Kokusai Hiroba Café -Around the World- Vol.74　Denmark ＆ Poland

◇Contents

Opening（Introducing Hiroba Café）

Lecturers introduceDenmark and Poland

Question Time and Closing

（Opening）

　The host introduced the Fukuoka EU Association, and then introduced each presenter.

（Introducing each country）

　Denmark, as introduced by Ms. Lærke Lindø Jensen：

Presenter Laerke began by introducing Denmark’s geography, climate, and language, then went on to speak about daily life in Denmark and the Danish worldview of ‘Hygge’. She also showed a video of a Danish birthday celebration, in which Danish peoples’ love of their flag could be clearly seen!

In Denmark, potatoes are a staple food. They are often boiled, baked, fried, or mashed, and eaten together with meat and gravy sauce, as typical Danish meals.  Presenter Laerke also introduced world-famous Danish rye bread, and ways of using it such as ‘smørrebrød’ (open sandwiches) in which dill, prawns, salmon, poached egg, mayonnaise, and other such foods are served on top of the bread.

Finally, Presenter Laerke explained more about the Danish worldview of ‘Hygge’. ‘Hygge’ is a Danish word meaning ‘a comfortable space’ or ‘a relaxing time’. She showed various photos of things that are meant by ‘hygge’ such as lighting a room by candlelight instead of by electric lightbulbs. ‘Hygge’ could mean different things to different people; for some, reading a book could be ‘hygge’, or even playing a guitar could be ‘hygge’.

During the presentation, the presenter held various quizzes, which helped the audience learn more about Denmark, as well as fostering a feeling of communication between them and the presenter!

 Poland, as introduced by Mr. Muneaki Yonemitsu：

Lecturer Yonemitsu explained his experience of living in Poland for 4 years representing the food company he was employed for. He first introduced Poland’s geography, population, language, politics, and diplomacy, and used the topic of food culture to talk about Poland’s connection with Japan. After introducing Poland’s traditional foods, he explained why instant noodles become popular in Poland at the time. In short, during the Cold War, a lot of Vietnamese students came to study in Poland, and they brought with them large amounts of noodles. From there, ‘noodle bars’ were started and large amounts of instant ramen were imported. Instant ramen become especially popular amongst young people in Poland.

Whilst explaining about how he oversaw the food production factory in Poland, Lecturer Yonemitsu showed an example of the instant noodle product to the audience. Nowadays, Japanese food is booming around the world, but in the west, manners when it comes to eating noodles and soup are different from Japan. For instance, it is considered bad manners to ‘slurp’ noodles and soup in the west, but in Japan it is normal! These are things that had to be considered when selling instant noodles in Poland.

Ms.　Lærke Lindø Jensen　＆　Mr. Muneaki Yonemitsu