Penultimate food post: Memorable meals from the trip

122 days, 17 weeks, 4 months, a third of a year. Any way you slice it, that's a lot of eating. But what really stood out, what were the memorable meals? To answer that question, I'm going to use only my memory, and leave the blog archives for another time. After this chronological review, I'll sift it all down to a Top 8 of the trip. Here are the candidates:

Japan

Sushi near Tsukiji Fish Market: The freshest, fishiest, most flavorful sushi of my life (details)

Tasting menu at Chaya Mario: Unbelievably good tofu and surprise after surprise hidden away in Hiroshima (details)

Iron Chef Matsue nights: Round after round of local seafood and bizarre creations (details)

Indonesia

Roast pig at Babi Guling: Succulent, spicy, and celebratory, as all roast pigs should be (details)

Mangosteens on Gili Meno: The essence of simple, bursting with vibrancy (details)

Singapore

Intricate Chinese tasting menu: Taste after taste of new eats ending with a hands-on demonstration of a sensational omelette (details)

Long Beach seafood extravaganza: Fantastic black pepper crab and a steamed fish that was even better (details)

Ah boiling at a hawker centre institution: Amazing and amazingly unexpected peanut dumplings in broth (details)

China

Hunanese fish head: A very big fish head with very many chopped chillies, soon reduced to bones and nothing more (details)

Ha'erbin streetside dumplings: After many, many plates of dumplings, these reigned supreme (details)

Sichuan, Sichuan, Sichuan: A hotter-then-hot hot pot in Shanghai, a bowl of chili oil for poaching, and a dry pot so spicy it made me numb (details 1, details 2, and details 3)

Sour cuisine of Guizhou: A big bowl of pig stomach and sour seasonings and, as a side, smelly fish grass salad (details)

Turkey

Kofte with a view: Meatballs and uberfresh vegetables on one of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara (details)

Feast at Ak Deniz: Where the food started and just kept coming, showcasing Turkish food done right (details)

Turkish breakfasts: From Kale at the beginning to Caffe Privato near the Galata Tower, a range of treats that makes any morning lavish (details 1 and details 2)

Israel

Home-cooked food from Ima: Delightful starter spreads and a tour through the best of Israeli cuisine (details)

Poland

Zapiekanki to celebrate: A pizza baguette after a fantastic set of World Cup semifinals (details)

Germany

Eating without seeing: Going dark at a dunkelrestaurant with ok food but an amazing eating experience (details)

Biergarten all afternoon: The biggest and best pretzels I've ever seen, raw radishes with lots of spice, sausage and whole fish to boot, rounded out by stein after stein of delicious weissbier (details)

Brunch at Gugelhof: Seriously the best blood sausage and seriously surrounded by three exceptional brunch-time dishes (details)

Doner kebab at Hasir: After one bite, I could feel the new addiction forming (details)

Czech Republic

Redemption at Lokal: Czech cuisine saves itself with fresh horseradish, fresh dumplings, and great beer (details)

Denmark

Arty cafe treats: At the Louisiana, easily one of the best museums I've ever been to, the most beautiful food that was fresh and tasty as well (details)

The Netherlands

Late-night Netherlands: Stuff-it-yourself falafel and vlaamse frites with special sauces end any day well (details)

Bevy of beards, part four

And the last installment of the Track My Beard feature, with faces from Copenhagen and Helsinki. Mysteriously, I made it through Amsterdam without a single beard shot!

Getting cultured with Calder at the Louisiana, July 23, 2010.

Freezing the beard at the Ice Bar, July 24, 2010.

Singing with the pipe organ in a city park in Helsinki, July 31, 2010.

Do widzenia, Auf Wiedersehen, Farvel, Tot ziens, and Näkemiin, Europe: Some thoughts on my time in Central and Northern European cities

The month in Europe has had a different flow from that of the first three in Asia and the Middle East. Instead of two to three weeks in a place, it was more like four to seven days. So my reflections are a bit more numerous and pull from aspects seen in some, but not all, of the places I was in July.

The food can be quite tasty but it can also be wretched: My European destinations were, to put it nicely, not well known for being culinary destinations. But I had some great meals over the course of the month! For example, really tasty German food that was hearty and fresh at the same time (I'm looking at you, Gugelhof). And most of the meals didn't suck. But there were a couple that did (stop feeding me, you bad bad restaurant of U Babci Maliny!)

Lots of the good food has been imported: The flip side of shaky food cultures is that there's room for more. And, with centuries of exploration and contact beyond Central Europe under their respective belts, these places had managed to import some decent food. The Turkish food in Berlin, ah, I would love more doner kebab in my life. The Surinamese food in Amsterdam, a new treat that would get even better the more it was explored. And the list goes on.

World War II has left many scars and they're everywhere: Though I purposely went to Hiroshima at the beginning of my trip, I wasn't expecting World War II to be such a present theme. Yet it was. The unmistakable absence of Jews in Krakow. The horrible terror at Auschwitz. The memorials, some very recent, in Berlin, Prague, and Munich. Even in Amsterdam, where Anne Frank's house serves as a daily reminder to those bicycling the canals.

