauliflower Socks is due for some beautification.

...I might be on my way to accepting the whole ornamental squash thing--OK, they are attractive in an odd sort of way and oh, so fall-ish--but they remain lodged in the category Stuff-That-Doesn't-Serve-A-Reasonable-Purpose, which is to say the Stuff-I-Try-To-Keep-Out-Of-My-Life category. I've amassed a vaguely charming collection of gourds, etc. on the mantel in my dining room. Sorry, housemates!

Introducing this week's share...