Day 427 - A belated Happy Birthday

George Harrison and I share the 25th of February as far as birthdays go. I've just now - finally - enjoyed Martin Scorsese's Living in the Material World, a two part documentary on the life and times of George.One of my favorite lighter moments is this; Tom Petty reminiscing about that time when George taught him how to play the ukulele. Sadly, I cannot find the clip. Just imagine Tom's voice when you read this.

"He came in with two ukuleles and gave me one. 'You gotta play this thing, it's great! Let's jam.' I have no idea how to play a ukulele. 'Oh, it's no problem, I'll show you.' So we spent the rest of the day playing ukuleles, strolling around the yard. My wrist hurt the next day. But he taught me how to play it, and a lot of the chord formations. When he was going I walked out to the car and he said, 'Well, wait... I want to leave some ukuleles here.' He'd already given me one, so I said, 'Well, I've got this.' 'No, we may need more!' He opened his trunk and he had a lot of ukulele in there, and I think he left four at my house. He said, 'Well, you never know when we might need them, because not everybody carries one around.'" 

I really enjoyed it. Paul - predictably - comes off as a bit of an ass, but it's a documentary about George, right? Anyway, happy birthday George.

I'm generally not big on the "sending out positive vibes / wishes" thing but

here, I think it's appropriate.

If you have any good-vibes to spare, send them my brother's way. He deserves them.

Day 425 - So you say it's my Birthday?

I'm gonna have a good time.



As a child, I was pretty sure that this song was an original penned by the The Rock-afire Explosion. My best guess was that the gorilla was probably responsible. I wonder how Sir Paul feels about this.

That reminds me. I should see this. Immediately. It also makes me want to play Zaxxon.



It does not make me want to play Dragon's Lair.

Day 424 - 5 Random Things About Our Trip to London

At some point this week, I'll go into full-recap-mode...but for now, here's a few thoughts.

Sometimes, English is Hard to Understand

I've gotten so used to Danes speaking English that it - at times - was almost impossible to understand the various the English accents bombarding me in London. It was - at times - like this. I am ashamed.

David Mitchell's 3 Point Pen Policy

Ceviche

So, yeah, there's a Peruvian place in Soho called Ceviche. It is awesome. You should go there. Personal favorite? Note; I did not take this picture, I stole borrowed it from Paul Winch-Furness. Please visit this review featuring this picture, among other great ones.

It is Sakura Maru. It is salmon marinated in satsuma / mirin / chili / other stuff. It is delicious. You should order it.

Please and Thank You and I'm Sorry \ Thank You for Your Hospitality

I know that it has been a year in Copenhagen, but this was refreshing. Others routinely held doors for me and thanked me when I did so for them! Others noticed my need to pass / walk by and *gasp* moved out of the way without me asking! Someone accidentally bumped into me in the Underground and profusely apologized! Twice! Everyone stands to the right on Underground escalators!

Thanks Londoners!

Musicals, Musicals, Musicals

Much like NYC, there are always a ton of musicals going on in The Capital. There are the ones that  you would probably expect - Phantom of the Opera, Lion King, Mamma Mia, Book of Mormon, etc. There is a Michael Jackson musical, a Queen musical, and a The Bodyguard musical. There is also this musical.

Day 421 - Math by easyJet

Cup of Heinz + Ham Sandwich = Twix

Today we arrived at London-Gatwick without any issues. Transport from the airport to Victoria was about 30 minutes by train - pricey but comfortable and convenient.

We're staying at the Holiday Inn Mayfair, very central. At this point I would probably add some links but this Blogger iPad app is horrible. So horrible. Horrible enough that I just considered spending $5 on a new app. Maybe I'll give in tomorrow.

We wandered around Carnaby St, doing some window shopping, and made our way to Mother Mash for some much needed lunch.

http://mothermash.co.uk/lunch+dinner.pdf

Tasty. You pick a style of mash, a meat or meat pie, and a gravy. The pile of mash was massive. Emily and I went half and half with a lamb pie and some Moroccan sausages.

Day 420 - Possible / Probable London Food Itinerary

Breakfast / Brunch / Food in the Morning

The Breakfast Club
Regency Café
Duck & Waffle

I'm particularly excited / entrigued by Duck & Waffle. It's sort of weird that I'll have had Duck and Waffles before I've had Chicken and Waffles. I am a fancy guy.

