Frietei or eierbal: what is the origin of the ultimate hangover snack?
In Venlo, they’re incredibly proud of their own snack: the frietei. In Groningen, they always eat an eierbal after a night out (sometimes even on a pizza!). And these two hangover snacks look, well… incredibly similar. Did Automatiek Piccadilly Venlo copy the Groningen eierbal? Or did the people of Groningen copy the Venlo frietei?
Famous throughout Venlo and the surrounding area: the frietei. The snack is made from a boiled egg, halved and then coated in curry ragout, breadcrumbs and deep-fried. If you ask true Venlo locals, a frietei tastes best after a brave night out involving plenty of drinks and misery. Then they head to Automatiek Piccadilly with their drunken heads, because that’s where the frietei was invented in 1959 by former owner Toon Schreurs.
The snack bar is now run by his son Hans and his wife José. They won’t reveal anything about the frietei recipe: it’s a secret family recipe. And if you think you can buy a few frieteieren here to deep-fry at home later, think again. The frietei is made fresh, so you can’t keep them in the freezer.
A little ball after a night out
So how did that famous frietei end up in the far north? Because it was there, in a snack bar on Wijkstraat, that the first eierballen were fried in the 1950s. They were made by an assistant at Dik van den Berg’s cafeteria. When he wasn’t working behind the counter at Van den Berg’s, he worked for a pastry chef. Using the same ragout recipe as the baker’s homemade croquettes, he made egg balls at Van den Berg’s: half an egg, ragout, breadcrumbs and then deep-fried. The recipe? Van den Berg keeps that secret too—a family recipe, he says. The people of Groningen don’t mind. Every snack bar in the province and city has the ‘aaierbal’ on the menu, and students in particular enjoy one after a night out.
You could even score such a tasty snack in Amsterdam; it was called an IJtunnel, named after the IJ Tunnel, which opened in 1968.
Department store
Which came first, the eibal or the frietei? According to the British department store Fornum & Mason, they’re both copies. This posh department store already had Scotch Eggs on the menu in 1738. The recipe? A boiled egg wrapped in minced meat or ragout, breaded and deep-fried. Nothing to do with Scotland, but a snack based on the recipe of William J Scott & Sons, a little place on the coast. Well, you tell us…
Making your own frietei or eierbal
And would you like to make such a tasty eibal or frietei yourself? Hard-boil an egg, make ragout or take a few croquettes out of their coating (uncooked), roll the whole lot in flour and breadcrumbs, deep-fry for seven minutes and your eierballen are ready.
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Image in article: Facebook/Automatiek Piccadilly Venlo
