Food, Glorious Food...Sometimes

In the spirit of helping you keep your New Years resolutions to lose weight or eat less, or just generally think about food less... Here's a post about food in Denmark.

It may or may not actually help at all.

Since my perspective is that of an American, I can really only compare Danish food to American.  So, don't be surprised if you don't agree with my opinions on some things.

If you've been reading for a while, or if you've managed to scroll all the way back to my first few months of posting, you might remember this post.  Since moving here, I've had plenty of smørrebrød, and I have to admit... I've come around to it.  Not the pickled herring.  I still hate the pickled herring.  But otherwise, I'm a fan.  It's filling, fairly healthy, not too expensive... As far as eating a lunch out in Copenhagen, it's definitely the way to go.

Before we moved here, my husband warned me that he had been pretty disappointed in the food options when he'd lived here before we met.  In America, we've got this culture of eating out a lot, no matter the budget, so you can pretty easily find something decent in whatever price range you want.  Denmark, however, is just starting to have more of a restaurant culture, perhaps thanks in part to Noma (a fancy pants restaurant here in Copenhagen) being called the best restaurant in the world for a few years running.

It's easy enough to get amazing food in Copenhagen if you're willing to spend a lot of money.  Finding a more reasonably priced meal, however (if you're not eating smørrebrød, of course), is tougher.  Possible, but tougher.  There's this idea in restaurants here that as long as you have the recipe, you can make anything amazingly.  It's why you find a lot of mediocre Italian food here.  They know the recipes, but not the long-taught cultural secrets that make food from other countries great.  And it's also why Denmark is so good at smørrebrød - they've been doing it for so long that the little details come as second nature.

One thing that they do love in middle-of-the-road Danish cafes and restaurants is BIG PORTIONS.  Huge.  And they love to pile a plate with a wide variety of different things.  Often, you'll get your plate of food and everything will be lovely, except they'll have added one strange ingredient that just doesn't make sense.

Here's example of the portion sizes:

This brunch plate is found at a local restaurant that claims to be an American style diner.  Having lived there until this past Summer, I can honestly say that I've never seen a plate like that in America.  I don't really know what half of that stuff is.  Not saying this is a bad thing, though.  This particular restaurant (Cafe Luna in Christianshavn) happens to have really good, reasonably priced meals.

One thing that is NOT okay, though, is this monstrosity, which ended up on my husbands plate at a cafe in central Copenhagen earlier this week:

You're looking at Doritos with melted cheddar cheese.  The menu calls them nachos.  This is NOT what nachos are.  This is something you make at home in a microwave when you're in college and it's 4am and there's nothing else in the house.  Not something you go to a restaurant to spend money on.  This particular treat, once it sat on the plate for a few minutes, was so congealed that it could be picked up in one solid mass.  Appetizing...

So, I guess the take-away from all of this is that the food scene in Copenhagen is pricey, but getting better.  But it's still hit-and-miss, so be prepared to either spend a ton of money or take your chances.

The Shortest "Must See in Copenhagen" List Ever

My in-laws were in town this weekend, visiting from England.  They'd been here once before, so it was actually a little bit difficult to think of things to show them.

That may sound strange.  European capital city, tons to do, right?  Well, sort of.

Copenhagen is a lovely city, with plenty to see.  But it doesn't have the spectacular sights that many other European capital cities have.  The few sights that it does have can usually be seen within a day or two:

- The Little Mermaid statue (which most people are generally disappointed by for one reason or another.  It's either too small, too large, too close to shore, surrounded by too many tourists, etc.),  Probably best seen from one of the boat tours that leave from Nyhavn, as you can then also take in some of Copenhagen's interesting modern architecture (The opera house, the "black diamond" library, etc.)

- Nyhavn (meaning "new port" in Danish, this is a line of bars and restaurants lining the lovely port seen in the background of this blog); as I mentioned above, you can hop on a boat tour from here, or you can eat or have a beer at one of the cafes.  In the warmer months, the locals bring their own beer and sit along the water, while the tourists generally sit in the (more expensive) cafes.

- Helsingør (better known to Shakespeare readers as Elsinore, or Hamlet's home town) can be reached by taking a quick train north.  The castle there is lovely, and the town center is also quite nice.

- Christiania (Copenhagen's hippy commune); I actually haven't been yet.  I have no good excuse other than that I've had other than that I've had other priorities, but my Danish teacher mentioned possibly taking us there for the final module 2 class, which is after we've had our test.

- Noma (foodies will recognize this as one of the best restaurants in the world, with prices and a reservation wait list that reflect this); this is another place that I have yet to see for myself.  Maybe some day.

- Strøget, or The Walking Street; this is the shopping center in Copenhagen.  Lots of stores (both local and international) and lots of restaurants and cafes.  During the day, it's almost always packed with people.  I prefer to walk it at dusk or after dark, when there's a little more room to breath.

- Tivoli; I almost forgot this one, which is silly considering I was just there last week.  Tivoli is the 2nd oldest amusement park in the world, opened in 1843.  Wikipedia tells me that the oldest is also here in Denmark, but Tivoli is the one to see.  When I was there last week, they were just setting it up for the Christmas season, and it was really nice.  Christmas decor is so much more tasteful here in Denmark than it tends to be in the US.

Like any capital city, Copenhagen has lovely art museums, and like most European cities it also has its palaces and castles that are worth a look.  And I'm sure there are plenty of sights that I've missed.  But these are the top few, in my mind.

When it comes right down to it, though, Copenhagen's culture of "hyggelig," or coziness, makes it more of a nice place to settle down and live, rather than an exciting city to spend a week-long holiday.

It doesn't help that it's an extremely expensive city, making shopping and eating out every day a bit of a financial burden.