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cxt

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Posts posted by cxt

  1. Thanks for all the tips on Icelandic dining. After one week in the southern part of Iceland in 2009, I can recommend all lamb dishes, especially the smoked lamb called hangikjöti. Even in a sandwich from a gas station, it was excellent. The restaurant at Hotel Geysir had delicious food with a view of the hot springs.

    To sample Icelandic specialties in a relaxed environment in Reykjavik, try Islenski Barinn. Inspired by the financial meltdown of 2008 and the ensuing public backlash, they began making "back to basics", traditional Icelandic food. They have a basket of bar foods that is a great way to sample smoked lamb, lamb paté, smoked artic char and the famous fermented shark hákarl with a shot of brennivin snaps. The "in a jar" section of the menu has an interesting cured guillemot – not something you get to try everyday and prepared very well. When we were there, the mixed game three-way included a wonderful selection of reindeer meatball, and reindeer and puffin steaks.

    The flea market mentioned above was a good place to get smoked fish and the smoky Icelandic flatbread, which makes a nice sandwich to take on hikes. All supermarkets have the skyr mentioned above, which I loved.

  2. Just got back from a fabulous Christmas week in Berlin. Thanks eGulleteers for great restaurant suggestions! Here are some updates:

    Tutun at Reinhardtstr. 19 is gone. (It's a Thai restaurant now).

    Cafe Einstein at Unter der Linden 42 had wonderful weiner schnitzel and goose breast, excellent house wine, and terrific service.

    Mao Thai at Wörther Strasse 30 was crowded on Christmas eve, with a festive atmosphere and excellent service. Good food, beautifully presented, but if you want it hot, specify scharf! Otherwise, it was not spicy at all.

    Oderquelle at Oderberger Strasse 27 was not as eccentric as I was expecting from the descriptions, but had nicely prepared German food and a fabulous "Emperor's pancake" dessert with vanilla and sour cherry sauce.

    Loved Monsieur Vuong at Schönhauser Str. 46. It was very crowded but we didn't have to wait. Fondue Chinoise Hot Pot at Kollwitz Str. 54 was another inexpensive, casual place with delightful food, although it took forever for them to deliver a few plates of chopped raw vegetables and raw sliced meat to our table. The chinese black mushrooms were worth the wait, though.

    Many restaurants were closed December 24-27. We called about eight non-hotel places for the 24th and found three that were open (Mao Thai, Hasir and Lutter & Wegner). If you go during Christmas, call around or try one of the hotel restaurants.

  3. Was wandering down the Ave recently and saw one of the boarded up stores with "Samurai Ramen, coming soon" for all of you who are craving a ramen fix but don't want to head all the way down to the ID.

    Edible food on the Ave? Could it be? Fingers very tightly crossed!

    I asked the staff and they said a second location of Samurai Ramen opens at 43rd and the Ave in late May. Yay.

    I'm crossing my fingers, too! But I heard "summer" as the opening time and when I went by last week, it looked nothing like a restaurant inside. Maybe they can pull it off in 16 days, though!

  4. What's the minimum purchase for free delivery? That was what prevented me from using HomeGrocer (even though my sister was their comptroller and I owned stock). This is moot for me, because they don't deliver to Fremont; there is a pickup location that I can literally see from my apartment, but it is only for Google employees.

    What delivery option did you use? If you choose the predawn drop-off and you live in a secured building, do they just leave it outside the building? What if someone steals it before you wake up (a definite possibility in my neighborhood)?

  5. Has anyone tried Rowdy Cowgirl BBQ in Fremont yet? Just got a flyer for them & I'm always hoping to find good BBQ...

    I got in! They were open Saturday 4 Sept 2007 at noon. I think they are open 12-8 M-Sat but I'm not sure about Sun, and don't even try to check the website, flyers or call for info, it's no help at all.

    I don't know BBQ -- some southerner will have to go and give an expert review, but I had a tasty lunch for $10! Excellent succotash and coleslaw (non-cream, non-mayo version) and delicious pulled pork and brisket. They were perhaps a little dry (again, what do I know), but there were 4-5 different sauces to use, plus dozens of commercial hot sauces. They have beer.

    It's fun, casual, fast, close to Gasworks, if you want to get take out and go to the park.

  6. Has anyone tried Rowdy Cowgirl BBQ in Fremont yet?  Just got a flyer for them &  I'm always hoping to find good BBQ...

    Everytime I tried, they were closed. I gave up. Have you tried Pig Iron in Georgetown?

    I got the flyer, too. It said they are open until 10 pm, but when I went by at 9 one evening they were closed. I plan on trying on Saturday. I'll let you know if I get in!

  7. Smoked eel is wonderful. If you know anyone going through the Copenhagen airport they can buy it for you vacuum-packed and customs-valid. Skip the small pieces and get a whole one. It might have the head, but it doesn't matter, it isn't disgusting, just comical. You can cut it into segments and freeze some for later Then, just peel off the skin and separate out the large bones. It makes good rolled sushi with chives and cucumber or egg.

    Chris

  8. The Danish Technical University has a website of nutritional information that will tell you the vitamin, mineral, carb, amino acid, fatty acid and caloric content of an impressive list of foods. It's got a bit of a scandinavian bias (10 kinds of herring, 6 kinds of beer) but you get data, variation and sources. It's amazing!

    Danish Technical University Food Composition Database

    Chris

    (I've been meaning to post this for awhile. Sorry if this isn't the correct forum or it's already been discussed.)

  9. 've been to Presse a couple times now and I love it. Croque monsieur one visit, oeufs plats the next, and I have my eye on the sardine sandwich for next time.

    Service has been a little off both visits.

    We had good service, but then my friend was holding an angelic, sleeping two-month infant, which seems to get us a little extra attention as long as the "angelic" lasts.

    I forgot to say I'm heartbroken about the Belgian Frites closing, but at least if we need frites and mayo at 1 a.m., Cafe Presse has them. We can roll the menu into a cone.

  10. Well, I am back from my trip to Denmark and Sweden.  I did not end up eating at the Vinyl Bar - it has closed down!  I did sample the following delicacies on my trip:

    rugbrød (unleavened rye bread) - seemed no different from the kind available everywhere

    kanelbulle (cinnamon rolls) - saw these everywhere in both countries and have become completely addicted to them

    lingonberry jam - nice, but didn't seem all that different from any other red fruit jam

    chokladboll - surprisingly different from the version I made for the Eurovision song contest last year, this was smooth and chocolatey, almost like a truffle, which is good to know because mine were more like unbaked oat cookies 

    filmjölk (fermented milk) - forced myself to try this on my last day there, expecting it to taste like yoghurt, but in fact it tasted more like cheese, which was a little strange with muesli

    I also had a huge variety of knäckebröd (crispbread) and tunnbröd (flatbread), some of which I had seen before but I never knew there were so many different kinds.  And I had my share of junk food - a packet of rye cookies with caraway seeds, a packet of cinnamon swirl crispbreads, and a bottle of some delicious apple and pear sugar-free Fanta.  I wish I could find that here!  I noticed a lot of pear-flavoured drinks on my trip, and have never seen anything like that anywhere else.

    My husband did try some local Danish beer, called "Ol" or something like that.  The innkeeper told him he could have Carlsberg or try the local beer, and when we asked what the local beer was like, he said, "like Carlsberg".  I think my husband liked it.  I tried to get him to stop at a pølsevogn for some traditional Danish fast food but he said, "What - you want me to eat those crappy sausages?" and went to Burger King instead.

    We were surprised to see no Havarti cheese anywhere, but perhaps it has a different name in Denmark?

    There definitely seemed to be less of a food/restaurant culture compared to what I'm used to in Paris and London, and even elsewhere in Europe.  But maybe that's just the impression I had.  There seemed to be a dearth of good restaurants and even the snacks tended to be more of the microwave pizza variety than anything particularly local or traditional (or appetising).  We did stumble across what appeared to be the ethnic neighborhood of Malmo, with lots of Asian and Middle Eastern restaurants, and enticing smells wafting from every corner.  There was also a large open-air market with a wide variety of very appealing fresh produce and several oriental food stores.  Unfortunately I discovered this area just a couple of hours before my flight home but it's nice to know it exists.

    Oooh, rugbrød! It's not available everywhere because here in Seattle, there's just one bakery that makes The Real Thing. I'm jealous! Also about the little cinnamon rolls.

    I wonder what brand the Ol was, because øl is just the word for beer. But you're right, most of them are like Carlsberg. I don't know why Denmark is known for exporting havarti, but I think the generic cheese in the grocery stores is kind of like it, but it is just called "cutting cheese" (doesn't mean the same thing there, I guess) or danish cheese, and in the cheese shops, they seem to just call it "old and "really old", depending on strength.

    Now I'm curious about the filmjölk and can't wait to try some next time I'm in the region.

    Tak for the report!

  11. Hi guys,

    this menu.  Am I dreaming, or does it look like all the "famous burgers" on the list are vegetarian?!  I know it's crazy, but with my limited (i.e. nonexistant) knowledge of Swedish, "notfarsburgare" seems like it should be some kind of nutburger?!

    My swedish is of the "squint and think in funny german" variety, but I am pretty sure the paragraph at the top of the burger section says all burgers are "vegetariska" mince made from quorn.

    Oddly, it also says they are seasoned with smoked bacon for juiciness. :huh:

    I think a nötfarburgar is a regular ground beef burger. (Nöt is something about cattle.) I believe the first line under "famous burgers" is that any of them can be ordered as a vegetarian burger made, as Behemoth said, of grain (corn, quorn, I like the q and might just start spelling it that way all the time). And I assume they leave the bacon off the veggie burgers....

    I've had people recommend Den Gronne Kaelder, Pilestræde 48 for vegetarian, but I've never been there. Spiseloppen and cafes inside Christiania have vegetarian dishes and nothing says authentic Copenhagen like Christiania.

    For authentic, inexpensive danish food, it might be best to have a picnic with take-out smørrebrød from a butcher or from a take-out place like Centrum Smørrebrød, Vesterbrogade 6. This time of year everyone is outdoors as much as possible along Langlinie or Amelienborg, or take the train north to the Louisiana Museum, which has a terrific outdoor sculpture park or south to Arken Museum, which is right on Ishøj strand (beach). Danes, as YKL said, eat a lot of pølser hot dogs from the street stands. For a real scandinavian experience, buy salty licorice from a kiosk or candy store. Blue Jeans is the gateway licorice; Super Piratos and Tyrkisk Peber are the hard stuff. If you like baked goodies, Reinh van Hauen has good bread and what I think are fairly traditional pastries. The Carlsberg brewery tour ends with free samples and is near Frederiksberg Have, a large public park with cafes/bars and take-out places along its perimeter, especially Smallegade and Vesterbrogade. Nørrebro Bryghus is a hot new brew pub, recommended for beer and for food, although it might be a bit expensive (pris fixe menu of 3 dishes for $60) but they have bar food for about $8-15 per plate. Other than that, the actual danes I know like to go out for sushi and french and thai and american burgers, so I guess that's the new authentic experience!

    Have fun, this is the best time of year to go!

  12. In the space of one week here in Denmark and Norway, I had sürstromming, the Swedish fermented herring mentioned earlier in this thread; rakørred, the Norwegian version, which is fermented trout; fried bee larvae; and smala hove, which is a Norwegian smoked-dried-boiled whole sheep head.

    Sürstromming smelled, literally, like s..., with the intensity level of dead skunk. The taste was pure salt, with the experience of having the smell right under your nose.

    Rakørred was much milder in smell, but this allowed the rotten taste to stand out, along with the slightly gluey texture.

    The bee larvae were not unpleasant, kind of like bitty soggy cheetoes, or those tiny fried shrimps that are mostly dough, with a little off-meat taste.

    The smallehoved tasted like very fatty bacon and was absolutely disgusting to look at and dissect, but a fabulous macho experience, if you want to play gustatory one-up-manship with your dining partner -- an eye for an eye, if you will.

    I wouldn't go out of my way to eat any of these again, but it was fun to share these experiences with other people! And what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

    Chris

  13. Does anyone know anything about the new Baguette Box Fremont? A friend and I noticed a permit yesterday next door to Peet's at 626 N 34th St ("Baguette Box Fremont" under Description of Work section).

    Please, say it's true! I live a few blocks from Peets in Fremont and I would be so happy to have a Baguette Box there! But I'm out of town and I can't quite tell from Google Earth what is at this address. Is it replacing that little home furnishings store just west of Peet's? Or elbowing aside a few bike racks at PCC?

    Chris

  14. Has anyone heard of Six Tables, in Kirkland? 

    Chris

    it's a chain, and not a very good one. i

    Thanks for the warning, cupcakequeen. I have to admit the logo reminded me uncomfortably of the King's Table buffet my grandparents took us to when we were little, because it was all-you-can-eat and gave a solid senior discount. I have happy memories of King's Table, but it's probably not the image Six Tables is going for...

  15. Has anyone heard of Six Tables, in Kirkland? It appears to have, literally, six tables, and only one seating each night. There's a very traditional prix fixe menu (chateaubriand, rack of lamb) in the window, but with no "prix". The owner is Cameron Kee. It's close to my sister and brother-in-law's house, so it might make a special gift for them, if the food is nice and the cost not astronomical. Anyone know about it?

    Chris

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