Dansk Food

Hello and welcome to my mama's blog about food in Denmark.

She doesn't have any pictures of food, but she's got a lot of pictures of me. Enjoy!

So someone asked, what are you eating? What do Danes eat? The two are not necessarily the same. Well, in general Denmark is a very meat 'n' potatoes kind of place. I don't eat red meat so I can't elaborate on that. The potatoes (Danish in origin) are very tasty though. They, the Danes, and we also eat a lot of salmon, or laks, and little tiny shrimp (what we sometimes call salad shrimp). Oh, and they eat herring-- pickled herring. Every time we're here Simon has to have what is a tradition (at least in his family) of pickled herring on this very traditional dense seeded brown bread, drenched in a curry salad creamy thing (Danish curry?? don't ask me...). This is accompanied by a shot of schnapps-- not some fruity gross thing that you got drunk on as a teenager, just good ol' alcohol flavored liquor. I guess it's a pretty cosy thing.

For breakfast you will not find a plate of scrambled eggs with toast and bacon on many Danish tables (my mother-in-law doesn't even own a toaster). People will very often eat fresh bread from the bakery with jam and very smelly Danish cheese that I just don't have the nose for. They buy it in enormous blocks that disappear very quickly for something that smells like dirty socks. It is also common to have yogurt (which is really good here), muesli, and fruit.

In Copenhagen you don't have to walk far to see a pizza joint (mostly run by Iraqis) or a shawarma stand, so the break from traditional Danish food is quite prevalent. Though there are many little cafes where you can get the traditional Danish open faced sandwich-- sometimes shrimp with little tiny asparagus and a cream sauce, mmm...

Here are some things you might find surprising about Denmark: It is very difficult to find good ice cream, good beer, and good (dark roast) coffee.

Now, good ice cream: That one really surprised me, what with all the cows dotting the landscape. It's as counterintuitive as not being able to find a good salad in the entire non-coastal United States with all of that farm land growing veggies (believe me, I've tried on four driving trips across the USA). But there it is. Not impossible to find, just difficult. I went to the supermarket on a scouting mission the other day, just to make sure. I did find a section of Ben and Jerry's, but it was over $10 a pint! One cannot afford to be an ice cream snob here, which apparently I am.

Now I am also a beer and a coffee snob (I would be a wine snob too if I could afford it).

Beer: what most people drink here is Carlsburg, kind of the national beer. In my humble (ahem) opinion it is one notch, maybe two, above Budweiser. Yes, I think beer should have color, or at least flavor.

Coffee: I cannot find dark roast coffee. I bet there are some specialty shops somewhere or maybe some high end cafes in Copenhagen that would cater to my Pacific Northwest snobby coffee ways, but here in Holstebro, surrounded by farmland, it is not possible. Even the espresso roast is far from the rich dark oily (have I mentioned dark?) roast of my wishes. Ah well, I make do.

Another thing Danes don't eat, peanut butter. Simon's mother had never had peanut butter until she visited us in the States last year. (I prefer almond butter myself, but whatever)

Oh, and Danes are huge, just absolutely huge on licorice. It is ubiquitous and comes in many forms. Today I saw licorice flavored icecream in a cafe. Ummm, no. I do like licorice, and for candy, it's kind of good for you actually. Just don't give me the salted licorice, eewwww...makes my bones itch.


Another very nice food related thing about Denmark-- not many fat people. There really aren't very many fast food joints. In this city of 40-some-thousand there is one McDonalds and one Burger King, and that's it. Good for them. People here are generally less sedentary than Americans. They ride bicycles everywhere, and many seem to exercise regularly.


Hmmm, have I covered it? Well, I'm sure I have far from covered it, but there is a taste for you.

Oh, one more thing. There is this absolutely heavenly drink here made from flowers, called Hyldeblomst saft, which comes in a concentrate that you dilute with water. I believe in English it is called the Elder flower. Oh. My. God. This stuff is good. All I can say is, Heaven. Beyond that, you'll just have to try it yourself.



Well this is food related. We went to feed the ducks down at the pond the other day.

But the problem was...

instead of feeding the ducks,

Django kept feeding himself,

again....

and again...

and again.

The ducks finally gave up.