Notes on Danish culture

People from back home always ask me what the Danes eat, and similarly, the Danes always ask what we eat back home. Why does this question come up so often? Are people genuinely interested, or is it just an idle question? Upon reflection I realize that, besides our clothes and language, what we eat probably reveals most about how we identify culturally with others.

Funny because it’s true
Chris Rock talks about racism because that’s important to him and to a large number of people around the world, and about sex because everyone thinks sex is funny somehow. They represent universal experiences and human constants, things that resonate with the vast majority of people. I noticed recently, while watching a stand-up comic on TV, that Danish comedians spend an inordinate amount of time making jokes about rye bread and liver paté.

First, I’ll come right out and say it: Danish food is nothing to write home about. The main ingredients are meat, potatoes and salad. Add to that the compulsory gravy (and the rye bread and liver paté you had for breakfast), and the contents of your stomach, upon random daily inspection, will be a fairly consistent woody brown. If you are used to porridge and bacon and eggs (or at least anything cooked or fried), your first Danish breakfast will be a bit baffling.

Caramelized potatoes, a Christmas speciality

I distinctly remember thinking, after having breakfast in Denmark for the first time: “So, when’s breakfast?”. There were some open rye bread sandwiches with cheese, pickled herring and cold cuts, followed by a cup of coffee. In a similar vein, when my mother came to Denmark to attend our wedding, it was already well after midnight at the wedding reception, with people dancing and the band playing, when she enquired, “Where’s the main course?”.

Closed sandwiches are in the domain of American franchise stores. You will never see it in a Danish home. The other day I saw my father-in-law cut a roll in half and put a slice of cheese on the bottom half. Then, with a mischievous glint in his eye and a furtive glance to check that no one was watching, he put the other half of the roll on top of it. He held it up to the light for all to see and exclaimed, “Hey, a cheeseburger!”

Older generations of Danes might also have a shot of snaps with their breakfast. Snaps is a bitter aperitif with quite a bit of a kick, that most foreigners tend to forego after getting on its bad side only once or twice.

Spice of life
Danish food is as straightforward and devoid of pomp and ceremony as the Danes themselves. Its function is first and foremost to get your hunger out of the way. The Danes spend a lot of time at the table. The conversations range from the mundane to the intense, and family discussions and disputes are often aired at the dinner table. After dinner, the conversation will often continue for another hour or more, and if there is really much to discuss, it can take several hours.

You might find yourself in a situation where, in the heat of the discussion, everyone has switched to Danish and temporarily forgotten that you exist. If you are painfully polite, you might feel obliged to sit through the whole thing, while your nether regions slowly become indifferent to any form of sensation. You might wonder why, if the Danes spend so much quality time at the table, it hasn’t occurred to them to make the dining experience a bit more varied and interesting. Why not add a bit of spice and flavour? Why not enrich the culinary vocabulary with something imaginative and daring?

Since the Turks, Palestinians and Iranians began arriving in the 70s, Danes have slowly started to develop a taste for…, well, a taste. There are plenty of kebab places everywhere in Denmark, and it seems to be quite a hit among the younger generation of Danes. These places usually also sell pizzas (which curiously all look and taste the same everywhere), burritos, burgers, pastas and so on.

Gift of the gaffe
As with most things, Danes are quite punctual and precise. This includes dinner preparation. The amount of food will be prepared according to the expected number of diners. No more, no less. Almost every foreigner has some horror story to tell about frikadeller (meat balls), specifically how they happened to scoop an ample mound of them onto their plate, only to discover that they were supposed to take only two or three. Danes will stare at you in disbelief, but usually no one will say anything until maybe your Danish better-half points something out.

Duck, another Christmas favourite

Once, after having finished my meal, my mother-in-law insisted that I have the last piece of steak. I accepted, and proceeded to eat it, completely oblivious to the stares I was getting. It was only much later that my wife told me that it’s customary to eat something else with one’s steak; not to eat it on its own.

Mind your manners
Before dinner it is polite to help out with preparations. Usually offering to help set the table is more than sufficient. Everyone drinks something with their dinner. It is not a requirement to have a drink, but at special occasions someone is bound, at some point, to lift his glass and say “Skål!“. For this reason it is a good idea to have a glass of something at hand. The Skål! is usually followed by a lifting of the glass and acknowledging every guest by giving them an ever-so-brief nod.

Danes are not overly polite, so dinnertime is always quite relaxed. If something is reasonably within reach on the table, just reach over and get it yourself. If you come from a religious background and are used to saying grace, you can go ahead and say grace by yourself. You will be considered a mild curiosity, but no one will think more of it (unless you demand that everyone does it, in which case you’ll be considered a bit of a bother).

After dinner you always acknowledge the host by saying “Tak for mad” (see more phrases). If offered more food than you can eat, decline by saying “Jeg er mæt“. You might feel inclined to use the word “fuld” (full), as in “Jeg er fuld“, but this of course means that you are drunk. If you notice that the conversation is only just picking up speed, and you don’t necessarily want to be part of it, there is no reason to torture yourself by staying. Just excuse yourself and do as you please.

Read more about Danish food at Wikipedia and Copenhagenet.

Tags: dining, food

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 04:54 and is filed under Culture & norms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.