italian food

stupidly i never liked italian food. sure, i have always loved pizza (who doesn't?) and enjoyed the frozen lasagne my mom left for my brother and i to eat when she was working late. but whenever someone suggested to go out to an italian restaurant, i would quickly try to change the venue to a vietnamese, mexican, korean, or japanese restaurant. growing up, italian food to me was olive garden or (later on) buca di beppo. i came to associate eating italian food with enormous portions of pasta accompanied by garlic bread, followed by the feeling of being sickly full of empty carbs and cream.




so when my friend said we should go to parma, my expectations were pretty low. not that i thought i would starve, but i thought if i could figure out anything about italian cuisine then this would be the place. pictured above is the first thing we ate in parma; a spaccaballe and a 'ham and cheese sandwich.' i put it in quotes because it is nowhere near the bland ham and cheese single sandwiches that i've been subjected to in the past. i'd previously read some positive reviews about pepen, and we wandered in by chance. despite being 3pm, it was full of locals where other restaurants were closed for a break between lunch and dinner. and if there is anything i've learned from my travels, it's to get whatever the chef at a good restaurant recommends. these two were the result, and the PARMA ham and PARMesan cheese sandwich blew my mind. the bread isn't stellar but it fits well with the moreish prosciutto and the salty, intense parmesan cheese. we polished it off with a glass of white wine and left as happy tourists.




for me, parmesan used to be that powder in a shaker on tables in pizza places. eventually i learned to buy it in wedges or blocks and grate it freshly over pasta. but even the blocks you get in upscale grocery stores here usually can't compare to what you can get at a discount supermarket in parma for a fraction of the price. yes, of course i bought some and took it back with me. this plate was served to us at ombre rosse with a couple of glasses of decent red. the two cheeses on top are two types of parmesan, and the other three are obviously blues. with honey and walnuts, it was the perfect dish to whet the appetite.




in fact most of the meals i was pleasantly surprised by were the appetizers. parma ham, mortadella, and especially culatello. we had the privilege of tasting a batch from november 2012 at la greppia and were floored by the flavour. how can a paper-thin slice of meat have so many facets? again, the bread was not great but maybe it was intentional as to not overshadow the meat. not pictured is an amazing plate of bottarga tagliolini that i regrettably couldn't finish due to our excessive snacking. i still have nightmares about leaving that pasta behind!




speaking of pasta, we did make our way out to bologna, where we of course had some pasta bolognese. or, as it is known in bologna; ragu. there it is served with tagliatelle instead of spagetti as the rest of the world does. all the food we had in parma and bologna was delicious, but i was particularly surprised by the pasta dishes. though they were sparsely dressed, they were certainly not light on flavour. it made me realize that the pasta itself is the star of the dish when made properly. so i do love italian food now! my feelings for olive garden are the same as before; you won't catch me there.

mom was here

yeah so my mom came to visit in may and made us all sorts of nice things to eat. of course i had grand plans of taking her out on the town and treating her to the best restaurants copenhagen has to offer, but she had other ideas. she really just wanted to hang out and cook with me; how can i refuse?! my mom also (predictably) brought a whole second suitcase full of korean and mexican ingredients; including two packs each of bbq eel and soondae!! is that even legal..? i don't know how i managed to squirrel away all of it into the kitchen cabinets, but eventually i made it happen. don't open any of the cabinets. >_>




kimbap



pan-fried zucchini, meat patties, and peppers stuffed with meat


oxtail soup


bbq eel and avocado rolls, chobap/inarizushi


apparently it's a cool new thing to combine chapagetti and neoguri, or so my mom tells me. the result is noodles with a moreish, spicy sauce. it's worth a try! just be sure to drain away the same amount of water as if you were just making the chapagetti. it really was such a breath of fresh air to have her here. i've been living in denmark for 5 years now and i only get to see my family once a year; maybe twice if i'm lucky. though i like living here, i miss them very much.

