Sarah Wilson

a slow food and biking guide to copenhagen

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I rather love Copenhagen.  Marija – the lovely lady who photographed my I Quit Sugar eCookbook; that’s her below – and I spent a week here, mostly shooting the cover and some fun shots for my new book.

M7A49331 a slow food and biking guide to copenhagen
We rode around on bikes…here I’m pushing Marija on a rickshaw as we scoot around the city shooting.

There is so much to include in a guide, but I’ll keep to a list of ten reasons to visit. The best overarching theme I could think of was the happiness factor – indeed the Danes are reputedly the happiest people on the planet. They are satisfied with their lives, the various studies, say, they feel heard and there is equality (free eduction! free health!). I loved being here wrapping my head around why this might be so, observing, asking questions of locals. And a few royals. Yes, I was invited to stay at a palace in Copenhagen and a dinner was organised in our honour. The next-in-line-for-the-French-throne-if-there-were-still-a-monarchy was there, six or seven princes and princesses and a few counts…all of whom shared some great insights! A very bizarre and wonderful evening. I cooked two I Quit Sugar meals, too. Strange things happen when you travel…

PS if you’re after exact location details, follow my instagram feed!

10 Reasons why Copenhagen is a happy place to visit

1. The hygge.

I’ve written about hygge before. It’s a very specifically Danish word that is pronounced “hoo-gah” and it defines the core of Danishness as “chic” defines the French. One definition I’ve found says it’s the art of creating intimacy. So it’s an act as well as a feel – a verb and an adjective. Hygge is also something you consciously strive for…it’s about connecting in a cosy, elegant, unfussy way. It’s about weaving friendship and intimacy with ease. When the Danes suggest a place or experience, they always describe it as “cosy”. If it’s cosy, it’s good. Indeed everything they do has a cosy, feel-good, homely vibe. It makes the city just feel like a place you want to stay a while in and get snugly with.

2. The ease.

It’s so easy being a tourist here. Marija and I couldn’t quite believe how smooth it was to get stuff done. We had to create an entire shoot – organise hair, makeup, food, props, lighting equipment etc – in a foreign country. It could’ve been hell, but it was a synch in the end. The Danes are very reserved. But if you reach out first they respond with so much help and advice. And trust. We borrowed plates and bowls and photographic gear from strangers all over town and everyone was so cool with it.

3. It also helped staying at The Avenue Hotel

I want to make special mention of this place because the staff (special shout out to Jens, the handsome kid below) were so helpful and open and happy. Here’s why it made us happy staying here:

M7A4799 a slow food and biking guide to copenhagen

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Fish soup with kale, plus 6 other ways to eat more greens

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Greens. I get quite obsessed. I always feel that if I get at least 3 cups of the stuff into my gob each day, then I have a leave pass with the rest of my diet. Within reason.

In Europe, however, it’s been tough going in the cruciferous, leafy and folic department. Mostly it’s been pork. And potatoes. Actually, hold the potatoes, I’ll have – OK, you only have lettuce? – some lettuce. And an olive. I outlined in a previous post how I get my greens when travelling – it’s a challenge, but there are ways. Anyway, as an ode to this challenge, and because I’m craving the damn stuff, and because it’s spring back home and a fine ‘ole time to eat spinach, silverbeet (also called Swiss chard) and kale, here are some great green recipes that don’t involve a ton of ingredients, and can be made as a quick Inject My Life With Goodness meal.

31recipehealth articleLarge1 Fish soup with kale, plus 6 other ways to eat more greens

This first one is an ode to Marija, my photographer mate who travelled with me in Copenhagen and Iceland. We ate fish soup in the latter and we almost cried from culinary happiness. This recipe is for her to make back home!! Ya hear me Maj? It’s a modified version of a chowder recipe I read a while back.

Fish soup with kale

  • 2 tbls olive oil
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 celery stalk, chopped
  • 1  carrot, chopped
  • 2 to 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 4 anchovy fillets, soaked in water for 4 minutes, drained and chopped
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
  • 1 can chopped tomatoes, with liquid
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 cup fennel, chopped
  • A bouquet garni made with a bay leaf, a strip of orange zest, a couple of sprigs each thyme and parsley, and a dried red chili if desired, tied together with a string

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OK, I’m giving 200 I Quit Sugar Cookbooks away

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Last week we ran a little thing where I said I’d donate 20 books to five great charities doing great stuff. I got such a beautiful response, and because I have terrible indecision issues, I had Jo narrow things down to 10 so I could choose five from there. I couldn’t. So, instead I’ll give 20 books to all 10. Issue sorted. Win win.

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Image via Straight up hit and run tumblr

The recipients are below. If you’re feeling like giving a little yourself you might want to click on the link and donate a little.

Paying it forward!

