Laurie and I drove 2.5 hours to central Denmark today to Odense. First of all, it was Laurie who drove as I shamefully do not drive manual. But why did we come so far? Because silly. It's one of the 1000 places to see before you die!
I am a devoted follower of Patricia Schultz's book, "1000 Things to See...." so of course on this culinary adventure we're on, we HAD to visit some of the places in Denmark. Odense was one of them. It was where Hans Christian Andersen was born. I don't know about you, but I don't remember his books or much about the man who wrote them. After that day, I plan on buying his complete works and have a newfound appreciation of Mr. Andersen.
After Odense, we went to Funen to visit Egeskov Castle. Not the most impressive castle I've seen in my lifetime, rather, more of a large ordinary American home on steriods. Lovely nonetheless. It's the gardens at Egeskov that makes this place very special. They are so impressive and Renaissance-like. Laurie and I both felt that the drive was worth the trip.
For dinner, we went to a Relais & Chateaux hotel/restaurant called Falsled Kro. Yup, you guessed it. A third 1000 Things to See. We hit three in one day! When we got there, we had a cocktail in this beautiful room with the fireplace in the center. Talk about romantic! To whet our appetites, we were presented with some snacks -- quail eggs two ways: poached and in balsamic, whipped cream with lamb, beef in aspic over brown bread. It was almost enough for a meal!
When we were ready to sit, we proceeded to the dining room, where chef Per Hallundbaek did the actually presenting of each and every dish. It very personal and special that he did that.
Our first course was turbot with chervil, peas and bacon, Laurie was presented with guinea hen and foie gras. OMG was it delicious. And the turbot was taste-wise texturally amazing. Not fishy in the least.
 |
| turbot |
 |
| guinea |
Our next dish was roebuck, which is a deer unique to this country. Apparently it's a short hunting season, so when it's around, chefs serve it everywhere. White asparagus is also in season in Denmark and the center piece is white asparagus with pickled onions. The roebuck has a texture of filet mignon and does not have any hint of gaminess to it. Laurieand I were totally impressed by this.
 |
| roebuck with white asparagus |
Next came the cheese course. We had so many to choose from! Laurie likes pungent cheese and I liked mine mild. The most memorable taste from the cheese course was a tomato jam. It was sweet and savory at the same time that tasted fresh and delicious onits own, but married well to enhance whatever cheese we tried.
Finally, came dessert and to serve a rhubarb for dessert seemed to be de rigeur. I must say this, it's not the rhubarb dessert you would be accustomed to having in the States. Usually rhubarb desserts have been boiled or cooked to death so it has a texture of mush. Not in Denmark. This had more of a texture of slightly steamed celery, but with a sweet sour taste. Desserts in Denmark are not overly sweet, yet just enough to sate the sweet craving one may have at the end of a meal.
So far, Laurie and I have agreed that Falsled Kro is the best of the meals we've had so far.
It pays to befriend the chef. He got us a reservation at a former colleague's restaurant, Sletten Kro, which will be reviewed by one of Denmark's largest newspapers tomorrow night! How cool is that???? Thank you chef Per!!!
Links:
No comments:
Post a Comment