ARKEN hosts "FRIDA KAHLO - A life in art" until January 2013

Arken hosts "FRIDA KAHLO - A life in art" exhibition until the 12th of January 2013.

From Arken's website:

"Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is an outstanding artist and a passionate power woman. Strong and independent, she is an inspirational role model. The exhibition offers a look at Kahlo’s oeuvre through a number of her most iconic self-portraits, drawings, pages from her diary as well as jewelry and dresses from her time. The works reflect her tragic life, embracing a horrible traffic accident and countless surgeries, tormented love for the artist Diego Rivera, affairs with both men and women, miscarriages and childlessness, as well as political activism." 

Read more here: http://www.arken.dk/content/us/art/exhibitions/frida_kahlo

We visited Arken and we highly recommend a visit.
Writing this post, we are debating as to whether it should just be a tribute to Frida Kahlo or to Arken and its various very interesting exhibitions (even for those who do not get along with art).
We have decided to just stay objective :)

Take a sneak peek of Arken:

 

 Frida Kahlo

 Frida Kahlo

 Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst

 Ciprian Mureşan - I am protesting against myself

ARKEN OPENING HOURS:
Wednesday: 10-21
Monday: Closed
Tuesday-sunday: 10-17

ADMISSION FEES:
Adults: 95 kr.
Students: 75 kr.
Children under 18: Free
CLUB ARKEN: Free
Groups (min. 10): 80 kr.
Pensioniers: 95 kr.

Read more about Arken here: www.arken.dk

P.S.: (it is going to be a quite big P.S. and it will have no relation to Arken)  

2011 - 1941 - 1938

A song, a writer and a painter

1938: After a tragic accident that changed her life, Fridha Kahlo paints "What the water gave me"

unfortunately you will not see this painting in Arken but we found the picture here

1941: Novelist, essayist, publisher and critic Virginia Woolf, puts on her coat, filled its pockets with stones, walked into the River Ouse near her home, and drowned herself. In her last note to her husband she wrote: 

"...If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been."

2011: Florence and the Machine have a new song. The title (i.e. "What the water gave me") is inspired by a painting of Frida Kahlo and the lyrics from Virginia Woolf's suicide...

“Lay me down

Let the only sound

Be the overflow

Pockets full of stones”

Must do: grab your friends and have a dinner in Vespa - Copenhagen

We have already mentioned this restaurant in a different post (read more here), but we cannot resist dedicating this post to Vespa in order to introduce you to the place.

Before visiting Vespa, we thought it was a quite high class restaurant: a quiet, calm, fine dining place... Well, it is not exactly like that. We would not recommend this place for a romantic dinner for two or for someone who wants to have a fine dining experience..

So what is Vespa?
Part of the Cofoco family, Vespa is an honest, easygoing, relaxed, simple restaurant that serves Italian food.
That's Vespa. It is in your face, it is clean, real and it does not pretend to be something else than what it really is: quite similar to the attitude of an actual Vespa if you think about it....

source here

And when should i go there?
Are you with your friends and want to have a delicious but at the same time fun dinner with loads of wine? Grab your friends and have a blast in Vespa! They have a special offer where you can have a full menu (antipasti, primo, secondo and desert) with all the wine you can drink (no limits) for around 400 DKK per person (when we visited the place the prices were at 400 DKK. We checked their website apparently now it is 425 DKK. Check their current menu here: http://cofoco.dk/vespa_menu.php).

And how is the food?
The food was great! Do not expect something super sophisticated. As we said Vespa is simple and easygoing. They have simple but delicious Italian flavors. What we loved was that in the beginning they bring you a lot of different antipasti. So right from the start, get ready to taste 10 different small plates of various delicacies.

