The Copenhagen Report

excitement in a box (for some)...

The annual food event that makes arguably the biggest and loudest (marketing) splash around the world each year would be the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau wine from France each year, I would suggest.

It's pretty tasty wine, even if few wine enthusiasts would rate Beaujolais wine as the best that's out there (though myself, I do quite like it).

Well, quietly Denmark also has it's own annual food traditions. One that never goes by unremarked upon is the arrival of the first New Danish Potatos ('Ny Danske Kartofler') each year.

They're small, they're more or less round, and they look like basically any other small round potato out there - and they're rather expensive if you want to be one of the first to buy some each year. But it's a prestige thing for some local restaurants to get ahold of them as soon as they begin to appear.

This year the first batch of New Potatoes was sold for 1000 kroner (125 Euro) for a kilogram (link in Danish). Yes, you read that right. Not the cheapest bowl of soup, those would make...

More affordable is a trip down to the local market (for example, nearby Norreport station in Copenhagen), where this week a small box of new potatoes (slightly more than a kilogram) will set you back a more modest 50 kroner (8 Euro). Somewhat more costly than the average box of (non-Danish) new potatoes in the supermarket, given those will go for 8-15 kroner (1 or 2 Euro). But buying those won't win you any bragging rights.

So it's something to think about if you're having guests over for dinner...especially if they happen to be potato aficionados.