Julefrokost

This past Sunday, all of our friends gathered together one last time for a traditional Danish Christmas lunch called 'Julefrokost' in Danish. Originally, it was going to be a dinner, but the Keops common room was fully booked both nights that weekend. It felt like a dinner though, since it gets dark by 4pm now.

Louise arranged the date and time (1pm), she made a list of traditional Danish dishes and other foods that people might want to make and bring to the potluck, and arranged a Secret Santa for the group (she set a 50DKK limit and picked who would give to whom). Unfortunately, nearly everything that was Danish had meat in it, so I took the safe route and made a huge Greek salad. Oh and believe me, I knocked that out of the park, it was tasteeeyyyyy.

There were 26 of us at this lunch. There were two long tables nicely set up with tablecloths (with Danish flags all over them, of course, there's so much National pride here), candles, decor, and bread in baskets. We started around 2pm and when it came time to eat, everyone made a beeline to the food. There was soooo much to choose from.

For lunch there were:
-a traditional roast beef with potatoes and gravy
-red cabbage
-leverpostej (liver)
-boiled eggs
-meatballs
-beetroot
-brussel sprouts with bacon
-salads
-the stuffing of spinach strudel (Matthias didn't wake up in time to make the strudel part, haha)

...I know I'm missing some other dishes.

For dessert there were:
-aebleskiver (which are basically pancake balls)
-stewed fruit
-almond rice pudding with cherry sauce
-crepes with jam and nutella
-banana chocolate chip bread (Sam's specialty)

æbleskiver with powdered sugar (the name has the word 'apple' in it, but I honestly don't taste any apple in them)

After we all had eaten and were just sitting around talking, I found myself going for the rice pudding again and again...I liked it that much. It's texture and taste reminded me of tapioca pudding.

Everything was so delicious. All of my friends put effort into this potluck and it was nice to share a traditional Danish meal together (unfortunately, I missed the Keops Thanksgiving dinner because I was in Italy). 

After dinner and before dessert, Andrea (a friend who goes to school with Sam) handed out the Secret Santa gifts. The person who I got a gift for, Magnus, didn't show up. Anna, who's Secret Santa didn't come either, received my gift. My Secret Santa got me a mug filled with nougat and peppermint hard candies. It was very thoughtful and a great gift.

After a few hours, people started to trickle out and went back to their respective rooms to study. I ended up staying until the very end, around 6pm. We cleaned up and said our goodbyes to one of our friends who left this week. This was the moment when I realized that the end of our journey together is fast approaching and soon I would be saying real goodbyes to all my friends. Luckily, I will see them this weekend and on Monday.

But anyway, our Julefrokost was filled with great food, friends, and memories. I couldn't have asked for more from our last meal together. We really went out with a bang!