Potpourri
Saint Vincent Beer, Espresso, and Foodie adventures in Copenhagen
We had our second visitor come to see us in Copenhagen. Because my office is also the guest room and my work on other projects, I don’t have a long-form post for you today. Instead, here is a potpourri of topics that would never be their own posts, but I find interesting. Without even trying, they are all food-related. So, in a way there this is a long-form post after all!
Saint Vincent Beer
It is a new year! With a new year comes a fresh run of the WikiCup. Think of the WikiCup as a semi-friendly competition to write new content on Wikipedia. The first few rounds are rather friendly but near the end, it gets contentious as everyone tries to get articles through the Featured Article process.
This year, I am trying to improve articles about Catholicism in the United States as part of my run. Having a topic with a bunch of sources makes mass content creation easier. While writing about Leander Schnerr, the third Archabbot of Saint Vincent Archabbey, I came across sources about Saint Vincent Beer.
Growing up, I had heard about the beer since I lived near the monastery, and my parents taught at Saint Vincent College. The story I heard was some form of:
When the orginal monks came from Germany in the 1800s, they brought brewing beer with them to America. It was sold for a time to the public, but they were forced to stop making beer with the rise of anti-German feelings when the US entered World War I and start of Prohibition in 1919.
The actual story involves a person from nearly every level of the Catholic hierarchy from parish priests to the Pope. One of the parish priests who got involved had his license to say mass suspended for preaching a homily against the church and writing a book that, for all practical purposes, called the monks evil for brewing beer. A much more interesting affair than what I was told about as a child.
Espresso
Tom Scott launched a collaboration channel in September where he does an activity with another “influencer”. Two weeks ago, I came across his collab with coffee YouTuber James Hoffmann.
From this, I watched more of Hoffmann’s videos and was intrigued. The way he talks about coffee is nothing like I remembered it. After watching enough videos, I decided to give coffee another chance. The pizza place down the street from me is run by three Italian immigrants to Denmark. At the end of your meal, they offer you an espresso. I normally say no, but due to Hoffmann’s videos I said yes. It turns out that once you get past your taste buds getting blown out by bitterness, there are great flavors.
I have discovered that I like unwashed coffee with weird tastes. The kind of stuff that you have to find coffee nerds to get. It is as if “beer” meant an IPA and the less bitter beers were only at specialty bars. Also, the nausea that I thought I felt because of coffee turns out to be because of the milk in a latte or the cream people put into coffee. I would have been so much happier if I learned that I was lactose intolerant earlier.
Foodie adventures
My wife and I have now been in Copenhagen for close to 5 months. However, due to getting situated and COVID, we have not explored Copenghange’s restaurant scene as much as we would want to. Last week, we had a friend come visit us and this proved to be the kick we needed to go and visit restaurants we have never gotten around to going to.
Over a long weekend, we ended up going to a mixture of new places and favorite spots. The list included:
WarPigs (Texas-style barbeque)
Bollyfood (Indian and Pakistani)
Olive (Pan-Europen)
Den Gule Cottage (Danish)
Andersen & Maillard (Bakery)
Llama (Pan-Latin American)
Laboca (Empanadas)
Sushi Lovers (Sushi)
Joe and the Juice (Sandwiches and juice)1
All of these are at different price points. For American readers, divide the price in DKK by 6.5 to get the approximate price in US Dollars.
If you are ever in Copenhagen, I recommend all of these places. We didn’t get to these restaurants while our visitor is in town, but they are some of my wife and I’s favorites:
Corsa (Pizza)
Jagger (Fast food)
Umiddelbar (Bakery)
Pastor (Tacos)
I personally consider Copenhagen to be a hidden gem food city. Yes, the city has its fair share of Michelin Star restaurants, but I am talking about a food city as in food that is accessible without wearing a suit and paying $1000 for a meal. When COVID stops being as big of a problem, I strongly encourage you to consider visiting this lovely city.
It turns out that Joe and the Juice is in major US cities and airports. I have no idea if their bread is the same in the US as it is in Denmark.