I think we still need one more breakfast place.

Lunch

We'll be headed to the Tate Modern at some point and as such were looking for lunch somewhere in the area...

El Vergel
Masters Super Fish
Tsuru

Other than this I plan on pubbing it as much as possible. Please lavish me with meat pies.

Dinner

Sadly, most of the places I had my eye on have no bookings - I am a terrible planner. These should be good though.

MOMO
Ceviche

We'll have dinner in High Wycombe on Saturday and there weren't a ton of options. We went with Eat Thai. It sounds / looks good.

Day 419 - The in-house haircut

I have cycled through many hair "styles" - if you can really say that - from my teen years until now. New colors. New lengths. Goatees. Full beards. Lambchop sideburns. Blonde hair. Red hair. No hair. You name it.

Once-upon-a-time in Emily's above-Jimmy-John's-apartment, our friend Francesca asked Emily - repeatedly, when browsing framed pictures - and who is this? That's Collin. What about this guy? That's Collin. And this dude? Yeah, that's Collin. The questions and answers flew back and forth SO FAST YOU'LL FREAK.

So yes, I have, in a way, drifted through life without a "look" as it were. The most consistent "look" - and I might add the easiest and the one I most identify with - is the bald head (facial hair optional). Today it feels like "me".

This look started in 1995 or 1996, I can't remember. At this point I rocked a horrible horrible bowl haircut. Soon we wouldn't even need the bowl! (SPOILER ALERT, COLLIN SHAVES HIS HEAD)

There was an incident.

An embarrassing incident.

In my infinite wisdom, to deflect said embarrassment I had my friend Ken Sabino shave my head. It didn't necessarily deflect all embarrassment, but I was in a very high-school-way, new. Newly defined.

No longer was I the-guy-that-ripped-a-ridiculously-massive-fart-during-a-Spanish-club-meeting. Now I was also bald. Juan Carlos may have cut the queso, but now he had a new affectation, or lack there of. I dug it, not everyone did, but I was - and still am - a fan.

Anyway, fast-forward past more terrible hairstyles / colors to 1998. I had a live-in barber!

James. Custodio. Jay faded-me-up for the better part of two years. I've never looked better. Sadly, college ends and I lost my barber and had to cut my own hair or pay others to do so.

The paying others to do so bit...I am cheap. My paying others to do so resulted in trips to Hair Cuttery / Cost Cutters / others. Others did not include Fantastic Sam's and / or BoRics. It resulted badly. So I bought some clippers.

My clipper cuts were always one length. Always no-guard. Always bald. Easy. Cheap. Effective. Ridiculously-good-looking.

Occasionally, my hair has grown to very very very long lengths and I've thought, what can I do with this hair? Can I cut it myself? With clippers? I chose not to.

Fast-forward to today to 2013-2014 in a new country with new European-voltage Wahl clippers. I gave it a go. And guess what? The first time looked great! So many compliments, so many amazed that I "did it myself". With confidence growing, I tried again...not as good. Passable, but not as good.

Today, I tried for a third time. Results? Predictably amazing and terrible. I feel like this haircut is like some sort of terrible brownhaired-somewhatcurly-longer-poorlycut Macklemore facsimile. Dear Macklemore, I'm sorry. Imagine Ivan Drago, but with a pompadour that just won't stay up.


There's another 80's reference that I can't quite place. It's not Flock of Seagulls. But it could be. It's bad.

At any rate, I'll be suffering with this haircut. I thought about shaving it again, but I have put too much effort into growing this hair. This glorious terrible hair.

Copenhagen Dining Week - Marv & Ben / Grønbech & Churchill

Yes it's that time of year again, Copenhagen Dining Week! It's a great opportunity to try out new restaurants for a reasonable price - 200 kroner for 3 courses, that's about $36 - including tax. Reservations fill up quickly and there's always difficulty in paring down the list and figuring out where to go.

We tend to take one of two paths when choosing for Dining Week / Restaurant Week. Path one; find the best deal / savings. Path two; pick a restaurant that has been on our "list".

So yes, we chose Marv og Ben and Grønbech & Churchill. The second has a Michelin Star!

