Travel to Copenhagen

Copenhagen is a small big city situated by the sea. For many years, only little of the harbor was part of the city’s life, but that has changed dramatically in recent years. The city is beautiful, clean, and very easy to overview. You can easily get around on a bicycle, and that is the main means of transportation that I will recommend. There are lanes especially for bicycles all over the city. I always prefer to take my own bike instead of the car, so try it out and rent some bikes, or use some of the city bikes that are available in the city centre for a deposit of 20 kroner.

When you go to Copenhagen, make sure to visit brokvartererne, that is, the boroughs adjacent to the city centre where most people live. Start out with Vesterbro, which begins to the west of the main train station. The meatpacking district eat at my favorite Restaurant Fiskebaren, they have great cocktails and local fish, ousters and shellfish, very Nordic style. Try Pate Pate for tapas, Bio Mio for a simple organic meal. For late night fun and beers go to Jolene Bar.

Nørrebro is another neighbourhood, which has a very mixed population and a lot of things going on. Go to the outer part of the borough and visit Jægersborggade a foodie street. Here you find Christian Puglisi 2 new places Manfred a for vereyday food and take away or Relæ for eating in the evening. Christian has been the souschef at Noma.

Also try Katz Kitzhen where you can sit outside and enjoy a sandwich or salad, have coffee at the Coffee Collective and shop in all the small designer shops and art galleries, or eat at gofood.dk, a very small place with community tables. I love their breakfast on a Saturday morning with freshly made dishes of French toast and yoghurt with berries. It has a very relaxed atmosphere and great pictures on the wall that you can study for quite some time. It is an upcoming neighbourhood, very residential and cool at the same time. Most of the places are closed on Sundays.

The centre of Nørrebro has also at lot to offer a part from ethnic food, of the best hallal butchers and greengrocers in town. Skt. Hans Torv is the place to be seen, a lot of you people hang out in this square, and weekends are partylike. You find very good coffee at Kaffeplantagen and in the street Elmegade, which has many small and fun food places and a nice sushi bar too. The cafée’s at the square of Skt. Hans Torv are nice spots for trying out some of the famous Danish beers. Make sure to ask for some from any of the micro breweries, or Carlsberg’s organic Jacobsen. The food, however, is average, but you go to the square for the open air, the people, and just to hang out on long summer nights.

For good coffee, wine, tapas, and rare literature go to Underwood in Ryesgade, perfect for hanging out and reading a foreign newspaper or The New Yorker or poet you never heard of. This is my favourite place in town to go to Friday nights for tapas and wine. It is just around the corner from where I live, so also my afternoon coffee bar.

In my own neighbourhood Østerbro we have a place that serves the best smørrebrød (Danish open sandwiches) in town called Aamanns, it is organic, very modern and traditional at the same time. The menu changes but my favourites are Icelandic herrings and the potato smørrebrød. If you eat in they serve the sandwiches beautifully on classic Danish Royal China. Aamanns also sells ryebread, take-away dinners, ice cream, and all kinds of homemade products.

Book a table at Geranium the world best chef Rasmus Kofoed restaurant, and try a time travel into the world of Gastronomy and Nordic flavours and Rasmus Kofoed uses Biodynamic ingredients. It will cost you a lot of money, but it is worth every penny.

Very nearby are the lakes, they are artificial though (from the 16th century). There are 5 of them and they run almost trough the city from Vesterbro through Nørrebro to Østerbro. Take a walk around the lakes while stopping at some of the cafés along the way. In summer time, or in evenings, stop at The Office for cocktails and a nice view over the lakes and the adjacent apartment houses: everything is dark, cosy, and only the lights from the candles and the windows are shining from afar.

Another very nice and calm area in Copenhagen is Christainshavn, which is situated to the south of the city centre. I lived there for some years as a child. It is really an island connected to the mainland by 3 bridges for driving and 1 for walk and bicycling. Here you can find both the Opera and the famous Christiania and a lot of new architecture. If you want to experience something out of this world, and very Nordic too, the Noma restaurant is located in this area. It is expensive but worth every penny. Otherwise you could just wander around, look at the canals and the house boats, take a long stroll to Holmen and the Opera, and shop at Denmark’s best bakery: Lagkagehuset located at Christianshavns Torv. I can recommend everything in there, ryebread, muesli buns, muffins, the best Danish in the world. They all have different names, just ask, everybody speaks English. Try the kartoffelcake, I have a recipe for this traditional Danish cake in my cook book. Mr Ole Kristoffersen, who owns the place, is responsible for developing some of the best bread. His ciabatta or spelt breads are some the best I have ever tasted. You can eat in, sit at high chairs at the window, have coffee and a Danish, relax and look at the canals and all the locomotion.

Central Copenhagen (»indre by«) is busy and has all the usual High Street stores. But go early in mornings to the fountain Storkespringvandet in Højbro Plads and be seated at Café Europa. The city is at this time of day all quit and calm. Have a nice cup of coffee and Danish breakfast which is bun, cheese, butter, and jam. The place gets really busy during lunch, and semi-busy at evenings. I think they have some of the best café food in city centre, and their smørrebrød is also good.

In the courtyard of The Royal Copenhagen flagship store, you find a beautiful café, decorated with new design, colours and the kind of fairytale atmosphere H.C Andersen made us famous for. They serve smushi, small pieces of smørrebrød, they also have a nice selection of cakes. www.theroyalcafe.dk

For a more traditional smørrebrød experience you just have to make it around the corner from Café Europa to Slotskælderen hos Gitte Kik, located opposite the House of Parliament. The place has lots of regulars and politician attending, and the very famous Prime Minister Stauning had lunch here every day in the good old days. All the different kinds of smørrebrød on the menu are displayed on a buffet, which makes it easier to decide on what you want to taste. The warm specials are written on a board. Always remember to eat herrings or fish firstly, the meat subsequently, and if you still are hungry finish off with Danish cheese or blue cheese. You normally eat between 3 or 4 pieces of smørrebrød. Try the fried liver with soft onions, eggs and shrimps, or old Danish cheese with rum.

If you want to go out at night for a drink, try K bar located next door to Gitte Kik. I like it best around 8 o’clock before the crowd kicks in, just to sit in the bar and have a few cocktails and a nice conversation with my husband.

All over Copenhagen you will come across hotdog stands. Stop and try it out and remember to get the hotdog with »everything« on top. I can especially if get past Rundetårn at Købmagergade try the hotdog there, it is organic.

Rent a car for a single day’s picnic driving up north along the coast. Start in the food and wine retailer Løgismose at Langelinie, buy some Danish specialties and a rye bread. You can do the picnic all year round, no matter the weather, it will still be beautiful. We do not have bad weather in Denmark, only wrong clothing! The drive should be along the coastline: Strandvejen. You can see Sweden on the other side of the sea. It is my favourite drive. Stop at the woods Dyrehaven shortly after passing Tårbæk and take a walk in very famous forest and park, where many Copenhageners have spend their Sundays strolling, enjoying picnics, bicycling, or taking a ride with the horse carriage. Then finally drive on to Helsingør (Elsinore) where you can visit Kronborg Castle and ponder the fate of Hamlet.

Food to look for: smoked cheese, Danbo with caraway seeds the Danish cheese, herrings, Danish,, local beers, Ørbeck sodas, Hansen ice cream, smørrebrød, ryebread and bread in general, Danish pastry, Potatoes cakes, Kransekage, Læsø syde salt,

Dishes to look for: meatballs, fried porkbelly with parsley sauce. rødgrød; the fruit porridge, meat horseradish sauce.

Kitchen equipment and cookbooks: Kunst og køkkentøj.