prague

a couple weekends ago, i went to prague with a friend of mine. no sightseeing plans or things to do in mind, we are just starting to enjoy the concept of the ladies only weekend trip. last year we went to berlin with another friend and had a blast. actually i am a little ashamed to say that we go to these great places and all we really care about is the food and shopping. well, all europe is the same, right? >_>


the cuisine seemed to be pretty much meat and potatoes/bread and cheese but still tasty and fairly inexpensive. we happened to wander into restaurace trilobit on a side street of one of the busier areas. lucky for us, the beer was cheap and the place was good despite being mostly empty. i ordered a steak in gravy with dumplings and what i got was what you see above. i was definitely expecting something else but the thin piece of beef was tender and the gravy was delicious, albeit maybe a little too sweet. however i wasn't too crazy about the 'dumplings' which was some boiled dough that was cut into slices. as you can imagine, the dish went very well with czech beer. the lack of patrons turned out to be a good thing as i later discovered that smoking is allowed inside.


one thing that is found on pretty much every pub menu in prague is chicken. to be specific, chicken breast with cheese. this one is from u cipu, another unassuming place we stumbled across. it was pretty full of both people and smoke. despite the smoke, my chicken with mozzarella tasted great. there was a bit of somewhat sour cabbage on the side that i also appreciated. i thought i ordered croquettes instead of fries but i guess there was a misunderstanding; i received them later when i was pretty full. what i was expecting was maybe two or three deep-fried potato and cheese palm-sized patties but what i got was a bunch of little balls. they were still good, but would have been better with some ketchup. what can i say, i am an uncultured american. (;


surprise! chicken again. this one from restaurance titanic was the one slightly dry chicken breast i got; the previous one was nice and juicy. the broccoli and cheese inside made up for it. also, i ordered mashed potatoes and i suppose i was expecting something creamy; this looks more like 'smashed' potatoes. anyway they were fine, the beer was good (and the same price we'd become accustomed to paying; 30 czk), and they had free wifi. can't complain so much, eh?


the one cultural thing we did was go to the sedlec ossuary a.k.a. the bone church. though small, it was worth the trip for me; although we did manage to screw it up a little. after arriving by train in kutná hora station, we were advised to take the local train to the bone church. in reality it is within walking distance but the actual city of kutná hora is not. we ended up waiting for the local train to take us back to the station for a long time, and then found out that the train back to prague wasn't coming for a few more hours. we decided to go poke around kutná hora to kill time and finally spotted the bus which was actually a van. wasn't so much to do there but we at least got some fries and a beer to tide us over until we got back to prague.

our tip to travelers that are looking for the bone church: walk from kutná hora station. the city proper is not a must-see, but if you need to kill time then you can either take a bus/van or walk it if you have an hour (each way) to spare. i think we wasted about half a day wandering around and waiting here instead of shopping back in prague. don't make the same mistake as us! (:

auntie alice's galbi jim

last christmas my aunt alice made a wonderful beef dish in a slow cooker. the meat was very tender and packed with flavour! in korea, meat is rarely eaten the way it is in america; usually it is presented as a side dish instead of the centerpiece of the meal. this dish is so flavourful that you only need a little bit with rice... and you really must eat it with rice so you can soak up all the lovely sauce! (:



aunt alice's galbi jim
serves 12 as a side, 8 as a main

2.3 kg chuck roast or brisket
900 g steamed small yellow potatoes (optional)
handful of shiitake mushrooms (optional)
2 medium-sized yellow onions, cut in half
1 small or medium-sized korean radish, peeled and cut into big chunks
5 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1 cup broccoli or brussels sprouts, cut into bite-sized pieces
10 garlic cloves, peeled
2 peeled slices of ginger, about 3 cm each
1 cup soy sauce (regular, not light)
1 cup granulated sugar or palm sugar
1/8 or 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
pinch of salt

wash the meat, trim off the fat, and cut it into big chunks. heat a nonstick frying pan on medium-high heat and sear the meat chunks for about 30 seconds on each side, then put them in the slow cooker with 5 garlic pieces and the ginger pieces. cook the seared meat on the low setting for about 4-6 hours until the meat is cooked. the meat should be intact and the broth should not be a reddish color.

on the same nonstick frying pan on medium-high heat, lightly cook the radish, carrots, yellow onions with 5 garlic pieces and add pinch of salt. do not fully cook the vegetables.

