Danish cuisine again !

This my second article regarding food.

Quite everyday, we discover new dishes during lunch time at UCN.
The buffet is separated into two different parts.

One of them is cold dishes (mostly vegatables), and the other one is warm dishes (mostly proteines and starchy foods).

Hereafter I noticed few dishes that seem to be much more common in Denmark than in France.

The cold dishes :

-        raw broccoli with white cheese, onions and garlic powder

-        little rounded popatoas with whole-grain mustard

-        strips of coocked carrots with chopped beefsteack

-        slices raw leeks

-        red betroot with sugar

-        herring marinade with onion rolls

-        fried onion rolls (mostly in the salad bars)

-        almost raw green beans

-        oil marinade of garlic gloves with : hot pepper and dry tomato paste ; or basilico.

-        Sliced green hot pepper

-        raw cauliflower with feta cheese, dry cramberries nuts, peanuts

-        shrimps, herring chopped into square, potatoes and white asparagus into white cheese sauce

-        diced cucumber, boiled eggs, red onions, apples into a sauce made with mayonaise, creme fraiche, curry, dijon mustard, pepper

-        diced pineaple

What we can noticed is that they eat more raw vegetables and we do in France (such as leeks and broccoli).
They also really oftent use white cheese and creme fraiche to make their sauce. The chinese traditionnal doctors say that it is because the products made with milk have the proporty of mosturizing the bodie. But the two main attributes of such products are to be « cold and humid», as the chinese qualify them.
The mosturing proporty is advantageaous to struggle against the Dannish wind.

In order to counterbalance the « cold » effect of milk products, they eat « green sliced hot pepper ».

Moreover, with the aim of don't get depressed the Danish have done few nutritional adaptations.

Fistly : they eat many fish (mostly herring and shrimps) wich are source of vitamine D.

Secondly : they eat alot of nutrients (mainly we all need include vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, protein, and even a small amount of fat. A deficiency in any of these nutrients lead to our bodies not working at full capacity and can even cause illness)

Thirdly : As you maybe know, Danish cuisine has its most famous dishe: the open sandwich. They generaly put « Rye bread » (or black bread, which is a type of bread which is packed with different seeds, grains and cracked rye and is therefore a very healthy alternative to regular white bread.)

On the top of it, they put some of those cold dishes as it please them.
(This picture after isn't from me. I wouldn't have made such amount of sandwich only for myself, of course. But it permits you to have a broad spectrum of the different kinds that could be found).

So, getting back to our topic : why this dish is eventually a perfect ally against depression ?

Carbohydrate craving may be related to decreased serotonin activity (the good mood-boosting brain substance). For complexe reasons, it is way better to limit simple carbs (such as cakes and cookies) and favor complex carbs, such as whole grains (in addition with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and legumes, which all contribute healthy carbs and fiber, and foster the bioavailability of grain nutrients  thanks to vitamines, flavonoids...)
In denmark they eat that dish at the lecture break (at 10 a.m) or at noon for lunch. And we can conclude that it seems to me to e a wiser option, for the breackfast, that our sweets, cackes and very sweet cereals (like poped chocolate rice or whatever).

The hot dishes :

I can't really discribe it, because I'm not a big fan of pasta, lazagnes (expect if there're made in Italy or from my « Nonna » (grand Ma')).
Moreover I realy hate their
That's why I wont talk too much about that... But I don't think this is the best part of the Dannish cuisine.

Maybe I can just present you this dish that I like the most : the Roast pork served with both boiled and caramelized potatoes (brunede kartofler)
Maybe I like it because it looks and tastes more like a real meat.

Also, I really love their red sweet cabage dishe.

I don't think that I am the only one to think that Danish cuisine is quite poor with its hot dishes. When I was talking with the other foreign students, they all said that they miss so much their sweety home food. Actually, I have taken the expression « their cuisine is poor » from one of them.

Those students are usualy tacking « Røde pølser » for their breackfast ( around 10 a .m at the lecture breack) . They usually add both ketchup, Danish remoulade.
But the Danish alternately eat the bread and sausage, dipped into the condiments. And the foreign student are getting used to it and they imitate them.

(Personnaly speacking, I think it is so hilarious to notice how deep our environment can bias our behaviours. I still wonder if, generally speacking, we do adjust on purpuse to seem to be more adapted and almost seamless. Or, maybe there is this kind of unconscious mimicry that is taken us unawares.)

Lorianne.

The UC House

Hello everyone !

Today I’ll talking about my student life at the UC House. First of all, UC House is a student residence for people who study in UCN Hobrovej or UCN Sofiendalsvej (For my part I study in the second campus). It’s a small flat situated in the Aalborg’s suburb, but it’s not very far from the center.

When I have class, I usually take about 20 minutes to go by foot. During my spare time, I like going to the living room because I think it’s the best spot to meet other foreign students and to know each other. It’s a wonderful experience to discover new cultures ! However my favourite activity is to play table tennis, because I often play amazing games with Marijn, one of my Dutch friends.

Otherwise there is the UC House bar. At the beginning nobody knew this area, but when Dutch guys and I have discovered this, we said it’s the perfect area to welcome some people in order to organize parties ! Thus we decided to clean up, and now we can spend good time there.

When I moved in UC House, I was so disappointed because there is not a fitness room, and I cant’t do my workout exercises inside because I live with a roommate. Fortunately I found a small vacant room: I decided to clean up and to take out dirty stuff, so now I work out every day in this room.

Also I like cooking, all the more so as my room is situated close to the kitchen ! When I was in France, I didn’t use to cook but now I do. For instance I cooked plates of lentils and carrots (usually serve with sausages), rice and pastas. My favourite plate is the first one because it takes a lot of time and you’re so happy to savour it after !

Actually I spend little time in my room. I prefer working on my computer in the living room or at the university. For the everyday life It’s easy to use the washing-machines, even if it costs 20 Danish Kroners. However the price is not a problem: I always do the laundry with one of my French friends (yes of course I met French guys  too!).

To conclude, I think UC House is a good student residence to find a balance between student life and class at the university. The main issue here is we have to pay the bus to reach the city center because it’s about one hour to go by foot there…

Thank you for reading!

Olivier.

My studentlife in Aalborg

Lorianne.