mmm-yoso – Page 209 – As in, yoso-silly, yoso-hungry, yoso-full, or best of all; mmm-delici-yoso!!!!! A San Diego based food and travel blog. An Ex-Pat Kama'aina and Friends explore food, restaurants, and travel from San Diego and points beyond.

Traditions- Rosca de Reyes (from Su Pan) and Calendars

January 6, 2018 Cathy Bakery, Breakfast/Brunch, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso!!! welcomes you to this first Saturday of 2018 with a post from Cathy. Kirk is feeling a bit under the weather.

Today, January 6, is the 12th Day after Christmas. This evening, the 12th Night, is when The Mister and I take down our decorations (which went up on Christmas Eve). It is traditionally known as the Feast of the Three Kings or Epiphany.

Earlier this week, we dropped by Su Pan Bakery to order the Rosca de Reyes, a traditional pastry symbolizing a King's ring which we will have while working on dismantling the tree and cards and decorations. {If there were people helping us, then whomever gets the piece of Rosca with the hidden tiny plastic 'Baby Jesus' inside would be responsible to host the Candelmas Day meal on February 2, another traditional day to take down decorations}.

I did purchase a small Rosca to mail to family back East, hoping they would receive it today…but the weather is very bad and the Post Office tracking shows it probably won't get there until Monday. At least it will be pretty much frozen and probably still fresh. Samples of Rosca on the counter…

Su Pan is probably our favorite bakery, not only for the sweets, but also the fresh bread and the breakfasts (tortas, burritos and plates), lunch tortas and, on Friday and Saturday evenings, street tacos- grilling out in the parking lot.
A ham and egg and cheese breakfast bollilo ($4.99). The bollilo (bread) baked here, of course, is fresh. A nice, light crispy, perfect crust. The filling is a wonderful, light scramble of egg and cheese and pieces of ham. The combination of bread and filling is just a perfect breakfast bite.
The bacon, egg and cheese burrito )$4.99) is also a perfect meld of flavors (as well as filled with wonderful pieces of bacon).

Su Pan Bakery 5006 El Cajon Blvd San Diego 92115 Website Open 5 a.m.-10:30p.m. daily

Another New Year tradition for us is changing the calendars with new, business giveaway calendars. The Mister and I usually are on the hunt for these beginning in November, but this year, we were busy and only managed to acquire a few on our own, and I was thrilled to have been helped by my friend, cc, who, with another friend, (Astroboi), went around acquiring(mentioned at the bottom of that post) the majority of the calendars this year.
As always, we must have an Orchard Supply Hardware train calendar (since 1931, all of their calendars have featured trains-the artist this year is John Winfield ). We usually picked one up after decorating Rose Parade floats in Pasadena, but now there is an Orchard Supply close to home. Nijiya Market always has a beautiful, botanic themed calendar and the Zion Market calendar is quite large and good for writing appointments.
Both Seafood City and Lucky Seafood Supermarket have the traditional 'bamboo' calendars, with drawings depicting the Year of the Dog. Otay Mandarin Chinese Restaurant gave away a beautiful, desktop/standing calendar.

There were more, including the Beautiful photography of the Hudson River Valley, given away by the Marist College, a refrigerator magnet calendar from a local realtor, the HMart desktop style, the Buffalo Exchange (which has the calendar in Spanish, indicates the Days of the Saints and begins in December) and, when we were in Pasadena for the Rose Parade Showcase of floats (another post), we stopped in at the House of Cookies and Mrs. Arsen gave us one of their Armenian themed calendars (with Armenian text). It's hanging right next to my desk and I'll try to learn from it this year.

I hope everyone is having a great year, filled with tradition.

Circling Back to The Mariscos el Pescador Truck

January 4, 2018 mmm-yoso Food Trucks, Mexican Restaurants, Seafood, Taco Shops

I needed to get my New Year Wagashi from Hogetsu Bakery. So I headed down to Chula Vista. As I went past the H Street offramp on the I-5, I had a sudden craving for tacos from the Mariscos el Pescador truck. I got off at L street and headed on over. Man, had it really been a year-and-a-half since I last visited?

