dutchusa

Two weeks ago I replied to a small contest by the Dutch Embassy on Facebook, “tell us what your Dutch heritage means to you”. I wrote: “Sharing stroopwafels with my colleagues today. And drinks tonight at Mackey’s Pub in DC”.

They awarded all participants with a price, so today I received a beautiful Dutch Design mug in the mail. Thank you, Dutch Embassy!

Today we went to the booksale of the Durham Library, always a nice way to spend a Saturday morning.

Last year I bought a beautiful edition of Rip van Winkle; this year I found another gorgeous Dutch-American book: Tales Told in Holland. Of course, with sites like Abebooks.com and Amazon you can order any book you like on-line, but there is something very satisfying about browsing big piles of books and finding a hidden gem like this.

Published in Chicago, this book is a collection of Dutch stories and nursery rhymes. Stories include Hugo de Groot’s escape in a chest with books and the Lady of Stavoren, as well as many others that I didn’t know. It is really fun to see Dutch children’s rhymes translated into English, including Sinterklaas songs.

The introduction starts like this:

“Tales Told in Holland consists chiefly of stories with a few translations from the greatest Dutch poets and a few old Dutch nursery rhymes, naive and nonsensical as our English rhymes, and contrasting interestingly with the far more sophisticated rhymes of the French. ”

My copy is a first edition from 1926 and thus over 85 years old. It is in good shape for its age and I’m really happy with it.

Tonight I attended two parties for Queen’s Day in New York.

Both drew large crowds; there were hundreds of Dutch people, most of them in orange. Within 5 minutes at the first party somebody spilled beer on me; totally in line with past experiences years ago. It was a lot of fun; I especially enjoyed the second one in Mars 2112, organized by NLBorrels.com.

Queen’s Day is my favorite day in the Netherlands, wonderful memories of Amsterdam.

Today historical linguist Nicoline van der Sijs will present the first copy of her book Cookies, Coleslaw and Stoops on the influence of the Dutch language on American English and the languages of the Native Americans.

The book will be presented in New York City as part of the celebrations of New York's 400 years existence.

"From Santa Claus (after the Dutch folklore saint Sinterklaas) and his sleigh (the pronunciation of the Dutch slee is almost identical) to a dumbhead talking poppycock, the contributions of the Dutch language to American English are indelibly embedded to some of our most vernacular terms and expressions."

The Dutch title is Yankees, Cookies en Dollars -- it's interesting that different words were selected for the Dutch title than for the American title (Cookies, Coleslaw, and Stoops).

Two very interesting art exhibitions will open for the public in New York City this week.

First, Vermeer’s famous melkmeisje painting will be in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and there’ll be a beautiful display with all five of the Met’s Vermeer paintings. This exhibition will run from September 10 through November 29.

Second, the South Street Seaport museum in NYC will have a exhibition on New Amsterdam, the first settlement on Manhattan. The Schaghen letter is on loan to the museum. The Schaghen letter is usually in the National Archives of the Netherlands in The Hague, it contains the earliest known reference to the ‘sale’ of Manhattan to the Dutch. New Amsterdam: The Island at the Center of the World will run from September 12, 2009 to January 3, 2010.

Finally, don’t forget the Judith Leyster exhibition in Washington D.C. that we wrote about earlier; it will be on display through November 29.

On a related note: the North Carolina Museum of Art will close its doors for a renovation this Labor Day; it will reopen in April 2010.

“‘Ve-le-is-sing-nen.’ (Or so it sounded to us.) That was definitely a V sound in the beginning, but then it got lost in a slosh of vowels and S’s.”

The New York Times has an interview with Ms. Jones-Bos, the Dutch ambassador to the United States to talk about the Dutch pronunciation of names in NYC.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/dutch-pronounciations/?hp

Another quote:

“‘Bowery? In the original Dutch, it was was “bouwerij,” which had an intimidating ending for an English speaker.”

The interviews also links to this funny article: Breuckelen Express (Breuckelen is the original name for Brooklyn).

Here’s a nice example of a cross-over food: Dutch style hagelslag, produced in Indonesia and imported into the United States.

The packaging has an image of a girl on a bike, and it says “smulpaapjes” on the side — clear pointers to a Dutch heritage.

Hagelslag is a very popular sandwich topping in the Netherlands. In the US it is referred to as ‘jimmies’ or ‘chocolate sprinkles’ but is not typically used for sandwiches but more for cake decorating.

I saw this hagelslag last week in Grand Asia Market in Cary, NC; it’s also available online. I brought a package from the Netherlands and that will last us a long time, so I won’t try the Indonesian product anytime soon.

Tonight I attended the rijsttafel dinner organized by the Dutch club in the Triangle, De Wieken.

There were at least 40 people and a large variety of food. I especially liked an Indonesian ‘salad’ consisting of mixed rice, shrimp, currants and chopped vegetables. There was a huge bag with krupuk. True to Dutch habit, the evening started at 5.00 pm and dinner was served pretty much right away. Quite a difference with yesterday’s dinner. The party was in a club house of a community in North Raleigh, about 30 minutes away from us.

I brought some of the serundeng I made earlier this week and beets pickled based on a recipe my parents gave me, atjar beet. The latter worked out really well; with a subtle delicious flavor.

Someone I spoke with, of Indonesian descent, recommended a new store in Raleigh that carries a lot of real Indonesian ingredients, including dried shrimp paste (trassi), something I’ve been looking for for a while. I’ll check it out next week.

It was a nice, relaxed evening and I enjoyed the company a lot.

Next to the bookstore in the National Gallery of Art there is a lunch restaurant.

When we walked by it I was surprised to see a menu in Dutch, with dishes such as gebakken vis and rode kool. In line with the exhibition, the menu was in Dutch style and the restaurant was temporarily called “Cafe Amsterdam”.

We had already had lunch so we didn’t eat, but the appeltaart was on a buffet and looked very authentic. According to the menu there was also boterboek and flensjes with apples.

“But can New York revert to New Amsterdam?”

The New York Times has an article about Dutch bikes, which ‘may be the first status symbol of the Great Downturn’:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/fashion/16CODES.html?em=&pagewanted=all