Denmark in a day (or 3!) - Copenhagen - the hotdogs, sausages, icecream, and snacks! Part 1

Posted by Over the next little while, I'll be posting up blog posts about our travels - haven't had time to post up stuff from last Caribbean trip and just finished one to Denmark, Germany and Austria, so going to make the effort to make time to post!  Gonna start of by saying the folks in Denmark are so darn friendly, you just want to pick them up and hug them.. possibly most friendly country I've been in yet!
Denmark has shot up on the world culinary map over the years, with a lot of Michelin star restaurants, and excellent chefs creating fantastic and tasty creations with a focus on local ingredients head-to-tail practises and molecular gastronomy tossed in for a good measure.  They even boast having the "world's best" restaurant Noma (2010-2013) - tried getting a reservation 6 months out and they were full! *sad face*.. ah well, I'll know for next time!  This time around, we focused on street foods and what the locals love and see proudly as "their" fav foods in the few short days we had in Denmark.  We flew in via London's Heathrow airport, and I'm really happy to say the food in the airport has improved by leaps and bounds - despite catching a red eye and exhausted, we really enjoyed eats from EAT, with delicious warm and filling quiche, and sandwiches made on fresh crusty bread filled with locally cured salmon and other goodies.

We picked up a box of these delish mints at the airport to snack on too heehee!

We were in Copenhagen for 2 days and 2 nights, so I'll try to lump all the food we ate into categories so the next time you visit this super friendly city, you can pick and choose and eat at your leisure - we were almost non-stop eating the whole time we were there lolol.. yeah, it was a tough vacation ;D  The very first thing we noshed on when we hit the ground running in Copenhagen? Hotdogs. Yup. Street hotdogs.  They have a sausage with no bun you just dip in sauces...

a radioactive red skinny one that looks like a LEGO piece... (its actually called a pølse. It is an extra-long, juicy, red sausage that is beech wood smoked and then boiled) and its fully loaded with pickles, crispy fried onions, chopped onions, danish remoulade, ketchup and mustard!

Hotdog stuffed into a bun - its literally rammed in along with the sauces

...and everything inbetween on street hot dog trucks you can find on almost every corner.  They have a distinctive snap you only see here (or on Coney Island, NY), and they are addictively good with your choice of a sweet ketchup, mustards, fried onions, danish remoulade, regular onions to dress or dip your dog in.

Loved the sweet ketchup... next time will pick up a bottle to bring home!

We learned really quickly that though the street dog vendors look very simular, there were ones that were particularly good. Lis kindly explained to us uninitiated what the different types of dogs were (there are beef and pork) - and certain better ones (her's included) taste a heck of a lot better because they source their hotdogs and sausages from a good supplier.

A local blogger/ food writer made a map of all the good ones and we made good use of the map afterwards rather than randomly hitting up the occasional mediocre hot dog stand.

We also tried to hit up as many icecream places as well - their soft serve, gelato and icecream is delicious, and licorice is a distinctive (and well loved flavor) there with various strengths and depths.  Licorice candies ranged from sweet and mild, woody, earthy and so powerful it could be used as a cough drop... are incorporated into their desserts.  When we arrived the first night, it was so late everything was closing, so we made it for some marizpan gelato at the basement level of the Illium department store (equivalent to Holt Rendfrew in Canada).. the entire basement floor is a cafe/bakery dedicated to fancy cakes, sweets and pastries.  It was delectable with nice almond notes coming through with the marizpan swirls. (Addy: Østergade 52, 1001 København K)

We didn't get a chance to try Peter Beier Chokolade' excellent chocolate, but while walking and shopping down Købmagergade the pedestrian walking street in Old Town...

we did swing into a Frellsen Chokolade store (Address: Købmagergade 31C, 1150 København K) to snack on their very tasty soft serve.  They've been making chocolates since 1897, and is now a fourth generation chocolatier!  We tried a velvety smooth chocolate...

And went right back in for a local fav - chocolate and licorice swirl.  The licorice was so mild it was quite pleasant (despite me personally not a licorice lover!).  Our timing didn't work out, but on select Thursdays, you can go take a free chocolate factory tour, make your own cream puff and buy freshly made chocolates straight from Frellsen's large factory (Address: Industrikvarteret 14, 4000 Roskilde).

Our fav soft serve in Denmark was shown to us by family friends that lived there - its hidden inside Tivoli Gardens (admission required)...

Enjoy the awesome soft serve icecream that brought back childhood memories (when soft serve had flavor!!)

...while meadering through the old school amusement park amidst huge towering trees, flowers, the occasional ducks, and peacocks, admire the Indian style Nimb Michelin star restaurant, or while sitting down for one of their amusing outdoor shows - we caught the clown Pierrot's show on our last night.

With a hankering for snacks (somehow after a full day of nearly non-stop eating, and walking!), we hit up a local grocery store called Fotex (Address Vesterbrogade 74, 1620 København V) and picked up some amazing cured salmon that just melted in your mouth... made me wish we could have flown some back to Canada! The Filet Royal from Hjerting laks - hand salted, hung by tail and smoked in traditional stone kilns over beech wood.. sooo good!

Picked up (but too full to finish) these lovies - Irmas håndlavede flødeboller.  They're not the fanciest, but we picked them up at the grocery store to snack on, so not complaining.  They taste like a fancy version of wagon wheels, but they translate to... cream puffs! Its a marzipan disk/cake on the bottom, topped with a fluffy marshmallow cream and covered in chocolate - medium or white in our case.

The cups in our hotel were perfect for washing the little sweet strawberries we bought earlier in the day at the Farmer's market

and capped off our night in Copenhagen with some locally produced cider... we've tried the pear and blackberry ones in Canada, and wanted to try the ginger lemon flavor which we haven't seen before.

Stay tuned for part 2 - the Smørrebrøds of Copenhagen.. delicious open faced sandwiches with local, traditional ingredients on a slice of (usually) rye bread and served with subtle and knock your socks off homemade schnapps!

Part 3 - The Torvehallerne farmer's market, Israels Plads outdoor produce stalls where we picked up the deliciously sweet tinny (wild?) strawberries!

Part 4 - Andersen Bakery, where you can pick up traditional baked goods - they provide the sweets for the Michelin star restaurant attached to it - Nimb.

And Part 5 Delicious restaurants lining the Nyhavn canal!