Europe in many dishes 18: Copenhagen take on old classics

Our first meal in Copenhagen was lunch today in a restaurant called Tversmoesgaad, on Rosengaden street--it had a small but interesting menu featuring a modern take on classic Danish dishes. Mine was an absolutely tender, delicious salted steamed duck, cut in thin slices, and served with an unusual frozen creamed horseradish sauce and very nicely cooked steamed vegetables--cabbage, snow peas, asparagus, carrot. David went for their take on pork frikadelle, or meatballs, served with rye and house-made remoulade. He felt it was less successful and interesting than my duck, tasty enough nonetheless!

Europe in many dishes 17: Fish from Funen

Lovely drive today around Funen, the island of which Odense is the capital. And staying on our fishy theme, two delicious meals centred on fish: in a harbourside restaurant, Cafe Boris, in Kerteminde,a satisfying lunch of local smoked mackerel, rye bread and salad for David, and for me local hot-smoked salmon, potato salad and green salad. Then a light picnic supper eaten by the water in the pretty town of Faaborg: locally-fished and marinated herring, one of the best I've ever tasted; and locally-caught and smoked herring, again excellent, served with rye bread and a lovely paprika mayonnaise.

Perfect!

Europe in many dishes 16: Danish picnic

Picnic by the side of the road, with local specialities: fiske frikadeller(fish cakes, or fish balls); local sweet local tomatoes, delicious local strawberries, rye bread, and to wash it down, Koldskal, a very nice cultured buttermilk drink which is a mix of whole milk, buttermilk, egg, vanilla, sugar and a hint of lemon. Like a drinking yoghurt, only quite a lot nicer in my opinion!

Europe in many dishes 15: Gorgeous fish dishes in Jutland

Today we did a wonderful self-drive tour of south west Jutland and were in the beautiful little riverside town of Ribe for lunch. This town, which was once a Viking stronghold and whose centre has stayed intact from the 16th century, also specialises in wonderful fish dishes, and I was really craving fish after too much meat on the last couple of days in Odense restaurant--nice meat, sure, but fish was what I'd been looking for in Denmark since we arrived, and Odense, curiously, doesn't seem to do that-the town is awash with steakhouses and grill houses and buffet places, but haven't seen a seafood restaurant yet! Anyway, to cut a long complaint short, today made up for it. We had a lovely fish lunch in the Saelhunden restaurant which is housed in an ancient half-timbered building right on the river's edge, and the food matched the atmosphere!
We shared the plates: a West Jutland speciality called Baskuld which is salted and smoked dab(a local fish) which is then fried and served with egg and chives and dill salad; and the house speciality, Sjerneskud, which consists of two lots of fish, one steamed, one fried, served with small, tasty local shrimp with home-made sauce, Danish lumpfish caviar, and toast. Absolutely splendid!

Europe in many dishes 14: First Danish meal!

Last night was our first evening in Denmark, and we arrived fairly late in the charming little city of Odense, known worldwide as the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen. So our first Danish meal was in our hotel, a cosy old-world place called Hotel Ansgar, where we partook of what seems to be a big thing around here--a buffet dinner, with all kinds of meats, vegetables and salads on offer. Here's a plateful: the Danish staple of frikadelle(meatballs made of veal and pork)with a tangy dill sauce; lovely nutmeg-flavoured potatoes; crusty beef; vegies of various sorts; prawns and salmon pate! Salads followed, and cheeses, and a very nice apple compote. Denmark is definitely expensive for food, and we've quickly realised that the 198 kroner(around $40) for this buffet was actually in the very reasonable range!\

Europe in many dishes 13: Sandwich fish dinner--not a sandwich in sight!

The charming little town of Sandwich on the Kent coast is known worldwide for the fact that its Earl was the first to popularise the something-between-two-slices-of-bread which for ever after took its name from the town. But in fact sandwiches are not the big thing in Sandwich; rather, fish and seafood. And on a lovely balmy evening there we had a delicious dinner in a little harbourside restaurant: crispy whitebait to start followed by mussels, fried fish, prawns and scallops and sardines. Neither the mussels nor sardines were as good as in Wales, I think:the mussels  a little too big and fleshy, the sardines a little dry--but the whitebait was fabulous, and the prawns and scallops too. But the accompanying salad was a little too garlicky even for our garlic-loving taste! And hardly any vinegar. I do love my vinegar!

Europe in many dishes 12: Canterbury lunch

Eaten picnic style in a Canterbury square: a delicious pulled pork roll from the brand new, fabulous Pork and Co shop(only opened 11 weeks ago!), which are wowing Canterbury with their fantastic speciality:: free-range rare-breed pork, tender and moist, teamed with crunchy home-made coleslaw, crisply decadent crackling, and English apple sauce, all in a very nice bun! And for dessert, handfuls of sweet, juicy fat Kentish cherries. Bliss!