small mind

Kipso, Kinoo, Zopicloon, Trio di Pasta, Les Eleveurs, Chupito, Mikado, Mario, Eldo, Rib&Rap, Peking Garden, Snooker Twenty One, Zenn-Grill, Villa Fantasia ...

Names of restaurants. In Halle, Belgium, province of Vlaams-Brabant ... where I live. Which is a Dutch speaking region (for those readers that do not know Belgium). The above list contains all the names that are either meaningless or not-Dutch.

There are restaurants in Halle with Dutch names. Of course. But definitely not the majority. And the above list contains the best restaurants available. Les Eleveurs and Peking Garden for example have an entry in the Michelin Guide.

My point about this is ... why o why is it so important that a new restaurant should have a Dutch name. Is it because it competes in the 'Mijn Restaurant' (My Restaurant) competition on tv ? Who cares ? Apparantly a lot of politicians. In an open letter the major, Dirk Pieters, implored the owners of Les Deux to change the name.

Yes, I insist on being addressed in Dutch. In some shops in Halle the staff do think that French is the language in this region and if they persist in that I do not visit that shop again. But how small-minded does one have to become to fall over the name of a restaurant ? Think about that, mister Dirk Pieters, next time you drink an expensive French wine with your expensive foie-gras dinner in Les Eleveurs (paid for with the taxpayers money).