after an early and easy morning, i wrapped up liverpool’s 4-3 win and took a light nap. when i woke up, i was in a foul mood, so rather than heading out i decided to relax, stay in, and read more of islands in the stream, the hemingway novel zach recommended to me just as i was leaving for this trip. i finished tender is the night in norway, so i figured hemingway on leg 2 made some sense.
of course, these are both wildly depressing novels. i am overall enjoying this trip and i guess introducing some balance by the way of depressing american novels is a way to cope with that, i sometimes question my decisions.
hold on, this fire hasn’t been interested in starting all day and i’m about to exhaust this house of firewood and starter material so i need to focus on that for a minute.
we’ll see what happens, who knows with these things.
i read for a while and i got to the end of part I of the novel and the end of part I requires a drink. i looked around and it was 750p and i hadn’t gotten ready for my 830p dinner at manfred’s, a solid 30 minute walk. so, i pulled myself together and i got going.
i thought the streets were empty this morning, but after 8p on a sunday, copenhagen is emptied out. there are a decent number of people already in cafes or restaurants, but there is no one out and about. it might as well have been a winter blizzard.
i hoofed it on up to manfred’s, which is in between coffee collective and mikkeller & friends, and got to the restaurant right in time for my reservation. i ordered the chef’s tasting and a glass of cabarnet, which was of course natural wine.
a moment of your time regarding natural wine: manfred’s claims to have founded this movement in copenhagen, and i really haven’t seen it elsewhere but every nice meal i’ve had in copenhagen has come with an offer of natural wine (amass, bar’vin, bror). it’s wine that is made without any chemicals or additives, and from what i can tell it tends to be brighter, cloudier (of course) and punchier in flavor. it lacks subtlety but makes up for it in spirit, i guess? i don’t know. wine isn’t really my thing and natural wine almost certainly isn’t my thing, so far.
back to manfred’s: i’ve had the tasting course at a few other restaurants, and this is the first one in copenhagen that was at all vegetarian friendly. in fact, the majority of dishes were vegetarian, and while the best two dishes were not vegetarian, they did a good job of representing. since this wasn’t amass and i’m not a food blogger, i won’t go into much more detail, other than to highlight my favorite dish: squid, roasted eggplant, and leeks. great interplay, great textures, very enjoyable.
i would be amiss if i didn’t mention the first americans i ‘encountered’ on this trip – a group of 4 sitting with a british local who came in a bit after me. it seemed that they may have worked together and been in town for a conference- either way to me it didn’t seem that they had traveled abroad very often and had no feel for really anything. i’m not a huge world traveler, but i know when there is a language barrier with your waiter, the last thing you want to do is try and make jokes with him. i also know not to be the loudest person in the room, and how to not be amazed that yes, one of the best restaurants in the world is in copenhagen because of michelin stars, or something.
i have a great disdain for a lack of intellectual curiosity, and it definitely caused me a bit of annoyance during the meal. if you think i’m being snotty… well, i was. so there.
man, i cannot get this fire to start. one second.
ok, i basically put all my paper trash in the stove and lit it up, and if that doesn’t get it going well i quit.
man that failed faster than i expected.
manfred’s was pretty good, but amass still is the leader in the clubhouse on good meals in copenhagen. the food at manfred’s was good, but the food at amass was interesting and also really good. so.
after the meal, i walked up the block to mikkeller & friends, the scene a few nights ago of me getting drunker by myself than i realized.
tonight i had 3 beers in an abbreviated fashion (more on that in a minute):
- three floyds blackheart – the only three floyds on tap outside the US, according to the bar. pretty good IPA, very malty but full-bodied, like a good american IPA should be
- to øl dangerously close to stupid – really good double IPA, surprised me with how well-balanced and full-bodied it was. heavy on the citra, not too boozy (despite being over 9%), and the only negative is a slight bitterness up front that plenty of people would have no problem with
- mikkeller nelson sauvin iipa – grapefruit and bitterness, not a hint of booze despite being over 8% and really good body. just, grapefruit for days, which i don’t necessarily need
halfway through beer #3, an issue came up with ottoneu, and i chugged the beer and paid the bill and rushed home. here is the post-mortem on that whole sordid affair. you know, if you’re into that sort of thing.
overall, today was a good day. i woke up early, i processed photos, i wrote a decent amount, i read a decent amount, i napped, and i got to a few key things i wanted to see. i haven’t successfully started a fire with this goddamn wood (yes, now i am blaming the wood), but other than that it was solid, if not spectacular. the best decision i made was to take a nap and then take it easy between 4p and 730p, because otherwise i would have completely drained myself like i did yesterday.
tomorrow: listen, i like these tasting menus and these high-minded scandinavian dishes, but i need steak frites or a burger for lunch tomorrow. and then pluto’s for dinner. and gift buying in between.