drain all but 2 cups of the meat broth from the slow cooker, reserving the rest for use in another recipe. add cooked vegetables, broccoli or brussel sprouts and add the rest of the ingredients. if using dried shiitake mushrooms then add them now, but if they are fresh then add them a few minutes before serving. cook on high for about 2-3 hours or you can cook on the low setting for a few more hours, depending on when you are serving. (:

more bali

ever since i got a few epic cookbooks on my last visit to the states, i've been itching to make another balinese feast! i invited two friends over the see the new flat; the perfect excuse to cook up a storm.. as if i need an excuse. eating this food makes me feel like i am somewhere warm, even though the weather is pretty crummy outside. clockwise from the top is masi kuning (yellow rice), be siap base kalas (chicken in spicy coconut milk, serosop (braised banana flower and jackfruit), urab bali (bali-style mixed vegetables), and in the center is berkedel jagung (corn fritters) and fried tempe.

be siap base kalas / chicken in spicy coconut milk
adapted from the bali cookbook by lonny gerungan
serves 4

1 chicken, about 1.3 kg
1 lemongrass stalk
3 tbsp vegetable oil
spice paste
3 salam leaves (if you don't have them, leave it out)
400 ml thick coconut milk*
1 tbps melted palm sugar (corn syrup is an acceptable substitute)
salt to taste

separate the legs and breasts of the chicken and cut the carcass in half. trim the lemongrass, bruise the stalk, and tie the leaves together in a knot. heat the oil in a wok and fry the spice paste for about 3 minutes. add the lemongrass, salam leaves, and chicken pieces, and then stir-fry for about 2 minutes. add the coconut milk, melted palm sugar, and season with salt. simmer the chicken for about 35 minutes, until the juices run clear. serve the chicken in the sauce with rice.

*if you want to take this dish to another level, you can make the thick coconut milk yourself. grate the flesh of a coconut, mix with a cup of lukewarm water and soak for 15 minutes. squeeze and knead the soaked coconut in the water. strain, pressing out all the liquid through a fine strainer set above another bowl.

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spice paste for chicken
9 candlenuts
½ tsp white peppercorns
½ tsp black peppercorns
5 shallots, peeled and finely sliced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
5 bird's eye chilies, sliced
5-cm piece of fresh galangal, sliced into coins
3-cm piece of fresh turmeric, peeled and finely chopped

use a mortar and pestle to pound the candlenuts and peppercorns into a fine paste. you may be tempted to use a food processor, but the taste and texture is definitely different. add the shallots, garlic, chilies, and turmeric, and pound again to a paste. add the galangal and bruise it a bit, leave it in larger pieces so you don't accidentally bite into one...

masi kuning / yellow rice
adapted from the bali cookbook by lonny gerungan
serves 4/6

500 g white rice (i used jasmine)
1 lemongrass stalk
1-cm piece of fresh turmeric, peeled and grated
100 ml thick coconut milk*(see above)
3 salam leaves
1 tsp salt

trim the lemongrass, bruise the stalk, and tie the leaves together in a knot. put the rice in a pan, add the coconut milk and enough warm water to cover by 2 cm. add the lemongrass, turmeric, salam leaves, and salt. bring to a boil and cook uncovered for 8 minutes. stir the rice with a wooden spoon, bring down to a simmer, and cook until the water has evaporated. transfer the half-cooked rice to a steamer, ensuring it rests above the water. i put the rice in a fine-mesh strainer in a pot with water at the bottom. cover and steam until tender, about 15 minutes. you may have to add more water to the bottom after a few minutes if it all evaporates.

it was a pretty risky setup, as i'd only made the long bean and sprout salad and the yellow rice before. everything was good except the occasional bite of supremely bitter galangal, which my indonesian friend suggested leaving in larger pieces, and *gasp* under-cooked chicken. i was really embarrassed about the latter, especially since i wasn't the one who got that piece. though i have come a long way with cooking, i haven't really been practicing on animal proteins so much. luckily at least one of my friends was brave enough to come to dinner at my place again.. well, you win some and you lose some. ^^;

christmas in california

every other year, the dane and i fly to america to spend christmas with my family instead of his. this year was our second time spending the holidays in california. it's always a strange feeling with the sun nearly constantly shining and the temperature sitting around a balmy 21°C/70°F. but the gaudy decorations are still all over the shops and the crappy songs are playing 24/7 on the radio. we don't celebrate christmas in the traditional way with caroling or the roast goose/duck/ham/turkey. meat actually plays a fairly small part in the korean diet compared to americans. but this was definitely not a traditional korean meal either.


galbijim! in a slow cooker! the dane told me that though the meat looked dry, it was very tender and delicious. my aunt alice made this. hopefully she'll give me the recipe soon so i can post it >here<. (;




soba salad! light and fresh, perfect for a sunny day like... christmas eve?!



my aunt silvia's delicious fish. top salmon with a mixture of mayo, pepper, and fish eggs. in the oven and there you go! if you add salt, i'd only use very little since the fish eggs are pretty salty. everyone went nuts over this, especially us 'kids.'



a nice assortment of veg. my grandma grew the leaves on the top left, dried them, and stir-fried them with garlic and soy sauce. she said it is kind of like collard greens. then we have some spicy water spinach(?) and pickled radish and carrot.



sorry, this ddeokbukki was not made in the slow cooker. it was only used to keep the dish warm after it was stir-fried. it was very moreish with rice sticks, fish cakes, bell peppers, and some little bits of meat.



my mom's japchae! she topped it with some egg strips this time. i don't know why, but every time i make it, it doesn't taste nearly as good as hers or my grandma's. (;



epic rice is epic. chestnuts and beans come together in this rice cooker to make a great cold-weather dish that really sticks to your bones. too bad there was none of that cold weather around.



poor copper... my aunt's dog was kicking up quite a ruckus seeing all these people and smelling all the good food, but not being let into the living room. we did let him out into the backyard after this pathetic pose and later they took him on a walk.


here is my wonderful christmas lunch plate! i know, it looks full... but it is mostly vegetables, grains, fish, and a little bit of meat. also, i didn't get seconds. i wasn't able to get any decent photos of the acorn jelly salad or the chicken wrap in their serving trays, but you can see them here. delicious!!


while we were eating outside in the lovely weather, we spotted an uninvited guest! a bird of prey swooped down in the backyard and caught what i think was a mouse. it landed in a tree and started digging in with the rest of us. what kind of bird is that?


and then the desserts came out... madeleines with plump blackberries and powdered sugar. these were so good that i ended up eating two. i tried not to think about how much butter went into them, even though it was my aunt alice herself who gave me the recipe, along with two madeleine pans.


this chocolate trifle was probably my favourite, although it was probably the least labor-intensive out of all three desserts. there is just something about the combination of pudding, cake, whipped cream, and crunchy toffee that is so comforting.


the irish cream cheesecake was good, though i could only manage a sliver of it. it was thankfully not as rich as the typical new york cheesecake. my aunt alice, the queen of sweets in our family, made all the desserts! though my mom is a great cook, her baking is nothing to rave about... sorry, mom!

so that is how we spend christmas eve in the kim family, or as my dad calls it, the kim dynasty. it will be another 2 years before we spend the holidays like this again, but i'm looking forward to celebrating a traditional danish jul with the dane's family again next year. maybe i can even bring a dish of my own to add a little korean to the table, hah! hopefully there will be some snow on the ground then, and it will feel like a real christmas. ^^

hong kong

first of all, let me warn my vegan and vegetarian readers that this is not a veg-friendly post; that's coming later! the purpose of my trip was to visit with friends and also to attend a friend's wedding dinner in china. funny that the three of us met in the first module of our danish language course! i was in hong kong for about 2 weeks and it was pretty much nonstop eating and shopping with a tiny bit of sightseeing thrown in for good measure. let's just get the dim sum out of the way first. P:


i've eaten a lot of dim sum in my lifetime; both in california and denmark and also once in singapore airport. now that i finally had the chance to try it in hong kong and china, i can say that the places i've been to in orange county are more authentic than the two decent dim sum places in copenhagen. but there were a few differences that stood out. in hong kong, the dumpling wrappers were rolled very thin and the radish cakes had big chunks of radish and shrimp (instead of a consistent texture). also, it seemed generally less oily than copenhagen and more than california. i had the honor of watching a woman in a noodle shop rolling her own dumpling wrappers and eventually wrapping some. i saw it with my own eyes and still don't get it. the fluffy buns were slightly sweeter than i'm used to, with the lightest feel! i need to learn how to make char siu bao like that! o_o


pickles to start
i would dare to say that one of the best meals i had there was at a private kitchen. i love the idea and wish i could do something like that in denmark... but there's that whole problem with me having only a work visa for echocardiography and my lack of enthusiasm for becoming a permanent resident... anyway, sìchuān cuisine da píng huō served us 12 courses of plate after plate of amazing food. not pictured are 2 bowls of palate-cleansing soup that the low light was not kind to. corkage is very reasonable so we brought a bottle of white and later ordered another one from the menu. i wish i could remember the names, as they went surprisingly well with such strong food.


glass noodles with peanuts and chilies


chicken with peanuts


braised beef cheeks(?)
in the background of this photo you can see some vegetarian dishes that they made especially for my friend. how thoughtful! (:


pork sticky rice with sweet potatoes


pork(?) dumplings


mabo tofu
okay, now i really like spice but this dish was just insane. from the very first bite, the schezuan peppercorns did their job numbing my mouth... and then the chilies kicked in. we all ate a little bowlful but i stubbornly took a second helping. hey, it tasted good! this dish haunted several of us for a long time... i didn't feel completely right until after we got back from china a few days later; my stomach was really complaining! this was probably one of the spiciest dishes i've ever eaten. ><
to finish, we had a not-too-sweet tofu pudding. it helped take a bit of the edge off of the mabo tofu and was a nice close to the seemingly never-ending meal. then the wife and husband team who own the restaurant came out to thank us for coming and she sang opera! i was blown away.

it's quite intimate since the room is only suitable for about 40 diners and only 2 seatings. and you can really tell that they pay attention to every detail of the food... and the price? well, a bit expensive more expensive than traditional chinese restaurants in the area but absolutely worth it. there are a handful of other private kitchen in hong kong. i can definitely recommend the experience!

sìchuān cuisine da píng huō
49 hollywood road (central)
hong kong
entrance on graham street!

sort of balinese dinner

when my friends asked about my trip to bali, i told them it was 50/50. good because of the great food and beautiful scenery. bad because everyone was trying to make a buck off me and my family, some people even borderline harassing us, and also i got sick. but i guess the food left a bigger impression on me than i thought! i love balinese food and the hellish spiciness. when i took a cooking class at the villa, the chef and i made the fish in banana leaf so spicy that i was the only one eating it (with sambal!) after my family members each took a single bite.

lately i have been craving indonesian food like mad! it may or may not have anything to do with the fact that my husband and i have temporarily moved to a flat which is much closer to the asian markets by the central station. now that the shops are almost neighbors to us, i feel like making only asian food all the time! but of course i know my husband, so there is always a loaf of rye bread lying around the kitchen for when he doesn't want to eat 'weird' food. :P


yesterday i had friends over for dinner and made bali-style beef rendang, accompanied by coconut rice, bali-style salad, and sambal. though the ingredients list and amount of work may look daunting, the taste of the finished dish is definitely worth it. of course this is copenhagen, not ubud; so some of the ingredients weren't available to me. for the salad, i swapped out lesser galangal for fingerroot and the coconut was just regular dessicated coconut that i toasted in a dry pan. honestly, it was still very good! however the rendang disappointed me a little since it was not dry, as the authentic stuff should be... actually it looks like dog food! whatever, i love a good sauce and this sauce was incredible! all in all, it should have cooked for much longer to get drier and browner. but there are plenty of leftovers to cook longer. (:

sambel tomat (spicy tomato sauce)
adapted from chef rai nuriana at furama villas
yield: about 500g

75 mL vegetable oil
100 g shallots, peeled and sliced (the small ones you get at the asian market)
50 g garlic, peeled and sliced
60 g bird's eye chilies, sliced (obviously use less, seeded, or bigger chilies if you can't take the heat)
25 g palm sugar chopped
1 tbsp belacan (roasted shrimp paste)
300 g tomatoes, chopped
quarter of a kaffir lime*
salt and pepper

heat the oil in a heavy saucepan over moderate high heat. add shallot and garlic and saute until golden. add chili peppers and saute until softened. then add shrimp paste and brown sugar and saute until the sugar browns a bit. add tomatoes and saute until soft. remove from heat and cool down. coarsely grind the cooled mixture using a mortar or blender. heat the mixture again and add kaffir lime, salt, and pepper to taste before serving.

*unfortunately i could not find fresh kaffir limes in copenhagen so i used a regular lime. not the same taste at all, but i did what i could. i highly recommend you use kaffir limes instead of regular limes if it's available. ):

beef spice paste
adapted from chef rai nuriana at furama villas

3 shallots, peeled and chopped (the smalls ones you get at the asian market)
4-5 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
30 g galangal, peeled and chopped
6 bird's eye chilies, chopped (obviously use less, seeded, or bigger chilies if you can't take the heat)
15 candlenuts, chopped
3 tsp coriander seed
3 tbsp black peppercorns
30 g palm sugar, chopped
150 mL vegetable oil
6 salam leaves
3 star anise
1½ tsp belacan

grind all the ingredients coarsely in a food processor EXCEPT oil and salam leaves. heat the oil in a heavy saucepan or wok, then add the ground mixture along with the salam leaves and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. set aside and cool before using.

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rendang daging (braised beef in coconut milk)
adapted from chef rai nuriana at furama villas
yield: serves 6 people as a main

beef spice paste (recipe listed above)
6 tbsp vegetable oil
1.2-1.5 kg free-range beef
6 stalks lemongrass, bruised
6 salam leaves
6 kaffir lime leaves
3 cups water
1½ cup coconut milk
salt and pepper
fried shallots to garnish (or eat straight out of the bowl!)

heat the oil in a heavy stockpot. add the spice paste and fry over low heat for 2 minutes. add the beef, lemongrass, salam leaves, kaffir lime leaves, and water. bring to a boil, then immediately reduce to a simmer for about 30-40 minutes. add the coconut milk and bring it back up to a boil. reduce to a simmer again and cook until the meat is tender and the sauce thickens, about 1-2 hours (but don't be afraid to cook it for longer as long as there is a little liquid in the bottom of the pot). season to taste with salt and pepper and garnish with fried shallots. serve with steamed rice and sambal.

if you're making this the same day you will be serving it, be sure to make a little extra, as it tastes infinitely better the next day! P:

torvehallerne

FINALLY. copenhagen has its own market hall; something that appears in almost every other major city in the world. århus has bazar vest, but the capital city has been missing one for ages. ever since i first saw that eyesore of a construction site on the way to nørreport station, i've been dreaming of the day it would open.


i managed to put it off for 2 days after opening before giving in to my anxiousness and braving the market. the first thing that i noticed was how ugly the exteriors looked. glass all around, turning the halls into humid greenhouses that would not be pleasant in the summer. tacky drawings of fruits and vegetables, the likes of which one might see on a coffee mug from a discount store. and it was so crowded that i couldn't really enjoy it for long.






however, the little i did see of the market drew mixed feelings from me. on the one hand, hall 1 was everything i had anticipated; fresh clear-eyed fish, lovely runny cheeses, spices, takeaways, biodynamic vegetables. the smells and sights took me back to the farmers markets of california, the fish market in venice, borough market in london. to be honest, it was hard to believe i was still in copenhagen.


hall 2 was mainly just stalls that already had established their brick-and-mortar shops somewhere else in the city. agnes cupcakes, for instance, has a location in the city center which is infamous for selling out of cupcakes quickly. coffee collective's shop in nørrebro doesn't offer much seating but you have a shot at a couple benches here at the market. while i can understand the reasoning behind this hall, it doesn't really interest me and is not what i think of when i hear the phrase "food market."


as a young market it has so much potential. the prices of raw ingredients like produce and meat were fair and hopefully this place will inspire copenhageners and tourists alike that food doesn't have to be just fuel. i'll definitely be back many times (once the crowds die down) to visit the fishmongers, the spice man, and now i know where to get a duck confit sandwich in copenhagen.



torvehallerne
frederiksborggade 21
1360 københavn k
tlf. 70 10 60 70