Casual
MATUS, VICTORINO
Casual DUTCH TREAT Years ago, a scientific study of the Eskimos of Greenland concluded that a diet rich in fish oils could help reduce the risk of heart disease. This, in turn, led to a surge in...
...I'm guessing now I'll have to step up my own workout routine, for as my brother-in-law enthusiastically pointed out, "Those waffles are the good ones—they're made with real butter...
...When we first arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, our hosts took us to a café for some coffee (a "regular" packs the punch of a quadruple espresso) and a dainty-looking pastry called saucijzenbroodje...
...No surprise, this too was deep-fried and contained a sausage-paste filling...
...At a cookout later that day, we hunkered down for some fresh herring, pork shish kabobs, and the coup de grâce, the frikadel, or fried sausage...
...These had to be the best I've tasted, golden-crisp on the outside, tender-white on the inside...
...But I did see the wondrous windmills of Kinderdijk and stroll down the cobblestone paths of Dordrecht, a town more than a thousand years old...
...What other explanation is there...
...And they like to eat...
...the tallest in the world, according to some...
...Some of the music was techno, but a lot of it was old American Top 40, including Billy Joel and Bon Jovi...
...The findings would surely cause a sharp increase in the sales of fried food and bicycles...
...Underneath its flaky crust, lo and behold, was a butterflied piece of sausage...
...As the Dutch are quick to point out, there is more to the Netherlands than just Amsterdam...
...We saw where the pilgrims embarked for Plymouth and stopped for some patat or fries...
...It's true the Dutch enjoy the good life—I haven't even gotten to the beers, such as Dommelsch and Heineken (their domestic version is far superior to the one they export here...
...Zigeuner means "gypsy," although it is unclear if actual gypsies make the sauce...
...Even 89-year-old Opa looked svelte as he sliced into his golden-brown kroket, savoring every bite of it...
...Yet as I looked around the table, not one of my new Dutch relatives was overweight...
...I went to one in Rotterdam called Plan C, which must have stood for Cancer, considering all the cigarette smoke inside...
...Before we departed, one of the Dutch grandmothers, now in her mid-80s and living proof of this country's unique health regimen, gave me a bag of stroopwafel—sugar waffles stuck together with chewy caramel...
...They are a giant people, the Dutch...
...Okay, it was...
...I found out there's nothing quite like a room packed with Dutch kids singing "Living on a Prayer...
...My family and I recently spent four days in Holland (or the Netherlands, no one knows for sure...
...I hate to give the impression that my trip to Holland was mostly about eating...
...It's a shame scientists haven't done a separate study on the people of the Netherlands...
...The next day we took a trip to Rotterdam...
...We were visiting my sister's new Dutch in-laws, who live in the bucolic town of Papendrecht, southeast of Rotterdam...
...When Tijdloos shut down, some of my new Dutch friends took me to their version of a late-night diner, called the Samaria Shoarma, where we devoured warm pitas stuffed with fried lamb strips, slathered with garlic-yogurt sauce...
...A more interesting locale was Papendrecht's own bar/restaurant, Tijdloos (the name means "timeless"), with its larger-than-life cutouts of Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, and Ronald Reagan...
...Just one saucijzenbroodje will give you that extra oomph needed for a long day's journey...
...Dinner was served, buffet-style, and it included liverwurst, fresh meats and cheeses, something similar to onion rings, and another Dutch fave, the kroket...
...They came with a mayonnaise, which tasted kind of like a salad dressing...
...This, in turn, led to a surge in demand for fatty fish like wild salmon...
...Can a concentrated diet of frikadels and krokets help you lose weight and live longer...
...VICTORINO MATUS...
...So I'll have to go back...
...It goes excellently with a tangy Zigeuner sauce...
...Quite lekker, as the Dutch say, even if this sausage treat would make the head spin on your average American nutritionist...
...Sure, the Dutch like their dance clubs, but there's barely room to dance in them...
...I told myself it was Weight Watchers' low-fat ranch as I doused my fries with it...
...True enough, I didn't see a single addict shooting up or any hookers advertising their wares in store-front windows...
...I had two...
...Could it be that I had stumbled onto a nutritional breakthrough rivaling that of the Greenland Eskimos...
...The answer is a qualified yes...
...So after careful analysis, I have concluded this to be the secret of the Dutch diet: a healthy mix of biking, walking, and fried sausages...
...Allow me to explain...
...But the Dutch also like to ride bikes and take long walks...
...The next night my in-laws held a reception for our family...
Vol. 10 • July 2005 • No. 42
