The Danish Christmas Lunch

First of all, let's dispel some discrepancies in translation. This is not actually a Christmas "Lunch". This is a Christmas "Marathon of Excess". The only thing that I've known that actually comes close is Grey Cup Sunday in Fillmore, Saskatchewan. When people tell you to bring your pajamas for Christmas Lunch, you should get a bit suspicious (or excited!). We sat down to food and drinks at 2 pm and didn't come up for air until about 10!

We drove for an hour to Susanne and Jørgen's house in Skibby by the Fjord. Jeanet and Nis came also, so we had 6 adults and 6 kids from 11 to 17 years old. Jeanet and Susanne both came to Canada to study at the same time Mette did. 

The table is set like artwork and the bottles of Akvavit are brought from the freezer and lined up for duty.

The calm before the storm

The food and drink are served in 3 main courses (fish, meat, and cheese/fruit) but with many specific rounds and pauses within each course. Each dish is traditional to the Christmas lunch and are to be expected if you are eating at a friends house, grandma's house or at the annual workplace lunch. In Canada, there are as many different ways to celebrate Christmas as there are families. In Denmark, there is the Danish way and what you lose in variety or surprise, you gain in the unity of sharing traditions with each other.

You start out with pickled herring, but on a hard grain bread (open face) with some fat (that's right - lard) spread on first. On top of the herring is the curried sauce - but that's really only for the light herring. The dark herrings just take raw onions. A cold sip of Akvavit follows each herring dish and if I can recall correctly, it follows just about every second bite you take for the rest of the night. I hold Jørgen and Nis in high respect as beer experts so we had a dozen brands of German, Belgian and Danish beers available to cut the taste of the Akvavit.

The rest of the day goes something like this: Herring-Akvavit-egg&shrimp-Akvavit-pan fried flatfish-Akvavit-beer break-remove plates, bring out new ones-Akvavit-Pork roast-Akvavit-Frikadella (meatballs)-beer-Akvavish-sing shongs-Ashkavish-cold cutsh-Ashvishk-mishkmishmm-something something-pass around boxes all colorful-Skoal!-Jeg ELSKER dig!!!-hug hug-Skoal!-blue cheese or something-Skoal!- dance to the Wii game, it must be broken, can't get any points-pajamas-I'll just lay down here for a bit.

I think that just before the cheese is served is where the old Vikings would make some great decision to head off to Greenland on a raid.

Hey - I got a keg! Wanna come to England?