A quick Danish lesson: smørre = butter; brød = bread.

Smørrebørd (butter-bread) is what they call the famous open-faced sandwiches of Denmark.

For my first meal in Copenhagen I had: sandwich number 1 of Queen Victoria Cheese, rhubarb marmalade, toasted almonds and purple clover; and sandwich number 2 of pickled herring, mayo, potatoes, dill, crunchy fried buckwheat and sweet pickled onion. Both were layered on thin slices of dense rye bread.Al was so hungry I only got this quick grab shot of his, but it appears to be egg with flakes of a hard cheese, crunchy brown bits and dill in front; and roast beef, yellow mayo (curried?), deep-fried crunchy shallots and some peppery green.My tiny dinner at Falkenberg, Sweden where they also had open-faced sandwiches. That’s crab on one side and I’m not sure what on the other, delicious though!Mounds of mayonnaise & dill shrimp on some sort of purple-leafed plant and rye bread underneath it all, of course!And more mounds of shrimp on rye. And even greater mounds of shrimps. Believe it or not there’s a piece of bread under there somewhere.A more typical smorgasbord in Odense, egg and potato salad with bacon on one, and roast beef with crispy shallots and yellow mayo on the other.I came home addicted to rye bread and these little summer sandwiches.

A small historical note: I was first in Denmark in 1965 and remember one particular smørrebørd of thinly sliced rye bread, 1/4 inch of butter and a wafer of dark chocolate on top, a sort of smørrebørd dessert. We had this at Tivoli although I didn’t mention it in my diary. What I did mention was “butter one half inch thick” on some butter buns…

• Wikipedia has a great list of the classic smørrebørds.
• More of the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Your Choice.
• More about our trip to Denmark & Sweden in 2018.