I bought a carton of vanille vla (pronounced as ‘fla’) in Amsterdam, thinking it was vanilla-flavoured milk. So when I opened the carton and poured the vla into my cup, I was shocked to see a thick yellowish substance pour out slowly.
“Has the milk gone bad?” I wondered.
I took a whiff of the stuff and I was puzzled because it smelled wonderful. Very vanilla-y. So I took a small sip (if you can sip a substance slightly thicker than yogurt). It tasted all right. That’s when I knew vla is not milk.
Photo from FriescheVlag.nl
I found out later on that vla is custard :P
The photo here is from FriescheVlag.nl (that’s Frisian Flag in English) and would have helped me somewhat because of the bowl illustration. But the particular brand that I bought only had a cow, I think. So it could have been milk, if I were to depend on the packaging design.
So the next time I wanted to buy milk, I carefully looked at the label to check if it was vla or melk. The bottle said karne melk, 0% vet. Okay, some progress here. Melk = milk. 0% vet = 0% fat. Right?
Wrong! Karne melk turned out to be this thin, slightly sourish milk drink. It’s said to be the milk that’s left behind after all the butter’s been churned out. It tasted a bit like plain lassi (yogurt drink) and was quite pleasant. But it still wasn’t milk.
Dutch language learned the hard way. But you can be sure I’ll never forget melk, karne melk and vla ever again!
June 9th, 2009 at 19:52
I am also learning! Thanks for sharing.
June 10th, 2009 at 00:02
Custard in a tetra pak? Wow! I wonder how it’s usually eaten if it’s pourable like that. I hope to see more travel posts since you are racking up serious air miles hopping all over the world!
June 10th, 2009 at 04:34
next tràvel hope not in frànce, becàuse you will see the worst, hàhàhà
ok i leàrn nà rin nà àng kàrne sà kànilà hindi beef, àhihihihi
June 10th, 2009 at 14:40
melk=milk, vet-fat, I learned too, hahaha… more of this maybe?
June 10th, 2009 at 16:52
J: Yes, I never expected to find custard inside a tetra pak. I hope Odette reads this and can enlighten us on the intricacies of eating vla ;)
Sheng: There will be one more post related to the Dutch language. Soon! Hehe.
June 10th, 2009 at 18:19
milk is usually in plastic jugs. ^-^
what i couldn’t find in the grocery before was vinegar, because in dutch it’s azijn (azayn’). argh.
June 10th, 2009 at 22:35
I would’ve thought “melk” was milk too. Blame my childhood: There was this very popular TV commercial kase during the 80’s that got etched in my memory forever.
Yung part na may nanay na nagsabing, “It’s Leberti Condensed Melk!”
March 3rd, 2010 at 20:59
mas magaling pala aku sa inyo sa Dutch language! here is my contribution to your lesson:
volle melk= full milk
half volle melk= ( it’s not half filled milk but) 50% less fat milk
volle= full
half volle = half full milk