Sure, I am Always Talkin’ Food, but I teach NT2 (Dutch as a second language) on the side. Mainly to young foreigners who came to Amsterdam for or with love and intend to stay. For privacy reasons the names in these columns are fictitious.
‘Dit was de eerste Amsterdamse arbeidersbuurt!’
(This was Amsterdam's first working-class neighborhood)
As she approaches, the woman lifts her cognac-colored pygmy dog in her arms, looking like she isn’t going anywhere soon.
She had seen our group studying the placard of housing corporation “Eigen Haard, 1910” (your own hearth, 1910).
We are on a field trip in the Indische buurt, a neighborhood in the east of Amsterdam.
The route passes several recently renovated low-rise blocks of workers' houses. In the early 1900s these were built by Amsterdam housing associations with the aim of improving the living conditions of the working class.
Hence “Eigen Haard”.
’I was born right around the corner,’ the woman (bleached hair, tan) continues in her Amsterdam dialect. ‘Now I live in this street. And I'm never gonna leave. I'm over 60 and I've seen this quarter change, from good to bad and back. But no matter what, it will always be my neighborhood.’
She tickles her doggie under his chin.
’Do you know that for two floors my parents paid only 100 gulden in rent? Of course, back then we had the gulden. Now I pay a little over 400 euros. But I have a private garden of 109 square meters by the water. The swans eat right out of my hand.’
My students listen attentively. Their puzzled looks suggest not everything is well understood.
’In the next block over there, they recently built owner-occupied homes,’ the woman points, still talking in Dutch.
’Those are sold for nine tons, some for a million and a half euros. And no garden! No, I'm perfectly fine here.’
As we tentatively try to move on, the woman has one last card up her sleeve: ‘I really feel sorry for you younger generations. You can no longer find affordable housing. What I have here, nobody gets anymore. That's over. Done.’
This last remark is something my students, who are all looking for a house, do understand.
’Great, you've already talked to a local, as was the assignment for today,’ I say cheerily as we continue our field trip.
Le French food
The Indische buurt has undeniably gentrified over the past decade. Yet, you will find all demographic groups here. Javastraat in particular is a diverse shopping and restaurant street, where you can just as easily shop for Turkish delicatessen as have a flat white coffee with yellow split pea milk.
One of the latest additions is Le French Café. Strange as it may sound, Amsterdam’s streets are not paved with Parisian-style bistros like London or New York.
At least, until now. The newly opened Le French Café breathes that Parisian joie de vivre, paired with a menu full of French (and some other) classics, like oeufs mayo and croque monsieur for lunch, and a plateau fruits de mer, confit de canard or cabillaud au beurre blanc for dinner.
Le French Café, Javastraat 42 Amsterdam. Open: Sun-Thur 9 AM-1 AM, Fri-Sat 9 AM-3 AM.
Le French food lingo
Le croque monsieur - de tosti ham/kaas met bechamelsaus
Le plateau fruits de mer - de zeevruchtenschotel
Le confit de canard - de gekonfijte eend
Le cabillaud au beurre blanc - de kabeljauw met botersaus