Amass

Here`s a little run around of our night at Amass about 6 weeks ago.

We got one of the two action seats, right next to the kitchen.

The menu, we jumped on 9 servings for 750 dkr.

First up, really nice starter of razor clams, smoked marrow and pickled onions. on top musselcrisps. 

Really good, but pretty heavy flatbread with fermented potatoes, and a dip of different onions.

First course, char with porridge and coriander seeds.
Unfortunally this was a big miss.
Unpleasant textures together.
On top of that im not the biggest coriander seed fan.

Grilled beets, cep mushrooms and black currant.
Nice dish, but i didnt understand it was cold served on a hot plate, and in my opinion it would have taste better warm.

Grilled squid, poached onions and butter foam.
Heres the thing, this dish was tasty, well cooked squid, and the combo is simple but good.
But when you cook a squid perfectly, and have a nice foam that works, its unfortunate when the onions are undercooked and very bitter, and kind of ruins the rest of the dish.

Slow roasted pumpkin pure, rosemary salt and roasted almond oil.
Very nice dish, did get the feeling i could have used something more like a bit of protein, but thats the style here.

Cod roe emulsion, chickenskin, kale and seaweed stock. Probably the best dish that night

Icelandic lamb neck, bear sauce, grilled selleri and pear. good but didnt leave a impression

Hasselnut parfait, quince and hasselnut. pretty old school, but allright, exepts the quince that tasted pretty watery. A shame cause the rest where pretty intense

Bolivian chokolate, and parshnip. Tasty heavy ending, the parsnip didnt do to much here, but it was good


We finnished with a bunch of really nice sage pastrys with blueberry jam.
A nice and pretty homie way of ending a meal.

I think we both left with a feeling that Amass is "okay", but thats about it.
The dished are really simpel, and maby a bit to simple sometimes, because in most dishes, I had a feeling that "this is all right, but its missing something"

That being said, its recommendable for people who likes the very simple style.

Amass

Here`s a quick little run three of our evening at Amass.

Prøver en på dansk. Svampe tur.

Efter at være kommet hjem fra Mexico, et par uger, er det igen tid der sker lidt herinde.

For en lille måneds tid siden, var jeg med konen og et vennepar på guidet svampetur i hareskoven.

Et dejligt arrengement for folk der gerne vil udvide deres kendskab, til de små gevækster der kommer op af jorden i de danske skove.

Især når man tit finder svampe omkring sig, men ikke har nogen pejling på om man begynder at se syner eller noget hvis man spiser dem.

Det koster en flad 20ér at være med, man mødes i starten, samler svampe og for så til sidst tips og råd og det man har fundet.

Leizel og jeg havde fundet en god slat, ca 15 liter, men efter en hurtig sortering af guiden og små sætninger som "den her giver dig blodtab", "den giver dig nyreforgiftning" og "denne er der kun nogle der kan tåle, andre bliver pisse syge" så var der hurtigt ikke så mange tilbage.

Jeg fandt bla. ud af at en orange kantarel, ikke er meget værd som spisesvamp, så ved man det.

Heldigvis var der dog lidt tilbage og vi kom hjem med en god slat honningsvampe, som faktisk er ret dejlige, en god tekstur lidt hen af bøgehatte (men dejligt at vide, hvor de har vokset, frem for dem man typisk ser der er fra kina).

Vi fik også en del forskellige rørhatte, og faktisk var der rigtigt mange andre, der også fik en del af dem, bla. så vi nævestore indigo rørhatte rundt omkring i kurvene.

Ud over det blev det til et par "stor løgbruskhat" som er nemt genkendelig med den lange sorte stængel og kraftige duft af hvidløg, den er fantastisk at tørre og bruge i gryderetter.

Det er fantastisk med sådan en tur, og man får udvidet sin horisont tur for tur, så det skal helt klart prøves igen.

Det kan varmt anbefales.

Her er lidt billeder fra turen.

Der var ikke plads på bordet da vi kom med vores.

Burde man nok ik spise.

Catch of the day.

De rørhatte vi fandt

Rensning.

Gør klar til svampe i flødesauce:)

Sluttede dagen med hjemmelavet pasta, svampeflødesauce med ramsløgscapers fra foråres og parmasano!

Restaurant Ask, Helsinki, Finland

On our trip to the land of a thousand lakes a couple of weeks ago, we had to stop by restaurant "Ask" in Helsinki.

Ask is a fairly new restaurant, that opened up in September last year, if I remember correctly.

Run and owned by Filip and Linda, this homey, 26 seat restaurant is located on a quiet street, close to the cathedral.

