danish food week, day 1: smørrebrød

On a blog where most all food eventually reverts to sweets and desserts, I've decided to start with something savory: smørrebrød. Before visiting Denmark, I'd never heard of smørrebrød (or much Danish food, for that matter). One morning before heading out to town, I was scrolling through Pinterest and Johanna pinned a photo of smørrebrød. I thought it looked good and repinned it-- little did I know I'd be having some for lunch later that day!

In Holbæk, Maibritt took me to a tiny smørrebrød cafe (really, it was so small we walked right by it the first time) with a huge display of tons of smørrebrød. If you can't tell already, smørrebrød is pretty much an open-faced sandwich. They're beautiful garnished, come in a variety of options, and allow you to eat multiple kinds at a time as opposed to just eating one kind of sandwich.

Since we couldn't sit at the cafe and it was raining outside, we ate at the public library in Holbæk's city center. I was a little shocked at first (who eats in a library?! that's sacred, no-food allowed ground) but then saw that the library had a designated cafe just for people like us.

Of all of my lunches in Denmark, this was my favorite. (Although I'm sort of cheating, because the first and fifth photos are actually of Maibritt's homemade smørrebrød a few days later). Needless to say, I have a new favorite way to enjoy sandwich-esque ingredients.

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