SOUND DUST: Stud!o Copenhagen

♫ Hey cutie (yeah?) ♫

On our second night in Copenhagen, we ate at Stud!o, located inside the Standard right on the water's edge. It was neat and small, impeccably styled with minimalist wooden chairs, tables and beautiful service wear. There were less than ten tables of various sizes. It felt intimate and special. We were going to have the full tasting menu that consisted of thirteen plates. I was excited to see what would happen on our table.

It was a really great experience. Eye candy central, in our surroundings to the food itself, to one of the chefs who had Katee and me blushing all night and unable to make eye contact 😆

My favorite thing about the night was discovering how playful food can be, and how elements of surprise can change the whole eating experience. It's not everyday that you get to have such fun with food. I just liked how magical everything was. I left the experience changed...don't even offer me food unless there's tiny Nordic forest flowers painstakingly arranged on it with tweezers.

At the end of the meal, we each got a black envelope with the menu inside. Thank goodness for this otherwise I would have never remembered the names of any of the dishes.

The view outside our window

The George Jensen water pitcher that resembles a cat

The first of many imbibements to come

Potato crisp with vinegar and roe

A delicate tangle of crispety crunchety fried potato, that sandwiched a dollop of what tasted like creme fraiche, and some roe. It was salty, vinegary and delicious. Brian joked that it was my gateway back into eating actual potato chips. It's true, it felt like a loophole back to my beloved Pringles, but ahem, much elevated of course.

Oyster with white currant granita

This dish was quite beautiful and aesthetically pleasing to my eyes. (Minimalism at its best! Let the form speak for itself!) Three perfect oysters presented with with a dusting of snow on top. It must have been made with the help of dry ice or something extremely cold because the granita was extremely cold and refreshing. The flavor was tart, sour, clean. There was some green stuff on the bottom. I'm used to eating multiple oysters at once but this one proved that less is more if it's perfect. A+

Dried apple from lilleø

This was a funny looking snack. It came 'floating' on a glass petri dish filled with dried leaves. Considering how thoughtful and conceptual every dish in Studio is, I bet the leaves were foraged in Lilleø too (lol). It was a chewy and juicy piece of dried out apple, imagine fruit roll ups for adults. I'm actually super fond of Fruit Roll Up, so no complaints from me here with this one.

Tartare of veal with hay

This one was showy. Tartare presented in a hollow of bone, that you scraped out with the little spatula. I mix Gocco paints with the same type of spatula. It was good, but nothing to write home about. Tartare is tartare.

Aebleskiver with 2 cheeses

Aebleskiver is a Danish Christmas dessert. Donut holes made with pancake batter and eaten with jam and powdered sugar. I but them frozen from Trader Joe's when I'm playing Good Girlfriend who makes Sundays Funday. These were savory and 10 times more delicious. F the sweet version, Aebleskivers taste better stuffed with melted cheese. Delightful! A

Studio bread serving

This was the intermission signaling the end of starters and the beginning of entrees. Danish people freaking love rye. It's everywhere. And they're whole for the most part, they're larger than a grain of rice. The bread was soft and delicious. Apparently one of the Hans-ies grind the rye every single morning themselves. #smallbatchthat. It was paired with the creamy rich butter that came in a small pot.

Then there two neat rectangles of malt flavored flat bread, crisps really, that came packaged mysteriously in the black envelope. They were the color of squid ink. I was into it. I've never met a cracker I didn't like.

The large shallow plate contained whipped sour buttercream that was supposed to go with it. Yummy.

Ja, we enjoyed our elegant hyggelig candle

Raw shrimp, grilled cucumber & frozen dill cream

I thought this one was really pretty. Not sure what kind of leaf these were but I thought they could be shiso leafs. They were hiding some raw skrimps inside. The taste of this one wasn't as memorable as the visual for me. The only thing I remember was that the dill cream was very cold inside and I thought there was some dry ice magic involved here as well.

Witch flounder, sweet onions & ramson capers

This one got us all oohing and aahing, and we started feeling very sentimental bros towards one another. (I love you, man! No man, I love us.) Also keep in mind that this whole time, Brian and Katee were having wine pairings matched with every single dish that came out, so they were having a blast. Blast off.

I like to refer to this one as the Mermaid's comb. The sous chefs responsible for each dish would come out to present each dish to us, and the one who presented this one admitted that he was in charge of brushing the bones of each fish with a toothbrush to make them look like this, every morning #tedious #sufferingisart #artissuffering. I privately wondered what they did with the brushed off other side of the fish. Did they toss it into a big fish stew for themselves? Kinda like whenever I make meringues using only the egg whites, I feel like I should also be making some shortbread so that I don't waste the yolks.

Another one that I don't remember the taste of because this was more eye candy.

Poached scallop, sweet peas & smoked clam sauce

This one was really pretty, but not as memorable for me. I really don't remember what this tasted like. But the peas were incredibly fresh. That's something.

Chefs plating our next dish...

Grilled asparagus, pine & truffle

This one caused some controvery at our table. And in retrospect, funny to see the actual title of this that makes no mention of it's surprise ingredient. My "is there a bug" radar is pretty sensitive and always on high amber alert, and I sifted the acoutrements on the white asparagus with a fork and had had a silent dizzy moment with myself as I realized the thing was teeming with giant ants. It was the wholeness of the ants that really got to me, nevermind the fact that I have never seen black ants reach such a size. It looked like the ants that Richard Scarry draws. A posterchild for a classic A is for Ant flashcard.

Of course I tipped Katee off (I got your back boo.) And you know when you try to put on a tight smile and keep your chill because you are at a fancy restaurant but you're straddling that fine line from being a refined and elegant adult to strapping on a diaper and straight up setting the table on fire and embarassing yourself and everyone around you?

Anyway, long story short, Brian was not amused. He ate a LOT of ants that night.

*I found it validating to see a small wave of drama passed even the quiet conservative group of business colleagues (actual adults) next to us as they too discovered the ants. So.... yeah.

Danish lamb with green asparagus & garlic

This one was tasty, but after all the others I was wanting more more more eye candy. I appreciated the little croquette.

White asparagus, green strawberry & woodruff

Here we go the piéce de résistance. The first of two desserts. This was like a light, fresh creamy yogurt that was frozen into ice cream form. Shaped like a ring, the chefs came to pour the green sauce into the hole. Tiny green strawberries, tiny meringues (crunch factor: A), and tiny forget me nots. Insert high pitched scream. I loved it. Katee and I still talk about this one.

Beet root, creme fraiche & rhubarb

I hate to say it but after that previous dessert, this one, although I remember it being delicious, I don't remember much about. Sorry folks. But I do love rhubarb. I wish it was a dessert / drink ingredient we found more often here.

There was a funny moment in which I decided to go to the bathroom, but after hearing from Brian that the servers were on the lookout to escort you to the special private bathroom, I decided to try and be sneaky and just speed walk to the bathroom unescorted (no attention or fanfare please!)

Just as my hand touched the knob of the bathroom door our server came rushing after me to escort me to the private bathroom and I had to play dumb. Found you!

After our meal we decided to take a walk. By now it was pretty late, ten in the evening? Notice the skies don't reflect it. We wasted a lot of time taking photos because it was so majestic across the water, Brian grabbed a roadie from the bar downstairs but Katee was pretty knee deep in all her wine pairings and ripped a hole in her pants after laying on a sculpture. lmao.

A truly memorable night.