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S1:E4 | Reykjavík to Copenhagen

Out of the Cold

By Nathan Tsai

March 31^st, 2017

An Early start

Our flight out to Copenhagen was scheduled for 8:00AM. This meant that after factoring in packing and cleaning (30 minutes), the drive to the airport (50 minutes), the return of the rental car (30 minutes), the check-in process (30 minutes), and boarding (45 minutes), we needed to be up at 4:00AM if we wanted to be able eat breakfast. Since we didn't get back to the apartment until almost midnight the previous day, we barely got four hours of sleep before we were out and about again.

Breakfast was the typical airport fare of mass-produced, reheated, and expensive food.

Joe & the Juice "Perfect Balance": This brand was founded in Denmark about a decade ago and has since exploded all over Scandinavia. It has recently made inroads internationally as they opened three stores in New York City within the last year. I'm personally not a fan of the brand because their prices are exorbitant (I paid about $12 for that cup of juice) and the juices don't taste very good.

In this case, Perfect Balance is a mix of broccoli, ginger, fennel, carrot, and lemon. I couldn't taste anything but the carrot and lemon. Was it fresh? Sure. Was it any more special than bottled juice? Nope.

Generic Hot Dog: Apparently, hot dogs are the one dish that must be tried in Iceland. Since we didn't really have a lot of time in Reykjavík and we didn't spot any obvious hot dog stands during our stay, we hadn't yet eaten a hot dog. Now we can claim to have eaten Icelandic hot dogs.

Was it good? Nope. I'm sure "real" Icelandic hot dogs taste much better, but in our case, it was pretty standard. The only differentiation was that they used a sausage that was clearly made with real meat stuffed into intestinal casing. That was good because I prefer to actually tasting my food instead of eating Oscar Mayer meat paste in a tube.

A respite

After landing, buying Metro tickets, eating a wonderful snack at Lagkagehuset, and checking in, we were pretty exhausted. I snapped this quick photo through the hotel room window and promptly took a nap for a few hours.

Walking about Copenhagen

Copenhagen is a beautiful city. It is a wonderful blend of historical architecture mixed so well with modern design. Often, there are buildings which date back a hundred years nestled right up against modern behemoths built of glass and metal. What's impressive to me is the fact that architects throughout the city's history were able to mix the new with the old in such an organic way that the city doesn't feel jumbled. It actually feels more like an old house that you know well that's been given a new coat of paint.

Kent Kaffe Laboratorium

Nørre Farimagsgade 70, 1364 København K

We knew that dinner would be a long affair so we looked for a place to rest our still-weary bodies and find some coffee to refuel. Through the magic of Google and creative search terms, we found an equally creatively named café.

Like a research laboratory, this labatorium seeks to experiment with the science of coffee brewing. In doing so, they use some fairly interesting brewing techniques. We tried two different types of brewing:

Chemex (bottom and top-center): Basically, a 1000mL Erlenmyer flask with a funnel at the top. Filter paper is rolled and inserted into the funnel, the coffee grounds are poured in, and hot water is poured over the whole contraption. It's essentially a pour-over coffee.

Was the coffee any better than a normal pour-over? No, not really. I actually thought it was a bit more watery than normal, but otherwise, there was no significant difference. Very cool presentation though.

Syphon (top-right): Basically an adaptation of a Büchner funnel mated with a regular round-bottom flask. Instead of using a machine to create a vacuum, they use an open flame to create a pressure differential so that the coffee gets filtered twice.

This was actually interesting; I don't know of a similar style of coffee preparation I could compare it to. The coffee was smooth and strong.

I don't think that any of these different preparation techniques actually varied the quality of the liquid coffee extracted, but I do know that their coffee beans and blend were very excellent which is reason enough to come back.

Stud!o

Havnegade 44, 1058 København K

When whispering about fine dining in Copenhagen, the first restaurant that comes to mind is Noma. Since the restaurant closed in February, the competition for the top spot has become heated again.

Stud!o is one such restaurant in the running for top dog. It's made many "top-10" lists and is the proud owner of a Michelin star just four(!) months after opening. In the past year, it was ranked as one of the top 40 restaurants in all of Europe (4th in Denmark) and its executive chef was named chef of the year by the Danish restaurant guide.

Apologies in advance if my photos don't do the dinner justice. I was tired and the restaurant was very dark.

The culinary fad that seems to be sweeping through Copenhagen is that meals should start with rapid-fire "snack " dishes which serve to "open the stomach" for a meal and whet one's appetite. The next five dishes were part of the "snacks" which were all served sequentially within a period of 15 minutes.

Potato Crisp with Vinegar and Roe:

This whole dish had a very latke-like flavor to it.

The fried potato strings were crisp, the crème fraîche was cool and creamy, and the roe added salty umami notes.

For whatever reason, the chefs at Stud!o really like putting micro-greens on everything and in this case, I'm not sure that it was necessary. They didn't really contribute to the flavor at all because the roe and potato crisp were so salty it was hard to taste much else.

A tasty, but boring dish.

Lilleø is a tiny island off the coast of Denmark which is renowned for very intense tasting fruits.

Dried Apple from Lilleø:

The apple was sliced and dehydrated for texture. It was then soaked in an aged apple vinegar to further intensify the flavor of apple. The black dots was a paste made from fermented garlic garnished with some sort of tiny leaf.

This was a very surprising dish. The apple from Lilleø and its special vinegar (aged for 18 years or something) were really not that special. I'm pretty sure that the apples at my local grocers tastes just as good as these.

However. The blend of the black garlic and apple was amazing. It's not an obvious combination, but the sweetness of the apple, with the tartness of the vinegar and the very mellow garlic-y garlic was just awesome. I'll definitely be trying to use these flavors elsewhere.

This is another dish that came with a bunch of "marketing". Apparently, these are super-special oysters from Gillardeau. They're so famous and rare that people actually sell counterfeit versions of these oysters (who knew?). In response, the oyster farm actually laser engraves their logo onto the shell of every oyster they sell(left).

Oyster with White Currant Granita:

The granita (the white stuff on top of the oyster) is essentially a slightly more chunky and crystalline form of a sorbet. It makes for a very cool presentation as it has to be sprinkled on right before serving and the chefs pour liquid nitrogen over the oyster to keep the granita frozen. Flavor-wise, it tastes much like a tart berry sorbet. They also injected a mixture of lime and other flavors into the bottom of the oyster to give more flavor to the dish.

I normally don't like oysters because they taste really fishy to me, but in this case, the oyster didn't taste like much of anything at all. Let me rephrase: even if I wanted to taste the oyster, I couldn't. The granita and the lime juice they squirted into the bottom of the shell combined to be so sour, the entire thing literally tasted like an Atomic Warhead. Presumably, the point of importing oysters so rare that they're counterfeited is to actually be able to taste the oyster itself.

Nope.

I was not a fan of this dish.

Tatar* of Lamb with Hay:

This dish was a lamb tartare accompanied by some micro greens and a fennel seed cracker.

The cracker was the best part of the dish. It was made with fennel seed bread and rolled out till very thin. It was then toasted and served. Great flavor, crunchy, and was perfect to eat the tartare on.

The tartare was pretty "meh". It was under seasoned, and the lamb didn't really have much flavor at all.

The micro greens added a bit of bitterness and made for pretty looking garnish.

This was an average dish where the main ingredient wasn't the star of the show again.

Æbleskivers are little puffs of pancake dough that are normally sweet and are dipped in fruit jams, honey, or powdered sugar. It is a traditional Danish food.

Æbleskiver with 2 Cheeses:

This dish was pretty straightforward. An æbleskiver (on the right) was filled with a sweet gouda-like cheese and was meant to be dipped into shavings of Parmesan and a truffle-balsamic paste (on the left).

Oh my word.

This dish was fantastic.

Savory, a bit sweet, warm. The outside was slightly crispy. The inside was soft and cheesy.

The truffle-balsamic paste was mildly tangy with a nice flavor of mushrooms.

Wow. What a simple dish executed so well.

Wheat Bread with Butter:

The bread was served warm and the texture was great. The top crust was slightly burnt and crunchy, but when chewed, it softened and became chewy. The other three sides were nice and crisp. The crumb (the soft stuff in the middle) was soft and slightly sweet.

The butter was a little cooler than room temperature, lightly salted, and fresh.

Simple, classic, and executed well.

Rye Flatbread with Sour Cream:

The flatbread was made with a dark stout and baked in an open fire stove. It was crunchy. It tasted of bitterness and burnt bread.

The sour cream was also freshly made—it's essentially unfinished butter—and was fantastic. A little tart, very smooth, and creamy.

The presentation was interesting. The flatbread was delivered in a black envelope.

The flatbread was horrible but the sour cream was great. I ended up putting the cream on the regular bread instead.

After the snacks and bread, there were five courses of main entrees.

Grilled Beetroot, Rhubarb & Summer Preserves:

The beetroot was placed on top of hot coals for 4-5 hours (left) and constantly turned the entire time so that the outside would char evenly. The idea behind this is that the juices don't evaporate through the skin and stew the flesh inside. This is supposed to concentrate the flavors.

There was no discernible difference between doing it this way or just pressure cooking the beetroot. However, I do have to say that this method ends up being a far cooler way of presenting the dish.

The vinaigrette was a mixture of rhubarb juices and parsley oil. The dish was garnished with micro greens (again), elderflower, and jam.

Overall, this was a well balanced dish. The nice earthy flavors of the beets were tempered by the tartness of the sauce. The sweetness and bitterness of the toppings rounded out the bunch of flavors.

While I think that the preparation methods were special, this is another dish which I think is just oversold by "marketing". The heart of this dish is essentially a beet salad and it tastes just like any other I've had. Other than cooking a beet for hours on end, there was nothing that really made the food stand out in any other way.

Poached Witch Flounder, Sweet Onions & Ramson Capers

I first want to draw attention to the way the fish is prepared. Half of the fish still has its bones but no meat, and the other half has a perfect fillet of fish. This is a really, really cool way of preparation. It's a pretty way to present an otherwise boring fillet, while still allowing the diner to cut and eat the fish unimpeded.

Apparently, this method is called Onkarette (that's what it sounded like, but I have no clue how it's actually spelled). To explain how this is done: A fish has two sides (L and R) and a layer of meat and a layer of bone. What happens is that both L&R are filleted first. The L meat is then folded over the R meat. The L bones are snipped off with scissors and the L meat is folded back to its original side. The R meat is then sliced off to use in other parts of the meal. You're then left with the L meat and R bones exposed.

Traditionally, entire fishes are prepared in this fashion (without cutting of the R meat), poached, then served so that the bones stick out one way and L&R meat are stacked on the other side which makes serving and cutting the fish super easy.

Poached Witch Flounder, Sweet Onions & Ramson Capers:

The fish was lightly poached so that the outside was cooked and the inside was still a bit raw. It was fresh and the flavor was sweet and slightly salty.

The onions were crisp and provided a juxtaposition of texture with the fish.

The sauce was a Hollandaise base with capers from the previous year. It was also wonderfully prepared and added a creaminess to the entire dish. The capers were awesome; Ramson capers are smaller than normal capers and have a bit of a garlic-y flavor to them.

The micro greens make another appearance and I'm still not sure exactly what they contribute. The bitterness actually takes away from the dish as a whole and they get in the way of a simple dish.

Other than the silly garnish, the dish was great. A Danish take on a classic poached fish with upgraded ingredients that ultimately changes the flavor of the dish a bit and improves it significantly.

Scallop, Purple Brussel Sprouts & Smoked Clam Sauce:

This dish should have been named "scallop in light cream sauce".

The scallops were cooked well; they still retained their "slipperiness" without being undercooked.

The purple Brussel sprouts tasted like...Brussel sprouts. They're supposed to be sweeter than normal sprouts, but since I was given literally a leaf and a half, I barely tasted it.

The smoked clam sauce was essentially a light cream sauce which had been frothed. It didn't taste of clams or of smoke at all.

The balance of flavors here was awful. Unlike previous dishes, the star of the show (the scallop) was pretty much the only thing I could taste. I don't have any real problem with that, but if that was the intention, then I'd prefer if they'd just serve the scallops alone on a plate.

Well cooked, but poorly composed dish.

When serving this dish, our waiter actually said, "Now this is our truffle dish". Again, I have no problems with "marketing", but I absolutely can't stand it when the marketing turns out to be a gimmick or false.

Celeriac, Fermented Green Strawberry & Black Truffle:

The celeriac had a very strong flavor and was cooked so that it was neither soft nor crunchy. It put up some resistance to the first chew, then became mushy afterwards.

The fermented green strawberries were surprising in flavor. Bright, super sour, and very crunchy.

The sauce was reused from the æbleskiver dish.

The black truffle that was liberally grated over the whole stack tasted like nothing. The overwhelming flavor of the dish was SOUR and a bit of earthiness. My taste was so messed up after the first bite that when I tried to taste the sauce alone (which I knew had some truffle flavor from before), I couldn't make out the mushroom flavor.

Again, the balance of flavors was just awful. Why introduce it as a "truffle" dish if you're going to overpower the flavor with sour strawberries?

Terrible.

Sweetbread with Spring Vegetables from Lammefjorden:

The sweetbread was really great. The outside was slightly crunchy—almost like a thin caramel shell. The inside was soft and salty. Perfectly cooked and flavorful.

The sauce was some sort of simple reduction from the leftover juices after cooking the sweetbread. Also, full of flavor and a bit salty-sweet.

The vegetables were cooked using a huge amount of different ways. Some were served raw, some had been baked to a crisp, some fermented, some grilled, some boiled, and others were pan-fried. This was the first dish where the vegetables actually added to the dish as a whole.

The vegetable that stood out to me the most were the morel mushrooms (in the picture, there is a half of one directly under the sweetbread). They were fresh in season and slightly spongy in texture. They soaked up the sauce and added their own earthy flavor to the dish.

Probably my second favorite dish of the night after the æbelskivers.

Roasted Hay, Biodynamic Cream, Chickweed and Rapeseed

The story behind this dish is that the chefs wanted to symbolize the spirit of spring and the new growth of plants bursting from the ground.

This was also the first of two dessert dishes.

Roasted Hay, Biodynamic Cream, Chickweed and Rapeseed:

I have never had hay-flavored ice cream before, but that's essentially what this dish boils down to.

The roasted hay is mixed in with yogurt (biodynamic cream) and is then whipped and frozen. It tasted pretty good actually. Sweet and light with the light aroma of grass and hay.

The garnishing greens were pretty much pointless again.

Surprising dish that was solid.

Prune, Brown Cheese & Plum Kernel Mousse:

For some reason, the chefs at Stud!o really like making everything sour.

This was no exception. This was less sour than the oysters and the truffles, but still puckeringly sour. I have to give props to the chefs for using every single part of a plum, but I actually only ate one bite of this dish because I just couldn't stand eating any more sour for the night.

The other thing I'd like to touch on during our experience at Stud!o was the service. The entire staff at Stud!o was fantastic. Attentive, extremely knowledgable about their dishes, and most of all, friendly.

However.

Did Stud!o live up to its hype?

No.

With the exception of a few dishes, the dishes were not balanced or composed well.

There were so many gimmicks. I don't care about gimmicks as long as the food tastes good.

The food did not taste very good.

Still though, I learned quite a bit and there are a few techniques that I'll be taking home and trying to replicate.

Footnotes

*I’m not sure why Stud!o spells tartare as “tatar”, but I’ve intentionally misspelled it in the title of the dish to conform with the menu they gave me.

Button Label

FootNotes

*I’m not sure why Stud!o spells tartare as “tatar”, but I’ve intentionally misspelled it in the title of the dish to conform with the menu they gave me.