Continuing my story about life in Denmark, I believe it is essential I will speak about food. I come from Poland, country filled with amazing bread and delicious sausages. Our food is often very caloric and basing on potatoes. Only in Poland you will have 12 different words for potato (almost every region has its own). But going back to Denmark, bread there is so expensive! This bread I used to buy there, white, with sesame seeds on it, it costed me around 18-20 kr. That is 10-12 zł! (2,5€-3€). I knew that Denmark is pricey, everything is more expensive, but difference in bread price was bigger than in rest of products. In Poland you’d be able to buy such bread for max. 4 zł (1€).
Then there is their famous rugbrød (this is this word where d is silent, if you don’t know what I am speaking about, read “It’s okay to look like wet hen” post). Basically I am speaking about dark rye bread, made on sourdough, sometimes they add pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds to it. Why is it famous? It is said to be healthy, not containing additional fats or sugar. Does it taste good? It depends. If you eat it only with butter, the sourdough may not be too appetizing. I am not a big fan of it unless it is smørrebrød. Another new danish word meaning nothing different than a sandwich (but don’t be deceived it’s special danish sandwich!). But sandwich is a sandwich so you just take loaf of rugbrød put butter, ham, cheese, tomato, cucumber, remoulade, (silent d!) chives, salat, pâté, ketchup, fish, carrots, cabbage, turkey, tuna etc. Be crazy. And yes they really put shredded cabbage and carrots inside. First time I have eaten such sandwich was on university meeting of Cultural Club. Let’s say I was more than surprised.
Moving on to the veggies and fruits department, how new it was for me to see prices not changing during the year. Sometimes maybe some discounts but it didn’t change seasonally. Asparagus always the same price, oranges the same price, grapes the same price. Not complaining! And then comes this magical time of Halloween where every shop, every supermarket and cafe has pumpkins. They are everywhere! Orange, black, white, small, big, whatever you wish! I didn’t know white pumpkins exist until Halloween in Denmark. And let me remind you, Halloween is on 31 of October. Pumpkins come to shops in September. Why not?
I have already mentioned pâté – actually Leverpostej, a danish meat spread made from pork liver. Then remoulade, even though it is french, Danes love it as much. As sauce based on mayonnaise and spiced with herbs. Ideal to french fries. More danish specialties you can buy in supermarket? Frikadeller. Oh how I love them. They are obviously meatballs, made from minced meat. But theses ones are flat and fried on pan. That’s it, nothing more special about them.
There is certainly much more about food. I could write about it and write. I know, I haven’t yet discovered everything in danish cuisine but I will for sure try to!
As for an end, there is a dessert. Rødgrød med flode. If you ever ask any Dane to teach you something in Danish they will tell you this. “Rulgrul ma flyl” If you’d ask me to write in phonetically, difficult to say, easy to eat. It is made pudding like on grits or like semolina and you get strawberries, cherries or other berries to it as a sauce. Totally delicious!
You should for sure try it when in Denmark 🙂
Cold 