The Spaniards have made it to Denmark

I am excited to arrive in Copenhagen and see my friend Murat. Fresh off of his nuptials, he has landed in this town from his former abode of Doha. I and another friend will be the inaugural visitors to his new place.

On my first full day in town, we go for a little walk.

We come the statue of Hans Christian Andersen, the ubiquitous fairy tale maker. He has streets, amusement park rides, and manifold other things adorned in this town. Then, to dinner.

We decide on tapas to get a blast of European flavor from farther to the west. The Biscaya Spansk Tapas Bar has lots of tapas. They even have a meal deal for 11 different tapas. But, at 299 kroner per person, that would work out to more than $50USD. We decide to just get the six we're excited about.

The first is a stuffed piquillo pepper filled with meat. This is a bit of a mess. The pepper is soggy from the cooked meat, and lacks any real punch.

The second is mushrooms stuffed with ham and baked in a cream sauce. This is much better as the mushrooms are full of earthy flavor that soaks up the cream and feeds off of the porky meat.

The third is pan fried chorizo in oil. Holy cow were these sausages delicious. More like chorizo hot dogs, or actually like Spanish chorizo, each bite was so juicy. I had probably been thinking of Mexican chorizo when I ordered these. The change was welcomed as these could hardly be improved in any way.

The fourth was pulpo con patatas, or octopus with potatoes. The thin, large clies of octopus were layered on top of the potatoes and dusted with paprika. These were quite good, with the octopus retaining its fleshy bite. The dish could have been a bit better if the potatoes brought more to the action.

The fifth were artichoke hearts wrapped in serrano ham with marinated olives. A delicious combination of textures, tastes, and colors. Both the artichokes and the ham were very fresh.

And sixth, bacalao with roasted garlic. The bacalao, also called salt cod, was a meaty fish full of substance. Unfortunately, it was also incredibly salty, approaching salt lick status. The brief moment of each bite before the overwhelming salt showed up was lovely, but the aftermath was a bit much.

The dishes were all aesthetically beautiful. Some of them even had the taste and flavor to back up their appearance, resulting in a successful meal.