Eddie’s Food Irritations: A Quick Note on Kaasstengels versus KaasTengels

Adeline loves eating, a lot and often, both at home and out. Usually, that goes well, but sometimes it doesn’t. In the series Eddie’s Food Irritations she shares her bewilderment. This week, for a change, she is astonished by her own ignorance.

Normally, I pour out my displeasure or disbelief over you here, caused by passionate irritation. This time, I’m venting my disbelief about myself, because I need us all to marvel for a moment at my complete ignorance.

To polish off the hangover

So, I love eating, a lot and often, but I hardly ever go to the deep-fry shack (I leave that to our Snackspert). I mainly eat deep-fried snacks while and after drinking alcohol. Bitterballen with beer, a piping-hot kaassoufflé at night after three in the morning in an alley, and a croquette sandwich with mayo to polish off the hangover. That sort of thing.

So it was no surprise that I wanted to dress up my first glass of white wine in the sun on a terrace in 2022 a little. I consider kaasstengels by far the best invention ever.

At least, that’s what I thought. Because what I thought was my favorite snack no longer is.

Tengels resemble your fingers

“You do know they’re cheese-fingers, right? Because kaasstengels are those twisted things from the supermarket. Tasty too, but completely different.” I blinked, looked around me, and found no help from my table companion. It started with disbelief, because seriously—who here wrote little pieces about food and knew anything about spelling?

Then came the doubt, because that story about tengels resembling your fingers sounded plausible. Finally, I started googling, and it pulverized everything I believed in. They’re simply kaasténgels. Suddenly, life turned out to be a lie.

Kaasstengel (RIP)

I’ve ordered a portion of kaasstengels my entire life, and I never once questioned the stalk-like nature of my kaasstengels. The striking thing is that when you see the box containing the KaasTengels (yes, really), you can no longer notice anything other than their tengel-ness.

My snack world has been slightly turned upside down ever since, which is only to be expected when your favorite snack turns out not to be your favorite snack. Never, but truly never again, can I affectionately call that crispy exterior and blazing-hot interior my kaasstengel (RIP). I think this farewell is going to be long and, above all, painful.

Although I could have known something was off, because last week I was also horribly wrong about my yakatori/yakitori. Maybe they’ll take me at snack school, because apparently I still have quite a lot to learn.

Image: TopKing

Also read:

• Eddie’s food irritations: that food abroad is better, but I live here
• Eddie’s food irritations: that pretentious waiter at the table
• Eddie’s food irritations: wet teabags lying around