Christmas Lunch

The floor celebrated Christmas on Saturday with the Christmas Lunch.  (It is tradition in Denmark that the big Christmas meal is eaten Dec. 24th as well as present opening).  We are celebrating Christmas now because they didn't have time to do it last semester.  It seems like other floors are doing the same thing.  From what I was told, it turns into a big party in our kitchen.  That was fine with me because I was tired from La Hacienda, the club we went to last night.

The first thing we did was got some much needed groceries.  We went to the nearest grocery store, Super Best, with a cart to refill our beer fridge.  We brought back the 16 cases of empties and got 16 cases of Carlsburgh for really cheap; it was on sale.  We had to drag it all back on this cart because no one has cars.  It was not easy.

Next, 4 of us went to Netto, the really cheap grocery store that just has whole foods.  We bought lots of food for a traditional Danish Christmas Lunch.

The first course, and a very very traditional Danish dish is centered around a piece of bread. But, it is not like bread  in America.  It is very nutty and very delicate.  It must be eaten with a fork and knife, you can't really pick it up.  You put everything on it: eggs, shrimp, meatballs (which I helped make), fish, a meatloaf dish made from liver (which I wasn't crazy about), mayonaise, remoulade; anything you want.  I usually don't eat bread, but, thought I could today.  It was delicious.

We also got a salad, but, it was made by one of the Chinese residents.  It was a seaweed salad and that was good too.

The main course was the pork.  It too, was delicous.  One thing a little different on their pork is that it is sold with a quarter inch layer of fat left on the top of each cut.  When it is cooked, it becomes like a layer of bacon on top.  Imagine that.

For dessert, we made a big bowl of rice "porridge," not sure if it is the same as our rice pudding, but, they called it porridge.  It is just rice, milk, vanilla and crushed almonds.  You put a cherry sauce on it.  When it is being made, they put ONE whole almond and whoever gets the whole almond, gets a prize.  The idea is, if you find it, you keep it hidden in your mouth.  That way everyone keeps eating, hoping they will find it.  I didn't find the almond...

After that, we were all STUFFED.  I hadn't eaten that amount in a long time.  We started some karaoke and played some card games, which were new to me.  We just partied together the rest of the night.  It was great.

Here are some pictures: