interesting, cultural differences...?

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B&B netherlands
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interesting, cultural differences...?

Post by B&B netherlands »

serving breakfast to my guests, i try to satisfy people from everywhere.

my breakfast (standard) per person consists of 3 good quality bake off rolls, served hot, good quality orange juice, a boiled egg, a knob of fresh butter (i hate the one-person-pack thingies), slices of dutch cheese, two different kinds of cold meat (ham, salami, chicken breast, turkey breast, or seasoned 'rollade', don't know if that is understood by non-dutchies?), some home made jam and every room has a small box of 'chocolate sprinkles' and a jar of peanut butter. i buy things like biscuits, soft rolls, 'beschuiten', black rye bread, knackebrod, to fill up the breadbasket - nobody could honestly say 'they left the place still feeling hungry'.

right.

the spanish of course, were usually not happy with my 'normal size' IKEA-coffee mugs and twice ruined a kettle by boiling milk in it. they do not eat cheese it seems and take the bottled orange juice with them. they prefer sweet rolls, which we do not have here.

the dutch eat two of the rolls and pack the third one in the cling film covering the platter with cheese and cold meat and take it with them. they never leave anything, and many times 'just take' my plastic eggs spoons to eat a yoghurt later that day.

the french - i will give an example, recently observed. as they booked through a site for cyclists, they expected to eat at my private breakfast table - always a good reason to clean up my living room ;-)

they minutely cut up the boiled eggs. 'filled' a slice of ham with the crumbled egg, and topped it with a slice of cheese, cut into minute pieces and ate it that way, with a roll torn in pieces. the presented sweet rolls were also torn to pieces, and dipped into their coffee or milk.

they did not want butter.

i am having a young american couple at the moment.

'what a gorgeous breakfast you served us!'

again: no butter, cut or tore up the cold meat in tiny pieces, and were wondering about the slices of cheese 'as we don't know it that way - is it typically dutch...?'

only scandinavians seem to understand the concept of a) cutting a roll open, b) spread some butter on it and c) put in between the two halves, the preferred cheese or cold meat, and eat it.

last year had a guest from china, a sportsman. he ordered breakfast: 'only fruits, and a large bowl of freshly cooked chinese noodles.' of course, he brought tons of vitamins and other pills with him...

allergies for milk and cheese, allergies for nuts, allergies for whatever... WHY don't people mention that when they BOOK???

still, i really do love my guests.
rammy100
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Post by rammy100 »

You made me laugh B&B. I am British but I love Dutch breakfast (although with only cheese as I don't eat meat). If I ever have an early flight out of Schipol I will book your place.

I used to visit Amsterdam regularly when I was younger and always filled up on breakfast that was always served until lunchtime. Those were the days.....

You reminded me of some lovely Vietnamese who stayed at my place last year. They were only there for 3 days but the kitchen was like a restaurant, packed full of meat, vegetables and a rice steamer that mum and dad had brought over especially. They had their own chinese-style bowls and spoons. Crazy lovely people.
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B&B netherlands
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Post by B&B netherlands »

rammy - very welcome of course!

i even have a 'secret source' of supplying pieces of farmers cheese not sliced and packed in plastic (please keep this info under your hat)

and i am NOT a hostel, my breakfast times are more like 'get up and go, or i'll kick you out at 10 am.'

honestly - these french guests at my personal breakfast table, made me a bit... wanting to throw up.

nice to see they felt perfectably happy to dip and 'slurp' - but i think dutchies left that 'bad habit' since the times that vincent van gogh painted the poorest of the poor.

all culturally connected.

but slightly different, and with the left overs, i feed the local ducks and their offspring (the ever present crows and gulls eat the left over ham etc, i am really ecologically/economically doing my very best)
tavi
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Post by tavi »

mmm I'm starving now, after reading your breakfast menu b&b.

I'm English and I was always taught it was good manners
to break your roll or croissant into small pieces and put jam or butter on each small piece individually!

..how about the Spanish and their fresh garlic and tomato rubbed onto a piece of toast? - or is that mainly in the South?

I'm off to rummage through my fridge
:lol:
rammy100
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Post by rammy100 »

10am B&B? But you are in Amsterdam where the good clubs don't get busy til 1am or probably later. Throwing me out at 10am is a little harsh.

