Yesterday I blogged about some peculiarities of food, diner invitations and all that. I hinted towards some details around diner, lunch and breakfast. But since the post was getting longer than I initially anticipated and I don't like to edit my posts after I'm done typing I just decided that I would cover some more eating in my next post, which is this one.
So the other day I noticed that again some of my colleagues had pizza around 5 PM. They call it 5 PM here instead of 17:00 hrs, which I quickly took over because my driver understands 5 PM better than 17:00 hrs and I'd rather ... well that's besides the point.
So these colleagues were having pizza again, they typically have junk food around 5 PM and I gave up commenting on that. For one, they also have an espresso machine that help me get my daily caffeine fix from freshly brewed espresso's. But I noticed that they all stay for just a little while longer and then head home or wherever they go after work. One of them I knew he is married with children, and as it turns out only one of the three actually is single and understandably eats out all the time. So what were these other two doing every day, working late and having junk food at the office. Didn't they want to spend time with the family? Are their wives such bad cooks that Papa John's pizza is a better alternative, even McDonalds?
Turns out that they were having pre-lunch at the office. Meaning that they were having a late lunch, which I call a brunch and have at around 3 PM not at 5 PM, because that's diner. And actually they don't have lunch either, they have a pre-lunch. Sort of a snack to fire up the ol' metabolism. Back at home they would have lunch... only to have diner somewhere after midnight or at least late at night. Weird to say the least because that doesn't leave much time for a late night snack... and indeed they do have late night snacks as well, sometimes. These colleagues of mine.
I don't dare to ask about breakfast, because there's no time left in the day to have breakfast, more over because I don't see them eat in the office before their pre-lunch.
But by now you should've guesed what I've been considering all this time... they don't eat during the day. Well, only if you consider that 5 PM is evening, which is true for many Dutch people because they have diner around 5-5:30 PM. So they're training for Ramadan, that's my guess. They're actaully preparing the whole year for getting through Ramadan without too much suffering. Considering that food is playing a huge part in their social lives (see my previous post here), it is crucial I guess to get through the days where eating is only allowed after the sun has set and before the sun rises again. Actually everything that can be considered consuming nutritious stuff is prohibited, including drinking and smoking as well as eating.
So everything aside, when I'm having lunch, sometime around noon. I am having a sandwich with, currently, blue berry jam, and my colleagues are having nothing. They have their pre-lunch at around 5 PM, when I have, well nothing or maybe a cookie.
Guess Egyptians and Dutchies are not exactly the same after all.
Iwan
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