De Zoet(ste) Pannekoeken

© Fiep Westendorp

I believe that no matter where Dutch people go, whether on holiday or on a more permanent basis, we will always have pancakes. They are so simple, have been around for centuries and are ingrained in our lives. First they are made for us, by parents and camp directors and Kapitein Koek (a brand of readymade, store bought pancakes). Then we learn how to make them ourselves. My parents taught me the basics, but I'm not kidding when I say we actually learn this in school as well. A household management class teaches us how to pay taxes, budget our income, plan parenthood, and prepare one meal: pancakes. I'm currently in the phase where I bake them to my own personal taste (I like to call this perfection) almost every other week.

These are the ones I made this week.

And maybe someday, there will be a time when I teach my children and grandchildren how to make them, and the cycle starts anew.

Having moved away from home, I understand that feeling of wanting to hold on to something familiar. In The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, this is exactly what happens. Only the year is 1799, the country Japan, and the right ingredients hard to come by, apparently. On the breakfast menu are "improvised pancakes." That, and "gritty bread," "rancid butter," sauerkraut, "a well-traveled round of Edam" (yes, we love our cheese so much, we'd bring it on a journey halfway across the world), "sour apples," and coffee. All of this is consumed by a crowd of well-traveled, gritty, rancid, sour crewman from Ireland, Prussia, and various areas in what is now known as The Netherlands. They all seem to be represented in this odd pot-luck breakfast. And I believe food is used to represent character throughout.

This comes from a book set in a time and place where food is of great importance. Granted, the 'Golden Age' for the VOC (Dutch East Indies Trading Company) was long gone, but sugar and spices were still being shipped halfway across the world. Jacob de Zoet, the novel's protagonist and a young clerk, is tasked with piecing together "the factory accounts" in search of fraud and embezzlement. 

Every chapter opens with a Roman numeral, a location, and the time and date. Mitchell often uses meals to indicate the time of day with things like "before breakfast" and "after lunch". He clearly understands food to be the basis of our days, of our lives. And interestingly enough, he doesn't shy away from any other physical themes and bodily functions either. 

When his characters discuss the turbulent political situation in the Netherlands of the time, De Zoet remarks: "most care more about food in their bellies and peace in the land." I think this is true for most of us.