Both have a background in michelin star restaurants, and Filip, who is a friend and old head chef of mine, have a CV ranging from 1-2 star michelin places a as head Chef, and former bocuse competitor for Finland.

It's not the crazy, technical complex elements on a plate, that makes the dishes here, with "ask" they try to emphasize the local and the organic/biodynamic. Most of the ingredients are from little farms and the surrounding lakes of Helsinki and the wines and juices are organic. That means the kitchen will change according to the season, meaning that when we were there it was very light flavors, and in the winter probably more pungent.

Here is what we had that evening:

Our menu for the evening.

To start out, crispy flakes of rice chips with wild herbs, violet potatoes, oats and parmesan cream.
I always liked starting out with crispy salty stuff so this is a pleaser for me, and it worked well with the champagne. 

Appetizer, beets, elder and cream.
Nice little appetizer that evolved while eating is, very refreshing with earthy tones.

This might be the best damn bread I have ever had.
Tough, slightly sour and crispy.
I could have had this bread all night and nothing else, and I would have been a happy mann.

Danish Butter

Salads and greens from a local farm, with tagetes mayonnaise. Light little starter.

Presented as back to the 80s, with of course a little smile on, this old school poached egg with nettle pure, deep fried nettles crispy emmer and mustard vinegrette, actually turned out to be the best dish this evening.

Slightly smoked wild salmon, mushroom reduction cucumber and herbs.
Filip changed my dish to finnish entrecote due to me not eating salmon, and the quality of the beef are incredible up there, almost looking like waguy in the fat.

New potatoes, roe and chicken infused cream with browned butter.
The sauce in this dish was really a nice touch, only thing is i would have liked the potatoes a bit less cooked, but that is really an individual thing.

Perch, new vegetables and a creamy champagne based sauce.
Light, clean and not anything to put your finger on, pretty classic serving.

Lamb two ways, fillet and braised brisket, onions and reduced braising liquid.
Again nice, simple and light flavors, and really good quality lamb.

Goat's milk as a cleanser.

Different textures of rhubarb, that in the end tasted like a trifle.

White chocolate, sorrel and buckwheat.
Again a good example of light flavors, and a way of letting the ingredients speak for itself.

Leizel had the non-alchoholic beverage pairing, and it all matched quite well, so did my wines, unfortunately I have lost the list of the wines I had this evening.

Petit fours, with our tea.
Lemon tart, with aerated foam, liquorice mareng (about time with the liquorice, we are in Finland:) and a fondant like little cake, very dense and moist.

All in all we had a nice evening at "Ask" the staffs are very friendly and all dishes nicely explained by Filip himself (not just to us, but all tables).

Though the style of the food is a bit too light for me, it really shines thru what the team at "ask" wants to show the diners.

They want you to be able to sit down in homey comfy surroundings, and have a dinner that shows the best of finnish product at that time without too much fuzzing around, and on top of that, your conscience is good when you go, cause everything is organic and as local as possible, good for the environment, and good for you.

So if you like this cooking style, and by any chance you find yourself in Finland, don't hesitate to go to "Ask", with a menu price of 165 euros (that's including the wines) it is about 80 percent cheaper than hitting a Copenhagen restaurant at this level.

Thank you "Ask".

Photo credits to Leizel Avila :)

ahhhhhhhh "nose to tail" yet again.

Let me just say this to begin, "nose to tail" in the meatpacking district, is a must go place here in Copenhagen.
If you like meaty, hearty and sometimes combo`s that makes you think, "this makes me feel like an disgusting human being, but i dont really give a f€=")€€=, right now because it`s way to good", this is defiantly a place for you.
It`s the perfect place to start a night out, with cheap beers, 10kr. fernet shot`s, down to earth service, and food served until pretty late.
Also a great hangout with a friend, family member, job mate`s, having a birthday and........hell just get down there, you will not regret this..
This is my time number 4 ore 5 to this place, and it never gets old.

s

Tatar, pretty strait up, but with ramson capers and a nice slap of rustic bread. Perfect beer food 

Duckheart, and lettuce hearts, lovely fresh thing.
My friend had the pork confit, of course good.

"sol æg"  traditional pickled egg`s though pickled in red cabbage juice here, with mustard mayo and tabasco.
Only fluke this night, cause the brine was way to salty. 

Out of pork cracklings, we had an even better substitute to end on.
Duck flavoured tapioka chips, with, hold on.............bacon mayo!
obscene? yes, but very very good with beer.

Feeling our heart beat racing a bit more then the norm, we decided to call it a night.

And with a bill saying 500 total, that`s a bargain for 6 beers, the food we had, and the lovely ambiance.

See you next time!