Torvehallerne is one of the best food hall markets I’ve been to. I always come here when I visit Copenhagen. They even sell their smorrebrod/open faced sandwiches at the airport.
Sold at the airport as well.Roast pork sandwiches are some of my favorites.
There is a mix of local produce stalls, local Danish food stalls and restaurants, and international food options. The market consists of two covered halls with about 25 vendors in each, a mix of food stalls and eateries. There is also seating around the edges of the halls. Danes love to sit outside and eat.
One of the stalls at the market.In season in June, these strawberries are hand picked.
The market is in a square with a facing skate park square, and located on the metro line. Just north of the walking streets and oh so perfect.
Fresh fish.Fried fish filet. Yum.
The stalls will vacuum pack your food for you so can take fresh meatballs or cheese with you.
Menu at the open faced sandwich stall.
A plus is that almost all Danes speak English. The prices are steep but what cost for edible art?
No water. No soaking. Just straight filing. Like sandpapering.
As it is the new year, I was thinking about trends. The “Russian” style manicure or pedicure technique is emerging as a trend. It is also called an “efile” or “dry” manicure. Read about it here. Basically, it is a technique of using almost no water and using an electric file to do the removal and sanding of the hands and feet. There is no water bath for your feet or hands. To read more about American, French, or Russian manicures, read here.
The electric file.
When I went to New York City, I looked up a place to have this style of mani-pedi. There were at least ten places that showed up on Google maps when I typed in ‘Russian mani’ — impressive as in the Washington, DC, area, there are none.
There seems to be controversy about it. My friend who lived in central Asia for many years and encountered this technique there says that she prefers this technique because there is less shoving and pulling on the cuticles. Plus the nails come out buffed and shiny even without shellack. The Russian technique is more expensive than the conventional technique. (After a few weeks, I’m of two minds. I like the efiling but I also like getting my feet soaked.)
With acetone and a buffer, my nails came out shiny like they had been lacquered.
The conventional method with water (and often done by Asians, specifically Vietnamese) in the US is a result of Tippi Hedren (Melanie Griffith’s mother). She should get more credit. From the BBC article:
“Aside from flying in her personal manicurist, Hedren recruited a local beauty school to help teach the women. When they graduated, Hedren helped get them jobs all over Southern California.“
To read a history of the manicure, read here. As this article points out, this method is called “Russian” not because it was invented in Russia but because the method is popular in many Russian speaking countries including Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and the other stans. Due to world events, manicure technique is once again a way for refugees to find work and make a life for themselves in America. Who knew it would be so deep?
If you find yourself in Asheville, North Carolina, I recommend going on a food and history tour with Asheville Food Tours. It is a walking and sitting tour that includes food and drink (non-alcoholic can be requested).
Shit on a shingle at Isa’s.
In two hours, you will learn about history and try some of the foods of Asheville. The locations change so no guarantee that you will go to the same places I went.
Grilled cheese and fried okra at Blackbird.
Our tour guide, Sita (as in mamasita — which she told us to call her if we wished), was a font of interesting facts and history of Asheville. This tour is good for those who like fashion, food, drinks, and history.
Sita in front of an image of a tall building.
We had Southern food, learned about fashion history, drank pink cocktails, found out about pensioner history, ate biscuits, heard about famous people history, and something about the hill and tallest building (I was not listening).
A display at the mini fashion museum at Isa’s.
The tour costs $105 (I think) and is a great way to get to see Asheville. For example, Asheville has an old fashioned Woolworth’s. It has a community garden.
Cheerwine. It’s southern thing.
Of the places we went, two of the places were “foreign” and with the other folks on the tour — they were from South Carolina, I would have foregone the taco shop or the Indian stop (the restaurant put on a mini buffet for us so we got out dinner done on the tour!) for a barbecue or second dessert stop like a pie place. That is my recommendation. Seeing the reaction of the blonde faces and how brave they were trying the Indian food… the taco place was too much.
Funny children’s menu…
The tour started well with cocktails and “shit on a shingle” which is sausage gravy on a biscuit. The stop with the fried okra and fancy schmancy grilled cheese sandwich was also great.
The fancy mall, Grove Arcade, has apartments upstairs.
Well it would be for me if I lived in Asheville, North Carolina. But I am a city person so I would not want to live in a cottage in the woods. But Asheville has it all. I can see why this is an attractive place to live. Go on a food tour with Asheville Food Tours to find out more about this city. The Grove Arcade is on the national register for historic places.
A view of the main street.
The airport is expanding too so I have a feeling this place will grow quickly. Asheville was Cherokee land until 500 years ago. There is a lot of history in this town, but as a tourist destination, there is also more than history.
A memorial to where the drovers would take their animals to market.
I still love you, white rice. And you too, waxy potato. But, I think that sago may be my spirit starch. I like it in two forms — as bubble tea and sago soup.
Boba tea. Taro starch balls at the bottom of the two in front. Taro root.
Bubble tea (read Wikipedia’s article here to learn more) was invented in Taiwan. It started out as a drink with tea and tapioca (cassava) round pasta which looked like bubbles. Nowadays you can get it without tea or bubbles. With or without milk (soy, almond, cow, etc.), hot or cold, with varying levels of sweetness. I am not sure why anyone thinks that the tea is making this healthy.
Cold or hot is just one of the many choices.
The other form of spirit starch that I love, even more than bubble tea, is a coconut milk soup with sago pearls and warm tubers. I was not really sure what this is called when I had it for the first time at a Lao/Thai restaurant. But I was in love at first sight. And committed at first slurp.
The greenish rectangles and and brownish tubes are two shapes made from starch. Sign indicating “ton sui” of various types and flavors.
Apparently in Cantonese, a dessert pudding/porridge is called “tong sui” as you can see in the photo above. But, the soup that I love is “sai mai lou” or sago soup.
The tapioca “pearls” are the small pasta balls, and the large chunks are taro root, sweet potato, and other tubers.Deep fried taro root chips. Next to a delicious banh mi sandwich.
So what is sago? It’s a starch (almost 100 percent starch) derived from the sago plant.
This reminds of a thing I read about sago, another start. I recall reading in some tale of adventure about how the white explorer was not allowed to eat sago because according to the natives, the white man’s spirit was in the sago tree — and if he ate it, it would be cannibalism.
The reality is that I like comfort food. What is more comforting than carbohydrates and milk?
