Whenever I go away on a day out, either local or aboard, I always aim to find a local cafe to chill out in the afternoon. One, it's nice to have a break instead of walking around all the time. Two, I like to see how locals spend their time relaxing. And third, which is kinda a ritual, I have a #todayscoffeestop series on my Facebook page where I started sharing a lot of Taiwanese cafes when I was living out there. It makes sense to extend that to cafes around the world. Today I'm going to share a couple from my recent trip to Denmark.
Snails in an Odense cafe
This was on one of the main street somewhere, I couldn't tell you where and I probably don't know how to go back again as I can't remember exactly where I was. It had good ratings on the internet when I was searching for places, and it look very nice from the outside. And the best thing was that it wasn't busy inside. Not sure if that's a bad or normal thing. We shall soon find out.
First impression, lots of pine decor and reminds me of the log cabins I see in the Nordics on TV. Yup, that's the non nordic me talking. Having said that, it was very sleek and minimalist. I liked this place immediately.
When one is in Denmark, you have to have Danish pastry, right? I find the ones even in the convenience stores like 7-11 are very nice, much much better than the ones from the supermarket in UK. These look so tempting. For all I know, Marcipan Snegl could have meant "eat me please" in Danish😅
The interior here is very relaxed and the layout of the seating area is very communal and sociable. There's a long double bench in the middle with small round tables on either sides, and then another bench on the other side of the small tables. I think it's great that you can sit and chat with your own friends, but still connect with other people without invading into their space, because there is no space to invade.
Apart from the wood, the rest of the decor is black. The balance is just right and customers don't feel it being too dark inside as the wide bank of front window let's a lot of light in.
My coffee and marcipan snegl did not disappoint at all. As I said, all the danish in Denmark tastes so nice. And since I'm not too particular about my coffee, I rarely come across one that I don't like. Definitely a thumbs up for me here.
By the way, I've since learnt Marcipan Snegl does not mean "please eat me" and that snegl actually means snail. Yuck! 😮
Princess in a Malmo cafe
It sounds kind of weird, but I came to Katrina Cafe because I like the font in its logo. Ok, I didn't come especially for it, I walked passed, saw the exterior and the logo and thought overall this place looks nice for my coffee stop of the day.
Once inside, the carpet was quite assuring. Any place that's been around since 1959 can't be that bad. However, I can't say the same for the counter position. From a customer's point of view, I think it wasn't very welcoming. The first thing customers see is the side of the counter on their right hand side. Then they have to keep on walking in and near right, to the front of the serving counter which faces the front of the side windows. That's when customers first get to see a member of staff and vice versa. Personally, I think the staff should always be welcoming the customer when they walk into a store.
The first thing that caught my eye on the cake counter is the Prinsessbakelse. My friend said this is a popular local cake called Princess Cake, often eaten at birthday parties, but she's never had it before! But then, she's only been living in Malmo for less than a year. If it's a local specialty, then I have to try it. We ordered two pieces and our coffee.
I love spiral staircases, always fancied living in one of those big New York loft conversions with a giant spiral staircase going up one level. They twist and turn so elegantly, you can almost feel them do a swirl and dance in the living room. A spiral staircase so elegant, it would be a pity not to climb and sit myself down upstairs. And looking back down, she was even more beautiful.
The Princess Cake is said to the be favorite cake of the Swedish princesses in the late 19th century. The princesses's father was Prince Carl of Sweden and Norway, and the three princesses married into the royal families of Denmark, Norway and Belgium when they grew up. It was the first time I've seen or heard of the Princess Cake, and the portion looked a lot larger than normal slice cake. I thought I'd struggle to finish the whole piece, but turns out it wasn't a problem at all. The cake had two thin layers of sponge cake at the base, sandwiched together with jam. Then there was a little bit of custard on top followed by a massive wallop of cream, and finally it was covered in green marzipan. The sponge base was soft and light and the cream made the whole cake extra smooth and airy. I skipped most of the marzipan as it was too sweet. I'm no princess, but this is definitely worthy to be a princess's favourite cake. Another thumbs up from me.
