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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