The Danish Diet

To be honest, when I chose Denmark for study abroad, I didn’t choose it for the food. In fact, I had little to no idea what they ate expect for the obvious ‘Danishes’ and ‘Danish Bleu cheese’. I have had neither of those while here. Instead, my host mother has made a series of very interesting and tasty meals that I would have never even thought was a normal Danish meal. I’ve also tried some other typical Danish food here and there. Here are some of my favorite things I have tried in Denmark!

1. Smørrbrød- The literal translation for this is butter and bread. This is a Danish staple food that is often served for lunch. Basically, it is an open face sandwich with rye (which is much different and better here) bread that is buttered. Now, the toppings can get a little crazy, but they put a lot of different things on it! It can range from potatoes to ham to lox. They also put things like onions, some greens, and other sauces on top. Simply delicious! These tasty treats are usually pretty inexpensive to buy (if you know where to go), are great for lunch time.

2. Frikadeller- Now, I would tell you that these are meatballs, but apparently my host family says they are not meatballs, they are Frikadeller. So, Frikadeller are somewhat of the meatball quality, and are very tasty. They have cooked onions in them with ground meat, sautéed until crispy and then finished in the oven. These little scrumptious delights were served with potatoes and gravy at dinner with the family. I’d say that I ate at least 10 of them. My host family was surprised at how much I liked them. But hey, they were pretty tasty!

3. Nuddler in Kødsauce- This is somewhat an Italian-esk meal. I am not really sure how my host mom prepared it, as that was the day I was lost in the woods and came late for dinner. However, it’s basically a tomato meat sauce served with noodles. Both my host brother (Oscar) and I ate about three plates of this stuff. It seemed pretty simple but the spices were fantastic. I will definitely have to get the recipe to make it at home.

4. Turnip/potato/carrot mash stuff with bacon and little hotdogs- As my name for it illustrates, one night I came home to find what my host mom called “soup”. However, the plate was a mound of what looked like to be mashed potatoes with bacon and little hotdog things on top. The mashed stuff turned out to be a mix of potatoes, turnips, carrots, and other spices, which was delicious in itself. Mix in the little hot dogs and the bacon, and there was a party in my mouth. I ate the whole plate and was about as full as I normally would be on Thanksgiving. That’s the “Oh my goodness I ate way tooo much and now I’m going to hibernate for three days” kind of full I’m talking about.

5. Bread and chocolate- Now this isn’t really a typical Danish meal, but my family seems to love it, especially the kids. The name of the game is to take a piece of bread, butter it (as always) and put a little piece of thin chocolate on the inside. It’s a nice little snack that isn’t too good for you, but oh it tastes soooo good.

Now I’m pretty sure I left out a lot of the tasty things that I have been eating here, but all of the dishes above were what I would say is distinctly Danish. They are nothing anything like I’ve ever tasted. After eating many nights at the table with my host family, I have come to realize that Danish food is actually pretty dang good. So. If you come to Denmark, give the food a try!