  • Ryla. Nominated by Jessica. Jess says: RYLA stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards – we as the committee are all young people who want to give back. We have so many uses for your fabulous cookbook from fundraising, thank you’s and prizes for awardees during the seminar.
  • Longford Men’s Shed. Nominated by Ted. Ted says: I am a member of The Longford Men’s Shed in Longford Tasmania and we have a community garden behind the shed with approx 30 raised garden beds all of which have fresh herbs and vegetables growing in them. We also work with the local youth and unemployed with cooking programmes to help them understand how to take care of themselves better. We are holding a home grown home made market in 3 weeks time to raise money for an orphanage in India that one of our members is involved with.
  • West Care Community Services. Nominated by Alex. Alex says: Our charity looks after families and individuals in need of food, emotional support and debt counselling. We feed over 5,0000 people a year. Our passion is to provide good, healthy food and offer our clients alternative ways of eating and cooking their food. Your book would be a great resource for us.
  • Victorian College for the Deaf. Nominated by Nicole. Nicole says: I work at Victorian College for the Deaf. We have a beautiful cafe – ‘Tradeblock Cafe’, which is Not-For-Profit and open two days a week. Tradeblock Cafe is

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finding your life aesthetic

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A few weeks ago I was in Vienna for a day, as part of a 38-hour haul from Greece to Denmark. And I had a great realisation.

When I’m in a new city I get enveloped by the aesthetic – the hair, the shoes, the subtle mannerisms, the turns of phrases – and find myself wanting to covet it, while feeling overwhelmingly lacklustre in my own “rustic” get-up.

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This lady was very “Vienna”. She was very much thrown when I asked to photograph her with her al-foil doggie bag.

It’s an evolutionary thing. When you find yourself standing out from the mob, you get a survivalist urge to “buy into” the dominant vibe.

It’s a travel thing. The smells, sights and accents all feel so evocative. You get swept up in the new.

Well. I almost did, there in Vienna. Then I got a grip of myself. Vienna’s a good place for this.

At first I did my usual. I looked at the prim men in their crisp striped shirts and dapper spectacles with their neat hands and expensive tan moccasins. And the women with their curt little plimsolls and small limbs and cardigans tied over little shoulders and the contained way they sip at their coffees and peck at their pastries. I got absorbed by the way the quirky girl who I stopped to ask for “the best café to sit in for a few hours” blinked tightly as she answered me, with her bright fuchsia lipstick. And her kooky Mary-Janes.

I imagined their nice, tidy, un-dusty lives, listening to Mozart, eating strudel, sitting in parks and talking with

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a small guide to athens

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I love Athens. The craziness, the congestion; even in a heat wave the place leaves me pumped. It’s life in a petri dish. It’s so terribly, organically, inescapably human. I didn’t stay in Athens long. I was in transit to Icaria. Two days only. But this is what I tried (and which I’d recommend to anyone popping by).

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Seriously, the view from The New Hotel to that big lump of rocks there on the hill…

* Stay here: I was booked into The New Hotel, near Syntagma Square. My mate Bill at thecoolhunter suggested I check it out. The place is designed by the Campana brothers, who’ve cleverly reinterpreted the former Olympic Palace hotel originally built in 1958 – they pulled it down, then rebuilt it using broken bits of the hotel as well as the retro furniture. They workshopped the project with design and architecture students from University of Thessaly. So clever. Took me a while to work out that the walls were made of old bed legs and the chairs were

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live out the confusions

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This is something I learned only recently. I wish I’d learned it early. It is this: no one on this planet knows what they’re doing. We’re all confused. Very little matches up (and yet our brains try valiantly to slot all the bits together in patterns).

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And this is the salient bit: there is only one way through the discombobulation …and that’s through it.

I spent my childhood thinking no one else was confused. Everyone else knew when it was cool to wear two Cherry Lane T-shirts at once. And when to stop. And why to do so in the first place.

Then I realised they were just better at looking like they weren’t confused. Or they varnished everything in a coat of numbness. But that just clogs up the confusion, like bad foundation on toxic skin.

I spent my 20s and most of 30s thinking I could avoid the confusion. I travelled faster, hoping I could overtake it, circumvent it. Beat it.

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sugar-free granola: the most popular recipe from my cookbook

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It’s always the simplest things, isn’t it. My cookbook’s been out four months now and I can tell you the recipe that gets the most love out there is this one – a fun granola recipe I invented one day when I was frantic for something crunchy and golden and…well, something to take the place of cereal on the couch when you’re a tad down (and it’s 4pm on a rainy Saturday afternoon).

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Coco-nutty granola, photography by Marija Ivkovic

A lot of you have made the recipe. But I thought I’d share it today with the rest of you. Perhaps you’ve been having a taddish downish kind of day….

Coco-nutty granola

 Makes 5 cups

  • 4-5 tablespoons coconut oil (or butter), melted
  • 3 cups coconut flakes
  • 2 tablespoons chia seeds
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

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