I apologize in advance for zero pictures of any of the food we ate. Actually, check that, I don't apologize. I hate hate hate watching people pull out their cameras to take pictures of the food they're about to eat. When the act of cataloging / reporting supersedes the act of actually eating and enjoying...well...it makes me want to vomit. Screw those people.

Sorry for the digression. Sorry again for the lack of pictures. Still not sorry.

No, Marv og Ben was not - as I had originally imagined - started by a guy named Marv and a guy named Ben. Marv og Ben actually means Marrow and Bone. We ate here on Friday the 14th - Valentines Day. Here were the offerings (courtesy of Google Translate!);

Rimet cod cod roe, sour cream and cucumber.
---
Glazed beef brisket lingonberry, artichokes and tarragon.
---
Chocolate & Caramel Fudge, ice cream and crunchy.

I was generally bummed by the first course. Crummy - for me - texture and pretty much zero flavor. Bummer. The second course saved things. Just a wonderful brisket, pulled in ribbons, topped with lingonberry with two types of cream sauce edging the plate. The artichokes here are actually jordskokker, Jerusalem artichokes. Delicious. The dessert was good but forgettable.

Next, Grønbech & Churchill on Saturday.

As with most starred restaurants, the level of service is - well - excellent. I think that our waiter looked very Taran Killam. Yes, this Taran Killam.



I like to think that the "Weird / Awesome French Dancing" sketch is Killam's brainchild as he owns it. Epically. It also falls under sketches-only-Collin-could-possibly-like. Fun times.

Anyway, great service. Great food. Here's the recap;

Cauliflower as "airy & creamy" soup piece of North Sea cod "carefully prepared" in mild curry & vanilla  

Endive steamed in rosemary honey and baked lemons Bright poultry with caramelized butter sauce, dried legumes and bitter February salads  

Pear & yogurt as marbled cream Clotted cream set with white chocolate, flavored with licorice root and green aniseed 

So the starter. Delicious. Imagine a very very very luxurious cream chowder with a touch of curry. The cod was perfect. The cauliflower provided some crunch. Awesome.

The main - oh my the sauce! It was a sort of lemon curd / brown butter sauce. Ridiculous. The poultry was a very nice cut of turkey breast. Normally this would be a bit on the boring side but it was cooked perfectly and that sauce...oh that sauce...it could make just about anything delicious.

I've spent so much time thinking of that sauce that I've totally forgotten the dessert. I totally dug the pear, but that's really most of my memory of things. Emily can fill us in here.

All in all, another great year doing this. Copenhagen Dining Week. Do it. It's awesome.

Day 418 - Pandora / Honda / Honest Abe

Fact. I am a huge fan of Pandora Radio. You build stations based on likes / dislikes. Awesome. It isn't perfect - I get waaaayyyyy too much Common on my favorite station, but it's a small price to pay for a free service providing awesome music.

As I do not pay for my Pandora and I am forced to listen to adverts for the privilege of doing so, and it is the month of Presidents, and it is the month of selling cars I have been subjected to tons of car ads. Specifically from Honda North of Danvers. Most follow the format of "Famous President X did Y and that's awesome. Guess what?! Honda North is also Awesome! Buy a Honda".

At some point - as would be with every President's Day / Month celebration - we get to Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln's greatest Honda-selling-achievement? The transcontinental railroad. The transcontinental railroad!

Preserving the union? Eh. Ending slavery? Eh. Thanks Honda North of Danvers!

Correction / Jerky-date to a Previous Post Involving "Jerky"

I cannot - in good conscience - allow misinformation to spew from this blog. The Jack Link's "beef jerky" I spoke on earlier is, in reality, a "Steak Bar" / "Ready-To-Eat-Beef-Snack".

I can only report back on the "original" version thus far. I hate to say it, but I'm not a fan. There wasn't that tear / pull and eat of glorious beef jerky. There's a very specific processed texture / flavor here that I can't place. McRib? Maybe. For those of you who don't know me very well, I'll expound on this by saying that my enjoyment-bar for this kind of stuff is very low. I'll snap into a Slim Jim with the best of them - RIP Randy. But for Jebus' sake, this texture / flavor?! I am not a fan.

As an aside, that might be one of my favorite commercials of all time. Art thou bored!?

It looked / smelled / felt remarkably like a dog treat and, very predictably, Charlie was intrigued. He may have enjoyed some Ready-To-Eat-Beef-Snack residue off of my fingers / napkin (jeans).

Perhaps that's why it's correctly labeled as a Beef-Snack. I can't describe how much I enjoy the Ready-To-Eat portion of that. Radical! I don't have to cook this!?

I'm holding out hope for the "Peppered" version, but my expectations are very low.

WotD #26 - grøntsagslasagne

Today's lunch includes grøntsagslasagne. I'll let you figure it out.

Day 414 - File under "unexpected greetings" / WotD #25

Today the train was all messed up - some sort of signal problem at Dybbølsbro. I missed the bus that brings me to work. We had to walk.

I don't know if we've mentioned it before, but Danes have many required pre-set social phrases / sayings that are very situation specific. It's in the Danish social contract that you say these things in these specific situations. Kind of a structured social nicety. People don't deviate from the phrasing.

It's weird because I would never describe Danes as overly polite. This is not a hold-the-door / smile / have-a-nice-day / how-are-you sort of society. I mean, this is a language without a real word for please, but in these situations Danes have a very structured call-and-response brand of polite-ness. Or is that politesse? Thanks Mick!

Let's rattle off a few.

Tak for mad!

Literally "Thanks for food!". We have a weekly morgen brød on Friday - literally morning bread, but more appropriately breakfast. I got into the details of morgen brød here, but basically one person in the group brings in a bunch of breakfast stuff and we eat it. When things are done at breakfast, everyone thanks the person that brings the breakfast and ALWAYS says it as tak for mad.

Tak for kage!

Thanks for cake. So this one is pretty much like tak for mad except that it's specifically for when people bring in dessert to celebrate something - a birthday, a publication, a new child, etc. Danes use kage in the way Brits use "pudding" to describe any dessert.

Velbekommen

Literally, enjoy the refreshments. This is something you say before digging in to eat. We don't really have a comparable phrase in English - we've stolen bon appétit, and that's probably the closest direct translation.

Tak for sidste!

Thanks for last (night). This one is a next day thank you for everyone involved in some sort of event / activity. Each person involved will - when they see someone involved in the activity for the first time since the activity took place - say this. There's another variation of the phrase I can't remember, but it's applied in the same way.

God weekend!

Good weekend. When people leave for the day on Friday, EVERYONE says this. Again, it never deviates. Mostly it's funny because "weekend" is obviously an English word. Week in Danish is uge. I don't think that there really is a Danish word for weekend, it's just weekend. Weekend. Weekend. Weekend.


Godt Nytår!

Happy New Year. You hear this one all through January - you're expected to say it to friends / colleagues the first time that you see them in the new year. As many people are still on vacation into the 2nd week of January, you still hear a ton of godt nytår's well beyond the point at which I would think it's still "New Year".

Morgen / God morgen

This one's pretty simple and not really specific at all to Denmark - it's just good morning. You get a lot of god morgen or just morgen every morning. I get a lot of practice so it's probably the first and only phrase that I can say in Danish that comes off well.

Anyway, this morning a colleague popped into the office with the standard god morgen and she followed that up with "Collin, do you like beef jerky?". The answer was obviously yes.

This resulted in about ten packs of Jack Link's jerky being plopped on my desk. Happy Valentine's day to me.

It's Friday and now I have a bag-full-o beef jerky. God weekend indeed.

Day 413 - Plan this Magical Mystery Tour

In a mere eight days, Emily and I will be off to London for a long weekend. This was Emily's idea and she was nice / thoughtful enough to snag tickets to see Derren Brown's latest show "Infamous" in Wycombe. Yes, I am going to London. To see a magic show. And like a whacked-out-on-caffeine-pills Jessie Spano, I couldn't be more excited.

"Magic show" is probably underselling things. When I think "magic show", my mind travels back to hazy memories of Cub Scout banquets and junior high assemblies. The picture is a bit fuzzy, but I'm sensing...The Great Chezaday!



If you grew up in the Naperville area in the 80s, chances are that you have seen Chezaday in action. I don't remember very much about the show other than the sawing-a-woman-in-half section and the fact that Chez and his assistant were always decked out in something sparkly and possibly silver. This was probably my first experience with a real live stage magic act.

At any rate, I really do love magic. I remember watching Penn and Teller's "Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends" at a friend's house when I was 8 or 9. I particularly remember being duped by the "Super Kleener" bit.



On some level, that's what's fun right? Deceiving others is fun but it's also fun to be willingly - or actually unwillingly in this case - deceived. I take that back, it's probably not that fun to be unwillingly deceived. It's fun in retrospect. I digress.

I've never been big on breaking things down to their small bits or taking joy in the "oh that's so SIMPLE, THAT'S how they're doing it" aspect of watching magic. Mostly I like to be transported to a place where even though I KNOW I'm being deceived, even though I KNOW it's not "real", I don't care. It's magic to me.

In this vein, close-up magic - card manipulation, etc - is probably my favorite genre. The idea of an artist doing things with his / her hands with such shocking speed and dexterity blows me away. It really is magic. Back to Penn and Teller - "The Cups and Balls".



I mean, they're using clear cups. You can see everything they're doing. They tell you everything that they're going to do and when they do it, it's so seemingly effortless and amazing that it still looks like magic.

So who is Derren Brown and how does he fit into all of this? For the uninitiated, Derren is a magician, illusionist, sleight-of-hand-artist, mentalist, showman, and renowned parrot enthusaist. I think that I originally stumbled upon him whilst listening to the old XFM Ricky / Steve / Karl shows.







He also did an American version of his UK TV series "Mind Control" which appeared on SyFy.



This is a very old clip - great hair! - but anyway, I was hooked and went back and watched pretty much all of the TV series and specials and everything I could find. It was the stage shows that really got me.

They really are fantastic. He does such a wonderful job of presenting these illusions / tricks / manipulations in a fun / memorable / sometimes creepy / always amazing way. Derren really is an amazing showman / performer, and these performances highlight his skills wonderfully, specifically the way that he can control a room. So for many years I have wished for a US tour that never materialized.

Now as I live in Denmark, it's easy to hop on over to jolly old England and catch a performance and I am very much looking forward to "Infamous".

That is - however - the only plan we really have. We have both been to London before and have visited the more popular tourist attractions. So, I ask you loyal reader...what would you do on a long weekend in London? What would you eat? Where would you go?

I almost forgot, how could I fill an entire post with stuff about magic and not include this?

Day 412 - Valentines Day

Like most American holidays designed for profit, Valentines Day is catching on hard and fast in Denmark. One of the local grocery stores - SuperBest - is currently running this ad / promotion;

Yes, that's a Valentines cake above for only 40 kroner! But, what, you might ask is that fancy ring? Much like a golden ticket hiding inside a the wrapper of a Wonka Bar, the tiny / creepy baby trapped inside of a king cake, or the magma-hot silver dollar lurking inside loukoumades, biding it's time until the moment it gives you the gift of third-degree burns, this cake has a surprise. 

Hiding inside ten of these cakes throughout Denmark are gift certificates / cards which you can then exchange for the ring pictured above - it is valued at 7,575 kroner, about $1400!

Day 411 (OT) - Danish Cochinita

Obviously, OBVIOUSLY, Emily and I love Mexican food. We love cooking it. We love eating it. We love thinking about it.WE LOVE MEXICAN FOOD.

I was on a mission to make a cochinita pibil - a sort of Mexican pulled pork. That's selling it short. I'll let Robert Rodriguez tell you all about it.

I didn't go with Robert's particular recipe - I didn't make my own paste and I am weak - but the thought is there. I went with a variation / combination of my stern-but-groovy-master Rick Bayless' version / and a Chowhound variation. Thank you Rick for an epic habanero salsa.

An aside, I can't be happy enough about the end of this video. Cooking is fun. Master cooking some stuff and cook it. Control it. Learn what you like. Cook that. Thanks RR for putting it more succinctly.

This brings me to praise two awesome CPH stores for their assistance and stock. First the Chili House. I really wish I would have caught the owner's name. It's a great place. Tons of hot sauce. Many spices. Tons of seeds for growing. Good stuff. On this trip I was looking for Annatto / Achiote, those little delicious-ridiculously-difficult-to-grind seeds. Chili house didn't have the seeds but they did have some paste and I was happy to grab that. It's a great place and I can't recommend it more.