Cities so livable it hurts: In many ways it was a very urban month. Yet I didn't get any asphalt dreariness. A big part of that comes from the fact that these cities were just so nice to be in. Berlin and Amsterdam, in particular, bring well-rounded places just dying to be explored in depth. I won't soon forget the joys of bicycling Amsterdam. Or the ease of doing so in Copenhagen. These places have put effort into making the human scale the right scale for life in the city and it shows.

The roots of the English language become more clear: Knowing only a bit of Spanish in addition to English, I've been confused before as to the origin of much of English. Sure, some come from Romance languages, but others...? Now it is much more clear, having been exposed to German and Dutch especially. Even when it doesn't look like it, it sounds like, just with a very strange accent and some awfully unfamiliar words in between.

A hospitably Danish host

Upon leaving Copenhagen, it's time to bid farewell to Murat and to Minnie. But first, a thank you!

Thanks to Minnie for being a fabulous daytime adventure partner and totally attacking the town on our bicycles.

And a massive THANKS to Murat for letting me crash for the better part of a week and for showing me around his new town!

Danishes!

On the way back to the house, Minnie and Murat pick up some pastries. Some danishes! It literally took me three days of being in Denmark before I started to recall some of the things that are Danish (or supposedly so), like danishes. Once we thought of it, though, we knew we had to have some. Luckily, there was a star bakery just on our route.

And quite a plate of danishes and other pastries it was. Starting at 3 o'clock, there was a Sarah Bernhard, cinnamon bun, chocolate and marscapone treat, cone with chocolate covering and orange creme filling, apple and cream danish, a scone, a round danish, and in the center another chocolate treat. The danishes were great. The winners, though, were the Sarah Bernhard and the orange creme cone. Both were lusciously rich and full of different flavors. The orange creme just begged to be mixed with the chocolate, for example. A great treat!

A brewery of brews, bigtime

After our eventful day, we plan on a lowkey event for Sunday. We'll go to the Carlsberg Brewery. Carlsberg, of course, is the largest Danish brewer and the fourth largest brewing company in the world.

Soon, we are in and we have our self-guided tour maps.

Right off the bat, the brewery leads with its best asset. It is in possession of the largest collection of unopened beer bottles in the entire world. It's true, it's certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. (Who knew an Irish beer company would certify a Danish beer company's collection of beer bottles?) It is very impressive, standing at 19,440 bottles on the day we saw it. The bottles themselves are in dramatic need of dusting. But, some of the labels are fabulous. There are bottles of beer from the 30s and 40s, with a vintage look. there are bottles of beer in every language (including Carlsberg in nearly every language).

From there, though, the tour falls apart. It turns out it's not actually a tour of a working brewery! Instead, we walk around the remnants of a very old brewery that has instructional videos from the 1970s to help us understand the brewing process. They don't work very well. Nothing even remotely photo-worthy.

But, we do end up at a bar. I go for the Carl's Special, which is a nondescript darker beer. It's only ok, at least it was included in admission.

Perhaps the neatest thing we saw was after the tour, when we were walking back to the train. A skyway connecting two buildings of the brewery was supported by four very large stone elephants. I'm sure they remember when this brewery tour was lots better.

Life In A Day, by a trio in Copenhagen

Soon enough, it is July 24th. Murat, Minnie and I have big plans for this Saturday. We are planning on joining the hundreds / thousands / millions of people participating in the Life In A Day event. Essentially, a filmmaker is asking people to submit video from their day, as long as it occurs on July 24. He and a team will pick and edit the submissions into a feature length film, to premiere at Sundance next January.

We are geared up to make a run for inclusion.

We start the day out right, with a Mega Brunch. Served at a lakeside restaurant just north of the city center, this brunch is indeed mega, covering many bases. There is hummus; a gouda-like cheese; orange, pineapple, and watermelon; a syrupped pancake; scambled eggs with bacon and sausage; smoked salmon; and muesli with fruit. Whew! It is all pretty good too. The sausage is lovely, very juicy, very meaty, and sizable. The muesli is also notable for its tang and for the freshness of the fruit with which its adorned.

And to pair with it, a massive glass of Hoegaarden. I should have put something next to the glass to size it approrpriately, but it was large. It took me two hands to drink from it, even though it was only 0.5L of beer.

From there we traveled on bike and on foot to the future home of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Denmark.

Just recently remodeled, the royal family will be moving in later this year. For now, the public can visit the empty home and see the rooms near completion. It was striking on two fronts. For one, it was that grandiose, it was a rather modest palace, something like a very large house on two floors. For two, though, they had done something really neat. They commissioned a number of Danish artists to produce murals for certain rooms. These murals were massive, usually encompassing a whole wall or two. They were also quite modern, with some psychedelic colors and some ironic use of brand names. Unexpected.

