food

Our family has gone through stages of what we like to eat as we discover new things. When we first arrived, it was smørrebrød (open-faced sandwiches on rye bread) and pølsehorn (danish sausage rolls like pigs in a blanket) with remoulade (a sort of mayonnaise/relish) and dry roasted onions. The kids got tired of the rye bread quickly but it took a few months before they tired of the pølsehorn. I'm sure that when Dean gets back, he will be into them again.
Fun fact: I worked in a pølsehorn factory for one day, rolling the dough around the little hot dogs, wearing a hair net, white clogs, white uniform and gloves. It was hard.

Lately, we have been into curry dishes, which are popular here. Also traditional meat and potatoes meals, like the one we had tonight with potatoes, peas, frikadeller (like Swedish meatballs) and a parsley white sauce. There is a surprisingly large selection of potatoes here.
The only things I have noticed so far that are cheaper in Denmark than in Canada are beer, pop, carrots and potatoes.

We also love æbleskiver (like apple dumplings) which are traditionally a Christmas treat served with jam and icing sugar but we are having it later tonight for dessert. It has been fun to see the different foods that come out during different holidays. Something that is popular right now due to Fastelavn coming up are fastelavnsboller, which are sweet buns stuffed with whipped cream and various flavours.

The cheeses: My kids have not been impressed with the cheeses here but I am in cheese heaven. There is no blocks of cheddar cheese, only bags of shredded cheddar. The cheese that is sliced for sandwiches is all white. White cheese in various consistencies, ages and flavours. Companies even release a birthday cheese on their anniversary and a Juleost at Christmas. This year's Christmas cheese was delicious. My favorite so far is a strong aged cheese with caraway seeds. Yum.

The breads: We live right in between two small grocery stores. Rema 1000 is where we get our candy on Fridays and we frequent the other one, Netto, after 8pm for half price bakery items and there are sometimes some yummy pastries left over. Combating food waste is big here and there is an app called TooGoodToGo which allows you to order leftover food items from bakeries, grocery stores and restaurants that would otherwise get thrown out at the end of the day. We have gotten it a few times from the gas station close to our house that has a good bakery selection too. This app is used in other countries as well.

At work, we get free breakfast/lunch on our breaks. It consists of the traditional Danish breakfast/lunch food of sliced bread or buns with various toppings, fresh fruit and Skyr (a thick yogourt). And free coffee. Danes drink a lot of coffee. The coffee selection at grocery stores is impressive. I haven't drunk coffee for years, but I will always love the smell...

In general, despite all the coffee, alcohol, candy and pastries, the food here really is healthier. We could taste the difference as soon as we arrived. Everything seems more fresh. There isn't as much canned and preserved food. You can buy things like bread and soup in frozen form instead. There are more regulations concerning what is allowed to be put into food and I think that has made a big difference.