We used to get home at 5 or 6am. I was a little younger then though and I'm more inclined to be home earlier these days.

I promise to behave though as long as I get some of the "secretly sourced" cheese.
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AndrewH
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Re: interesting, cultural differences...?

Post by AndrewH »

B&B netherlands wrote:... and every room has a small box of 'chocolate sprinkles' ...
My Dutch daughter-in-law told me about 'chocolate sprinkles' and I thought she might be having me on. As I understood it they are what the English call chocolate 'hundreds and thousands' for decorating cakes and she said you spread them over buttered toast.

We had Dutch guests a few years ago and I put a packet of these in the fridge for them. They remained untouched. I still wonder if I had offended them and it was a kind of Dutch joke.
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PW in Polemi
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Post by PW in Polemi »

I remember that, having learnt about Dutch cheese in Utrecht on an exchange holiday when I was 15 (yes, I can remember that far back :shock: ), when I started doing a paper round at weekends to earn a bit of cash, my breakfast would be a slice of bread, buttered, spread with marmalade topped with Edam cheese and a further buttered slice of bread. Set me up for a hard morning's work :lol: :lol:

To this day, I still enjoy cheese and marmalade together, although it's more likely to be on unbuttered rye crispbreads, and the marmalade is currently ginger preserve. :)

A typical Cypriot breakfast seems to consist of mammoth quantities of village bread (the loaf is similar in shape to a cow pat :oops: :shock: ) accompanied by fresh cucumber and chunks of halloumi cheese (the squeaky teeth cheese :D ), all washed down with a cup of Cypriot coffee and a glass of water.
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Fleur
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Post by Fleur »

.".how about the Spanish and their fresh garlic and tomato rubbed onto a piece of toast? - or is that mainly in the South? "


I love this Spanish breakfast but it's been in the North of Spain that I've tried it.
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Mouse
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Post by Mouse »

It's called pan con tomate and I love it!

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e-richard
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Post by e-richard »

Just wait till you have some Japanese staying with you. Their expectations are quite different:

Typical Japanese breakfast

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PW in Polemi
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Post by PW in Polemi »

How do you eat a fried egg with chopsticks????? :shock:
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pambon
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Post by pambon »

Italians? The easiest of all - just give them a proper espresso . They don't eat before lunch!
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Post by Nightowl »

When we stay at our spanish house we go to the beach and sit in one of the beachfront bars for sunday brekkie.. I like their molletas (a soft round bread roll made with a milk dough, I think). I like mine toasted with either pate or jam (or both, one slice of each), my other half likes the tomato /garlic / olive oil combo.

one of my other favourite spanish brekkies is churros and coffee (but I NEVER dip my churros in my coffeee...erkkkk)

When we have stayed in small hotels when we drive down from Santander, breakfast is normally cheeses, salami, serrano ham, molletas, orange juice and coffee.

you are right though, the spanish don't seem to use kettles... when we first bought the house 10 years ago, we couldn't find a kettle in any of the shops - had to buy one in Gibraltar. A few electrical shops seem to do them now though.
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Casscat
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Post by Casscat »

I love hotel breakfasts where you get a vast buffet to choose from, and it is interesting to see how choices do often run along nationality lines. Many Brits will go for the 'full cooked breakfast' option packing in plenty of solid ballast but would throw up their hands in horror at the prospect of all the sweet pastries the Germans seem to like at breakfast. I have stayed at the Balcon de Europa Hotel in Nerja a few times when I was over in Spain house hunting and their breakfast was extraordinarily good. For me it was generally a fry up (because I follow a LCHF diet so avoid starchy and sugary carbs) with Bucks Fizz and lots of black coffee. However the best thing was the view - just amazing. Here is my brekkie (friend had the cereal & fruit)

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Eggs, bacon, sausages and mushrooms - nomnom! :mrgreen:
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pambon
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Post by pambon »

My personal favourite brekkie is warm French croissant with Danish Lurpak butter, freshly squeezed Sicilian orange juice with loads of Italian espresso coffee. Delicious!
When on holiday I love trying out new foods presented to me at any meal time except meats as I'm a veggie. Anything goes, almost!
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