lunch plans

do you know what i learned today?  you cannot be a timid eater if you are going to sit down to a traditional danish meal and expect to put something in your mouth.  

this afternoon greg's boss picked us up and drove us about 40 kilometers to the home of some friends.  danish doctors practicing medicine a ferry's ride away in sweden. living in a beautiful, old farmhouse near helsignør, denmark, in northeast zealand (the island we, and all of copenhagen, live on).  they treated us and other friends to a traditional danish meal. something i have been looking forward to since arriving.  and now that i've had it... i'm going to let it all just digest for awhile... and not judge the danes for saving their culinary traditions for special occasions.  

since it's getting late and my stomach is telling me to sleep on it, let's do this mostly in pictures...   

first... the ride.  for all you parents out there who might feel like you make poor parenting choices... i'm guessing your children are in five point harnesses... facing backward... anchored in.... 

but we arrived safely and we are greeted with a table full of food, beer, and schnapps... and good company of course... 

what is there to eat?  and how do you eat it?  well, first, a cheers-- skol! with your schnapps.  then you have pickled herring and onions.  you eat this on a half-slice of dark rye bread (rugbrød), which you first spread with butter, or, more traditionally, lard.  i went with the lard.  so, rugbrød, lard, pickled herring, onions.  it was good.  i am, admittedly, a pickled herring fan.  the lard was undetectable to me.

then skol!

our next course.  bøf tartar.

we enjoyed a patty of raw beef, topped with a raw onion, a raw egg, salt, pepper, fresh horseradish, and capers.  this was good.  the onion especially gave it a good flavor.  and for those same parents i consoled above... i'm sure your 14 month old did not eat raw meat and a raw egg today.  so, maybe you can rest assured, knowing there are parents like me out there...

skol!

next course...

pork tenderloin, with a crispy skin, and pickles.

skol!

then chicken salad with bacon, on rugbrød.

then shrimp salad

then rugbrød and lard, topped with smoked salmon and a kind of dill mustard (i can't say for certain that it was mustard).

skol!

finally, in order to graduate from danish cuisine 101, you must eat the very, very old cheese.  of course, served on rugbrød with some lard or butter, then the very, very old cheese, a mushroom gelatin made from cattle, and diced red onions...

can you smell it?

the cheese was difficult to get through.  it's just so very stinky.  one piece was sufficient for me.  but i did it.  i graduated. 

after lunch, we went outside, where william climbed trees...  

and henry climbed stairs...

and did littlest things... 

then we walked just across the street to the (excavated and 3x renovated) remains of a castle from 14th-century king Valdemar IV, which william loved, being very into knights and castles and battles and having just read an adapted version of a connecticut yankee in king arthur's court...

their house, from the castle's perspective... 

stream by the ruins, leading to a lake... our next destination.

on the path to the lake...

on the way to the lake, william hatched an idea to catch a fish with a stick.  he would find a worm and attach it to the end of the stick and be quiet for 11 minutes and wait for a fish to bite.

fishing

fishing boats...

greg and william and a real photographer... capturing the seagulls nesting on a small island close to the dock... 

and that's where the pictures end.  we went back, had dessert and coffee and were on our way about 7 p.m., back to roskilde.

a fine day. an adventurous meal. now on to bed.