It was just a few ticks after 10am so there were no crowds. I noticed two semi's parked in the lot. Both drivers were eating in their rigs.

Since I hadn't been back in a while; I decided to see how my old standbys here were. I ordered a Tacos Gobernador and Marlyn. It actually looked even better than what I had on my last visit. Though I was offered no consommé…..I guess I could have asked, but I figured what I ordered would be enough.

The Gobernador was better than what I had here on my last visit. Nice balance of peppers to onions and the shrimp was moist, tasty, and plump. The one detail that I noticed was that there wasn't much cheese melted on the tortilla. The melted cheese, along with adding milky goodness to the taco acts like a "barrier", allowing the tortilla to stay whole during the eating process. The taco fell apart after two bites. I also noticed the tortillas aren't as good as they were as well. Don't get me wrong. This is still good; but not great.

The smoked fish taco was really nice; smoky, the essence of the sea, and more moist than I recalled. Lime really helps to cut the oiliness of the fish. This was very good.

I really need to return more often.

Mariscos El Pescador (In the parking lot of Toys R Us)
1008 Industrial Blvd
Chula Vista, CA 91911

Midweek Meanderings – End of an Era? Emerald and San Tong Palace Close and Taking the “One-Chip Challenge”

January 3, 2018 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, yoso-silly

**** I know most of you know that Emerald has reopened.

Emerald Closes:

As mentioned earlier today in Eater. Emerald suddenly closed their doors on New Year's Eve. My understanding is that it was rather sudden. I've heard from two sources who tell me that Pearl in RB is also on the market.

According to the posted letter they have "closed their doors due to retirement"……

3709 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

San Tong Palace becoming a Sichuan Restaurant?:

Now that our office has relocated, I don't get down to Kearny Mesa quite as much as I used to. But I did notice this on New Year's eve while returning from grocery shopping.

Man, San Tong Palace had been there forever. I heard that the owners had decided to retire. The sign is interesting….doesn't say much. And Spicy City is in the same strip mall.

4690 Convoy St #105
San Diego, CA 92111

Doing the One Chip Challenge:

I brought a couple of packages to Paqui Ghost Pepper Chips to my friends one evening. I kind of enjoyed it; but it is pretty spicy. Which gave "Al" the idea that we should…..yes we….but not her, should do the one chip challenge.

So the arranged night arrived….but only three of us showed up! Talk is cheap.

Yep, this chip is no joke. One of the guys actually threw up later on.

It is really hot….as with really spicy stuff; I got the hiccups, sweated profusely, but made it through without any other ill effects. The agreement was five minutes without yogurt. Which I did.

It does feel like you've chewed up a hot iron and are gargling with battery acid. The heat starts slowly; the first 10-15 seconds are not bad. Then it gets really hot and kind of hangs around for about 15 minutes or so. I felt like I ate a couple of uni…….shells…..

There's actually a video of this….which will hopefully never see the light of day.

Oslo – The National Gallery and Lunch at Grande Café

January 2, 2018 mmm-yoso Nordic/Scandanvian Food and Restaurants, Norway, Travel

Though there we buses, shuttles, and taxis queued up as we disembarked from the overnight cruise we decided to walk to our hotel.

Our hotel was located in the Byporten (City Gate) Shopping Mall. Since we'd only be spending one night in Oslo, this was the perfect location as it was next door to the Central Train Station, with direct service to the airport.

Upon completing the twenty-five minute walk from the cruise ship terminal, we arrived at the train station and Byporten. We knew it when we were greeted by this fellow.

"Tiger City" (Tigerstaden) is Oslo's nickname and this statue stands proudly in the square in front of Østbanehallen and the Train Station. We quickly stored our bags….we were too early for check-in and headed out.

The main street of Oslo's downtown area is Karl Johans Gate, which stretches from the train station to the Royal Palace. We decided to check out the National Gallery as it held a painting that both the Missus and I wanted to see.

Along the way we passed the Oslo Cathedral, which was built in 1697.

It is actually Oslo's third cathedral; the first was abandoned when King Christian IV decided to move the city west to be within the protected confines of Akershus Fortress. The second was completed in 1639, only to burn down fifty years later.

One of the things that caught our eye was this carving.

