Earlier this week I had the novel idea to invite friends over for dinner because if you haven't met my Host Dad Jen's yet, then you are missing out on quite a cultural experience of multiple proportions. Besides making the house feel like a welcoming Bachelors Pad, Jens manages to have the quirky little habits that make it interesting and exciting. We sometimes sit over the dinner table with a bottle of wine and go at it; we talk about the wind outside and I joke that I can send him to Miami at the end of the semester if he wants, while I stay here snuggling with Copenhagen; We've discussed gender roles; we compare the Danish and the American reality TV shows; I tell him what type of food I eat at home while savoring the food he cooks every day (spoilers: it's always meat). We talk about everything, and most of the times it's interesting and entertaining.
The plan was to cook something for dinner and then sit around to talk so we all got to know each other. But here is the tip of the day: Danish groceries have everything labelled in (surprise!) Danish. Maybe it's a good idea to look up all the ingredient in your list in Danish that way you don't buy wheat bum instead of flour and your Mac'n'cheese ends up tasting like grits.... Or maybe you don't know what is a zucchini and what is a cucumber because when they are both wrapped in plastic right next to each other they may as well just be identical twins....
Me and my friend got home with the ingredients and started cooking, soon realizing that what bum and flour are actually not the same thing. Good thing I made salad decently well. You can't just throw apples and avocados and lettuce and pistachios all in the same bowl, Jens said. Hello college dorm life, of course you can! and I did. It ended up being a decent meal with enough salt and pepper to hide the true flavors and enough balsamic vinegar to make it a cohesive salad. In the end we sat around the table, drinking wine, eating food, and having enjoyable conversation. Just what I do almost every night with Jens, but this time shared to some of the friends I've made here. It was happiness.
The plan was to cook something for dinner and then sit around to talk so we all got to know each other. But here is the tip of the day: Danish groceries have everything labelled in (surprise!) Danish. Maybe it's a good idea to look up all the ingredient in your list in Danish that way you don't buy wheat bum instead of flour and your Mac'n'cheese ends up tasting like grits.... Or maybe you don't know what is a zucchini and what is a cucumber because when they are both wrapped in plastic right next to each other they may as well just be identical twins....
Me and my friend got home with the ingredients and started cooking, soon realizing that what bum and flour are actually not the same thing. Good thing I made salad decently well. You can't just throw apples and avocados and lettuce and pistachios all in the same bowl, Jens said. Hello college dorm life, of course you can! and I did. It ended up being a decent meal with enough salt and pepper to hide the true flavors and enough balsamic vinegar to make it a cohesive salad. In the end we sat around the table, drinking wine, eating food, and having enjoyable conversation. Just what I do almost every night with Jens, but this time shared to some of the friends I've made here. It was happiness.