The first time I noticed that the Dutch love to have dinner on the sofa, I was in the shared kitchen of my corridor, and the smell of tomato sauce was coming from the oven. When the timer pinged, my Dutch housemate came into the kitchen, took plates from the cupboard, pulled a steaming dish of homemade lasagne out of the oven and… put it on the coffee table. She called her boyfriend to join her, grabbed two forks and they sat side by side on the couch. I should have taken a picture of this cute Dutch homeliness.
Side by side on the couch – a picture of cute homeliness
Now I’m used to seeing them eating on the sofa and I’m not as surprised as I was the first time. Actually I’ve realized that eating on the sofa is handier because you sit closer to each other and you can move more freely, since you are not bound to a chair and physically separated by a table. Elisa Bongiolatti, a double degree student of Agricultural and Food Economics, from Italy
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NL: Bordje op schoot
Nederlanders zoeken de gekste plekken in huis op om gezellig te eten, viel Elisa Bongiolatti op. Ze wist niet wat ze zag toen een huisgenoot haar verse, zelfgemaakte lasagne aan haar vriend serveerde… op de bank! Aan dat idee van ‘samen met het bordje op schoot op de bank’ moest ze enorm wennen, maar inmiddels vindt ze het eigenlijk best handig. En het is in ieder geval heel knus: op de bank eet je lekker dicht tegen elkaar aan, zonder tafel ertussen die voor fysieke afstand zorgt. Cute Dutch eating habits, noemt ze het.