The food in Denmark has been pretty good so far, but nothing had been particularly stand out, until today. Toby and Anthony had found some undercover markets with some good food, so while they went off to the airport to head home, Matt and I scoured the markets for something to tickle our tastebuds. The first we settled on was some smørrebrød. I’d read so much about these open sandwiches, that I figured it would be criminal to leave Denmark without giving them a proper go, so we selected 3 and sat down to see what the fuss was about.

Turns out the fuss was worth it. They were absolutely delicious. The first we tried had boiled eggs, a creamy beetroot salad, finely sliced shallots and picked herring. It had a surprisingly subtle flavour, with nothing too overpowering or rich. The second was fried fish that had a sweet almost pickled flavour (but not texture), and onions done two ways. The last had pate, cooked beetroot, pickles and crispy fried bacon (a really good textural combo).

Next stop was to stock up on some extra cheeses and cured meats to go with the cheese I’d brought from Hillerod. We came away with two types of cured ham, white anchovies, some sort of harder yellow cheese (no idea what it was) and a goats cheese. Add to that some figs and olives, and the end result was pretty fantastic.

The only other thing we came across that is worth writing home about, believe it or not, were the hot dogs. We’d tried one in Iceland and it was truly awful (soft processed bun, bad processed sausage), so were initially hesitant. The Danes, however, do hotdogs exceptionally well and it became a bit of a quick snack/meal staple for us. The buns are toasted and crunchy on the outside, the sausage has been grilled and has good flavour, but it’s the toppings that really make it. They usually have two types of sauce (your choice, but I recommend ketchup and mustard), crispy fried onions, and some sort of pickle. If you’re really lucky, you’ll also get one other topping, like remoulade or some sort of other onion relish. Mmmm…