Strawberries and Rye Bread

Our neighborhood grocery store is in a small shopping center that includes two banks, a shawarma/pizza joint, and a bicycle store. Occasionally a truck pulls up beside the grocery store and sells fresh and smoked seafood. And in front of the grocery store, no matter what time of the year, are racks of fresh flowers in bunches or in pots. Today, on sale, a small pot of jonquils for only 5 kroner! ($1US) So of course, we picked up a pot on our way in.

There are two parts to the grocery store. When you enter, if you turn to your left you pass through a mini-shop of flowers in bunches and pots and even bulbs to plant in your yard, come to a display of magazines, and behind the counter booze and cigarettes, and at the far end is the bakery, where today you can buy a jordbaer taerte (strawberry tart). The baked goods come from Slagelse, on the other side of the fjord, and every single thing we've tried has been just fabulous. You can buy three kinds of rye bread in whole or half loaves, as well as a wide variety of other breads--Italian, French, peasant, corn, trekorn, filone, and on and on--as well as several varieties of rolls (French, Canadian, morning, ciabatta, etc.). And you can splurge on goodies like Napoleon's hats or nut horns or Florentinos. We haven't yet tried everything, it's true.

If, when you enter the Super Best, you go straight ahead you enter the grocery store proper, where today, the special item was pine last boxes of strawberries from Spain. The provenance of all the produce is indicated. The selection, in most ways, is more or less like what you'd find in a good grocery store in the US. Two items do stand out though: the mushrooms and the greens. Last fall, during the height of mushroom season, you could find all sorts of crazy and mundane mushrooms (no morels). Many of them come with the part of the stem that is underground and includes the surrounding dirt. Oh, does that ever smell good! In the greens section the selection is just endless, with arugula (rucola here, rocket in the UK), and all sorts of lettuces, cabbages, and the sharper greens like mustard greens. Salad lovers, eat your hearts out!

Note that if you've gone straight ahead in the local grocery store you haven't come to a single snack food or prepared food or corn syrup based food or candy. No, the good stuff comes first.

Arne and I did a little shopping this afternoon in anticipation of a delicious smørrebrød dinner: shrimp, a nice aged cheese, brie, fresh strawberries (as above), half of loaf of softkerne rugbrød, and a few other sundries, and the pot of jonquils. So, with milk and kærnemelk (turned milk, sort of like buttermilk) and pickles in the backpack, most of the rest in bags, and the bread and flat of strawberries held in my two hands, we headed home. Just past the shopping center is a lovely after school program where a bunch of boys were playing soccer, and across the way a big field where a bunch of elders were playing croquet. We passed a young father with his two small children on a bicycle pulling a wheeled carrier as well as several adults on bicycles laden with their groceries.

In short, the Danes are outside, enjoying the near-spring weather, and doing what they do so well: moving their bodies outside, no matter their age.

The whole way home I enjoyed the rich smell of the strawberries and the rye bread!