Aamanns Etablissement - Copenhagen

During our stay in Copenhagen, my friend Steve and I had lunch at Aamanns Etablissement, the sit-down sibling restaurant to the older take-away restaurant, Aamanns, next door. The proprietor, Adam Aamanns, is apparently well-known for his mastery of smørrebrød (open-faced sandwiches) and has written a book (English translation) on the subject, which unfortunately is only available in Danish.

(click any photo for a larger version at Flickr)

Bøgedal #193

We started our meal with a bottle of Bøgedal beer (English translation), a brewery we had just heard about the previous day. Bøgedal is a gravity-fed brewery that where the wort is cooked over an open flame and basically everything is done by hand. Apparently he sometimes brews using the same recipes, but because of the techniques used, each batch is unique. The brewer maintains online tasting notes (English translation)for each batch number.

Breads with butter and lard

Rye breads served with butter and lard. The butter was plain salted butter, but the lard had various bits mixed in, but my memory fails me as to what.

I order the three pate plate, and my friend Steve ordered the three preparations of fish. While I love me some forcemeat, eating three healthy servings of pate was just a bit too rich for me - delicious, but better shared between two people.

Hot veal liver pate with roasted mushrooms

Dark and rich, the veal liver pate was oozing with fatty, livery goodness. Steve kept stealing the mushrooms, proclaiming them some of the best he's ever had. I left it unspoken that they were so delicious due to the pate drippings...

Duck liver pate with pickled plums

The lightly-pickled plums helped cut through the light texture, but insanely rich pate.

Pork neck pate with lingonberries

Made from pork, pork neck and pork liver, this was a much more traditional country pate. Lingonberries and some sort of cress-like microgreen rounded it out.

Citrus-cured salmon

This house-cured salmon was incredible, with a crisp lemon zest flavor. Fried bits of rye bread, cress, and apple slices added the textural contrast.

Lightly-smoked cod

Restrained smoke and a simple pairing with cucumber and dill. I only snagged a tiny bite of this, but liked it quite a bit.

Fried sole

I didn't manage to get a forkful before Steve had polished this off...

Poached pears with salted caramel, vanilla ice cream, and fried bread

Dessert was poached Danish pears with what were described as fried croutons - basically chunks of salty, buttery, hot bread. Sidecars of salty caramel and soft vanilla ice cream were supplied, with instructions to mix it all up.

Mr. Aamanns brought out house-made plum snaps with the dessert. Apparently he makes all different kinds of snaps (and has written a book about making snaps) and recommended plum with our dessert. The almond notes from the plum pits came through clearly, and really did work well with the dessert.

Though I felt a little livered-out from the pate sampler, the whole lunch came together beautifully. Next time I find myself in Copenhagen, I'll definitely be back, and with someone who's willing to share more than just my dripping-soaked mushrooms.

-Dan

What a great looking meal, thanks for sharing.