'Bruin fruit' - Marjan Ippel
Sure, I am Always Talkin’ Food, but I teach NT2 (Dutch as a second language) on the side. Mainly to young foreigners who came to Amsterdam for or with love and intend to stay. For privacy reasons the names in these columns are fictitious.
For me, a Dutch lesson is a success when there is an interaction between the students and me as a teacher. No one-way traffic, where I pour buckets of information into the open beaks of my students, who meekly swallow everything.
Therefore, I prefer more advanced pupils in whom I no longer have to cram in the alphabet, the days of the week and the personal pronouns. Instead, we can have a two-way conversation, however basic at times.
I am especially thrilled when a student surprises me with knowledge gained from their own Dutch circle of friends or at work. Or, for all I care, via a language learning app.
Idioms, expressions, slang, office lingo. Bring it on!
The environment where such language wonders can most easily occur is de kroeg (bar). Not least because alcohol does wonders for my students’ sense of language; more specifically for their courage to speak Dutch.
On our regular borrelavondje (drinks night), the waitress places a bucket of deep-fried snacks in the middle of the table, from bitterbal and minikaassoufflé to miniloempia and minifrikandel - anything deep-fried and, very characteristic, in miniature size.
'Zo lekker!’ (so tasty), sighs Ronaldo from Brazil, who is also a big fan of the infamous HEMA smoked sausage sandwich. 'Too bad it's not healthy.'
'Why,' asks Agnieszka from Poland with a grin on her face. 'Het is bruin fruit (It’s brown fruit)!'
Wait, did she just say “bruin fruit”?
'That's what my friends call it.' Agnieszka is very confident.
Are her Dutch pals pulling her leg? Surely only in the US is it conceivable that fast food could be officially classified as a fruit, or in the case of pizza, a vegetable (the latter is true since 2011!).
Agnieszka is not backing off. Instead, she brings in Google to prove that bruin fruit is indeed genuine kroeglingo for miniature fast food served in Dutch bars.
Can’t wait to tell my peers.
Kroeglingo
Gefrituurd - deep-fried (all those listed below)
De kaassoufflé - cheese soufflé
De bitterbal - breaded spherical snack stuffed with ragout
De loempia - rice or flour wrapper of Chinese origin filled with vegs, meat and/or shrimps
De frikandel - stick of minced meat
Het bittergarnituur/borrelgarnituur - appetisers
Bittergarnituur
Basically in any kroeg with a frying pan and a cooker hood you can order a bittergarnituur. The name is supposedly derived from the bar tradition to snack an appetiser with your bittertje, a small glass of a Dutch herbal bitters. Nowadays, the deep-fried miniature appetisers are mostly factory made and eaten with mustard or some mayonnaise-based prefab sauce from a bucket. There are some places, though, where you can enjoy at least handmade bitterballen with ditto sauce.
De Ballenbar offers 7 varieties of artisanal bitterballen, incl. vegetarian and vegan, De Foodhallen, Stand 8, Hannie Dankbaarpassage 16 Amsterdam. Open: Mon-Sun 12 Noon-10 PM.
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