My second visit to Aalborg

was on a sunny, warm summer’s day. A spontaneous shopping trip with four girlfriends. We landed outside a café with a view of half-timbered houses and a lively shopping environment. I found some shoes on special, my friend found a lovely dress, and we all enjoyed a nice lunch, glad that we were a long way from the large discount stores. We just wanted to stay longer in Aalborg, and it was only by the skin of our teeth that we made the ferry home to Norway!
On the motorway, cruising through the wild North Jutland landscape, I thought about why coming to Aalborg seemed so different this time. The first time, I was too rushed - always an injustice to an exciting city - and the gentlemen who was guiding me round hauled me immediately to Jomfru Ane Gade. But there are limits to how much beer even I can consume during an afternoon of sightseeing.
When I came back a third time, on a February morning, and I saw the morning mist floating over the Limfjord, the rays of sunshine beaming from Nørresundby, and had a warm, double café latte at Rosdahls, I felt simply delighted to be in Aalborg again.

The good life

Aalborg is like a box of chocolate. It’s just one sweet surprise after another. In a small side street, we found the glassblower Lene Højlund, boutiques with imaginative fashions, and at the Penny Lane wine shop, homemade blueberry jam, lemon curd and a well-aged Samsø cheese.
In an old courtyard in the centre of town is Lange Kunsthåndværk (art and crafts). And on Aalborg’s shopping high street, you can disappear underground if you need to seek refuge. In Algade, outside the Salling department store, a glass elevator takes you down to an old monastery. Here you can put yourself into the friars’ daily life 750 years ago, far removed from the hectic street life bustling overhead. There are numerous galleries in the city, including one named Galleri Art So-To in Jernbanegade. If art stimulates the appetite, the cosy Restaurant Madkonsortiet is just in the neighbourhood. You should also take a stroll in the Hjelmerstald district, where the houses are beautiful and it’s hard to avoid a little window-peeping.

A happy saturday

See, smell, taste, swallow and smile. That’s pretty much what we did at Rosdahls Fresh Food Market on Saturday, down at the harbour. The nose is tickled with delight over the aroma of freshly-baked bread and exotic ground coffees. The fishmonger’s stall carries scents of ocean and seaweed. When you approach the stall of the locally-famous butcher, the aromas are of spicy, smoked salamis cured with red wine, garlic or walnuts - and they hang appropriately at nose level!
It’s like stepping into a big, old-fashion farmers’ market, where goods are sold over the counter, shoppers jostle with baskets over their arms, and nobody buys anything like cheese or salami without being allowed to taste and talk about it first. In a glass case, olives glisten in a marinade of oil and fresh herbs. Next to them are honey cakes, homemade chocolate and whole-bean coffee you can grind yourself, all safely displayed behind a “sneeze window,” or protective plate of glass. Your eyes sweep past filets of flounder, tulips, apples, carrots and small kiwi fruit.
The market in Aalborg reminds me of the times I went with my French grandmother to the market in Strasbourg, every Tuesday and Friday. I remember how she chatted with the little lady who sold potatoes, the way she inspected and selected a live chicken from a cage, and as the very last thing, tasted the cheeses until she nodded, satisfied, over a mature Camembert.
Grandmother died more than 30 years ago but the sensuality of food that she awakened in me lives on. The experience is even more intense if you meander among the stalls on an empty stomach. The smell of freshly-baked baked bread penetrates the entire body. The brain opens the archive of wonderful breakfasts you’ve enjoyed through the years.
Suddenly you remember the café on a corner in Paris that served warm croissants and a big glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice. Or the Greek taverna where you slowly ate yoghurt with honey with your lover. ...

... With these memories playing gently in your mind, the anticipation rises ahead of your final meal of the day at Restaurant Mortens Kro.

A meal like a long kiss .…

What do you do when the chef and the food are both irresistible? At the restaurant of Denmark’s renowned chef, Morten Nielsen, there’s a party for all the senses. Here you meet the man who compares a good meal with a long kiss: You remember the thrill and forget everything else. And just like a kiss can be a promise of coming pleasure, a scrumptious dish can be a promise of even better things to come. In our case it turned out that, after the first course, came five more – with a sorbet of grapefruit and honey in between.
“The good things in life are simple,” says Morten. “I want to stimulate all the senses during a meal. It’s important to take time to enjoy all the nuances. I prefer to eat with my eyes closed, because I taste it more. We also close our eyes when we kiss, don’t we?”
And when we had licked the last drops of our chocolate parfait, we, too, sat with eyes closed as we waited for the bill.
What we dreamed about shall remain secret!