I later read that this corner stone is a thousand years old. It was taken from Oslo's first cathedral and placed here when the church was being built.

We peeked in the door and were welcomed in, but didn't spend much time as it was Sunday and there were services being held.

Across the way is the public square known as Stortorvet. The statue of Christian IV hovers above the square.

From there the boulevard turns into a mass of chain stores and such for a while.

Until you get to the long stately boulevard that leads to the Royal Palace.

On this day there was a lively Christmas Market right on the main street.

You couldn't help but stop at the skating rink and watch parents teaching the children how to skate….not always successfully…..

But quite charming nonetheless.

On our way to the National Gallery we took a wrong turn and ended up looking at this huge building. Turns out it's Oslo's City Hall.

A quick note; this is where the Nobel Peace Prize is presented every 10th of December. There's also supposed to be some really nice art pieces, but we needed to get to our destination.

A quick turn back and past the National Theatre.

We found the National Gallery. There are quite a number of famous works here….but of course we came to see….

The Scream by Edvard Munch. There's something so compelling about this work…panic, fear, anxiety…. To quote Munch himself:

"I was walking along the road with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature."

There was one other work that really made an impact on us. It is entitled, "A Sick Girl", by Christian Krohg. It is a painting of a young lady dying of tuberculosis. The painting is so realistic….you meet the stare of the child who seems to look right through you. You see suffering, you see fear, you see the rose in the grasp of the girl slowly falling apart. Whoa…. heavy stuff.

We headed back to our hotel to see if we could check in. On the way back, as we walked past the historic Grand Hotel.

The hotel's restaurant, the Grand Café is pretty well known, once the hang out of intelligentsia and the elite, it just seemed a nice place to stop for some coffee so we stepped in.

The service is not overly formal, though there's definitely an old world vibe to the place. As you can easily tell by the folks having lunch and coffee when we arrived.

There's a famous mural showing some of the cafe's famous clientele (the "Kristiania Bohemians"), like Munch and Henrik Ibsen.

The Café actually closed down in 2015, but was reopened in 2016 with some modern touches….which probably included the open kitchen.

The menu seemed quite interesting so we decided to have a nice snack in addition to our coffee.

Starting with the Pork Cracklins with Parsley and Black Truffle Sauce.

The pork cracklins were very light and crisp and not greasy in the least. The sauce was on the weaker side in terms of truffle flavor; but we loved the way it coated the pork skins. Which tasted just fine on their own as well.

We also had the Horse Carpaccio.

While I wasn't sure what to make of the plantain chips; this truly isn't what I'd call a Nordic ingredient; the horse was cold, clean tasting, a hint of sweetness to it and very tender. The light mustard and sesame dressing really brought out a savory element in the dish. The carpaccio was wrapped around some lightly crisp, yet very tender salsify, which added another layer of a distinct taste to things. It's hard to describe the flavor. It's not parsnip, but almost slightly savory-briney in a way. This was really lovely!

The service was excellent; not overly stuffy, but quite professional. The prices aren't cheap, but we'd gladly return. There's a kind of casual elegance and refinement that a storied history brings….though I'm very much the uncouth visitor.

Grand Café
Karl Johans Gate 31
Oslo, Norway

The snack was perfect as it held us until dinner and fueled us for the walk back to our hotel. Our room was ready when we returned. After not getting much sleep the night before, even the coffee we had with lunch couldn't keep us awake. It was time for a short nap. Then we'd head out for dinner. This time, the Missus had chosen the place.

Thanks for reading!

Happy New Year

December 31, 2017 mmm-yoso European Restaurants, French Restaurants, Markets & Grocers, yoso-silly

Happy New Year!

Much like I've done every year since December 31st, 2005, I started my day with a visit to Nijiya, Marukai, and Mitsuwa.

I think I've noted that compared to those early years, the variety available has gone down significantly. Probably because of preordering and changing of tastes.

This year, Mitsuwa seemed to have the better "stuffs".

They definitely won out in the protein category……

I did enjoy the "instruction signs" Nijiya put out for items like kazunoko….just in case, you know….you get the urge to try it out.

