“If you put enough butter on it, even Sh*! Tastes good”

“If you put enough butter on it, even Sh*! Tastes good” is the closest thing I have to a family motto. Dutch cooking – if we are honest with ourselves – is not haute cuisine and cannot compete with delicate tastes of the French palette or the freshness of Mediterranean or Californian food. This fact, however, is quite beside the point, because the Dutch love their food with unsurpassed dedication. Eating Dutch is being home. Particularly for members the Dutch diaspora, like my family, the preparation of Dutch meals, particularly seasonal dishes, is a time to celebrate the simple pleasures of food and togetherness.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Spreekwoorden

Ze kennen mekaar met een warme pannekoek belopen.
They live within a warm pancake's walk

Spreekworden (sprayk-worden) are Dutch proverbs. These sayings pepper daily conversation and some unique saying exists for almost any occasion. Food is both a physical and a metaphoric palette of culture - reflecting adaptations and hybrids of old traditions and new ingredients. For this reason, many of the hundreds of Dutch proverbs, are food-related. These sayings convey layers of Dutch cultural attitudes about everything from marriage to religion to human nature. Spreekworden reflect the experience of Dutch culture and the texture of daily life while registering opinion on the topic at hand. The pancake proverb above reflects both the common consumption of pancakes as well as the close proximity in which the people of the Netherlands live.
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