Thanksgiving in Denmark

Hi everyone,

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I definitely missed the usual food, places, and most of all the people. I think this thanksgiving more than others I am more thankful for my family, although I did have a really fun thanksgiving over here though which helped me take my mind off not being home for the holiday.

It is interesting how what is probably the 2^nd biggest holiday and such a big deal in the states is completely absent over here. Granted it is an “American” holiday, but it has not made the inroads that Halloween/Valentines Day have (probably because it is a bit harder to commercialize and is actually really tied to the history of the US). Anyway, the day passed normally: classes as usual and I heard no whisper of Thanksgiving at all.

I had invited over a group of friends, mostly from my Danish courses at the University to come over around 9:30 for dinner. It was late because I had class until 7, and most gatherings here start late anyway. I told them to bring something to eat/drink and that they could prepare it here if they wanted. I, myself, still wasn’t sure what I was going to make.

I was thinking pumpkin pie and something like mashed potatoes, but after talking with Denise earlier in the day she convinced me to make a turkey: “they have no comparison anyway” was her reply to my argument that I had never made turkey and didn’t want to introduce them with a sub-par one. And she was right—might as well keep with the tradition. So the plan was turkey and pumpkin pie…

Thankfully my first class of the day was cancelled due to two politicians that were going to debate having to cancel (good because I had heard enough politics recently anyway). Therefore I had plenty of time to shop. I went to the supermarket closest to my house and they had a frozen turkey: job 1 complete. Unfortunately they had no pumpkin puree. They did have pumpkin chunks in some kind of sauce, but it looked quite questionable.

After coming back to my apartment and searching on the internet for all permutations of “pumpkin puree in Denmark” in Danish and English I was a bit annoyed. There were recipes in Danish that included pumpkin puree, but not where to buy it. One sight claimed “if you don’t live in Copenhagen…” and went on to say that you could use the chunks of pumpkin that I saw in the store earlier. It was quite annoying knowing it was available somewhere in the city, if not in the normal supermarkets, but having no idea where it actually was.

At the advice of a friend I tried a different market but in the end had to settle for the chunks, and unable to find a pre-made pie crust and a disposable pie pan to cook it in, I knew it would be quite the experiment (Denise later told me I should have been able to find these but I did ask at the store…)

Although I wasn’t fully satisfied with my food the night itself was awesome. People started showing up with all kinds of food! Our kitchen is not big but it was accommodating about 6 people making food all at once and 6 more coming in and out watching them!

After everyone was done I pulled the turkey out and we started eating. The dinner ended up consisting of: My turkey (well… it wasn’t that great and I forgot gravy, but it wasn’t horribly dry and wasn’t too bad for just having salt, pepper, and lemon. I got a few complements), curry bread (made by Orsi, a Hungarian girl in my class), cornbread (I was really excited about this and it was very good—made by Janna (German) and Marjaana (Finnish)), Couscous (made by Lisa, German girl in my class), Bruschetta (Made by the Italians Giuseppe and Ruggero), then came the deliciously fattening Lithuanian food made by Ugne, Anna, and Ieva which consisted of fried bread that you dipped in a mayonnaise/garlic/cheese or garlic cheese/egg sauce, or fried bread with red pepper and sauce on top. Needless to say it was all very good and I thought it was awesome that people put a lot of effort into it whether cooking or just bringing pre-made food/drinks to share as others did.

Just after dinner I started on the pumpkin pie. It turned out the liquid the pumpkin chunks were sitting in was already sweetened with a vanilla taste and some artificial sweetener. After initially trying not to add sugar because it already had enough, Denise suggested we add more to try to take away the weird taste (definitely did not taste like pumpkin). In the end I was getting quite annoyed with it—no crust, no real pumpkin filling, no pie pan to make it look like a pie—that when Denise started suggesting things to make it better I just went along with it. In the end it tasted good, but was no where near pumpkin pie.

As for traditions I attempted to explain the story of thanksgiving but found myself lacking in some of the key details…After I was asked the 2^nd or 3^rd time I found myself describing it as, “When the pilgrims/immigrants from Europe came to the USA and had a joint meal with the Indians; back when we were friends before we killed all of them”—that was about all I could muster in Danish. I also explained the going around the table and saying what you are thankful for tradition, and people wanted to do it but we never got around to it. And finally I could not find the wishbone in the turkey (maybe I accidentally cut it?)…

Yes, so a good thanksgiving. Everyone left quite late and I got the chance to talk with mom and dad in the evening Seattle-time which I think was a first.

Not too much has gone on in the past few days. Lived off leftovers for the first time since I have been over here. I have also been studying more as exams approach—I will have one “oral exam with preparation” which means I get the questions/topics then about 20 minutes to prepare before having the exam if I understand it correctly. I will then have a topic to write on for the Danish Culture Course (in English), and will have my translation exam which is just 1 page and 6 hours if I need it of translating English to Danish.

Besides that I am looking into getting one final trip in. It is going to be somewhere fairly close (London, Stockholm, Berlin, Amsterdam) but I haven’t figured it out yet.

Hope to hear from you!

Jeff