Grocery Shopping in Copenhagen

Shopping for groceries abroad is always such an adventure. I think it’s fun to wander around the store, unsure what anything is called, and search for your food like a treasure hunt, but if you like checking off your list, grocery shopping in Copenhagen might be more of a challenge.

Being a college student, I shopped at the cheapest grocery stores possible. Luckily, there was a Netto just a few blocks from my apartment. Netto is the cheapest of cheap grocery stores and it’s always an adventure trying to find what you want, but you can also happen upon great bargains! When I wanted something specific, I would go to Fotex. My Danish roomate also told me about Kvickly, which is a bigger grocery store like a small Target that has clothes and household items too. That’s where I got my bike helmet and tupperware.

Here are some highlights of my time shopping in Denmark:

The highlight is definitely when you find major sales like this lettuce on sale for 5dkk (less than $1!)
The candy aisle is always a highlight (and a danger zone!) It was so fun to try new candies while I was abroad!
But the low is when you get so excited about finding “American Brunch Pancake Mix” and the bag is tiny inside the box.
The strangest thing I saw in a Danish grocery store was definitely these pine cones… if any Danes are reading this, please explain to me why they’re selling pine cones in the vegetable section?
And thank you to my bike basket for getting my groceries home safe even when I packed it way too full like this day before my going away party.

Foods I didn’t expect to miss…

Friends who had studied in Denmark before had said that I wouldn’t be able to find peanut butter here which I definitely can. When I was packing to come to Denmark, I wanted to get my host family some fun American foods but I didn’t know what they’d have here or not have. I’ve been surprised by a few foods that I would’ve expected them to have that they don’t:

  • Bisquick (making pancakes from scratch is harder than I thought!)
  • Root beer (my host sisters and I were eating jelly bellies the other day and they asked me what root beer was and if it was actually beer. I told them no it’s not beer, and I don’t know why it’s called beer, but I don’t know how to describe the flavor.)
  • Banana bread (I wanted to make banana bread one day and my host family hadn’t heard of it! They were confused if it was a bread or a cake and I said it’s a little like both! They liked it though.)
  • Tater tots (another thing I was surprised my host family hadn’t heard of! I bravely decided to make them from scratch one day and it was really hard and not as good as real tater tots.)
  • Tofu (I guess this is kind of a weird vegetarian food but they had some tofu just not the kind I was used too, it was either too silky or too dry.)
  • Refried beans and cheddar cheese (I don’t think I ever found refried beans so I just used black beans for burritos which is healthier I guess and they did have cheddar cheese but it was nothing compared to Tillamook!)
  • And last but not least… ranch dressing! (They have creme fraiche but it’s just not the same!)

All in all, I survived and I actually ate really well and enjoyed being more adventurous with what I ate and trying new things. My roommates and I second semester were all vegetarians so we shared recipes and roasted a lot of veggies.

If walls could dream… they’d dream of grocery shopping abroad!

Hannah

Hi, I'm Hannah! I got my Bachelor of Architecture at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where my thesis project was a humanitarian agricultural training center in Zimbabwe with Journeyman International. In my free time, I like watercoloring, photography, and camping!