Quote of the Week: Onions
The following takes place between the hours of 10:56pm and 10:58pm while walking through Amsterdam’s flower market with a friend visiting from England:
Friend
(Commenting on one of the flower stands)
“Wow. That is a lot of onions.”
Pause
Me
(With one eyebrow raised)
“You do realize those are tulip bulbs and not onions… right?”
Friend
(Looking embarrassed)
“Oh…”
Me
(Trying not to laugh)
“You do know we are in the flower market… right?”
Friend
(Looking more embarrassed)
“Yeah.”
I’ve been taking the mickey out of him about it ever since.
I think this one deserves a ‘dubya tee eff”.
Stavanger – I had to look that one up in the urban dictionary before I realized it meant WTF :)
You know, in the old days during the Second World War, Dutch people tried eating those tullip bulbs. Maybe that’s what your friend was referring to? ;-) Or maybe not…
I don’t think they taste so good, though, since nobody tried it since.
it’s an easy enough mistake to make. i’d have probably said the same thing too.
Those tulips can make you cry even more than the onions though
He must have thought there was an amazing variety of onions at this market..;-)
sorry, i will be bad with your friend, “how’s that possible??” my god it seems he/she would have to be absolutely in his/her world (dreaming) to not realize EVERYTHING there are flowers!! or maybe your friend is an absolute urban person??
god, amazing but very funny! you didn’t laugh? you are the best friend in the world!
It’s not funny to take the piss out of people less intelligent that yourself. (But I do so enjoy it!)
They do look like onions! It’s true!
no no, no ‘less intelligent’ I didn’t mean that, just very absent minded, or very urban! … or very imaginative, or maybe interesting? OMG Stuart introduce me to your friend!!! :D
Could I be the first to say “you obviously know your onions.”
(I think this is a common expression. Could just be something my mum used to say though!)
Sometimes, silence really IS golden.
Should have used them in cooking! :P
Emiel – From the look on his face I don’t think he realized that
zed – Do you know my friend then :p
VallyP – He’d never seen a bigger selection :p
sophie – *trying not to laugh*
Keith – Sometimes it can’t be helped
BlondebutBright – They do but the context they were in (flower market) should have given him a clue.
Alan – My mum seems to know it too
Nava – and it would have made him seem less silly.
ChickyBabe – Next time I cook I’ll use them instead of onions and see what happens :p
This is hilarious! But onions are so popular in NL I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there is an onion only market stall. If a haring stall ran out of haring would it really be a problem all you can taste is bread and haring in one of those haring broodje things.
I recently wrote a blog post about this onion obsession and like Emiel says, the Dutch did used to eat tulips so maybe onions are a special treat for them now….(http://sdemul.blogspot.com/2007/07/raw-onions-everywhere.html).