DDH (Dear Danish husband) and I were out on the town on Friday night to see the (excellent) WhoMadeWho at (the best concert venue in the whole world) Vega. WhoMadeWho not ringing any bells? See WhoMadeWho – Who? Here we go again!
Anyways, DDH and I managed to fit in a quick dinner before the concert at Madsvinet (literally “The Food Hog”) which, appropriately enough, is housed in an old butchers shop in Vesterbro. Despite the white tiled walls and meat hooks it’s very hyggelig – with long, communal benches and an open kitchen. You know the type of place – two starters to choose from, two mains, two desserts – at a fair price. Good, ‘solid’ food, as the Danes say. Very nicely presented and selvfølgelig with ‘the Nordic touch’. Oh yes, remember the New Nordic Potato Chip? 😉
I knew as soon as the evening’s menu was presented to us that my arch enemy was present. Lakrids! Liquorice! Yep, liquorice is the new black. Well, obviously, it’s always been black. But you get my drift. Those crazy Danes love the stuff: salty liquorice, sweet liquorice, ‘ammonia’ liquorice. Yeuch! 😯
But not only do the Danes eat tons of liquorice candy, they – unfortunately for moi – insist on adding that dang root to tea, coffee, biscuits, cakes, flødeboller, sorbet and icecream. “Hey! If it doesn’t move, let’s sprinkle it with liberal amounts of liquorice dust!”
So I new what was coming Friday night. Liquorice was first out of the box as an ingredient in the homemade bread that came along with my starter of sweetbreads. Thankfully the liquorice was drowned out by the malt taste of the bread. Oh, and see the ‘roof tile’ plate below? Another new black in the Danish restaurant business!
My entrecôte with beetroot, radish and onions was liquorice free. Phew! And excruciatingly good!
Dessert – buttermilk sorbet with rhubarb and meringues – with all its little black flecks, looked scary. But the black dots turned out to be vanilla. Not the Dreaded Black Root. So I only had to avoid the “liquorice-toasted-porridge-oats” strewn across the plate…
All in all, I suppose I got off pretty lightly. You like Danish liquorice? Keep it!
Diane 🙂
Liquorice is an acquired taste, at best. I'm from the U.S., but my Danish grandmother used a spice called "anise" to give her baked goods a liquorice taste. Her Christmas cut-out cookies had a little bit in them, and they weren't bad, but in some of her creations the taste was just too strong.
I enjoy your blog–I have cousins in Denmark and hope to someday go over.
Sheryl
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