danish meatballs and rainy afternoons

last tuesday i was sitting in the student lounge, hungry as hell, and this kid was talking about the meatballs his host mom had given him for lunch. they smelled so good i decided i wanted to make meatballs for dinner that night so i texted mia and asked her what her plans were. she said she was going to her parent's house for dinner but i was welcome to come. a bit disappointed about not making meatballs but excited to meet her baby brother and stepmom, i readily agreed. when i got home and mia and i were talking about going for dinner, she explained that she had called her dad and asked him how to make a particular dish. after he had explained the recipe, he suggested that she just come over for dinner and he would show her how to make it. i asked mia what this special dish was, and to my delight she replied, MEATBALLS!!! so we took the train a few neighborhoods away and spent the evening with mia's father, who turned out to be a wonderful cook, her stepmom, who spoke very good english and was really friendly and sweet, and adorable chubby little victor, whose wispy red curls have never been cut. the curried pork meatballs and basmati rice with mango chutney deviated quite a bit from my american conception of meatballs with tomato sauce and pasta, but were nevertheless the perfectly hot tasty meal for a windchilled danish night.

on wednesday afternoon, i went to the statens museum for kunst with nora and alex. despite my inconvenient tendency to use the met as my standard for comparison for all art museums, i was rather impressed. they had a lot of modern work, some really nice matisses and obviously, lots of danish art that i'd never heard of. we didn't stay for very long, but i'm definitely going back next week. afterwards nora and i went to christiania. it reminded me maybe a little too much of asheville. the weather was really nasty so we just looked around a had one beer. everything was very colorful and artsy, people were selling little bags, listening to their radios, hanging out with their dogs, rolling spliffs and enjoying themselves in spite of the rain. sort of seedy in a charming way. this one gross old man sitting by me and nora kept spitting into a plastic bag over and over. saving it for later? we really didn't know. so i didn't see it all, but i will go back on a sunny day and perhaps it will be more on the charming side of seedy.