Vlaai... or Ta(a)rt?

It is wonderful to have the opportunity to work from home (and to work!) these days. But I do love going into the office once a week to see colleagues, catch up on the weekly news and complain about the heatwave (today is an 8-day record of continuous tropical weather in the Netherlands with temperatures ranging from 32 - 38 °C. A.k.a. hair-raising, brain-numbing humidity and heat in a country where air-conditioning is virtually non-existent). 

And of course, to have the customary lunchtime exchanges in Dutch. This week we celebrated a birthday in the office and in certain parts of the Netherlands and Belgium, this means vlaai for everyone during lunch! 

Herewith a typical lunchtime conversation to describe the Dutch/Belgian dessert and the intricacies of the Dutch language. To simplify (or potentially complicate) matters, I'll use different colours for each language:

• English
• Dutch
• Afrikaans
• French
• German Let's keep it simple, we already have four languages überhaupt!

• Me (enjoying a slice of cherry vlaai): "Is vlaai always a tart with custard and fruit?"
• Colleague 1: "No, vlaai is this (while pointing to the tart) and is only found in the Limburg province in the Netherlands and in Belgium close to the Netherlands border. Taart is a bigger cake, you know, a gateau?" I didn't.
• Me (confused): "So taart is cake? Like a birthday cake?"
• Colleague 1 (trying not to confuse himself): "Yes.. no. We have three cake types: Vlaai (pointing to the tart), taart with icing (indicating what I presumed to be a cake) and cake, which is without icing.
• Me (feeling like I'm on the verge of a Dutch dessert-breakthrough): "Vlaai, taart and...? What is cake in Dutch?"
• Colleague 1 (looking perplexed): "Umm.. cake?"
• Me (getting it... or perhaps not): "Sorry, I misinterpreted cake as cake. It's confusing because in Afrikaans tert is vlaai, but koek is taart. Or cake... I think." Adding another language to clarify the matter, seemed like a good idea at the time. It wasn't.
• Colleague 2 (continuing like a trooper, after Colleague 1 had given up): "Ah, but in Dutch koek koek is a biscuit."
• Me: "Koek Koek is koekie. It makes sense." It really didn't. "Not to be confused with beschuit or beskuit, am I right?" Nobody had any idea anymore.
• Colleague 1: "Who wants more tert cake vlaai!" We all understood. And we all did indeed.

Now you know what vlaai is!

And if you don't - here's a picture of the tart with custard and fruit: