Dinner at 108

Last week, the husband and I had dinner at 108's pop-up at noma. I follow Rene Redzepi on Instagram so when he put up a post saying that reservations were open for 108, I jumped online right away and booked the husband and I a table as a Valentine's gift.

Like many restaurants in Copenhagen, 108 has a Danish/nordic inspired menu. They source local ingredients and cook in an innovative/new way. I am no food critic but I thoroughly enjoyed our dinner at 108. I wasn't floored or totally blown away, but I left full and happy. I ate and tried things I normally wouldn't and was pleasantly surprised that I liked the different flavor combinations and all these new ingredients.

So! Here is a little list of what we had. The two of us shared most of the dishes but the husband and I do have slightly different tastes so some of the dishes were just for him.

- Lumpfish roe with green strawberries and hip berries
- Salt baked celeriac with hay cheese
- Veal sweetbread with a salad of sorrel
- Linseed pie with braised sunflower seeds and cauliflower in truffle cream
- Cured squid in bacon broth and served with mirabelle plums
- Roasted chicken with karl johan mushrooms
- Sweet sweet potatoes with caramelized and crispy sweet potatoes, egg cream, and yuzu granita
- Preserved rosehips with caramel and vinegar

A little recap/some thoughts on the dishes we ate...We both really enjoyed the baked celeriac. It had a nice tangy flavor and the hay cheese (which I was scared of) was very subtle. It was served with a bit of a cream sauce and the whole dish was just lovely! I think truffle can be a bit overwhelming sometimes, but the linseed pie was delicious. The flavors were strong but everything went well together and it was very filling. I love seafood so I had to try the squid. It was so fun because the squid looked like cooked rice noodles! The bacon broth was very mild so we could still taste the seafood flavor of the squid. It wasn't an amazing dish but it was good. I mean, I like squid and bacon so you can't go too wrong! I will say that we didn't really taste the plums though. I don't have a picture of the roasted chicken but this was a good dish as well. The chicken was roasted perfectly and the dish was covered in mushrooms and had a lovely earthy taste. The best part though was the surprise crunchy bits of chicken skin in there! And of course we had to have two desserts. Dessert is always the most important course. To us, the rosehip dish was a bit more interesting and unique compared to the sweet potato one. I haven't had rosehip before and there was a lovely flowery and tangy flavor in the granita. But all in all, both desserts were a real treat!

The service at 108 was great and like I said, we had a lovely evening and we enjoyed the different dishes that we had. It's always fun to try new restaurants and I am sure 108 will be a great success in Copenhagen when they open at their own location! 108's pop-up at noma goes until mid-April but if you haven't made a reservation, they do have a few spots for walk-ins (which is so rare in Copenhagen), so pay them a little visit if you're interested!

Have you tried 108? What did you think?

Cookies from Leckerbaer

Having seen photos of Leckerbaer's pretty little cookies on Instagram, a visit to Leckerbaer has been on my list of things to do the past few weeks. After having brunch at a friend's place in Østerbro on Saturday, the husband and I stopped by Leckerbaer for some cookies on our way home.

The Leckerbaer shop is located on Ryesgade and before even walking into the little shop and cafe, there are huge windows looking into their bakery. It is always so nice to be able to see how things are made and I thought that was a great touch to their store. Although they primarily sell cookies, Leckerbaer also offers coffee and other drinks as well as having some seating inside for those who want to sit, catch up with friends and stay awhile.

The husband and I bought a small box of their cookies and we went with their combo of eight cookies. You can read about their eight classic cookies on their website. They were all so pretty and I love their simple decorating style. Although all eight cookies were good, I had two favorites. First is the Milk cookie, which tasted like a grown-up Oreo and had an intense cocoa flavor, and then there was the Mandarin cookie, which was a little almond like cake with a mandarin filling and a lovely chewy meringue on top. They were all delicious though and I really enjoyed the mix of chocolate, fruity, sweet, and sour in the box of cookies.

Besides these eight cookies, Leckerbaer also sells larger chocolate chip cookies, cream puffs, and sweets like caramels or nougat candies. There is definitely something for everyone at Leckerbaer! I think I like them even more because they offer something so simple but so different from all of the other bakeries and cake shops in town. If you are looking for some beautiful and tasty cookies, you need to check out Leckerbaer!

Leckerbaer
Ryesgade 118
Copenhagen Ø

Our Wedding: The Location

We loved the location of our wedding reception. Loved everything about it! We got married in the afternoon at a church in Nørrebro before having everyone move to Olsen +3 in Islands Brygge for the reception.

Finding a location was not really easy. I wanted a raw industrial looking place so I searched and considered everything from art studios to old converted barns. We also had to think about whether or not to find an all-inclusive location or find our own catering and set up the location ourselves. When we found Olsen +3, we knew the place was perfect.

The location was one of our top priorities and so we spent most of our budget on that. Olsen +3 had the raw look we wanted, their food was delicious, the place was central for all of our guests to get to and home from, and their service leading up to and on the day of the wedding was great.

As my family and all of my friends were traveling to Copenhagen for the wedding, we didn't really want them to spend their time in the city running around and setting up the reception. We wanted our families to relax and enjoy the days leading up to the wedding, so going the all-inclusive way was the best choice for us.

For our wedding, Olsen +3 provided a coordinator, we had a tasting before the wedding, and they took care of table decor, all of the food and drinks, from the "cocktail hour", to the three course meal, to the open bar and midnight snack, and they also allowed us to store all of the presents the guests brought until the next day and took care of all the clean up after the party. The location was great because they had outdoor patio space where we had the cocktail hour and cake cutting. Before midnight, we also had the opportunity to have our bridal waltz outdoors. And although we almost maxed out the venue, after the staff moved some tables and chairs, a nice little dance floor opened inside the building.

Because the space had the industrial look, and they provided the table flowers, we basically didn't decorate the location. We put up some large gold balloons that spelled LOVE, we had a guestbook table featuring family photos, and I put up our table numbers and seating chart and that was about all we did in terms of decorations in there. (I'll do another post on some of the things I DIY'ed!)

We loved every minute of our reception and am so glad we had our reception and party there! Olsen +3 is also getting really popular as they had basically booked out every weekend for weddings last summer and I'm sure this one will be the same! So if you're interested in having your wedding or party there, get on it!

Olsen +3
Njalsgade 19D
2300 Copenhagen S
hej@olsen3.dk

Dinner at Manfreds

There are so many great restaurants in Copenhagen and this weekend we finally made our way to Manfreds on Jægersborggade in Nørrebro. Manfreds is the little brother of Michelin star restaurant Relæ and I have read great things about them, so I was expecting good quality and innovative food in a low-key environment. (Side note, super sorry about these totally low-quality photos! Hope you'll bear with me on this post!)

The husband and I both had the seven course menu and as they described on the menu, the dishes are primarily vegetable based. While we were there, we had one beef dish and one lamb dish, and that was all in terms of meat. One of my highlights from the meal was the amazing onion soup with the poached egg. They compared it to a ramen type of soup and I love ramen so this was a huge hit for me. I also really enjoyed the beet dish with rosehip petals. Who knew beets and roses would go together? This was a lovely flavor combination. Another special treat were the crispy artichokes with egg cream and dehydrated seaweed powder. Crunchy, chewy, and with a little asian twist. For dessert we ordered their almond cake with mascarpone cream and fresh oranges. This tasted like a classic pound cake which I haven't had in years and really reminded me of home. I loved it and am now craving more pound cake! (If you have a recipe, please share!)

Altogether we had a great dinner and enjoyed our experience at Manfreds. It's a great spot if you are looking for a place that carefully sources their food and wine as 90-100% of their ingredients are organic. It was also a refreshing change to have such a veggie dominant meal. We have at least two types of vegetables or greens for dinner each night, but at Manfreds, five out of seven dishes were vegetable based. Price wise, Manfreds is at a slightly lower price point than Höst for example or Geist. However, I found that the dishes at those two places were slightly more exciting. But again, we really enjoyed our dinner and we wanted to reign in our budget for this night out so Manfreds was a perfect spot!

Manfreds
Jægersborggade 40
2200 Copenhagen N

Dinner at Höst

It has been a little quiet around here lately. I have been waiting until we get the professional photos from our wedding before sharing details about it. And although I was really looking forward to my internship, the first month has had its ups and downs. I'm really grateful for the experience and I am getting more responsibility and more involved so I hope the next few weeks and months will get better. Besides work, I'm seeing friends, baking, and trying to go to the gym as much as I can. So yeah! I will be writing and sharing more on here again soon, I promise!

Last night we went out to dinner at Höst to celebrate our friend R's birthday. I have been wanting to have dinner there for a long time so I was really excited when he chose Höst. I remember walking past the restaurant while it was still under construction and falling in love with its interior. We didn't get to sit in that room, but there is a room that is full of trees and branches and it is just beautiful. The interior in general is really simple and raw. Wood tables, large industrial lamps, sheepskin throws over the chairs, that sort of feel y'know?

The food there was delicious. I haven't had a bad experience at the Cofoco restaurants. (We also ate at Llama last week and that was a real fusion of flavors and cuisines. Plus the interior there is amazing! Colorful tiles, old church like rooms, crazy!) Back to Höst though, we ordered the three course menu which came with a few snacks in between courses. And instead of the wine pairing I chose to have the juice menu.

I don't know if I had a favorite course at dinner but everything was really good. I thought the scallop starter was delicious. I love seafood so this was a winner for me. There were scallops, fresh corn kernels, black trumpet mushrooms, danish plums, wild garlic, herbs and a mussel stock in this one bowl. All the flavors just complimented each other so well. I was not a huge fan of the main course, only because it was pork based and I'm not the biggest pork fan. Although I did really like the different types or methods of cooking beet root on the dish. And then there was dessert. Dessert is always, always, always my favorite course. We had a chamomile ice cream served with a pear compote with soft wheat kernels in it, a honeycomb crumble, and two different types of meringues. I really enjoyed this dessert, and they paired it really nicely with my apple and chamomile juice. I loved the different textures, from the soft wheat kernels to the cold ice cream to the crunchy meringues. Awesome! And as for my juices, I started with a seabuckthorn juice, followed by a plum juice, a blackcurrant juice and then finished with the apple chamomile one. There was a lot of juice! They were not as "crazy" or did not contain any crazy ingredients, as they could have done, but they were all lovely.

Have you eaten at Höst? What are your thoughts on it? I am thinking about where to go for my birthday dinner in December (still a ways away but it's fun to start thinking ahead!). Any suggestions? Happy Sunday!

Lately

My youngest sister has been in town and I have been slowly taking her around to some of my favorite places in Copenhagen and we also did a little day trip to Lund and Malmö this last week as well. Of course we had cake at Strangas, cinnamon buns at St. Jakobs, and chased sunsets after having ice cream at Ismageriet. We also visited my old university campus in Lund, checked out some of the more modern architecture in Copenhagen, and of course did some more shopping in the city. The rest of my family and friends are flying in this week for our wedding on Saturday! There's still a few things to tie up with wedding planning, there will be lots of trips to the airport this week, and most importantly, lots of friends and family to catch up with! It is going to be a busy week but one of the best ever I am sure!

The Best Pizza in Town at Forno a Legna

Sorry about my lack of posts this week! I can't say my posts will be so regular the next few weeks with the wedding in two weeks now and going away on our honeymoon. I'll have lots to share after the wedding I promise! It has been a busy one with my sister staying with the fiance and I, completing wedding tasks, and celebrating some friends' wedding here yesterday as well.

After spending the day celebrating our friends L and T's wedding yesterday, we were feeling too lazy and tired to make dinner. So we decided to go to our favorite pizza place for dinner! I am always so tempted to have pizza whenever we pass by Forno a Legna.

Forno a Legna is always busy, whether it is at lunch or at dinner. We like to pre-order our pizzas on the phone and get there a few minutes before the estimated time to make sure we get our pizzas when they are super fresh. They have a handful of tables and chairs outside so we like to sit out there, eat our pizza, and just people watch a bit on Falkoner Alle.

One of our favorites there is their bolognese pizza. We get it everytime. Their pizzas have thin crusts that are still chewy and they bake their pizzas in a real stone oven. We love topping our pizzas with their garlic oil and chili flakes. If you haven't been, you have to pay them a visit!

Forno a Legna
Falkoner Alle 42
2000 Frederiksberg

They are open every day from 11am to 10pm.

Making Macarons at Strangas

I've attempted making macarons at home three times and every time the macaron shells have either been hollow, or they haven't developed feet, or they've just plain stuck to my baking paper and crumbled when I tried to take them off. I love eating macarons but they are definitely not easy to make!


My future mother-in-law remembered that I had mentioned that Strangas offers a macaron course, and so for Christmas my future in-laws gifted me with the opportunity to take one of Nikolaos' macaron classes! Yesterday morning I, along with seven other participants, spent four hours in the dessert boutique learning how to make macarons using Strangas' own recipe.

We started the class off with some of his amazing scones and some coffee. (If you haven't tried his banana seabuckthorn jam, you really need to. It's delicious!) Then we paired off and started making two types of macarons. One with a dark chocolate ganache filling, and the other was filled with a raspberry chocolate ganache. We dived in and made the ganache first before starting the macaron shells. All along the way, Strangas guided us and helped us through the different steps.

I really enjoyed the class and how hands on it was. Rather than just watching Nikolaos make the macarons, we did everything on our own with him stepping in from time to time. He also went over the different types of chocolate you can use in a ganache. He gave us three different Valhrona chocolates to sample and talked to us about the differences in flavor and richness with each one. Making perfect macaron shells takes a lot of precision, and we learnt what to be careful of and how different steps in the process can cause mistakes and potentially ruin our macarons. I'm just hoping that I can replicate the macarons we made today at home!

Have you made macarons before? Do you have any tips to making the perfect macaron shells? And what do you like to fill them with? Strangas almost only uses ganaches, but I've also filled mine with lemon curd and vanilla bean buttercream.

If you would like to learn how to make macarons in Copenhagen, I can definitely recommend taking the class at Strangas. But then again, I always recommend everything I have from there! And now I am off to eat another macaron! Have a great Monday!

Galettes at Chez Laurent

The fiance and I enjoy sweet crepes every once in awhile but we rarely have savory ones. And by rarely I mean like never. I almost always prefer sweet to savory but who knew galettes (a savory crepe) could be so delicious? I've actually visited and eaten at Chez Laurent before with my friend S but the fiance has never been so we went out for lunch there on Sunday.

Chez Laurent offers both galettes and crepes. Their galettes are both gluten and lactose free and there are a variety of savory fillings and toppings that you can choose from. On Sunday I enjoyed a Complete galette which was filled with an egg, some ham and some emmenthal cheese. The fiance ordered the galette with French ham which cam with some rocket, sun dried tomatoes and some onion confit.

Their sweet crepes are made with organic flour so I haven't been able to try those but we did ask, and you can definitely get a sweet filling in the galette! You know what I'm going to try next time don't you? Definitely getting a galette with a sweet filling! Chestnut cream? Classic Nutella and banana? Salted caramel maybe?

Chez Laurent is a charming little place in Frederiksberg. Go for just a cappuccino or have brunch there! Crepes are always a good idea. Always.

Chez Laurent
Rolighedsvej 15
1958 Frederiksberg C

Dress Shopping in Copenhagen

I've watched countless episodes of TLC's Say Yes to the Dress and I Found the Gown and if you have too you'll know that sometimes the women on the show start crying when they have found the right dress or they are really picky about what they want and don't like anything, or they have a really opinionated entourage. Dresses also range in prices in North America. You can go from something super affordable at a few hundred dollars at David's Bridal to a dress that costs ten thousand dollars at Kleinfeld for example.

 

As I mentioned in this earlier post, having a great venue and the right photographer are the two most important aspects of the wedding for me. Although I've dreamed of having a gorgeous Monique Lhuillier, Jenny Packham or Amsale gown, I knew that wasn't going to happen and that was ok. I didn't want to spend a large amount of money on a dress that I was only going to wear once but I still wanted something that I would love and feel comfortable in. I was pretty open going into the whole wedding dress shopping process. I knew I wanted something simple with some detail, I did not want a corset back, I didn't want a huge ball gown, and that was about all my requirements!

I have been to three bridal shops here in Copenhagen. The first place I went to was Copenhagen Bridal right around the corner from Vesterport Station. It was a spacious store and they had a variety of gowns hanging on the racks.The sales person knew what cuts would look good on my petite frame and it was so nice to rule out all of the other cuts and styles that just wouldn't work on me.  I tried on some really beautiful gowns with illusion necklines from a Spanish label at Copenhagen Bridal. However, she never asked me what my budget was at the start of the appointment so when I found out how much the dresses with the illusion necklines cost, I knew I was not going back to that store. The three dresses that I liked the most from there ranged from eleven to fifteen thousand crowns. It's always so hard because I still convert crowns back to dollars and for fifteen thousand crowns, or about three thousand dollars, I could definitely find myself a Monique Lhuillier gown in the States.

Then I scheduled two appointments for last Saturday. The first one was at Nicolai Brudekjoler by Nørreport. They were having a big sale after New Year's so I thought it would be good to check out what they had. My appointment was at ten o'clock in the morning and when we got there, there was already a line up. While I was at Nicolai, I tried on both sale gowns and some dresses from their new collections. Honestly, I don't think I would buy a sale gown. The dresses on sale were their out of season sample gowns and a lot of them were really dirty after having been touched and tried on by many brides. And unless they had a sample gown in your size, major alterations would have had to be done. The sale gowns started at about five thousand crowns. I also tried on some gowns from their new collections but nothing really stood out to me. I spent an hour at Nicolai and must have tried on at least ten gowns a lot of them differing in style. They were nice, but nothing really special. If you are looking for attentive service, space, and some time to think between each of the dresses you have tried on, I would avoid Nicolai Brudekjoler while they have a sale going on.

And finally, I went to Lucca just off Strøget at Nikolaj Plads. Tina from Traveling Mama had mentioned walking past this store a few weeks ago and so I looked them up. I really liked the collections that they had on their website and there were a few dresses that I knew were my style and what I was looking for. Before going to the appointment at Lucca, I had an idea of what their prices were because some of their retailers had posted the prices on their websites. They are much more affordable and more within my price range. Out of the three bridal shops I have been to in Copenhagen, Lucca had the best service. I went shopping that day with the fiance's mom and my friend S and we were taken into a large private room. There was a huge couch, some dresses hanging on a rack, they had snacks and drinks at a bar which one of the assistants would bring in to you, and we had a really great sales person helping me out. The store was really busy full of teenaged girls and their moms looking for confirmation dresses but we were totally secluded from all of that in our private room. Lucca designs and carries their own line of dresses and they really put a lot of thought into the detail and the practical aspects of their gowns. They are also more flexible and willing to negotiate on prices if you are working within a certain budget. If you're looking for a wedding dress in Copenhagen, I would definitely pay Lucca a visit.

    

After visiting three stores, emailing a few dress makers here in Copenhagen, and scouring the internet for gowns I could buy online, I can say that I've bought my dress! (I'll show you guys after the wedding!) The dress I've bought resembles a particular designer that I love, it is very elegant and regal feeling (at least to me!), and it didn't break my budget. I didn't have one of those crying moments, but after trying it on and trying on other dresses after it, I just knew that it was the one. You know your own style and once you've found it, you just keep going back to it! The dress has been ordered, the fiance has also picked up his suit and now we just have to wait six months to finally get to wear them!

What was your wedding dress experience like? Did you find the dress right away? Did you end up getting the dress you thought you would?

1/2/3/5

Morning at the Zoo

The fiance and I went to Copenhagen Zoo on Saturday morning. The zoo is actually in our neighborhood and sometimes when we walk through Frederiksberg Have we stop to see the elephants as you can see them from the park as well. 

Having passed by the zoo many times from the street, I didn't realize how big it actually was. I was pleasantly surprised and impressed that they actually do have a good range of animals there. We spent a good amount of time there watching the polar bear sleep, watching the zoo keeper feed the penguins, and I absolutely love giraffes so we hung out with them for a pretty long time. 

I haven't been to a zoo since I was in Sydney, Australia in 2008 so it has been awhile! The fiance and I had a lovely time there and it was fun to do something different on the weekend. Have you been to Copenhagen Zoo? What are your thoughts on it? What's the best zoo you've ever been too?