With a sign on the door saying fully booked till Christmas--I knew that I was in for a treat. Café Sorgenfri's (http://www.cafesorgenfri.dk/) red and white checked tablecloths lent a festive air to dark panelled walls all decked up in pine garland and Christmas ornaments. The place had the air of a 100 year old bar, not unlike New York's McSorleys, met with an old country bistro in a dark cozy basement for a clandestine rendezvous.
To me, a budding foodie American, smørrebrød (otherwise known as smorgasbord) was--ahem--just a tray full of open-faced sandwiches (apologies to my Danish friends). Little did I know that there's a quite a tradition of Danish smorgasbord and items should be eaten in a particular order and on the correct type of bread: brown or white. Also, the size of the platter dictated the length of time needed to book the table. Now this sounded more like smorgasbord to me. At Christmastime restaurants often serve a special holiday smørrebrød spread set out for office parties and family gatherings.
After ordering some jule beer (Christmas beer-pronounced yule-uh-beer) tucked in to an incredible smorgasbord consisting of: sweet pickled herring & brown bread, small shrimp on white bread with mayonnaise, pâté of pork liver on white with cold pickled beetroot and warm red pickled cabbage, chicken salad with bacon & mayonnaise on white, Frikadeller pork meatballs with pickled cabbage, pork with the skin on that had turned into pork cracklings, topped off with brie sweet 'n smooth as butter.
The herring wasn't fishy at all, but slightly sweet and vinegary with a velvety texture (my husband who generally won't go within 10 feet of something smelling slightly fishy, ate an entire sandwich! Seriously.). The pork pâté brought back childhood memories of liverwurst dumping soup and the condiments were perfectly paired for each dish--the sweet acidity of the red cabbage making a nice contrast with the rich Frikadeller and pork cracklings. The Frikadeller were crispy on the outside, just as any excellent meatballs should be, and the pork cracklings attached to the pork roast like that were exceptional. Though, by meal's end I was dying for a salad for dinner. For the next week.
Notes:
After writing this, I looked up some descriptions of the restaurant and evidently, the restaurant used to be a sailor's tavern and the house dates to 1796. Go figure.
Café Sorgenfri does a special Christmas smorgasbord platter with even more courses than the one we plodded away at for 2 hours and didn't manage to finish.