We enjoyed going out for New Year dinner last year. So I made reservations for an early dinner at Et Voila. Man, we got in at 5pm and there were already folks eating! I'd never seen the place this busy this early……

Et Voilà!
3015 Adams Ave
San Diego, CA 92116

We then decided to walk on down 30th street and had a nightcap at Toronado.

Toronado
4026 30th St
San Diego, CA 92104

Sorry to say I'm not one for top ten lists….when it comes to meals and such I guess I'm always looking to the "next one". I'm often, like I'm doing right now, starting to plan three trips ahead.

I am however, somewhat sentimental. And having lost both an amazing companion and a good friend and contributor to this blog this year has been hard. It's not something you easily turn the page on.

With that in mind, I'm hoping the upcoming year will help to repair out those torn pages pages….the creases will remain for sure, but I'll be able to read them, reflect, and smile at the memories.

As the year comes to a close, everyone here at mmm-yoso would like to thank you for dropping by and extend best wishes for 2017!

The DFDS Overnight Cruise – Copenhagen to Oslo

December 30, 2017 mmm-yoso Airport/Airline/Cruise/Rail Food, Breakfast/Brunch, Denmark, Nordic/Scandanvian Food and Restaurants, Norway, Travel

As I mentioned in my previous post; I'd made reservations to take the overnight cruise from Copenhagen to Oslo. I thought this would be interesting for several reasons; first, the Missus had never been on a "cruise" and I thought this would be a nice way to see if this suited Her. Second, the Missus just doesn't care to see the same folks day after day. This was an overnight cruise, so I didn't think we'd be seeing the same folks all the time. Third, in terms of price, $269, think of it as a room and transportation, I thought it reasonable. A quick note on prices, there were fares as low as $88. But, having a read a few posts and I actually know two people who have done this, it became quite clear that a lot of young people take the cruise because booze is so cheap……international, duty free and all. So, since we'd be leaving on a Saturday night, more comfortable accommodations, I believe we had what they called "Commodore De Luxe" class would suite us well.

That's the view from our cabin. Our room was very comfortable.

And there was an attendant who went over our cabin with us….including the mini-bar with complimentary sparkling wine, beer, and water.

There was also a lounge for folks in Commodore Class, which was a really nice touch.

Complimentary beer, wine, drinks, and snacks.

Right out the door was the deck. Even though it was winter, the views were quite nice.

Soon we were underway. We decided to take a look around. Here's our Captain for this cruise.

The Duty Free Shop was a feeding frenzy of folks buying up cheap booze, clothes, and other stuffs. It was kind of crazy so we just headed back to our cabin.

We decided to get an early dinner. I'd spent an extra $40 for the "Christmas Buffet" dinner. So we headed down to that dining room. There weren't very many people eating at 530pm.

It was quite a generous spread; but much of it wasn't to our liking.

We enjoyed the pickled herring and smoked fish the best.

Much of it was either too salty, over-cooked, and just not prepared to our taste.

I was excited to try the game meats, but was also disappointed in preparations. Lacking in flavor other than being really salty.

The Missus and I split up and came back with a sampling of the various dishes.

In the end; we might have been better off just grabbing a sandwich and relaxing. Though the smoked and pickled fish were quite good.

After dinner we just went up to the lounge and relaxed.

Before ending our evening, we took one more walk around. At 9pm there already were folks feeling….well, pretty good. One guy was doing the Tarzan yell down one of the hallways! It was time to call it a night. After a nightcap of course.

The location of our room was very quiet, except for the two guys pounding on some door at 2am in the morning.

As for the Missus; well, She had a hard time sleeping. Not because of the movement or noise, but because of the vibration of the boat. So, I didn't get a ton of sleep either.

We decided to get an early breakfast. The "Commodore's Breakfast" was included in the price of our cabin and was in a different dining room than the regular buffet breakfast.

The selection and quality was decent.

More pickled herring and smoked salmon.

We took the long way back to the cabin. We enjoyed spending time on the deck.

In spite of the cold; it was really neat watching the ship slowly arrive in Oslo.

Soon enough we'd arrived at around 945am. Folks gathered to disembark and it was a bit of a cattle-call.

Though I'm certain it wasn't everyone….especially the folks who drank the night away.

As for us…well, it was a brand new day….and we'd arrived in Oslo!

Copenhagen – Breakfast, The National Museum, Torvehallerne Market, and the Coffee Collective

December 28, 2017 mmm-yoso Breakfast/Brunch, Caffeine Fix, Denmark, Markets & Grocers, Travel

It kind of goes without saying that Denmark and Norway are not the most inexpensive places to visit.

So having breakfast provided by your hotel really does help. I've spoken to folks who had two meals a day in Copenhagen; they filled up on breakfast and then had dinner.

And based on our experience everyone does take advantage of the breakfasts. The selection was not bad; decent cheeses, the tomatoes tasted really good. The Missus really liked the very rustic, traditional Danish Rye bread; Rugbrød. I took a little longer….at first, the hard seeds and really dry texture made me call it simply "rug". But over time it grew on me. As you can tell from this breakfast, I was still in "rug" mode.

I really did enjoy the Skyr……something I really enjoyed in Iceland. And the breakfast did indeed fill us up as we weren't hungry until dinner.

While we were headed out on this day; our overnight cruise to Oslo wasn't leaving until the afternoon. So we went ahead and checked out, storing our bags for later.

We now had to figure out what to do? The Missus decided on visiting the National Museum of Denmark which ended up being a great idea. It was a nice walk across the Inner City.

It's quite a large museum, but we lucky and managed to somehow get on the museum "highlights tour" in English. The young lady was delightful. Stopping by all the major displays like the Egtved Girl and giving us the lowdown. This Bronze Age girl and national icon isn't Danish. In 2015, scientific analysis of the remains determined that she was not from Jutland, but probably from the Black Forest.

She also went over the importance of Amber to the Danish.

We learned some really fun things. Did you know that Viking men were quite vain and cared about their appearance? They were known to keep combs and grooming "kits". They also bathed once a week, unheard of in those days. And no, there's no evidence they wore those horned helmets!

At the end the young lady went over the concept of Hygge and it's importance to Danish culture.

We usually don't enjoy tours like this one because of the amount of people. But there was only 5 of us in the group, so it was a lot of fun.

The National Museum of Denmark
Prinsens Palais
Copenhagen, Denmark

We then took our time heading back to the hotel. Just a mere two blocks from our hotel was Torvehallerne Market which houses over 60 shops and food stands in two glass buildings.

And while we didn't have time to eat here on either leg of the trip, we'd stop by and just walk around looking at the various stands.

The produce stands between the two buildings had a some really great looking stuff.

We especially loved how the potatoes still had soil on them….like they'd just been pulled out of the ground a few minutes ago.

We decided to kill some time and take a break at the Coffee Collective. A very busy stand in the market.

The Missus had the Coffee Kombucha which was really fizzy. I had a super strong double espresso….jet fuel.

The Coffee Collective Torvehallerne
Vendersgade 6D
Copenhagen, Denmark

Soon enough, it was time head back to the hotel and pick up our bags. We'd have to get the bus to the DFDS terminal. We were taking the overnight cruise to Oslo. We had checked out the rather discreet bus stop before heading to the museum. Pick-up time for us was 215pm, so off we went.

Past Saint Andrew's Church.

Down Gothersgade, left on Øster Voldgade and voila! The bus had arrived just as we did and we got on quickly as I had prepaid transport. We were amazed at how full the bus got. I've read that a lot of folks do day trips, arriving from, say Oslo in the morning. Spending the day shopping and seeing the sights, then heading back in the afternoon for the return overnight trip.

The Missus had never been on a cruise before. She has a problem seeing the same people over and over again, so long cruises and tours are out. This was just an overnight cruise; think of it as your transportation and hotel room combined.

This was going to be interesting……

Ginger Pho & Grill

December 27, 2017 mmm-yoso Bun Bo Hue, Pho, Vietnamese Restaurants

**** Ginger Pho & Grill has closed

A few months ago I received an email from "SomTommy". He asked me if I could check out a place on Plaza in National City that supposedly made a good Bun Bo Hue. I really hadn't heard of a place in National City making at good BBH; but heck, I did get a fairly passable bowl of pho in the area recently so why not? Turns out the place is actually in the very busy mall that houses Seafood City on Plaza.

