The Confusing and Odd tastes of Denmark

I’m all for trying the new food in different cultures, but a lot of times that food isn’t something you particularly like. While I love the food here in Denmark mostly, there is still a band of foods that I could certainly live without.

1. First things first. Licorice is literally the defining flavor of Denmark. Dane’s just love their freakin’ licorice. I’m not talking about twizzlers here, I’m talking about that black crappy tasting stuff. There are two ways to have licorice here, 1. Bitter and salty or 2. Sweetened. You can buy all types of licorice, gum, sweets, cough drops. They even stick it into stuff the SHOULDN’T have licorice in it… like chocolate covered licorice, or the clear elder flower candy I had the other day. Sneaky Danes. They love it so much that they simply have to hide it in all of the other decently tasting things. Here they have a shot called Fisk (which means fish in Danish)… it tasts like licorice and mouthwash. In fact, the American’s here started calling it “the mouthwash shot” because we didn’t know what it was for a while. While I still hate licorice, the shot has grown on me, and nothing can beat the minty freshness of your breath after you take it, Not even brushing your teeth!

2. Pork, oh how I loathe you. Except for bacon, you can rarely catching me eat pork or ham or pig or whatever EVER. Demark is a country of 5 million people, and 13 million pigs. Each person typically consumes 60kg or 132 pounds of pork a year. The runner-up is beef, where they only consume 30kg, or 66 pounds a year. Simply, Danes love their pig. I tried to be understanding and ate pig when my host family served it (which is usually around 3-4 nights a week if you don’t count the bacon in our meals almost every night). However, I just couldn’t keep the poker face anymore after about 2 months of pig, pig, and more pig. It’s not that the dishes aren’t tasty, it’s just that pork/ham is not my thing. Thankfully they try to make me salads and soup now… and of course bacon is always ready to be dropped into it if it needs a little hamin-up.

3. Thankfully, most of my stay I have not had to run into Leverpostej again. Leverpostej is liver paste. YUM… not. I did try this and I have to admit it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I wouldn’t choose it again, but it was nice to try. Every time I see I automatically avoid it, but if I wasn’t such a picky eater I think that most people would actually like it.

4. Along with pork, Danes love boiled potatoes. Yes, just boiled. The typical sauce they put on the potatoes is what we American’s call the “dark brown sauce stuff”. It’s closest to gravy, but is not exactly gravy. I always wait to see if it will get tastier, but it is frequently somewhat flavorful, not as much so as gravy. That is ok considering that one douses their potatoes in a pool of it, so you get a nice mix of both potatoes and sauce. Though one of the things I like here in Denmark, it is still somewhat of a confusing and interesting taste.

Stay tuned for what I can’t live without! I’m actually going to Czech tomorrow so don’t expect oo many posts about Denmark. Instead, let’s hope I am responsible enough to keep you updated about my upcoming 2 week break!

Apology Blog.... Sort of.

Hmmm.

What have I been doing in the past weeks? Well not writing blogs I can tell you that! So, what has happened to me in the last few weeks? A lot.

Let’s start out by remembering the night that I went out with my host family and friends to see a U2 Cover band. Going out with you parent you ask? Yes. They happen to be pretty DAMN cool so it’s fun going out with the host parents. Zack and his host family came with us too! So yeah, anyways, we get to Frederiksberg and meet one of Claus’s friends, who is simultaneously riding a bike and drinking a Carlsberg. How I love the Danes and their ability to operate bikes and drink alcohol at the same time. We went to a lovely Italian Resturant, and during the table conversation both Zack and I secretly agreed to try and get out host dad’s drunk that evening. Don’t worry, they were trying to get us drunk too, so it was war.

After a few drinks at dinner, Zack and I started our mission with a bang—a shot of whiskey. Jack Daniels. Too bad they retaliated with licorice shots (EW—Licorice is SUCH a Danish thing) and more beer. By this time the band was playing, and they were actually really good. Bo (Zack’s host dad) was really good friends with this band and guess what happened next… If you were to tell me that I would be singing U2 on stage in Denmark while trying to get my Danish host dad drunk… I would have never believed you. But it happened. I was there. I remember it.