Next up, Nyhavn, a picturesque pier near the city center. We went to take a little boat ride, with 75 of our closest friends.

Heading out, we saw a couple of performing arts venues that were very neat, very new constructions. I then proceeded to take a very peaceful and much needed nap as the boat rocked gently from side to side.

Waking up, I found we were near the end of our time on the boat. There was, however, one more intriguing building, a big brick type that had a spire formed by the curving tails of four dragon-like creatures. Very cool.

A quick ride to the west side of town, where we found a little cafe in the middle of a boulevard. A great spot for a little potato and beer pick-me-up.

Following another bike ride, we headed home for a spot of rest before the evening would take us to new heights. While there, we had some delicious Thai take away, from a place called Thai Take Away. The papaya salad was amazing and amazingly spicy. Half my mouth went number when I bit into a pepper. Awesome. The pad thai and the green curry also brought the flavor as well as some mouth-cooling noodles and coconut milk.

Back on the road. Quickly, we were to the Icebar CPH, a bar known for being made of ice. Literally.

Luckily, to withstand the cold, you get a rental blue parka that is quite warm.

The drinks themselves are served in glasses made of ice, keeping the drink nice and cool throughout its short life. The champagne and cloudberry cocktail is particularly recommended.

After a little while, I was right at home, relying on some of my Minnesota genes to get me through.

Soon, though, the cold began to penetrate our bones, and it was time to leave.

The warm Copenhagen air soon revived our spirits.

We wound up at the Kulor Bar to boogie the rest of of the night away. Soon enough, it was past midnight, and our Life In A Day came to an end. We were satisfied!

Once the video is up online on YouTube, I'll post it here: [link coming!].

An old school amusement park in the heart of town

After our quick crepe meal, we made our way to Tivoli Park.

It is an amusement park that has been around for a long time. It is located right next to the main train station, and was quite a popular place to be on Friday nights.

One reason for that is every Friday night there is a concert in the park. This Friday's selection was Dune (with accents over the u and e), a Danish rock band started by a handful of teenagers. The crowd was pumped to see them.

It was a beautiful old park, exceptional as the sun was setting over the old buildings ahead.

We found a fantastic candy store. They had more lollipop types than I could count. All huge and spiraled with different colors. Minnie and Murat partook, with some candy floss and a candied apple, respectively.

I tried some of the local specialty of salt licorice. Umm, ugh. This was salty. And full of licorice! Ok, so it was exactly as advertised. It was still not very good and very hard to eat.

We also joined in on the amusement. Minnie and I rode the Demon, a roller coaster that has been a bit outmatched by recent improvements in the states and so was a quick scare but nothing serious. All three of us then took the fairy tale journey through a score of Hans Christian Andersen stories. Much like "It's a Small World" at Disneyland, we sat in little carts, magic trunks, actually, and were shepherded through story after story.

It was a fantastic end to our time in Tivoli and a perfectly Danish experience. Some of the stories I knew well, though didn't know that Andersen was behind them, like The Princess and The Pea.

Denmark looks to its southwest

A quick train ride later and we were back in Copenhagen. Dinner time! We head to La Galette to get a crepe fix.

We headed in and saw a big menu with lots of choices.

But before we would get to food, I needed a drink.

And, lo and behold, the beer was called Hancock! It was from a smaller town in another part of Denmark. I liked it both because it reminded me of my former home in San Francisco and because it was pretty tasty.

As my selection, I went with the goat cheese and walnut crepe with side salad. The salad was a nice and refreshing way to begin the meal. The crepe itself was well made, with good buckwheat, goat cheese, and walnuts. My one complaint would be that it got monotonous about halfway through. Not bad tasting, mind you, but just the same, over and over.

And as a group dessert selection, a banana and chocolate crepe with ice cream. A let down, nearly totally. The ice cream had a bit of freezer burn and the chocolate was more like flavored sugar. Disappointing.

A museum cafe that knows how to match the art

With so much visual stimulation, we needed a bit of gustatory stimulation to match. The museum cafe fit the bill.

I got a roast beef sandwich with apple horseradish on pumpkin seed rye. First of all, it was amazingly gorgeous to look at. The bread triumphantly flaunted its seeds and its deliciousness. The roast beef was augmented by the horseradish and by surprise pieces of cauliflower and broccoli. And it all tasted really good, really fresh, and really well composed.

I followed that up with a cinnamon stick. This was so much better than I thought it would be. Not hard at all, it was soft and gooey, but not overly sweet. It definitely hit the mark on the cinnamon. Each bite was better than the last.

Minnie opted for a chicken curry sandwich. It was also excellent, with a really well made curry at the middle of the flavor. Oh, and some lovely slabs of bacon to accentuate the taste!

And for her dessert, a strawberry and chocolate torte with custard. This was strikingly beautiful, especially in the summer sun and with the sea behind. It was also delicious, with the fruit mixing with the cocoa mixing with the dairy superbly.

Yum, all around.