I did notice that there's been a bit of turnover in the mall since my last visit. Manila Resto is gone, there's a new, what looks like the ubiquitous Crawfish place, and a few places I don't recall seeing before. Though the veteran restaurants like Golden Chopsticks, Bread Deluxe, and Goldilocks is still doing good business. As was Porky's Lechon.

As for Ginger Pho & Grill, well, there were a couple of tables occupied; all getting pho, but I went with the Bun Bo Hue. This actually took a while to get to me; which had me a bit concerned as I saw everything else just rolling out of the kitchen in minutes.

Eventually, it did arrive. First thing I noticed was the strong orange color of the broth; orange, not red, and how cloudy it was.

The plate of herbs and veggies were very fresh; though mostly lettuce and purple cabbage with a sprig of mint thrown in.

The broth was quite spicy, an in your face blast of chili heat. There was a mild richness-fattiness to the soup. The rest of the broth seemed so plain in comparison; very little lemon grass flavor, no beef or pork notes, no sour or savory (shrimp paste) tones; it was basically just spicy.

The meat was well prepared; the rustic cuts were think enough, but not hard, there were two pork hocks in soup; one was wrapped in a nice, toothsome piece of skin; the other tasted slightly off, so I passed on that. The two pieces of tendon was well prepared and pretty tender.

The bun was cooked well, slippery, with a decent stretchiness to them.

If the broth had a bit more than spiciness going for it; this might have been a pretty good bowl.

Recently, I had to drop by Seafood City, so I decided to try the pho at Ginger.

I went with good 'ol #4; the well done steak, brisket, flank, tendon and tripe. I went with the small size priced at $6.99.

This was an interesting bowl. First off, the broth was really mild and severely defatted. It was also barely over lukewarm. The basil had brown spots, but there was a generous portion of bean sprouts. To illustrate how warm the broth was; I placed half of the bean sprouts in the broth and they never softened.

I like my noodles "al dente", but this was too hard for my liking. I'm thinking the broth wasn't hot enough to finish cooking the noodles and what I got was on the too hard and chewy side.

The best part of this pho was the proteins; other than the tripe which was MIA. All the meats were fairly tender, especially the brisket and tendon.

There was a generous amount of noodles and meat in this $6.99 bowl of pho. I think this illustrates what the folks at Ginger believes folks are looking for here; large portion sizes and more meat.

Service was typical; perfunctory without being rude; efficiency rules. The restaurant is nice and clean, prices are reasonable. For me; there is better pho…and Bun Bo Hue out there.

Ginger Pho & Grill
1420 East Plaza Blvd
National City, CA 91950
Hours:
Open 9am – 9pm Daily

Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2017 mmm-yoso Alsace, France, Paris, France, Travel, yoso-silly

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

Funny thing, we're not real big "Christmas folks". But something strange happened during our last trip. First, we visited Galeries Lafayette in Paris. Every year, there's a theme, and a huge Christmas Tree spanning five stories under the dome of the department store. You can click on the image and it will take you to the video page.

And then we went to the city of Strasbourg, which claims to have the largest Christmas Market in Europe. They say that Strasbourg is the Capital of Christmas. The entire city becomes a Christmas Market.

Yes, it's very commercial, but for some reason all the happy people, all the sights and sounds, just put us in a great mood.

You could say we found our Christmas spirit!

Want to see more amateurish videos?

You can find them on Flickr – here, here, and here.

We hope you have a fantastic and delici-yoso Christmas!

Copenhagen – The Little Mermaid and a Memory Card Fail at Bror

December 23, 2017 mmm-yoso Denmark, Fine Dining, Nordic/Scandanvian Food and Restaurants, Travel

After a nice break for lunch at Almanak, we headed back out. The Missus had seeing the statue of the Little Mermaid on her agenda.

We walked past the very Amsterdam looking Nyhavn Canal. There was a Christmas Market there as well. We'd walk though it on our return visit to the city.

Past the distinctive Opera House.

Until we got to the area known as Langelinie. Walking alongside the water you'll see a crowd of people. Of course, it has to be the Little Mermaid.

