Have a look at this picture; can you make sense of it? This is what we sometimes do, and we call it a pick nick. We put the table aside in the living room at dinner time, and spread out our pick nick cloth with our plastic pick nick plates. After that we just put everything edible we can find on it. This ranges from French cheeses to chocolate chip cookies. From carrots to pizza, from olives to pistachio nuts, from bread to yoghurt, from quiche to tomato’s, from wine to apple juice, from hot dogs to crackers, from cucumber to tortilla’s, from corn to plain pasta… Everybody sits down on the floor and can pick whatever he likes. Sure enough the kids load way too much food on the plates because it all looks so inviting. And this is about the only occasion that they don’t have to finish their plate. Usually the boys will say things like: “this is the best dinner this week”, or “we have so much fun this night!” This Saturday Nils even said: “you’re the best pappa and mamma in the world”.
For all my American friends: this is not typical European, this is not even typical Dutch. I just invented it when we moved to Prague, lived in a very nice but hot apartment without garden/balcony and Romke all the time on business trip. Back then it was only hotdogs and corn and some desert I think, but already a big success.
