Velbekomme with the Danes
On a recent trip to Copenhagen, Amy Fernandes discovers a whole different world of smorgasbord and other delightful Danish delicacies
I never knew I had eaten smorgasbord until I visited Copenhagen. It's at every street corner, food court, supermarket, cafe, canteen and even fine-dining restaurant. There are wide window displays of smorgasbord, making you wonder whether you’ve got the meaning of the word wrong. Smorgasbord, the dictionary informs us, is a representation of a buffet meal of hot and cold bites. It also informs us that the Swedish originally meant it to be an open sandwich: a slice of bread on which you could pile on anything your heart desires. So, like everything, as also in food, smorgasbord is an evolutionary thing. I was right about the word and so were the Swedes, who invented it.
What’s different about the Scandinavian smorgasbord as we know it from the rest of the world, is that the toppings here offer you a wide variety of meats in various forms: pork, lamb, quail, smoked, carpaccio, cooked, salami... the list is endless. You can choose to mix meat with cheese, vegetables, herbs or like we tried in one place, even fruit. I tried a boring combination of potato, cheese and herbs at the Copenhagen Street Food (a large warehouse turned into a street-food area) and then topped it with a cod and meat combination. And for the rest of my trip, I remembered to stick to the bounty that the Alantic Ocean throws up.
And what bounty it is. Every restaurant we ate in gave us memorable meals. Kähler inside the Tivoli Gardens produced the most unforgettable fish served on a bed of herbed potatoes and vegetables. Sounds simple, but when was the last time you ate something this simple, that was this good? For a panoramic view of the city and modern Scandinavian menu you have to visit The Tower, which rests on the top of Copenhagen’s Parliament. Do not miss the chocolate desserts there or the bacon chips or everything on the menu. The city boasts one of the highest number of Michelin-starred restaurants and you can see why. Noma (toping the top 50 restaurants of the world) housed in a quiet, almost nondescript warehouse area is located there. Every restaurant you visit has something unique for you to come away with. Take the restaurant 'simpleRaw' for instance. This is a small, only vegan eatery that has simple, raw, 100% plant-based food as promised. Gorge on salads, juices (beetroot and ginger if you dare), and a host of other exotica that’s mind boggling to remember. Another time, we visited Restaurant Sletten, by the harbour in a cosy fisherman village in Humlebaek en route the Kokkedal (Hamlet's) Castle. What a lovely way to have sliced haddock on your plate—as you watch the ocean roar, fishermen bring in boats laden with leaping fish that will soon be a gourmet dish.
In Copenhagen you can’t go wrong with food, whether it’s the humble staple, smorgasbord or the complicated Æbleflæsk (apple pork)
On a recent trip to Copenhagen, Amy Fernandes discovers a whole different world of smorgasbord and other delightful Danish delicacies
I never knew I had eaten smorgasbord until I visited Copenhagen. It's at every street corner, food court, supermarket, cafe, canteen and even fine-dining restaurant. There are wide window displays of smorgasbord, making you wonder whether you’ve got the meaning of the word wrong. Smorgasbord, the dictionary informs us, is a representation of a buffet meal of hot and cold bites. It also informs us that the Swedish originally meant it to be an open sandwich: a slice of bread on which you could pile on anything your heart desires. So, like everything, as also in food, smorgasbord is an evolutionary thing. I was right about the word and so were the Swedes, who invented it.
What’s different about the Scandinavian smorgasbord as we know it from the rest of the world, is that the toppings here offer you a wide variety of meats in various forms: pork, lamb, quail, smoked, carpaccio, cooked, salami... the list is endless. You can choose to mix meat with cheese, vegetables, herbs or like we tried in one place, even fruit. I tried a boring combination of potato, cheese and herbs at the Copenhagen Street Food (a large warehouse turned into a street-food area) and then topped it with a cod and meat combination. And for the rest of my trip, I remembered to stick to the bounty that the Alantic Ocean throws up.
And what bounty it is. Every restaurant we ate in gave us memorable meals. Kähler inside the Tivoli Gardens produced the most unforgettable fish served on a bed of herbed potatoes and vegetables. Sounds simple, but when was the last time you ate something this simple, that was this good? For a panoramic view of the city and modern Scandinavian menu you have to visit The Tower, which rests on the top of Copenhagen’s Parliament. Do not miss the chocolate desserts there or the bacon chips or everything on the menu. The city boasts one of the highest number of Michelin-starred restaurants and you can see why. Noma (toping the top 50 restaurants of the world) housed in a quiet, almost nondescript warehouse area is located there. Every restaurant you visit has something unique for you to come away with. Take the restaurant 'simpleRaw' for instance. This is a small, only vegan eatery that has simple, raw, 100% plant-based food as promised. Gorge on salads, juices (beetroot and ginger if you dare), and a host of other exotica that’s mind boggling to remember. Another time, we visited Restaurant Sletten, by the harbour in a cosy fisherman village in Humlebaek en route the Kokkedal (Hamlet's) Castle. What a lovely way to have sliced haddock on your plate—as you watch the ocean roar, fishermen bring in boats laden with leaping fish that will soon be a gourmet dish.
In Copenhagen you can’t go wrong with food, whether it’s the humble staple, smorgasbord or the complicated Æbleflæsk (apple pork)
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