Shades of Mannekin Pis is pretty much all I have to say.

Watching the crowd is actually more interesting. As they try and get selfies and sometimes as close as possible to this rather small statue.

A study in human nature…..

As we walked back in the direction of our hotel, we did pass a couple of interesting sights in the area. This is the Ivar Huitfeldt Column which commemorates a battle during the Great Northern War.

And this striking fountain.

This is the Gefion Fountain. The dramatic scene depicts the Goddess Gefion driving four bulls. It is Copenhagen's creation story if you will.

According to the legend, the Swedish King promised to give Gefion all the land she could plough in one night. Gefion turned her four sons into oxen and carved out what is now known as Zealand, the island on which Copenhagen resides.

We also found the church in back of the statue; Saint Alban's (also known as the English Church) to be quite striking as well.

We headed back to the hotel, down the street known as Bredgade. It had started to drizzle a bit, so we looked around for a place to have a short respite. We noticed a church with an impressive copper dome, so we decided to take a look.

This is Frederiks Kirke (Frederik's Church), a Lutheran Church and has quite a story. The church was designed in 1740 and work started in 1749. But due to literally death and taxes, the site stood in ruin for over a hundred years. In what at the time was a highly controversial move, the land was sold to Industrialist Carl Frederik Tietgen on the condition that a church be built along the lines of the original plans and that it be donated to Denmark when completed? So what did Tietgen get out of it? Well, in turn he acquired land rights in the area.

There's a word you'll hear quite often in Denmark; Hygge. To me, it seems more of a concept than a word; that feeling one gets, I believe you can be alone or among friends. A coziness, that content feeling, secure, trusting, comfort…… Our hotel had "hygge hour", basically happy hour in the lobby. The Missus had a glass of wine, I had a pilsner. It was nice and relaxing.

We then headed off to dinner. I had a list of places to try but had to cross off a bunch of them because I couldn't get reservations. Amass comes to mind. Bummer, because the chef and owner, Matt Orlando is form San Diego. I had heard so much about "New Nordic (Danish) Cuisine". I went ahead and got reservations at Restaurant Bror; opened by two former sous-chefs at Noma.

Anyway, here's what happened. During the meal, my memory card failed. I have a couple of SD cards that are getting fairly old. Since, unlike the two Asian Young Ladies who we saw taking copious notes during their meal at Bror, I don't take notes….it's my memory and the photos that cue up many of my recollections of my meal. Guess my gear is getting old. This is the second card to go over the last 3-4 months. Sorry to say you won't be getting a post on our wonderful meal at Sushi Noguchi…..or I may just do a COMC with the photos that made it.

So, the deal with Bror is that you get either a four or five course set menu. You can also order a selection of snacks. Things like Bull Balls….yes, literally bull balls and such. The menu features some interesting ingredients, which we found in most cases to be too salty, put together in combinations where nothing really stood out. Several times; we ate each of the ingredients from the composed dishes and found them to be quite good separately, but together it was just a mish-mash.

For some reason, the Missus really didn't care for the bone marrow butter. I found the bone marrow and pickled pumpkin crispbread to have a rather unpleasant clash of flavors and textures….think pickled lard.

And so it went. The service was excellent and the wine tasting was fabulous.

But overall, this just didn't do it for us.

The dishes seemed to lack focus and direction. The cod head was supposed to have horseradish sauce; which tasted just like plain mayonnaise.

The best item we had was the cod – pesto lettuce cup. Though you really could have been eating any type of fish since all the clashing flavors cancelled each other out.

Sad, because I was really looking forward to these meals. This also kind of turned the Missus off on set menus….though it was kind of too late for Her because I had reservations at places in Amsterdam and Paris that had multi-course set menus. Luckily, we enjoyed those meals much more, especially Alliance in Paris.

So perhaps it's better that I just leave it at that.

Restaurant Bror
Skt. Peders Stræde 24 A
Copenhagen, Denmark

I still had an open evening during our return trip to Denmark. I was going to make reservations for a late lunch at a Copenhagen main stay that has been around since the 19th century or a set menu dinner at another restaurant. Guess what won out?