DUO – Inburgeraars/Inburgeren

DUO – Inburgeraars/Homepage 2010.

Inburgeren is part of the integration required of all newcomers to the  Netherlands.  It is not a requirement for EU citizens, because of the rules governing the free movement of people, but for people from other countries, it is compulsory.

Integration courses are, however, very helpful, if not compulsory, for the EU citizen, as they involve basic language tuition, and some basic information on Dutch culture.  KNS – the knowledge of Dutch society – is a fundamental part of these courses.  Knowing more about the people with whom you live and/or work seems (at least to me) to be invaluable.

Traditional: Capucijners met spek

Capucijners area brown pea-like bean that I have not managed to find outside the Netherlands – frequently sold dried, or tinned, they are (when soaked) round, quite firm, and with the texture of kidney beans.

Ingredients

2 large tins capucijners

1 pack spekreepjes (chopped up bacon pieces)

small pickled gherkins

small pickled onions

Method

Empty the two tins of capucijners into a pan, together with the liquid – warm through.  Fry the bacon pieces until very crispy. Drain any remaining liquid from the pan of beans.  Mix bacon and beans together.

When serving, add gherkins and pickled onions.  A very welcome addition is to garnish with mayonnaise.

More variations on this are to flavour the mayonnaise with mustard, and to serve pineapple chunks with the beans.  Diced apple also works well.

Leesmap.nl | De abonneersite van de gezamenlijke leesmap bedrijven

Leesmap.nl | De abonneersite van de gezamenlijke leesmap bedrijven.

Traditional – Uitsmijter

It’s probably stretching things to call this a recipe, rather like saying “Beans on Toast” is a recipe, but it is a recogniseable item of food eaten by the Dutch – certainly at home.

Ingredients

Butter

2 slices (white) bread

2 slices ham or cheese

2 eggs

Butter the bread.  Lay the cheese slices or ham slices on top of each slice of bread.  Fry the eggs (also in butter, but oil could be used instead).

Tasty and Healthy – Stirfry Chinese Leaf and Shrimps (34)

Stirfry Chinese Leaf with shrimps

Ingredients

2 shallots

1 garlic clove

1 head Chinese leaf

2 dessert spoons (sunflower) oil

2 tablespoons Thai Red Curry paste

350G peeled shrimps

4 dessert spoons natural yoghurt.

Method:

Peel and finely chop the shallots and clove of garlic.  Wash the Chinese leaves, half them lengthwise and throw away the stalk.  Slice the leaves into strips of about 2cm .

Heat the oil in a wok and fry the shallots and garlic for about 2 minutes.  Stir in the curry paste and add the chinese leaf.  Stirfry for about 3 minutes.  Add the shrimps and warm through for about one minute.  Spoon the meal onto plates and spoon the yoghurt on top.

This is nice with yellow rice or noodles and fried peppers.

Hopefully the above is an accurate translation of this:

Roergebakken Chinese kool met garnalen.

2 sjalotjes

1 knoflookteentje

1 struik Chinese kool

2 el (zonnebloem) olie

2 tl Thaise rode curry pasta

350 gr gepelde Norse garnalen

4 el yoghurt

Pel en snipper de sjalotjes en het knoflookeentje.  Maak de kool schoon, halveer hem overlangs en verwijder de stronk.  Snijd de kool in repen van 2cm.  Verhit de olie in een wok en bak de sjalot en knoflook ca 2 minuten.  Roer de curry erdoor en voeg de kool toe.  Roerbak het geheel in ca 3 minuten.  Voeg de garnalen toe en laat die, al omscheppend, in ca 1 minuut door en door warm worden.  Schep het gerecht op de borden en schep de yoghurt erop.  Lekker met gele rijst of mie en roergebakken paprika.

Days out

On Saturday, after collecting huge bags of Iams and cat litter from the garden centre, we went off in search of Haarlem, to find the church where they hold English services. M had looked on the website and thought that there would be some in the morning – which would be good, as we have a few commitments in the afternoon. Sadly, when we got there, we realised that the services were at 2.30pm – the ones in the morning were the Catholic ones.

We went walking around Haarlem, and I thought it was lovely – I’d really like to live there, or perhaps close by – but it’s really expensive, so I don’t think we’ll be able to. Lovely city though.

Much, much later, we had the most lovely meal at Libelle.  It’s a Chinese restaurant, and we were there sufficiently early to get a table – although I felt underdressed.  The restaurant staff were happy to provide extra prawn crackers for Ben, and kept telling us that some parts of the meal would be spicy, or “pittig” but they were about “medium” according to my estimate – Ben had no difficulty with them at all.

