Aarhus

Today I learned that my favorite restaurant and my favorite dress shop are in a town I will likely never visit again. Perhaps, given the excess, this is for the best. It is the very definition of bitter sweet.

Here I go again: Europe is just so perfect. Everyone is pedaling around in their understated bikes, by the sea, on cobbled streets interspersed with kooky art and trendy clothing shops. Cherubic children are pushed in old fashioned, yet modern buggies with ginormous hipster parents in super stylish colored glasses. 

Aarhus ("R-hoose") is Denmark's second city and has a large university. I'm here for a conference of election nerds. I took a hop flight on a propeller plane that took me back to my South Sudan flying days (minus the goats and children on the runway). I arrived in a daze of jet lag and sleep deprivation. Luckily the presentation I'm making tomorrow is one I have made quite often recently so my prep for this is minimal. I crashed for a couple of hours and then headed out to see the town.

Turns out I'm staying right in the middle of the large shopping district. I tried and nearly succeeded in resisting these shops...until my way back to the hotel. I spied a perfect little dress shop and literally could have bought half the store. Ok, I did buy half the store. Don't tell Hayden.

Not good. My plan was to shop like crazy in Nepal and figure out how to squeeze it all into my suitcase. All bets are off now. The owner was so nice that when I told her this was my new favorite dress shop she said she could have her friend who lives in Alexandria bring me dresses. Wth?!

In a mix of guilt and resolution, I hit the treadmill when I got back and then picked a restaurant that would here forthwith become my frame of reference for what a perfectly happy meal is.

Fredriksgade 42, shame on you! You broke my heart, because now I never have to go to Noma in Copenhagen. You, Fredriksgade, are what I imagined that meal would be like and Noma would now either be sooo much better or sooo much worse. It's off the list!

I walked in, nervous and on my own. There was no host in sight. The chef came out, told me to pick a table and then told me exactly what to order: the four course menu, which was a) non-negotiable and b) 80% vegetables, not because of principle, but because "there is just so much more one could do with local vegetables than with the same old steak every night."

Before my four courses even started I was presented with a creamy fennel soup poured over sunflower seeds and pickled onions with a side of chickpea and smoked cheese dip and poppadoms. Holy shit.

I asked him to bring me a nice glass of red and he brought me a Sicilian red that killed it!

The courses were complex and ridiculous. Even more ridiculous was the pride bursting from the server each time he brought out a dish. "Is that ok?" He asked knowing that of course it was god damn ok!!

The "ugly carrot" on the menu was a carrot dehydrated and stripped of its "marrow," which was replaced by a goat cheese mousse. It came paired with a mushroom, barley and boar (yes boar) risotto. This was followed by Hake in a lobster cognac sauce and grilled Chinese cabbage. Dessert, which I had to force upon myself, was a carrot and ginger sorbet (perhaps that's where the "marrow" went?) with dulce de leche and white chocolate crumble.

Fantastic and now I'm as happy as a Dane.

Aarhus, you sly devil you!