Tag Archives: herring

Two Years of Udo’s Fisk

Living on an island you would expect fish to be abundantly available. However, besides the supermarkets, which sell pre-packaged pieces of fish, fishmongers do not seem to be too abundant here. There is Cafe Brag, at times there is fish being sold from a boat (though not for a long time now) and, for the last 2 years(!) Udo’s Fisk.

Udo Fisk’s is owned by Udo Napierksi, a German who moved to Sonderborg a while back. Udo himself is in the shop every time it is open, offering advice on what to buy, how to prepare it and how to cook what you buy. We have been shopping there for the last 2 years and cannot believe we haven’t written about it. The shop always looks super clean and the selection of fish very decent.

This weekend marks 2 years since Udo’s fisk has been open. For this reason on Friday and Saturday Udo is offering ‘something for the palate’ to customers of the shop. So if you haven’t been there before do drop by. If you cannot make it then you can go any week on Wednesday-Friday 12-17:30 or Saturday 9:30-12:30. Do make sure to have some time to shop as the shop is often busy!

http://instagram.com/p/k7ZdoHrXPL/

Oh. And you might wonder, what fish does he have? There is often a variety, but typically salmon (fresh/smoked) cod, herring, mackerel and Udo’s fiskefrikadeller (minced fish balls) are always available. However, every week there is also other fish, including once ‘dorado’, a very common Maltese fish that I miss! If you want to be notified every week of what is available you can also send a text to +45 5183 5323 to sign up to the sms-service where every week you receive a list of what is available. You can also order fish using this same number.

6400 Sønderborg, Denmark

Here’s to many more years of Udo’s fisk!

Enjoy the Bounty of the Sea at Cafe Brag’s Fish Buffet

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Brag is a fishing/shipping shop and smokery on the banks of the Dybbøl side of Sønderborg. However, if tackle and nets do not feature anywhere on your shopping list, there is still one major reason why you should check this place out. After all everyone has to eat right?

The history of the smokery goes back several generations and the family has been having a business in the current location for decades. During the winter you can drop by the shop to buy a portion of fish to take home and enjoy. They smoke their own fish and among the variety of items we have seen on sale (and recognised!) have been smoked herring, halibut, eels and salmon – but there are also other fish brought in by the fishermen. It’s a nice treat to cycle down there on a weekend and grab whatever takes our fancy for our lunch.

However, from the first weekend in May to the end of August, Cafe Brag, which is to the back of the shop, is open for business. And you can sit and enjoy the view of life on the pier and Sonderborg across the water. This means that you can indulge in the food right there on the spot. The cafe serves fish dishes during the week, but on the weekends a fish buffet spread is organised.

Michael’s parents were visiting recently so we grabbed the opportunity to try it out. Now I am not necessarily the biggest fish fan (rarely if ever order fish at a restaurant), but the wide variety of items meant that this was not a problem. My favourite items were the fiskefrikadeller, the salmon/spinach rolls, and the steamed salmon. Every thing is made in their own kitchen and even the bread is homemade. The dishes were continuously replenished, so I didn’t have to forgo my favourites when a big group of people came in for their lunch.

The fish buffet is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00 to 16:00. In 2012 it costs 145 DKK per person. Perfect for the fish lovers out there. However, if you are completely averse to fish and seafood, this is probably not for you, since every item, including the salads (though not the fruit basket), contains fish or sea food.

December with the Danes

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Danes LOVE their Christmas. This means that all of December is jam-packed with Christmas-related events. It takes a bit of time to get your head around all of them, but this is what I have figured out so far.

Julefrokost

The Julefrokost is the Danish traditional Christmas lunch/dinner, typically with all the bells and whistles: herring (below), snaps, leverpostej (liver pate) and the rest. You will probably have a Julefrokost event with most of the people you know in some way or another. I had one with work colleagues, the Newcomers Network and Michael’s family.

Julekomsammen

Not sure how this differs from the Julefrokost above, but at work we had one of each! The Julekomsammen, or Christmas get together, was a smaller affair for a group within the department (the chemistry group) with a Turkish theme. I have also been told that often everything is called a Julefrokost, so maybe this name is only used when differentiation between two similar events for similar groups of people is required.

For such events it seems to be common that you are asked to bring two gifts with you (not costing too much – it was set at 20DKK for the one I attended). A game is then played where the gifts and people move around the table according to some predetermined instructions (either a set of purpose-made cards or die scores). You then take whatever you end up with at the end of the game.

Julehygge

Julehygge is the Christmas decoration making event. Danes meet up to make Christmas decorations together at someones house (or, in our case, drink and eat a lot while attempting to appear busy making the decorations). Now, however, if you go to such an event you should try to figure out WHAT you will be doing beforehand.

Danes separate out their Christmas decorations into two. The first is Julepynt, or Christmas clippings, where decorations are made out of paper like the one in the image above. These events may also be called Juleklip. The other type is arrangements they make with a candle and green leaves and other such things. This is what they call ‘dekoration’ and you can see one below. As the ‘dekoration’ often have pine needles (which sounds suspiciously similar to pynt to me!), and decorations bring images of paper-made stuff, you can probably easily see why I can never figure these two out!

Advent Calendar

Advent calendars in Denmark are big! For the past years I have been receiving a scratch card advent calendar from Michael’s parents. However, in the office it is all over the place! Colleagues talking about giving a gift to their kids every single day of December in the ‘advent calendar’ sock, another colleague has a chocolate advent calendar where he gets one chocolate a day, so it seems that gifts are on everyone’s mind. I am not immune to it either: a group of us have given 3 gifts each to a pile and every day one person is assigned to take a gift from the pile. *yeay* to gifts!

Anything else?

So is that all? Have I missed any of the big December-related Danish celebrations? If so I guess I would have to wait another year, but do let me know and I can start getting prepared from now!

Hej Sønderborg

Culture, food, events and life on Als, Denmark