Stjerneskud

Stjerneskud — 'shooting star' — is the most lavish of Danish smørrebrød, widely credited to Ida Davidsen of the famous Copenhagen smørrebrød house. When Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin — the first man in space — visited Copenhagen in 1962, Davidsen built him a tall plaice sandwich shaped like a rocket and named it stjerneskud; he loved it, and it became a fixture on the menu. The name evokes not the falling star in the night sky but Gagarin's flight into space — a taste of the space age's fascination with the heavens. Two plaice fillets — one battered and fried, one steamed — sit side by side on buttered rye, piled with cold shrimp, asparagus, caviar (real or lumpfish roe), a half-lemon, and a sprig of dill, mayonnaise dotted under or beside. Best eaten with knife and fork at a Copenhagen lunch restaurant with herring beer.

Two plaice fillets — one fried in crumb, one poached white — laid side-by-side on a butter-fried rye base. Pile of cold sweet shrimp, asparagus spears, mayo, and bleak roe build the height. Maximalism on a sandwich.

Plaice cooked two ways gives textural complexity — the fried side adds crunch, the poached side adds clean flesh. Done in the same sitting because plaice cooks fast enough that timing is trivial; pre-made versions go soggy.