Dutch Language Blog

The Dutch are potatoes and cheese eaters. Therefore it is no surprise that we like the combine them. This is a recipe for, guess what, potatoes with cheese. It’s an incredible easy dish based on four people and takes about 25-30 minutes to prepare.

Ingredients

1 kilo potatoes (preferably ‘bintjes’)
500-700 gram young cheese
salt

Preparation

Take the skin of the potatoes and cook them in boiling water until you can easily prick a fork in them. Chop the cheese in the meantime in small pieces of around 2,5 centimeter. When the potatoes are ready, drain them.

Put the blocks of cheese on top of the potatoes (be careful the potatoes don’t burn) and let the cheese melt. This will take about 4 minutes.

Get the pot of the stove and mash the potatoes and cheese together.

Enjoy!

In sifting through old emails, I recently rediscovered a traditional Dutch song called “Kaap’ren Varen,” as re-imagined by the 1970’s folk-rock group Fungus.  I learn from the internet that they came from Eindhoven, and that they played and wrote songs mostly for werkend en werklose mannen – working and out-of-work men.

I can imagine that this song – whose lyrics I didn’t understand when it was first played for me – found a happy audience among the young working men of the 1970s.  The vocabulary is all old Dutch, but the basic idea of the song is that only men with beards are allowed to fare the seas.  The refrain lays it out in the following way:

Jan, Piert, Joris en Corneel
Die hebben baarden, die hebben baarden
Jan, Piert, Joris en Corneel
Die hebben baarden, zij varen mee

Although Dutch grooming was probably quite different in the ‘70s, and was obviously different for the members of Fungus, I have to say that beards are not the prevalent form of facial hair that I notice on today’s Jan, Piert, Joris en Corneel.  Dutch men seem to favor being completely shaven (heads too), or sporting elaborate mustaches.

According to the song, other activities allotted exclusively to the bearded include: deftige pijpkens smoren (smoking stylish pipes) en de walrus killen (killing the walrus).  (Note that in the old Dutch of the song, “killen” is used instead of “dood maken” – English and Dutch are never too far apart.)

The other day, feeling like I didn’t quite know enough about the Dutch royal family (and its relationship to its public), I picked up this copy of Maxima magazine in the Albert Heijn. Contrary to appearances, the magazine doesn’t focus solely on Princess Maxima, the Argentine-born wife to Crown Prince Willem-Alexander. There are also articles about Charlene Wittstock’s impending marriage to Prince Albert of Monaco, and one about 70-year-old Queen Margrethe of Denmark: “Ik voel me nog jong van hart.”

Overall, the magazine seems most concerned with the facial expressions of European royals, which strikes me as a refreshing approach, compared with the prototypical American paparazzi photograph:  celebrity in shades, always shot in full body so that we can see his or her outfit, and always looking dour. In Maxima (the Dutch answer to Maxim?) we find two two-page spreads classifying the many faces of Princess Maxima, entitled: Zo anders kan Prinses Maxima zijn!


I can only assume from the magazine, and from the impression given by her warm eyes, that Princess Maxima is beloved. But the real star of the Dutch royal family seems clear to me: Queen Beatrix, whose face as catalogued by these pages is equal parts stubborn, jaunty and wise. Beatrix took over the throne from her mother Juliana in 1980, and will pass on the throne to Prince Willem-Alexander when she goes – not anytime soon, I hope. I can’t really imagine the circumstances under which the below photo was taken, but the caption really says it all: Zelfs een biertje, bloemen en oranje geklede mannen kunnen Koningin Beatrix niet vrolijk stemmen.

Vocabulary:  The many faces of Maxima

Oplettend = Attentive

Verbaasd = Surprised, shocked

Enthousiast = Enthusiastic

Uitbundig = Exuberant

Vrolijk = Cheerful

Geinteresseerd = Interested

Wat nu? = What now?

Verdrietig = Sorrowful, sad

Lief = Sweet

Dromerig = Dreamy

Open mond = Open mouth