7x how a Frenchman thinks we eat

I read an incredibly fun article on Frankrijk.nl by a guest columnist, a Frenchman who has lived in the Netherlands for years. He certainly picked up some things from our food culture (he was doing great with drinking beer), but there were also things that continued to baffle him. I also lived close to the French for a while, so I know that they often look at our eating habits with raised eyebrows. Here are a few highlights.

1. Our sandwiches
In general, taking your lunch in a lunchbox and then just that boring bread that is so thinly topped. In France, you sometimes eat a sandwich, but it is so thickly topped that the top and bottom are a centimeter apart.

They call our lunch a kind of second breakfast. And they also find it very strange that we eat it at our desks and finish it in a quarter of an hour.

2. The fryer
Yes, they also eat fries, but only with something and not fries as a kind of main dish with something else fried. So fries and a croquette or fries and a bear claw or a cheese soufflé. And oh yes, that we display our unfried goods in a kind of snack bar showcase is of course also quite strange, when you look at it that way.

3. Raw herring with onions
In that respect, I am also a Frenchwoman because I find it disgusting in everything. The rawness, the way of eating, the raw onions. Brr...

4. Applesauce
They eat that at most as a dessert. And that we sometimes dip our fries in the applesauce, they understand nothing of.

5. Coffee all day long
And in the evening too, and then close. The French also find it strange that we Dutch just order a chocolate milk after dinner. They understand nothing of it.

6. Snacks
We are into cookies and pastries, they eat three times a day and that's it.

7. Shared dining
I remember a colleague had reserved a nice restaurant for an important delegation from France. When they found out it was shared dining, it had to be rebooked. Shared dining is for a Frenchman almost as big a horror as all you can eat.