Two, on the the suggestion of the owner / dude that helped me, I went searching for banana leaves at a Thai Supermarket in Vesterbro. This Thai Supermarket. Good stuff. Great staff. Clean and awesome. I can't say enough. Plus they had banana leaves!

Verdict? Delicious.

Day 411 - On the subject of Marius...

Once again Denmark is thrust into the international spotlight. The last time it was our Prime Minister chatting up President Obama. The first lady was not amused.

Today it is a new controversy. One in which a young giraffe was euthanized and fed to lions. During zoo hours. In front of little kids.

So yeah, that's pretty messed up. The zoo is walking distance from my flat, but I chose not to pop in for the autopsy. I did have the displeasure of seeing poor Marius' bolt-gun perforated head on the cover of several Danish tabloids at the grocery store checkout. Great!

At the center of all of this is EAZA - European Association of Zoos and Aquaria. EAZA has very strict rules for selective breeding of its member's animals in order to maintain genetic diversity for long term survival of all of the animals in captivity - specifically those that are endangered. 

At any rate, it's a sad story. From a very non-scientific humanistic view, killing cute / cuddly animals with a bolt gun to the head is depressing. There are pros and cons here and any sane person / organization going forward with this had to at least consider the fact that - at the very least - it looks bad. For me, the reason that it's an INTERNATIONAL story really highlights the problems that Danes have when they have to interract with non-Danes.

There's a general lack of self awareness. How will others view this? How will others feel about this? How does this represent us? Denmark? Here, for the most part, it's a non-issue. Almost every Dane I've spoken to doesn't understand the outrage. That's the crux of the problem. I'm only speaking in generalities here, but empathy isn't necessarily a strong Danish trait. The idea of thinking, hmmm, what will someone else think about this? It's not common.

When you combine that with a very matter-of-fact cold-and-calculated way of explaining what you've done, you get this reaction from the world community. Ricky Gervais is probably right here.

“Destroying a beautiful healthy animal because it was surplus to your needs just isn’t good enough.”

On the flip side, the people who did this didn't even consider the fact that it would be a big deal!? Of course we'll do the autopsy in public, it will be a learning experience for children! Lions eat giraffes. It is a fact! More learning! 

These are complicated issues that have been handled in a very ham-fisted, this-is-what-we-do way. 

Day 403 - Super Bowl

I love American football. Scratch that, I love football - thanks Kevin Costner!

I've broached this subject before, but there's something about living abroad that has awakened the long dormant capital "A" American hiding deep inside me. I've never felt the need to feel "American" before. I've never described myself - internally - as such. But here? I'm an American. I am a real American! It's a weird feeling to suddenly have this designation thrust upon me, but I'm there now.

We have hosted / co-hosted / attended many Superbowl festivities in years past which - at their best - have proved a glorious excuse for gluttonous excess and football. Here are a few of the funtime invites that I've put together in the past. Enjoy my spare time and rudimentary / mad Photoshop skillz.

For many years I dubbed it - or perhaps cdubbed it - the "Chili con Superbowl". Yes, I stole this from Eric Cartman. Mostly, I made chili, we watched the Superbowl, and fun was had by all. As things progressed, I've attempted to make something that might approximate the regional tastes for any of the cities involved - be it either of the teams involved or the host site.

It's both weird and great when you do this kind of thing with just two. When you're abroad and have to stay up until 12:30 for kickoff? It's doubly weird, but it's a fun time. You can cook whatever you want. For example; you can "represent" "Seattle" with jalapeño poppers stuffed with smoked salmon! No one will complain! (Note, these were actually awesome, I should patent them)

There was an original plan for some sort of Denver omelette, but that was vetoed. Had I access to bison, I would have done bison sliders, but here we'll have to settle for plain old beef. From left to right you have bernaise / mushroom / onion, AMERICAN, and blue cheese / BBQ / mushroom / onion. Yes!

Somehow I thought it was a good idea to do some sort of shrimp / pineapple skewer. It probably wasn't.

And as is always necessary, a seven-layer dip. It's seven, Emily assured me. Delicious times seven.

To finish up, dessert. Chocolate? Check. Caramel? Check. Delicious? Check.

It was a fun, stomach-filling / scorching, Superbowl Sunday / Monday. What more can you ask for?