Cheesy option
Top quality Dutch specialities are on offer from Bucharest’s
classiest man in a van, finds Michael Bird
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Parking his van decorated with red, white and blue bunting on Pipera’s Strada Iancu Nicolae on Thursday mornings, Dutch emigre Jakob Cornielje wraps on his apron, chalks in the latest offers on his blackboard and opens up his refrigerator to release the rich aromas of fresh and mature cheese spiced with paprika, olives, garlic and mustard.
Balancing a funnel over a hot baking tray, he then eases out pancake mixture into small dimples. Rising from the sizzling plate are fresh Poffertjes, bite-size discs eaten with icing sugar and butter. The tiny van also trades in 30 per cent proof orange-coloured bitter, de Kuyper, and raisin-filled doughnuts, known as Oliebollen, which literally means ‘Oily Balls’.
After two months of activity, former baker Cornielje has quickly cornered the market in a bijou enterprise serving up top Dutch nosh to select customers, parties and festivals.
This fills a gap in the local market for foreign cheese, where the British palate is satisfied by Bucharest-based Expat Shop’s online dealer of cheddar and stilton, while French gastronomes can indulge in Delicateria Traiteur’s selection of Roquefort, Manchego and Saint Nectaire.
Cornielje’s next step is to expand to Brasov, where there is a large German community waiting to gobble up Dutch cheese.
The entrepreneur also wants to resume his weekly residence in the exclusive zone of Aleea Alexandru, a residential street rich in embassies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the house of Gigi Becali, millionaire financier of Steaua football club.
But the mean authorities have kicked out his van from the area - although it is not very clear what threat could be posed to Bucharest’s most heavily patrolled street by a Dutch man selling gouda and oily balls.
Olandez
j.cornielje@yahoo.com
