In Brabant you never have to search for a fries tent for long. Even in the smallest municipalities of our provinces, the scent of frying fat comes from all corners. In some municipalities, such as Geertruidenberg and Eindhoven, you are at the counter within 500 meters. “Here fries is really in the culture,” says Frietjournalist and expert Ubel Zuiderveld.
He himself comes from the north, but since he delved into the fries culture, he no longer ordered fries. “That is conscious: fries belong to the south. Gere honor who deserves honor.” But why are there so many more fries tents in the south than in other provinces?
“Breda is still a very fascinating fries city.”
Even in the rest of the country, residents often do not have to travel far to visit the snack bar, but there is not much common. Zuiderveld knows why: “It has to do with the Burgundian background. You can even say that fries is something Catholic,” he says.
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The potato once came to our country about five centuries ago, about five centuries ago, he says. “At first, people were afraid that he was toxic and ignored him. The Catholic Church then put him on the map.”
When the Belgians started cutting the potatoes into strips around 1840 and threw in the fat, the Bredan people followed quickly. “As early as 1868 there was the first fries tent. Elsewhere in the Netherlands you did not see that at the time, and certainly in the Calvinist north it took a long time for fries to enter the food culture.”
Breda remained a ‘fat’ chip shop, according to Zuiderveld. “Some things, such as cafeteria schraven, have been baking in the same place for ninety years.”
“Brabant really has a different fries culture, so we eat it without feeling guilty.”
He also strikes that Brabant people eat outside more often. “On Sunday afternoon the pub is still packed in both Brabant cities and villages. That Burgundian culture and living outside the door is slowly seeing more and more throughout the country, but really started in Z,” says Zuiderveld.
He recently spoke with a hospitality entrepreneur who has things throughout the country: “In Brabant, doing business is the easiest,” she told Zuiderveld.
Moreover, there is less guilt about chip shop in the south. “In the north it is sometimes a guilty pleasure, here it just belongs a bit more.” For many families, the regular fries day is not for nothing with bold letters in the agenda.
“Zuiderlingen not only calls fries different, they also eat it differently, and have a fixed fries day.”
Also about taste can be argued between the so -called ‘above and below the rivers’. Stew or ‘sour meat’ is popular here, much less in the Randstad. “In the south, snack factories often originated from butchers. This gives you croquettes with fresh wire meat or minced meat. In the Randstad they often come from bakeries, with cubes of meat and weighed portions.”
And then the name: in the south we just say fries tent. Elsewhere, according to Zuiderveld, you can hear snack bar or cafeteria more often. Although the Netherlands is becoming more and more alike and the differences are slowly fading, the south, according to him, keeps holding its own fries culture. With a wink, he cites the words of the deceased Oisterwijk top chef Cas Spijkers: “Thin chefs cannot be trusted.” Zuiderveld: “That actually perfectly summarizes the Burgundian South.”
