N is for the Netherlands

 

 

 

New day, new theme, and a new team: Cathelijne van den Berg (Netherlands), Carol Ablaza (Philippines), Marisa Landicho (North America), and Daniel Tabatabai (Hong Kong). Morale is still high in camp.

As a reminder, the Global Shapers theme for 2015 is #Engage so this formed the basis of our blog 6 sessions, 6 letters in engage, each letter will represent a different topic.

Today we asked a group of smiling Global Shapers what they knew about the Netherlands, our wonderful host nation. Accepting the test on how much they knew about the Netherlands was: Dan Chen (Hong Kong), Hermant Chanvan (North America), Willem Hoes (Native – Netherlands).

First, we asked some of our fellow Global Shapers to identify some of these common Dutch foods.

What is hagelslag?

“A hot sausage.” – Dan (Hong Kong)

“Sauerkraut with sausage.” – Hermant (New York)

“Chocolate sprinkles. We eat them on bread” – Willem (Netherlands)

What are poffertjes?

“Chocolate pie.” – Dan (Hong Kong)

“Meatballs?” – Hermant (New York)

“Very small fluffy warm pancakes. You put some butter and powdered sugar on top.” – Willem (Netherlands)

What are dropjes?

“It’s like a self-made ice cream. You put a drink in a cup and put it in the refrigerator, and then turnover the cup to make it drop into an ice cream.” – Dan (Hong Kong)

“Bar snacks. Probably deep-fried with cheese.” – Marisa (California)

“Licorice, a dark colored candy snack. It can be sweet, it can be salty, they can be hard, and they can be soft.” –Willem (Netherlands)

What are stroopwafels?

“Sweet circles.” – Dan (Hong Kong)

“Soap with waffles.” – Hermant (New York)

“It’s a round waffle cookie made from two thin layers, with a sticky caramel syrup filling in the middle.” – Willem (Netherlands)

What are kroketten?

“Is this one the meatball?” – Hermant (New York)

“A deep-fried snack. The savory orbs are battered in a crunchy breadcrumbs and filled with a gooey mixture of chopped beef, herbs, and spices. Kroketten are oblong shaped and often enjoyed on a sandwich. It’s smaller cousins – the ‘Bitterballen’ – are quite the same, but are smaller and round and are more like a snack in cafes and bars.” – Willem (Netherlands)

What is erwtensoep?

“Hot pea soup.” – Hermant (New York)

“Soup. A cold one. With vegetables.” – Marisa (California)

“A soup of peas.” – Willem (Netherlands)

We next put our contributors on the spot, and asked each of them to draw the Dutch flag, from memory: