Rundstykker (roundpieces) or rolls/pastries/danish, are a staple of the Danish breakfast culture. Saturday and Sunday mornings are typically started with the patriarch or matriarch of the household waking up, putting on fresh pot of coffee and driving, bicycling or walking to the local baker or nærbutik (cornerstore) and purchasing some for breakfast. On special days at work colleagues might bring them, or they are served regularly on Friday mornings. Rundstykker is a culture, it’s a way of life and one is often defined by the rundstykker they regularly eat and the toppings that they put on.
These breakfast rolls come in different shapes and sizes, ranging from pastry to white breads to horns. Many times they are garnished with poppy seeds, as well as any other seed that seems fitting. Think of a rundstykker as being Denmark’s bagel or donut (depending on where you are in the States).
As a child we often fed ourselves donuts on the weekend, bicycling to the local donut shop, Mr. Shipley’s in Whispering Oaks if memory serves. Later our family made a brief transition to IHOP on the weekends before settling in La Fogata or Las Palapas for breakfast tacos. When I entered university again Donuts became a staple as Hillcrest Donuts was within walking distance and the day olds were cheap and filling and just as good as today’s fresh made, my future wife loved waking up to donuts, juice and coffee.
When I moved to Denmark in 1998 I finally understood her love for this routine in university, it was a reminder of home, a comfort of home. The only thing missing was the nutella or pålæg chokolade (plate chocolate), I think this taste need was eventually satisfied when bagel shops started to open on every street corner in Dallas and you could get variously flavoured cream cheeses with your bagel.
If the type of rundstykker is important, then equally important is the topping. Rundstykker are typically accompanied with butter, lots of it, pålæg chokolade, Nutella, honey, leverpøstej (liver pate) or cheese. The cheese varies from household to household. There are some hardcore cheese eaters who will start the day with a block of DanBlu (Danish Blue Cheese), and others that start the morning with some the most god awful stinkiest cheese one wishes never to smell on a Sunday morning. I’ll admit the idea of liver pate for breakfast took some getting used to, but nowadays I can’t think of a better way to start a weekend morning than a freshly made warm leverpøstej on a grov birkes (type of rundstykker).
Eating breakfast on the weekends is one of the few times that we are gathered at the breakfast table or in front of the TV as a family. We are all sitting together, no school, dad on the way home from work, football (soccer) practice or swimming or track and field or dad on the way to work or or or. We are all together in the house, this is a precious time for us and one that I often take advantage of. One day the kids will be gone or not home on the weekends and I’ll look back wondering where did the days go? I’m already wondering how things have moved on so quickly as my sons turn into almost teenagers.
It’s become routine to wake up on a weekend morning and be met with “Have you made coffee?” and “Are you getting rundstykker?” Gitta and I agree that I am responsible for weekend breakfasts. And while I might be stiff or resilient to getting out of bed, my answer will be “Yeah, I’ll do it”.
January 1, 2015 5:45 am
0.00 km in 05:28:54 (--:-- min/km)
HR 161 bpm