Last summer the world found out that Swedes never share food with their guests, not even if the guest is a child.
The baptized as #swedengate went around the world and also went viral in Sweden, where they are not aware that their customs are not very common in the rest of the world.
But Sweden is not the only country in northern Europe with customs around food that we in the south find outlandish. These days controversy has erupted around the Netherlands. And the outlook looks even worse.
The conversation was started by Amalia (@trufa_a) in a twitter thread in which he tells how the Dutch are able to owe you 10 euro cents For lending you a plastic bag at the supermarket. But, as was the case with the Swedes, the big cultural gap happens in the food.
Amalia works in a restaurant and tells that a client, after eating a piece of pizza, asked us to add an extra ingredient. “When I brought her the bill, she asked me to remove 40 cents that corresponded to the piece of pizza that had been eaten before asking for the extra ingredient”, he assures.
Another anecdote: “I go to a Dutch woman’s house, she asks me if I want to drink something. I tell her that if she has her, I thank her for a coffee. She tells me no, that she gives me tea because coffee capsules are more expensive than tea bags. I still haven’t recovered from shock”.
To the rich peanut butter sandwich
As in everything, it is not possible to generalize, but several Spaniards residing in the Netherlands have confirmed to DAP that they have lived very similar anecdotes to which Amelia tells in the thread.
“They are very rats,” explains Marta, a Spanish researcher living in the Netherlands, to DAP. Her husband, a participant in the conversation, is more subtle: “They are fond of saving.”
But, apart from the innate difficulty they have in sharing, both hallucinate with their eating habits.
“My colleagues, except for one who brings a tupperware, eat every day one ingredient sandwiches only with butter, butter and jam or butter and cheese”, explains Marta. “Even the weekend too. And the bread with walnuts is eaten alone, because it already has walnuts”.
“They only cook at dinnerbut they don’t try too hard either, that’s why they go to restaurants”, points out the researcher.
“A colleague of mine from the job who is Dutch is made to eat peanut butter bread, explains Pablo, who is also a researcher, but works in the United Kingdom. “Every day of the year, at least the days of the year that you are going to work. He doesn’t eat anything else.”
the circle of death
Now, the custom that most shocks the Spanish is the way in which they have celebrate birthdays. Known among expatriates as “the circle of death”.
In general, birthdays include two drinks that are taken sitting in a circle
The first time you are invited to a birthday party in the Netherlands it is shocking, because you find all the guests sitting in a circle, without any table in the center. Everyone congratulates you on the celebration, you sit in the circle and are invited to tea or coffee with a piece of cake. After this, they may offer you another drink: wine, beer, juice or soft drink.
Usually birthdays include these two drinks, that are taken sitting in the circle, and after two hours they are finished. Regarding the gift, it is normal for a friend of the party to send you a message to ask if you want to collaborate with the collective gift.
“My colleagues say that the circle is the most efficient way of see everyone”explains Martha.
all you can eat buffet
Considering how unsplendid they are at their parties, it seems contradictory that the Dutchman is, on the other hand, a true fan of all you can eat buffet.
“What they like is the buffet because, verbatim words, sounds like free food because you can eat as much as you want”, explains Marta.
His co-workers, specifically, “stay over the weekends to do high tea, which consists of paying €30 and have tea and pastries/pastries”explains Martha. “I never did it, I don’t know if it’s a menu or a buffet, really. But I know you can drink a lot of tea.”
Netherlands 1 (Lonely Planet Country Guides)
“For them the great plan on Sundays is to eat chips in the frying [una especie de freidurías típicas de Holanda] or at her mother’s house”, concludes Marta, who explains that they are crazy about “dirty snacks” as the frikandellen –“a disgusting sausage”– and herring with raw onion, the typical food of the fairs.
“They are a bit strange” explains Martha. “Although then they have good restaurants too, which is confusing.”
Images | RossHelen/Jan Var Der Wolf/Pawel_B
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