One of the best nights ever? Check! (BTW Zack was really funny in the car ride home wanting Mcdonalds so bad)

Since that night there have been a lot of other great things going on, things that I should have documented but haven’t. I am going to try to be better I promise.

Along with going to Soccer games, hanging out with the lil’ sis, and going to school, I’ve been pretty busy! Oh yeah, I did go to Germany and Poland for a week with school but that is a completely different and long post in itself!

One of the other nights I would love to talk about is Kulturnatten, or Culture Night. It happens once a year in Copenhagen, and for 90 Kr. (roughly 18 dollars) you can go around the entire city to see historical places or the gardens or different venues with live music. Probably one of the best nights I’ve had here in a long time. First, I went with Leigh Anna in her buddy group (Danes and Americans that hang out together through DIS) to østerbro, where we ate dinner and had a little hyggeligt time. Afterwards, Leigh Anna and I kept with the group, but two of our other friends joined the pack. Seeing as daylight is ridiculously short here, it was pitch black at like 7pm. Crazy.

We ended up going to Rosenborg, a castle that is in the city of Copenhagen, and it houses some of the royal jewels. Copenhangen on Culture night is, I want to say actually, playful, open, and interactive! Rosenborg was also open for flashlight tag… yes, you could play flashlight tag in the castle. Sweet huh? Outside of the castle the military set up a really awesome demonstrative area, where we got to try army food, and they gave us warm drinks. There were also tanks and what not that you could actually climb into (and they were actually real!) You could also hold REAL military guns, and dress exactly like them. My favorite part of the night was all the really good looking Danish guys in uniform. Leigh Anna and I reduced to being like giggling 12 year old school girls. We ended up getting the nerve to get one shot with one of the hottest ones we could find. We scampered away from him like giggling. Not my finest moment.

While we walked the streets of Copenhagen we also were part of a big mob of families or drunk people. The mix was almost comical. When we dropped into Gammeltorv, there was a troop of at least 20 people on horses playing music. It was pretty amazing. They finally decided to take these 20 or so horses down Strøget, which is a huge walking mall. Considering it was packed I just hoped that kids and drunk people alike wouldn’t get trampled. But Dane’s are pretty good at the whole push through the crowd thing…

After, we went to the round tower to see if we could climb it, but due to the amount of people it was a 45 minute wait, so we went into the connected art place, which had at least 25 little mats (that were squishy and nice!) where people could rest. Yes, blankets were provided. Leigh Anna and I left Rick and Ishan to lay down, and it actually took them quite a while to find us, even though it was a small room! Even so, they caved in and decided to relax a little too to discuss what our next move would be.

We ended up deciding to go to a little bar before we made the trek home (and a long trek it is!) We went to one of our favorite coffee/ drinking places, where they had a live quartet for Kulturnatten. It was seriously great! Rick, Ishan, and I all decided to buy a bottle of wine together, it was soooo hyggeligt! Since the train only comes every hour in the middle of the night, we caught the 2 o’clock train, getting me home by 3am. What a great night!

When I am thinking about what else I could possibly tell you about Copenhagen, I wish I could be more specific about all of my experiences. I need to write more, but if you want to know the gist of things know this: Copenhagen is largely a place that needs to be experienced to be understood. It isn’t just one night at some of the big landmarks that has made my stay here life-changing. It’s a cup of hot chocolate at Le Glace, or bustle of Strøget. It’s the chocolate scones at St. Peters Bakery and the uneven cobblestone steps. It’s the inside of Nørreport station and the view of the wind turbines from Nordhavn. These types of memories are the ones that make Copenhagen well, Copenhagen. It’s not just history and old buildings, Copenhagen is a living and breathing city, one that I have come to love more than I ever thought I would.