Huize Louis
‘Anneke was supposed to cook’
Door Remco van Veluwen
By Remco van Veluwen
Shakshuka à la Huize Louis
For five people
3 cans of diced tomatoes
400 grams spinach
2 zucchinis
2 sweet pointed peppers
2 red onions
3 cloves of garlic
5 eggs
5 naan breads
Fry the garlic and onion. In the meantime, dice the zucchini and pepper and add to the pan. Let it fry for a few minutes, then add the spinach and the tomatoes.
When everything has heated through, make little holes and crack the eggs into them. Put a lid on the pan and let the egg cook until set. Serve with naan bread.
‘What do you think of our man wall?’ asks Anneke in the hallway of Huize Louis. On the wall are dozens of pictures of handsome men. There is time to inspect them, because the food only has to simmer for another while. ‘Some of the men are suspected of sexual assault, but that doesn’t matter at all’, says Amber dryly. She’s the ‘committee leader’ of the man wall, according to her housemates.
They may almost be done cooking, but it didn’t go smoothly, says Milou, the house elder. ‘Anneke was supposed to cook, but that didn’t go as planned’, she says. Amber took her turn. ‘I did go to the shop, though’, Anneke defends herself. ‘Sometimes I’m the house nag’, Milou explains self-aware. ‘Milou is the house mum and we always listen to Milou’, Anneke says teasingly.
‘We’re eating shakshuka. ‘S-h-a-k-s-h-u-k-a’, says Anneke. ‘Nice word for Wordle’, Milou jokes. Meanwhile, Amber picks up a stack of photos. It’s time to add a new picture to the wall. Housemate Marte also helps out. Effortlessly, Amber names all the men in the photos. So she’s good with names? ‘Only with men.’
GSV
The girls also like to give each other names. Anneke is called ‘Annie’, Milou is called ‘Millie’ and Amber is ‘Ams’. Marte is the newest resident and doesn’t yet have a nickname. Isn’t ‘Mar’ an obvious one? ‘That’s what I already call Mariëlle’, Milou explains. All four know Mariëlle: they are all members of the reformed student association GSV.
Together, the four ladies set the dining table in Anneke’s room, the largest room in the house. ‘We don’t need these anymore, do we?’ asks Anneke. She shows the ladle sticking out of the pan. ‘And has the bread already been cut? If not, could you bring a bread knife?’ she asks Marte.
One by one, the four christian friends ended up in the house on the Paterswoldseweg. How Huize Louis got its name remains a surprise for now. First they pray. ‘We always do that in silence’, says Marte.
Anneke serves, but accidentally drops some in Milou’s glass of water, to the hilarity of the women. Milou decides to just drink it. ‘Water is the new gold, they say, right?’ jokes Marte.
Busy
They don’t actually eat together very often, they confess. On Mondays, Marte always has a board meeting, on Wednesdays she has to play football and on Tuesdays and Thursdays the ladies are all busy with Bible study and their association’s club night. ‘And then there’s tons of collectives, clubs and cross-connections at GSV that we also have dinner with’, Anneke says. ‘But we often still see each other before dinner’, says Amber cheerfully.
So how about the name of the house? Anneke grabs the association magazine and reads out the story she and Milou wrote about it. It turns out Louis was a previous occupant, who was rarely if ever at home, except to have a little ‘fun’ with women in his room. The room was always locked, whether he was home or not. ‘I think he was a pimp’, says Anneke.
Whether that’s true or not, when Louis was finally kicked out by the landlord and Marte moved in last summer, it became a GSV house and they renamed it Huize Louis. Although, actually, it had been a GSV house ever since Milou and Anneke had moved in. ‘If there’s two GSV members living in a house, you already get a mention in the yearbook’, Milou explains.
Successful
Marte asks who wants a second plate. Everyone does. The food is a triumph. ‘But there’s crumbs from the naan all over my hands’, Milou grumbles. ‘I just wipe those off on my trousers’, says Amber. ‘Or on Anneke’s chair.’ ‘What?!’ shouts Anneke from across the table. ‘Anneke doesn’t like the man wall much either’,’ Amber keeps teasing. ‘Except when she can proudly tell visitors about it.’ Anneke chuckles in agreement.
During the covid period, the housemates also hung out together a lot. ‘We always make an evening of it when there are no GSV activities’, Anneke says. ‘And we have an open-door policy, everyone just walks into each other’s rooms.’ That was different when Louis lived there, though.
The food is almost finished, so it’s time to update the house’s Instagram page, the occupants think. While enjoying a remarkably good cup of coffee – ‘No one here can make coffee.’ Because of their various committees and Bible study groups, they are totally tuned in to all the association’s gossip. ‘You have to keep people in the loop, right?’ Marte grins.
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