This week I shared my restaurant conundrum with a friend who saves her money in order to travel the world, sometimes eating at fancy restaurants. She's definitely more into Alchemist than I, and will let me know tomorrow whether she would like to take over our reservation and its hefty price tag. Whew.
In the meantime, the restaurant just got two Michelin stars this week. Don't care. Recall that mrguy and I quite happily ate tomato basil panini from 7-11 every day we were in Bergen. It was tasty and not eating in restaurants gave us more time to spend in the city.
When it comes down to it, I think a super fancy restaurant is just not my thing. A restaurant like Alchemist is cool for the young people. I've *eaten* worms and bugs for fun, and I've seen lots of high concept video of weird stuff (albeit not while eating). And I had the great good fortune to eat at Per Se, and it was really good. But the kitschy parts of Per Se (a bunch of flavors that recreate a Snickers bar, for example) are the things that Alchemist seems to emulate, and those are the things that I thought were silly. Per Se's Oysters and pearls, however, I would eat until the cows came home : )
In the meantime, this experience has led me to a greater understanding of what I *do* want to eat in Copenhagen, so I have a different restaurant scoped out that will give us local flavors in a restful setting and with a lower price tag.
More to follow.
February 23, 2020
February 16, 2020
What Have I Done?
You know how you get all excited about something and then when you get it you have second thoughts? That's where I am right now.
Right after Christmas, out of the blue, and when I reaaaaally needed something to cheer me up, I was invited to speak at a forklift conference in Denmark this May. They want a shorter version of the presentation I gave in Sweden. This calls for Heino and Manager of Heino.
Last week I got really excited about our trip and did some deep deep dives into a website that promoted restaurants for Restaurant Week. One of them was Alchemist, a restaurant that regularly sells out its bookings in minutes and has a 7,000 person waitlist. No really.
So I did some research and learned that they were opening their next set of bookings this past Monday at 8am our time.
Poised and ready, I got up on Monday, hit send on a reservation for May 13th and it actually went through. I committed to paying a supremely vulgar amount of money for this meal. Then I justified it by realizing that we're going to Denmark right before our 25th anniversary. OK!
But yesterday I started looking at reviews of the food (I had mainly focused on the atmosphere, which seems kinda cool and trippy). Oh. Oh. Oh! I now think I made a really bad mistake here. I didn't realize that the food isn't tasty as much as...challenging. Like a combination of The Great Race and Nuni and Nuni, from SNL. Shoot! I love cherry jello, but not with a lamb's brain in it.
Because the waitlist is 7,000 people long I can get a refund. I think I shall, but you never know.
If you want to watch someone eat the meal we're signed up for, check out this video on YouTube.
Stay tuned.
Right after Christmas, out of the blue, and when I reaaaaally needed something to cheer me up, I was invited to speak at a forklift conference in Denmark this May. They want a shorter version of the presentation I gave in Sweden. This calls for Heino and Manager of Heino.
Last week I got really excited about our trip and did some deep deep dives into a website that promoted restaurants for Restaurant Week. One of them was Alchemist, a restaurant that regularly sells out its bookings in minutes and has a 7,000 person waitlist. No really.
So I did some research and learned that they were opening their next set of bookings this past Monday at 8am our time.
Poised and ready, I got up on Monday, hit send on a reservation for May 13th and it actually went through. I committed to paying a supremely vulgar amount of money for this meal. Then I justified it by realizing that we're going to Denmark right before our 25th anniversary. OK!
But yesterday I started looking at reviews of the food (I had mainly focused on the atmosphere, which seems kinda cool and trippy). Oh. Oh. Oh! I now think I made a really bad mistake here. I didn't realize that the food isn't tasty as much as...challenging. Like a combination of The Great Race and Nuni and Nuni, from SNL. Shoot! I love cherry jello, but not with a lamb's brain in it.
Because the waitlist is 7,000 people long I can get a refund. I think I shall, but you never know.
If you want to watch someone eat the meal we're signed up for, check out this video on YouTube.
Stay tuned.
Manager of Heino
For over a decade our nephew and his friends and family have held an extremely silly but very serious Oktoberfest party at their house. They have a bar in their garage with many homebrews on tap, pretzels hanging from the ceiling (traditional after the first batch was rock hard and converted into decorations). There are many competitions (best stein, best costume, prizes for various beer styles) and then there is a jig-off at the end. Why? Who knows. It is traditional.
You may not bring children.
German costumes are mandatory.
Because my leiderhosen days are behind me and you are not going to find me wearing a dirndl, our first appearance at Oktoberfest was as Ralf and Florian, half of the German band Kraftwerk. We were robbed, frankly, when we were not allowed to compete in the stein or costume contests that year -- now there are separate competitions for non-traditional stein and costume.
Where do you go after Ralf and Florian? If I were attending this year dressing as Angela Merkel would be a no-brainer, but starting in 2007 mrguy and I began attending Oktoberfest as the German schlager singer Heino (me) and Manager of Heino (him). I think I won the stein contest two years in a row, carrying a Heino record with me so everybody got the reference but then completely making up the story of the stein, told with a cheesy fake German accent. Like I said, Oktoberfest is silly.
Starting with Oktoberfest 2007, Heino and Manager of Heino are our alter-egos. When I am invited to speak in a far-flung location, I really can't do it without Manager of Heino. He arranges travel, escorts me and holds me together while I get nervous and have to do human interaction stuff that is difficult for me. Plus anything is so much more fun when we do it together. He has helped me be Heino (so to speak) in Japan in 2008, Sweden in 2018 and now Copenhagen in May 2020.
Thank you, Manager of Heino.
You may not bring children.
German costumes are mandatory.
Because my leiderhosen days are behind me and you are not going to find me wearing a dirndl, our first appearance at Oktoberfest was as Ralf and Florian, half of the German band Kraftwerk. We were robbed, frankly, when we were not allowed to compete in the stein or costume contests that year -- now there are separate competitions for non-traditional stein and costume.
Where do you go after Ralf and Florian? If I were attending this year dressing as Angela Merkel would be a no-brainer, but starting in 2007 mrguy and I began attending Oktoberfest as the German schlager singer Heino (me) and Manager of Heino (him). I think I won the stein contest two years in a row, carrying a Heino record with me so everybody got the reference but then completely making up the story of the stein, told with a cheesy fake German accent. Like I said, Oktoberfest is silly.
Starting with Oktoberfest 2007, Heino and Manager of Heino are our alter-egos. When I am invited to speak in a far-flung location, I really can't do it without Manager of Heino. He arranges travel, escorts me and holds me together while I get nervous and have to do human interaction stuff that is difficult for me. Plus anything is so much more fun when we do it together. He has helped me be Heino (so to speak) in Japan in 2008, Sweden in 2018 and now Copenhagen in May 2020.
Thank you, Manager of Heino.
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