A NATIONAL DISH

It's official; Denmark's national dish is "stegt flæsk med persillesovs" (fried pork belly with parsley sauce). The announcement was made on breakfast television this morning by Food Minister Dan Jørgensen.

This is one of those well-meaning official initiatives that end up being a bit of a damp squib. The outcome is the result of a public vote on a specially created website. The problem is that just 63,000 people took part, which is only one in every 90 Danes, or about a quarter of the votes that decide who goes forward to the next round of X-factor. Calling something a national dish on the basis of such a poor turnout is stretching things a bit.

It is also a bit of a boomerang for Mr Jørgensen. Since his fairly recent recall from the European Parliament to become Minister, he has had the laudable aim of trying to nudge Danes into eating more healthily. Don't get me wrong; stegt flæsk is delicious, and my mother-in-law makes it brilliantly. However, being made up mostly of fat, it would be hard for anyone to argue that it was either healthy or nutritious. Nor could it be used to (for example) spearhead a campaign to promote Danish cuisine. It's the sort of dish that mothers-in-law and grandparents make, not expensive restaurants.

What was expensive was the cost of the vote, which was around kr.1.2 million. Mr. Jørgensen insists that it was money well spent. But he would, wouldn't he?

Personally, I would say that Denmark's national dish was either "frikadeller" (meatballs) or roast pork. These are both dishes that are eaten all of the time, whereas stegt flæsk is a nostalgic reminder of an era that no longer exists, when people slaughtered a pig before winter and used all of its bits.

Walter Blotscher