Photo by: Jenna Billingsley
While adjusting to life in Copenhagen has been relatively easy, there is one aspect of my daily routine that seems to be taking longer to adapt to than others, and that is the consumption and creation of edible food. Now, some of you might think this is an odd problem to have considering I have never been one to turn down or struggle in the department of food consumption.However, I have also never been tested quite as I am now. In this edition of “The Great Dane,” I will attempt to help you understand how such a joyous act has left me laughing, crying, and questioning the very core of my being.
The Grocery Store
The foundation and basis to which all food reaches the consumer in most cities is the grocery store. There are various levels of stores here in Copenhagen, ranging in price from the very nice but expensive Irma, the Safeway-like Netto, and then finally there are a range of stores below this that I have yet been desperate enough to shop at (this will inevitably change as the dollar continues to plummet).
As a result of the rather steep prices, most of the students at Denmark International School find themselves browsing the aisles of their local Netto. This translates to small groups of non-Danish speaking people, meandering slowly through a busy store, while carefully examining every label in hopes that miraculously the English translation will appear. What happens after this is what really interests me, and subsequently anyone else who finds people watching a worthy past time. As a result of the high prices students have found that even in a discount store, the difference between 29 kroner (kr) and 32 kr is enough motivation to part with all of their previous knowledge of what can be considered “edible.” My favorite case is watching one of my friends eagerly pace back and forth in front of the meat section comparing the price per gram listings, and grabbing everything based strictly on that. Not that bargain shopping is a problem, I enjoy it and will inevitably use the newly learned skill back in the states, but when the written language is null, and the quality or type of meat is in question, I have decided to spend that extra kroner or two. In any case, once all of the chosen items have been snagged, the fun doesn’t stop. People have to pay, and there is a strict process for this transaction. First of all, what they don’t tell you about Netto is that part of the reason the food is so discounted is the lack of service. This is not a problem, until you realize that bags are not part of the deal, and you now have to take your mass quantities of meat products, milk, and other goods back down the street.You COULD pay for a bag, but when you just saved a kroner on the questionable meat, why spend that money on something that cannot be consumed. So, until people started realizing that they need to reuse bags, and/or carry a backpack with them, the Danish streets were graced with a stream of students quickly, and thus awkwardly, carrying their goods while getting progressively more compact and out of balance the closer they got to the sanctuary of their home.
Cooking
Once one has arrived home with the goods, the challenge then becomes where to store it all. The refrigerator in my apartment is about a third of the total size of a regular refrigerator back home, and therefore fits very little food. What happens as a result is that the 10 of us sharing this tiny space, squeeze, cram and force our food to fit. At times, the very nature of our purchases is compromised. In any case, the fun part of coming home with groceries, besides of course storing it, is seeing what exactly you have. Like a child on Christmas, young adults coming home from the grocery store want to consume anything and everything recently purchased. Here, what we think is a good purchase, and obviously a bargain in the store, is often a completely different product once opened in the confines of the kitchen. Take, for instance, the hot dog. The interesting thing about the Danish dog, or at least the cheapest ones found in Netto, is that the outside is a curious shade of orange. Many people have taken to this questionable meat, first because it’s the cheapest source of “protein” in the store, and second because the preparation techniques vary immensely, and thus cater to the novice chef. Now, you may be thinking to yourself how one might eat such an orange delicacy and so I will share in order of popularity.
1. Split and grilled on the George Foreman (a wonderful addition to a roommate’s suitcase).
2. Microwaved for an undisclosed amount of time (most people haven’t figured out the timer yet).
3. Sautéed and combined with a selection of vegetables, i.e. broccoli and carrots.
4. Piled high in a saucepan and combined with leftover sauces from other dishes. (Depending on the day and the dish, the dog can be quite exotic.)
5. Burned to a crisp using any of the aforementioned methods.
As you may imagine, sitting in the kitchen has provided me with hours of entertainment as I watch the masses find new and inventive ways of eating the hot dog.
Beverages
The other category of food worth noting is the beverage. For a student traveling abroad it is important to have the basics. For most this includes: beer, water, and milk (the order matters). Since beer is around $10 per pint in most bars, we have flocked to Netto, where we have discovered the 1.75 kr beer, or an unhealthy 30 cents in the states. Unless of course you choose to go with the “Christmas Ale,” which many have been drawn to for its low price of 1.25 kr. I have so far steered clear of it for fear of Santa’s wrath. The looks on the clerks’ faces as the 20-year-old Americans pile bottle after bottle of cheap beer onto the conveyor belt, and then attempt to carry them home without a bag is priceless. I would want to work there for that reason alone.
As water is readily available through the tap, milk now becomes the center of my focus. The cartons are color coded, with dark blue being 3 percent milk fat, and then progressing to the light gray, or skim milk. Simple enough, right? Wrong. I will never forget the heartbroken faces of my fellow students as they poured their first bowl of cereal in a foreign country, only to realize that the “milk” they purchased, is in fact, a strange combination of buttermilk and yogurt, with the rancid aroma of something rotting. After a few mishaps, we now know to not look only at the color of the carton, but at the picture on the side. Cow means milk, and flowers or other decorative graphics is inevitably “yogurt/butter/nasty.” Lesson learned.
The Kitchen
As we continue to gain knowledge of the local culture, we are quickly finding out how to shop, what to buy, and the subtle tricks of surviving on a budget. However, if knowledge is power, the journey to attain it sometimes leaves you feeling powerless, and it is in this perpetual state of helplessness that I watch as day in and day out my cohorts leave the kitchen in an utter disaster. My feeble attempts to pick up are instantly destroyed as wave after wave of meat products, pasta, and other foods wreak havoc on the poor kitchen and the innocent utensils in it. I think the most disturbing part of people’s behavior is seeing how many cabinets, lights, fans, and refrigerator doors are left on or open. While I don’t think my attempts at teaching people to clean up after themselves will work anytime soon, I do have hope for the future after seeing a sign on the dishwasher labeled “clean” and “dirty.” I’m hoping that someone will realize that if the dishes are put away they might also be seen as “clean.” One can always hope for a brighter future.