I wish I could remember the names of the things we tried – we went for the set menu for two number 203 – which, after a spicy soup, had a sort of chicken and mango salad – Ben liked his, especially the mango and the red pepper.  This was followed by some beautifully presented hot lemony chicken, salmon and a third portion of I think heavily marinated pork with vegetables, and some spicy egg fried rice.

It was such a fantastic meal – the sort of food you would want to have for a birthday celebration – and the staff were present, but not hovering.  And there was a high chair for Ben as well – who behaved himself and who smiled beatifically at the lady who served us.

I suppose my palate is not sophisticated, but I have been adapting to the blandness of food that I encounter here – compared to what is considered fairly normal in the UK – we have not been eating out a great deal, but I am going by the recipes that I find of Dutch traditional fare – both found in books, on the internet, and in the supermarket recipe cards – I might add a few here for reference.

I think that Libelle was only slightly behind the Good Earth in the quality of what they presented.  Probably there was less variety – but then this is a restaurant far away from the cosmopolitan heart of the Netherlands.  I hope they stay in business.

Bagage

I have started typing up my translation of the Dutch inburgeringscursus Samenleving guide – and it is proving to be a larger project than I thought.  I am putting a few pictures found on the internet, and wondering whether to scan in things from the book itself.

But this seems to merely scratch the surface of what I want to achieve.  There is another book that we use, called CODE, which has again a lot of helpful information.

Maybe the process of going through the book like this is a sort of revision – consolidating what I have learned.  Better hurry up – I have now finished the “translation” in longhand of chapter 1 and we are already working through chapter 5 in class.

Becoming a cloggie

I have signed up for classesto help me learn Dutch – and to learn how the Dutch live.

These are quite interesting – I have started with an inburgeringscursus class – meeting in the evenings.  My classmates are largely from outside the EU, and most are not of my ethnic group.  Quite a few seem to be better at Dutch than I am, except for quite real pronunciation differences.

What is strange about this is that I am clearly an outsider in this country – always will be.  And yet, I am expected to be less of an outsider than the people who are on the course with me.  This is not merely an impression – I am fairly sure that these classes are portrayed to others as being full of people “not  quite of my academic level”  as if I should feel above those people who are in exactly the same position as me  – stranger in a strange land.

It is true to say that I am educated to a high level.  And that in a former life, I was a comparatively highly paid professional.  But now I am not.  I am merely a housewife, living in a country where I do not speak the language well (sometimes I am struck dumb and cannot speak the language at all, other times, I struggle to make myself understood)  and where I will always be looking for clues to give me inferences and nuances, because I cannot get these from the words themselves.

There are two main source books on my current course – one is called Bagage (kennis van de Nederlandse samenleving) ISBN 978 90 469 0071 0 and the other is a course book, complete with CD, with exercises in listening comprehension.

I find the Bagage book most interesting, for its discussion on culture in the Netherlands, even though sometimes it strikes me that the book talks about the Dutch and their society as they wish to be seen – rather than perhaps as they really are.  I suppose no-one likes to see less attractive parts of their own society, but there is a flavour of optimistic virtue about it all that does not seem to account for reality and prejudice.

I am contemplating a project of translating the book, because it is so interesting – not merely for its actual content, but for what it says about how the Dutch wish to be seen.  I’m about halfway through working my way through the pages, armed with a prisma dictionary – would such a translation be too much work?

When in Rome?

Although I have always known my nationality – and more recently discovered that I am English as far back as I can trace, I have never been so fixed in the idea that England (as my home country) does things the best way.

This is despite all the usual Anglo-centric media/history programmes, nature programmes on the BBC.

So it has come as something of a shock to me that I now find myself craving those things that previously I would not have chosen, were I living “back home”.  My latest extraordinary discovery is chips.  Yes – the chips here are the fries variety – that’s fine – it’s just that for a long time I have eaten them with mayonnaise.  In England.  Now I find myself craving salt and vinegar on them, a l’Anglaise…

I find myself craving the English blends used in stock cubes – the Dutch equivalents have different tastes.  Heaven help me when we run out of my English tea bags – I *know* they cannot be purchased here.

I miss the retail culture of England – and I am by no means a person who spends hours shopping.  I mean that customer service – that esssential “customer is always right” mentality that you find on the high street (if not always with utility companies).  That never ending (unless something is wong) desire to help the customer be parted from their money, in as efficient and pleasing way for the customer, so that they will turn up a few days later and repeat the experience.

 

De website van het KNMI – Met office (aka weather)

 

De website van het KNMI.

 

 

Royal Dutch Meteorological Office – equivalent of the Royal Meteorological Office in the UK.

(Weather)