 Insalata tiepida di polipo e patate – Blækspruttesalat med kartofler, persille, agurk og chili

 Insalata caprese con mozzarella di bufala – Caprese salat med bøffelmozzarella

Prosciutto di Parma – Parmaskinke

Finocchiona – Fennikel salami

Grissini e bagna cauda – Grissini med bagna cauda dip

Merluzzo alla Livornese – Friteret torsk med spicy tomatsovs

After all the antipasti, there are two more courses and a desert. Let's not forget that the alcohol keeps coming as long as you have chosen their special offer that includes the limitless consumption of wine :)

The desert: 

Susine caramellate con gelato al mascarpone – Bagte og karamelliserede blommer med mascarpone is

:) :) :) even though we were expecting something else, we loved Vespa just because it is down to earth. We loved the idea of having so many antipasti in the beginning and tasting all these different flavors. The wine offer was very appreciated :)

:( :( :( The place is small. Which is not necessarily bad, but it was very, very VERY crowded and noisy. There was no music in the background. All this noise and the fact that we were sitting very close to each other made us feel a bit uncomfortable and tired quite soon.


Vespa
St. Kongensgade 90,
1264 København K

Read more about Vespa in their website or in their facebook page
Also visit Cofoco website and facebook page to learn more about them :)

Chico's Cantina Mexican restaurant - bar

Wanna have a brunch inside a jail cell? Or in the jungle?
We have a place to recommend :)

We visited Chico's Cantina and we have to admit, we liked it!
The whole restaurant/bar is divided in 4 different rooms: a common Mexican restaurant room, a bar, a jailhouse and a jungle.
In the jailhouse the actual tables are designed in such a way so that you can actually eat inside a jail cell.

The jail cell

In the jungle there are big round tables, giving the feeling of a bamboo bungalow hidden in the trees, the lighting is quite low and the whole atmosphere is making you feel as if Tarzan and Jane are actually joining you for brunch  (fyi, you need to be at least 6 to book a table in the jungle). 

The jungle - photo source here 

The brunch costed 89 DKK (in their menu it said 160 DKK but apparently they have lowered their prices and have not updated the menus..) and we got unlimited access to a Mexican buffet that had everything: rice, meet, eggs, tacos, chicken, bacon, nachos, salads... Don't expect something super-gourmet but you will eat a lot for a reasonable price in an amusing atmosphere. If you have a sweet tooth then this brunch is not for you since the only sugary thing they have is fresh crepes. Which is not bad at all actually!

See address and reservation number here
Find out more and check out their pictures in their website: http://www.chicos-cantina.dk

Dining in Copenhagen

We all know that Copenhagen has been the culinary capital of Europe during the last years, especially because of Noma restaurant (voted the best restaurant in the world for the last 3 years) and many others that followed its lead.

But let's be realistic... Even if we live here, the majority of us cannot afford a visit to Noma!
Do not be alarmed my friends. There are many other perfect choices here in CPH. Our favorite choice would be the COFOCO restaurants.

COFOCO covers 9 very good quality restaurants serving delicious food. We haven't been at all of them but rumors say that the standards are quite high in all of them and that no matter which one you chose the chances are that you are going to be satisfied! We can guarantee that Vespa, Scarpetta Islands Brygge and Les trois cochons are quite amazing since we have already visited them. The great thing about these restaurants is that they offer some special deals, in which you can have a full 4 or even 5 course menu starting from 200-300 DKK per person (excluding alcohol), which is quite a fair price for a dining axperience in Copenhagen.

Wanna learn more?
Visit them on cofoco.dk, follow them on facebook and have a look on the below video:


Restaurant Cofoco from Hans Frederik Munch on Vimeo.


Yummy right???


Another great thing in Copenhagen is Copenhagen Dining Week.
During week number 7 (mid-end February) Copenhagen celebrates dining with a very special way: some of the best restaurants of the city open their doors offering a full menu with 200 DKK per person. Last February 100 restaurants participated and the experience was great! It was quite chaotic to book a table in the nicest places since the demand was quite big but still there were plenty of choices available. Keep that tip in mind for next February and follow Copenhagen Dining week on facebook to stay updated about 2014 special offers :)

Do you have more places to propose for a quality dining experience at a reasonable price??

Cheers!