The Copenhagen Report

Ready...set...PEEL!

Springtime in Copenhagen often brings with it a change in diet. As the trees and flowers blossom and bloom, those often talked-about new potatoes begin to arrive, barbeques are fired up for the first time in several months, and so on and so forth.

The other day I had an amusing discussion while eating what I was told was a springtime dish worthy of the season at hand - fresh shrimp. The instructions for eating were simple and non-negotiable - take a piece of rugbrod (extremely dark and heavy bread Danes typically love), spread with margarine, then pile it with little shrimps you have painstakingly peeled yourself. Salt and pepper was also permitted.

What wasn't permitted was lemon, which to me seemed like an obvious addition to bring out the flavour. 'No, no, no!', I was admonished. Because what matters is the taste of fresh shrimp. I pointed out that adding lemon was really no different then adding salt and pepper, but this was to no avail.

This provoked me to suggest that though Danish cuisine has it's high points - and I would argue has certainly improved in recent years, at least in my understanding of how it was in decades past, and knowing what is now available in supermarkets that simply wasn't a short few years back - the Italians and Spanish really have nothing to fear, because Danes will probably never quite 'get it' as they do.


the aftermath...