Roskilde - Best Fast Food in Denmark. Pork sandwich; then try the doner kebab

Danish Fast Food

To be Savored Slowly

Fast food, Denmark. Roskilde, Denmark's best pork sandwich

Danish fast food:
1.  Roast pork sandwich
2.  Cheeesburger with cracklings
3.  French hot dog
4.  And the Turkish influence:  the doner kebab

These are usually not pre-assembled, wrapped, and stacked under heat lamps.  The ingredients are ready, but the put-together is custom. Their fast food tastes better than ours.  A minute or two more in getting a sandwich in hand is worth it. Roast pork, French hot dog, cheeseburger with cracklings, and the everywhere doner kebab. 

At Roskilde, we were hungry, just off the flight, in the car, on the road. H hunger! Find the parking lot, with easy-to-locate Cathedral (follow the steeple), see the formidable Cathedral looming, hunger!

1.  Roast pork sandwich

Look about and find Denmark's secret gustatorial weapon:  the roast pork and - here's the difference - cracklin' sandwich, as made by this fine lady.  What is the secret of the great juicy roast over there, with the crispy crust?  Is it the old breed pig? Not the modern, slimmed down version without the same taste? See old breed pig discussion at April 28, 2018, Financial Times, Rowley Leigh on cookery, pork chop with endives, lemon and raisins. The old breeds produce splendid crackling, but the chops may not be so good.

There it is, middle top.

Take a sturdy flat bun, not all full of air. These are chewier.

Roast pork sandwich, Denmark's best fast food. Roskilde

There is the red cabbage, on the left.

In the back is a roast pork, under the hot light. Already roasted, but nothing assembled or cut yet.  She slices off a big portion, and here is the question:

Does she drop it in a deep fryer, to get that outer skin crackling so crisp, or did the entire roast get deep-fried, or was it originally roasted so as to get that crunch?  Update -- is that a pork belly wrapped around the roast pork over there, under the heat lamp?  That would give the crunch, see http://plainmeaning.blogspot.com/2011/09/plain-meaning-secret-of-pork-crunch.html.  Bon Appetit magazine in September 2011 proposes that. Pork belly. Yes.

Quick to the condiments: little pile of red cabbage, slightly sweet, little pile beside it, this time a soft coleslaw, vinegary, no mayo in in it; onions, a green pepper ring.

If you want more, ask. There is the mustard and ketchup  in big squirts, and add in your mind an equally big runny mayo squirt.

Kingsize squirt condiments, Danish fast food, Roskilde

Did she go back to the fryer: out with the pork, now all crispy cracklings on the rim, top with the goodies, squirt on some ketchup and mustard for good measure, slap on the top, over the counter it comes. Or did she just keep the big slice hot. Somebody go see -- the parking lot outside the Roskilde Cathedral

There is a small counter there for eating on tall stools, just room for 2 or 3, so eat up.  Fabulous.  The cracklings are hard at first, but as soon as you bite in, they melt like magic.

2.  Cheeseburger with cracklings

That is the secret of the burger, or cheeseburger here.  She adds more cracklings. Heaven. Pork fat. There they are, piled on the left side.  This has ketchup, not the red cabbage.

Cheesburger with Cracklings, Fast Food, Denmark. Roskilde.

3.  French hot dog

And the big surprise -- a better hot dog.

French hot dog, Danish fast food, Roskilde

We didn't have one here, but did in Sweden -- same name, same process. A round bun with a hole down the center, grill the dog, put the bun in the oven so it gets hot as well, squirt in mayo, mustard, ketchup, add whatever, jam in the big dog and off you go.  No drips, a ready hold.  Excellent.

The French.  We never saw these in France.

Roskilde, pork sandwich customers in unending stream

4.  An often-seen purveyor company:  Steff Houlberg.  

The company also does regular hot dogs, see one at http://www.flickr.com/photos/martymcfry/3504765012/, but the French style is are the best.  Easier for walking around, and they stay hot.

How to find a recipe? Have tried. Some fast foodie, perhaps presently unemployed, will put this together for street food around the world. 

The Global French-Swedish-Danish Hot Dog

At Its Best

 Hot dog baguette, fair use thumbnail, Lantmannen-Unibake dot com -- Fast-Food/French-hot-dog-baguette/


These are also in Sweden:  Fransk korv med brod or korven med brod

Fully swaddled hot dogs. The bun made with a hole in the top (a soft baguette), drilled straight down or, it now appears, supplied and made that way.  It looks like a spyglass, or a little well, just waiting after nice heating, for the squirt of multiple condiments deep inside, then tong the grilled dog and in she goes. Hot dog in a hole.

Dan Widing, having seen great French hot dogs in Roskilde, Denmark, now alert at French hot dog stand, Uppsala. Sweden

5. Beware

Pork sandwiches:

Watch out for cheapies omitting the red cabbage, as in a Horsens DK food trailer. That is a poor second. Be sure that any ketchup and mustard are just moisteners at the end, not a substitute for the cabbage, the real thing.

Better to get a burger variations, and the sausage (hot dog) combos than a poor pork sandwich.

6.  Doner kebab

A close second is always the everywhere rotating doner kebab - a tribute to immigration everywhere, see this Scandinavian version:

Roskilde DK, doner kekab fast food

It rotates as it roasts, shave some off, pile up, add pita, cucumber, tomatoes, yoghurt sauce and lettuce, and you're in business.