Let me just start by saying what an awesome weekend it has been thus far! I know I already said that last week, but I guess I’m just lucky like that (or maybe slightly biased towards weekends, anyways). On Friday, we had the boyfriend’s family over for a cocktail night to “inaugurate” my new bar cart: we offered a selection of classic cocktails (French 75, Dark ‘n’ Stormy, and Old Fashioned), nibbled on nuts and chocolate-covered strawberries, and talked way into the night, all the while listening to jazz on my record player. Does it get any classier than that? Yesterday was pretty much all about relaxing (and nursing a tiny hangover, to be honest… turns out I’m not 20 anymore!).
And then today, we headed to Øksnehallen in Kødbyen (Meatpacking District) to go take a look at “Mad & Glæde” (food and joy), the food fair hosted by supermarket chain Irma. The concept is relatively simple: you pay 100kr entrance and then eat and drink your way through the stands of Irma’s suppliers. And you can even convert your ticket into a 100kr voucher for your next trip to Irma, so technically, it’s free. A total no-brainer!
So the boyfriend and I put on our stretchy pants (room for all the food!) and headed out into the sunshine and towards the Meatpacking District, where we met up with his family. Upon entering the fair, we started towards our right, which turned out to be the “Wine & Spirits” section. Oops! It was 11am and we hadn’t had breakfast yet, but that’s no excuse to turn down a perfectly good gin and tonic, when it’s offered to you! This one was Bulldog gin with Thomas Henry tonic, garnished with a liquorice stick. But first, we tried these amazing San Pellegrino lemonades - let me tell you, the blood orange one is AH-MAH-ZING!
Yes, I’m sampling a GT at 11am, before having had breakfast. Priorities, people!
We decided to skip the wine (for the moment) and headed directly to the next stand, where a local microbrewery and -distillery, Braunstein, was serving specialty beers and spirits. I sampled their award-winning Danica Gin, which is infused with rose-petals and tastes quite nice, and the boyfriend became a huge fan of a whiskey liquor with vanilla. And boy, was that a nice, smooth drink! Perfect for the after-dinner coffee that the Danes so love. Of course we ended up taking a bottle home.
After sampling all those drinks, we decided that maybe it was time to venture a bit deeper into the belly of the beast, to where the food stands were. We came by this gentleman expertly producing picture-perfect flødeboller, but there was a huge line for the samples, so we decided to skip it.
This sign so perfectly sums up Copenhagen, I just had to snap a picture:
Our next stop was at Chaplon tea, where we calmed our stomachs with samples of their very yummy mixtures. Their black tea was amazingly smooth, and it’s of such a high quality that they (a small Danish firm) can export it to Japan! Our clear favorite was the “Fuldmåne” (full moon) tea, and we took a tin of it home as well.
Yes, I played with the tea leaves, and I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing my hand smelled afterwards! Totally not ashamed.
Then it was time to get some food in our bellies. I started out with a Danish staple, “grød” (porridge), from Aurion. After a quick stint at Gambogård‘s stand and a snack of freshly cooked breakfast sausage, we ended up at Friland, where we tasted the most amazing ribeye, cooked to perfection and seasoned with coarse salt.
Honestly, I could have ordered an entire serving of this! But there was so much more food to taste, so we squeezed our way past the ever-growing crowd, past Reinh van Hauen‘s bread and towards the fish section, where I snacked on a little fish “frikadelle” and tried small toasts with lumpfish roe from Royal Greenland, before finishing up with a raspberry ice cream from Hansens Is.
Don’t you just love her outfit, complete with the old-fashioned paper hat?!
To conclude our trip, we made our way through the drinks and dairy section, sampled freshly squeezed Valsølille juices (they are soooo good!) and snacked away on all sorts of cheese, before heading back to where we started and finishing off by sampling some wines, among others from Kong Hans Vinkælderen.
Then, after two hours of indoors snacking, nibbling, sipping, smelling, sampling, and tasting, we headed back out into the Sunday sun - and towards a well-deserved lunch!
I hope you have a fantastic, sunny Sunday!
Danika Maia says
Great photos as usual and that looks amazing! My boyfriend and I live right on top of an Irma so we are constantly drooling over all the things there that we can’t afford. Will this be happening more often or one time deal?
Danika Maia
http://www.danikamaia.com
Laura says
Thank you! I think it was in connection with their 50 year anniversary, and I may have been a one-time thing (I can’t find anything about previous years), but since it seemed to be a huge success, maybe they’ll do it again!