July 2025
Hello Dear Reader // Hoi lieve lezer,
Thanks for subscribing to our Kaapsche Hollandsche Monthly Table Talk.
Last month (click here) you may read all about how to become what you behold.
But this month we say Cheese!
My guess is- if you ask women what they prefer and give them a choice between a single dish or a cheese platter-they choose the platter.
Why?
Because we generally like variation, small portions and different flavours.
Or is it just me?
This month is the Hollandsche Summer July Month, where I await my long anticipated travels to The Netherlands.
Visit my parents, sister, family and friends.
Breathe in fresh cut Summer grass, enjoy long evenings of natural light and wind in my hair on a bicycle.
But coming back to a typical Dutch Cheese-platter.
Get out your woodwork.
(Think biggest tray, plankie or any wood surface.)
Gather your must have friends:
Boerenkaas:
A farmhouse cheese, traditionally made from unpasteurized milk, offering a rich and complex flavour. You can’t go wrong with this.
(Jong belegen, belegen en oud)
Gouda:
A versatile cheese with a range of flavors depending on its age. Young Gouda is mild, while aged Gouda develops a nutty, caramelly flavor – go for older and maturer.
Geitenkaas:
White goat cheese. Mature or young.
Cream Cheese with herbs.
Mustard.
Boeren or Zaanse.
Amsterdamse uitjes
A pot of silver-coloured or yellow coloured small sour onions
Komkommer & Appels
Cucumber in different shapes, for the green effort. Cut apples for the sweet effect.
Biscuits or stokbrood to accompany the good cheese.
Pile it all on the board.
Carry your best wine glasses, gather the friends around a nice candle lit table.
Light a fire and sip the red wine.
I will be thinking of you when I am out in the open air celebrating my Dutch inheritance.
But rest assured, Kaapsche is equally deep in my roots and after the proposed 10 days of Dutch Tourism I am more than happy to leave the Crazy Dutch and go back to my African Roots.
When I set my foot back into Cape Town International Airport my multi coloured brothers and sisters say to me:
“Welcome back mevrou!”
How priceless is that.
Guess what will be my August Table Talk…
Some good gossip from the Netherlands I reckon.
Start making memories around your table, it will make you truly rich.
Met liefde en groetjes,
Nelleke
