What is your honest opinion about the Danish food culture?

Xiaobo: “I like Danish food. And I like that it is easy to get fresh fruit and salad in the cafeteria. We don’t eat raw broccoli and carrots in China, but I like it.”

Kyriaki: “So much meat and so much fish! Great pastries and bread! I try everything and I like almost everything. However, I do think Danes put onion and bacon on too many things. Another problem: the cheese you sell as feta – it is NOT feta! But I managed to find really great Greek feta.”

Martin: “It is not anything special. I don’t think I can mention one traditional Danish dish.”

Ariana: “I really like it.” 

Finish this sentence: Don’t leave Denmark without tasting…

Xiaobo: “I really like traditional Danish Christmas food such as flæskesteg (pork roast), æbleskiver (round pancakes) and risalamande (rice pudding). But I would say don’t leave Denmark without tasting krebinetter (breaded meatballs). They are SO good!”

Kyriaki: “The pastries! I also really like smørrebrød (open-faced sandwiches) with salmon, frikadeller (meatballs) and tarteletter (puff pastry with chicken and asparagus filling). Oh, and the milk is great.”

Martin: “The crispy Danish pork roast.” 

Ariana: “Tarteletter and pork roast!”

Pork roast served the traditional Danish way with potatoes, red cabbage and gravy. Photo: Colourbox

Have you had the experience of buying something completely different from what you wanted in the supermarket?

Xiaobo: “I wanted to buy yoghurt and picked up some of this ‘skyr’. It was almost solid when I opened it. It looked like paint or something. But I thought: How bad can it be? After all I found it in the cooler section of the supermarket. I tried it and it was fine. One of the points to come to a new country is to experience a different food culture.”

Kyriaki: “I wanted yoghurt but picked up some really weird milk. It was like milk turning into yoghurt, really weird consistency, I didn’t try it. It can be difficult to shop in the supermarket because everything is in Danish – but you just have to explore.” 

Martin: “I once bought crème fraiche instead of yoghurt.”

Ariana: “I wanted condensed milk but got piskefløde (dairy cream) instead. There’s also so many varieties of flour, so I went to get wheat flour, but ended up with rye flour. The problem is that the packaging often writes the content in all the Scandinavian languages but rarely in English. Google Translate is your friend when you go grocery shopping!”

Apparently yoghurt can be hard to find in the supermarket. Photo: Colourbox

Anything to avoid?

Xiaobo: “I still can’t take the taste of liquorice and rye bread.”

Kyriaki: “No, try everything! I hate liquorice but you have to try it.”

Martin: “Liquorice! Never ever am I trying that again!”

Ariana: “I hate liquorice! And it is really big in Denmark, it is everywhere in gums, cakes, whatever. But that being said, I don’t think there’s anything else to avoid. There’s always a lot to choose from and also a nice variety of healthy food and organic food.”

Translated by Lenore Messick