From Martijn: The Tuesday Tomes, Volume III

At the risk of tuning this into a food blog, and after last week's unfortunate canine intermission, I am going to bore you with more Dutch food.

This time it's Duivekater, a sweet brioche-like bread that is traditionally eaten at Easter. The custom originated in the Zaanstreek, which is just north of Amsterdam along the river Zaan. As a child, I grew up near The Hague on the Dutch coast, but as my mother hails from the Zaanstreek, we always had duivekater at Easter. Nowadays, mostly thanks to the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, Albert Heijn, which originates from the Zaanstreek, duivekater is sold throughout the country, but in those days it was relatively rare outside the Zaanstreek. It's an old custom though, there are even paintings by Jan Steen from the 17th century showing duivekater.

The name, which looks like a composition of the Dutch words for dove and hangover, actually seems to derive from the words for devil, duivel, and cats, katten, and is linked to the ancient custom from Roman times sacrificing cats to scare off the devil. I am happy to inform you that nowadays no cats are being sacrificed and no animals were harmed in the production of this blog.

It is also not a sacrifice to admire today's production. The Tuesday Troopers are on a roll! Apart from the very welcome and just-in-timely return of the prodigal son we have contributions from virtually the whole team:

- Jonathan debuts with "By the skin of their teeth";

- from Peter: "Country Horse riding"

- from Miles: "A Russo-Japanese Romance"

- from Gregg: "Who does not honour small things, is not worthy of the great", in two volumes

- from Simon: "Donald loves the bomb" and "Monstrous Myrka and The Robomen"

- from Thomas: "Pretty in Pink"

- from Byron: "Roots: The Sequel"

- from the Lady Sarah: "Elfio and the First Violin"

And we may have Ian chipping in too.

All today's offerings are heartily recommended!