I saw this on Dutch commercial television, which more often than not features American series and subtitled or dubbed American advertising ‘like you never left the US’.
Translation:
Guy: Hey, you owe me money.
Girl: …
Guy: For the burger.
Voice-over: So very Dutch! Our new (product name), etc.
Guy: Yep, right amount.
Voice-over: It can’t get any more Dutch.
The adjective ‘Hollands’ meaning Dutch has this reference to the olden days when the Netherlands was just North Holland and South Holland. It can be used in a neutral manner, derogatory or positive manner, depending on the context. In this case it denotes comfort food (brown bread and cheese being a classic here), which is positive.
The negative part remains the stereotype that the Dutch are cheap, which is a gross generalisation, but sometimes where there’s smoke, there’s fire. The Dutch are traditionally thrifty and save a lot of money and don’t run rampant with credit cards, not so much cheap. Oh, and all the Dutch television shows with people about to lose their homes due to overspending kill this stereotype, with the Dutch calling their situation ‘an American one’.
‘Going Dutch’ means paying your own way in English, which in American dating land is surely not a given. And of course, anyone who only wants to pay half the bill at a fast food chain while on a date could easily be labelled poor, not cheap.
The beer arms race is still on. Brewers Het Koelschip from Almere have come up with Obilix, a 45% alcohol beer that will surely attract the attention of both beer aficionados and comics trademark holders.
Filed under: Food, General by Orangemaster @ 4:02 pm
After walking past a Dutch liquour store in Rotterdam with odd bottles of absinth and vodka with a dead scorpion in it, it was time to have a look inside the store for more oddities. The Dutch make vodka, with some success, which is usually very expensive and often nowhere near as good as any Russian or Polish stuff, and I have sampled enough to say so.
And then I saw Trump vodka, towering over another bottle of the disturbing dead scorpion stuff. The staff saw me reaching for it and immediately all three staff members (two sons and a dad kind of outfit) said it was Dutch vodka made in Rotterdam exclusively for Donald Trump by the Wanders Distillery.
The staff proceeded to tell me that it was picked out of a taste test over many others vying for the job. I am impressed and maybe I’ll try it some day. And maybe grab some scorpion drink, too.
Filed under: Design, Food by Branko Collin @ 9:31 pm
The Metrobowl is a serving dish by 2001 Eindhoven Design Academy graduate Frederik Roijé shaped in the form of a city map.
Frederik has made two models, one based on Amsterdam (the semi-circular onion skin lines are the famous canals), and one based on the grid of Manhattan. The bowls are made of cast aluminium, cost 200 and 240 euro respectively, and are sold by Frederik himself through his on-line shop.
Filed under: Food, General by Orangemaster @ 11:22 am
Last year, an employee of that big American junk food chain fired an employee in Lemmer, Friesland for placing an extra slice of cheese on a colleague’s hamburger. The colleague was on a break and had not paid for extra cheese, so the hamburger turned cheeseburger and that was a reason for dismissal, according to the chain’s policy.
Recently, the local judge in Heerenveen believed the employer overreacted. You don’t say!
Since the story stops there, the employee either gets their job back (it’s been a while, I bet you they are working somewhere else) or some compensation. If I remember correctly and if things haven’t changed much, 25% of all cases are labour law issues in the Netherlands.
And you can’t just fire someone here, on the spot or otherwise. An employer has to go to the local court and explain why they want to fire someone. The most common reason as of late is of course downsizing, not extra cheese.
This is just capitalism gone awry. Oh, and if you really thought that extra slice was fit to be called cheese, read this older posting.
In 2008, we posted about Mailing food, an Amsterdam start-up that served stamppot and other food, and now Utrecht is following suit with a new chain of stamppot restaurants, with dreams of conquering New York City in the future. Stamppot to go opened ‘quietly’ on 17 December 2009, but should have a proper grand opening soon. Although stamppot is winter food, they will be open in the summer with summer variants.
For one, I’m thrilled someone is pushing food domestically that many of us here eat, counterbalancing the madness at pushing cheese on Asians in general who are quite lactose-intolerant or pushing the cheese slicer (’kaasschaaf’) (a Norwegian invention) on Americans as the next best thing since sliced bread (pardon the pun). Although potaotes are South American in origin, smoked sausage is a Dutch invention and that’s what makes the stamppot a great dish.
Filed under: Food, Weird by Orangemaster @ 4:17 pm
Slowly but surely Dutch consumers are grasping the idea of enjoying wine and matching it up with food, wine fans keep telling me. Despite the lack of proper tasting and buying wine by numbers instead of actually being interested in pesky details like regions and vines, Dutch business people have tons of creative ways to get people drinking wine without thinking too hard.
That said, the idea of a ‘Chardongay’, which isn’t even a Chardonnay but a mix of Chenin Blanc and Colombard, while the red version (getting confused now) is straight Cabernet Sauvignon, pun intended, just sounds, well, blah. Vinamis, the company who thought this up apparently couldn’t find an acceptable cheap Chardonnay (bless you). And since we’re driving through cliché-ville, what about a rosé? It’s coming out later, as well as the bubbly.
I think it’s a slightly funny idea that is akin to drinking Arrogant Frog wine (see photo). It leaves lesbians out in the cold because hey, they don’t drink anyways (cliché) and the wine is going for the funny name. But, OK Arrogant Frog isn’t that bad and it’s cheap.
Yesterday at the Farm Frites fries factory in Oudenhoorn, South Holland, three WWII grenades were harvested along with the potatoes. The cops were called in and the grenades were taken away. Oh no, wait. In Dutch fashion, they had a discussion about whether the grenades were dangerous or not.
One of the comments to this discovery is ‘patatje oorlog’, which literally means ‘war fries’ and is a junkfood dish of fries with all kinds of sauces that looks like war took place. Notice I don’t use the word ‘French’ with my fries simply because fries were never French, they were Flemish (Belgian) back in the day. And using ‘freedom’ to describe fries is for losers.
Filed under: Animals, Food by Orangemaster @ 11:50 am
Every year around the holidays some of the same complaints rear their ugly heads and every year nothing is ever resolved except for the papers having something to polarize readers about. Although many people do celebrate Christmas in the Netherlands, the real gift-giving was last week, and as one person mentioned on Twitter, it’s time for lists of the best this and that and counting down until 2010.
Back by popular demand, animal activists whining about foie gras in restaurants. Ah yes, the decadent French and their foie gras. They mistreat animals and not serving it in the Netherlands is taking a stand. Why isn’t it banned then? Get on with it. And then list all the other bad things we do to animals and move on and leave Christmas alone!
Not being sure about putting up a Christmas tree in the lobby of a higher vocational school in The Hague because that’s not the best choice for a multicultural society. Excuse me? Nonsense. And it was nonsense, and misinterpretated and the Minister of Education, Ronald Plasterk apparently has time for this nonsense, too.
And in regional news, how about the city of Nijmegen digging a big hole to plant Christmas right in front of your store for Christmas as a recession gift? I can imagine that the big store is not amused with the city’s idea of decorating the square in front of it. The store found out in a letter sent on 3 December that was not even addressed properly.
Companies are apparently going to keep their Christmas parties cheap and I bet the traditional Christmas packages employees receive (I get people’s leftovers, I’m self-employed) won’t have anything special in them, never mind some employees having to drive to their office headquarters (!) to pick up the orange-flavoured powdered hot chocolate and the tuna with tomato and veggies in it.
The beer arms race is still on. Brewers Het Koelschip from Almere have come up with 
