Author Archives: Niki

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About Niki

I run the blog http://www.lifeinthehague.com

FOAM Easter brunch (Or: A mix of savory and sweet)

Posted on April 7, 2021 by Niki

This year’s Easter brunch by FOAM was delicious, not that we expect anything different by now. Both photos were taken by Marco, who has a better eye for food photos it seems.

Let’s see. Some of the savory items include: a scone with salted butter and chia jam, an avocado sandwich, a mini spinach quiche and a scrambled tofu sandwich. (Note: that seems to be the only way I like tofu. So tiny it tastes and looks like scrambled eggs. Although oddly I also only eat eggs every 2-3 years, so who knows.)

Some of the sweet items included a coffee hazelnut milkshake, a huge chocolate chip cookie, banana bread, and a fresh fruit salad. My favorite was the chocolate chip cookie (of course) but the banana bread was a close second.

See also the 2020 edition for FOAM’s Easter brunch. That was one of the first FOAM meals we had in corona – pre-FOAM@home on Fridays. I can’t believe it’s been a year already!

Categories: Food, Holidays | Tags: , | 2 Comments

Hail with a bit of snow (Or: Crazy weather in The Hague)

Posted on April 6, 2021 by Niki

Cold weather is definitely on the menu the last few days. Days after historic warmth, Europe braces for shocking blast of cold, snow from washingtonpost.com.

I wouldn’t call what we got “lots of snow” per se, more a mix of hail and slush. Heavy on the hail part.

It is sort of weird weather where it is dozens of tiny storms flashing across the country, so you might have 2 minutes of hail, then 45 minutes of nothing and grayish skies, 5 minutes of vibrant blue skies and then another 2 minutes of hail. I was woken up early this morning at 03:45 to extremely loud hail smashing against the window. Marco slept through it all, of course!

The cold arctic blast also means that when the clouds disappear, you get to see lovely blue skies. Briefly. For a moment. See also this tweet:

Kind of cool if you ask me.

Categories: Daily Dutch living, The Hague | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Happy Easter (Or: A drawing from Marco)

Posted on April 5, 2021 by Niki

Happy Easter everyone!

In the Netherlands Easter Monday is also an official holiday. Unfortunately it is back to work for us tomorrow…

On that note, check out this Easter bunny that Marco drew:

This was for an Easter card that we sent to Marco’s dad. It also included a rhyming poem (not pictured). Not bad considering he wrote the poem and drew the rabbit during a (very) short 7 minute tram ride!

Categories: Holidays | Tags: | Leave a comment

Stone work by the Binnenhof (Or: Art at every corner)

Posted on April 4, 2021 by Niki

Here is a look at one of the stone decorations in the Binnenhof:

You know the Netherlands has a lot of rain when even the art references it. (I kid, I kid. It doesn’t rain THAT much.)

And a zoomed out photo:

Unfortunately Binnenhof will be undergoing renovations later this year that are projected to last 5 years (article from nu.nl in Dutch). Five years of not being able to walk in this area seems rather long. The other option was to do the construction in stages so that the Tweede Kamer (House of Representatives) wouldn’t have to temporarily move elsewhere. While that option might have been cheaper it would have meant construction would last 12 years…

Categories: Culture, The Hague | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Clutter in the chips aisle (Or: Great place to leave your bread)

Posted on April 3, 2021 by Niki

I took this photo for a certain someone I know who works at a grocery store (we were just talking last week about things being dumped in the wrong grocery store aisle):

While looking for some potato chips I spotted a sad looking bag of bread rolls and a chocolate bar. The bread can’t be resold (it’s a bag a customer puts together themselves) so it will need to be thrown out. The bread section is also near the beginning of the store, and this is at the end. Of course.

Oh, and I went for the bag of Albert Heijn black pepper and sea salt chips, by the way. That’s the gray bag to the left.

Categories: Everyday purchases | Tags: | Leave a comment

Pretzel time (Or: A tasty lunch)

Posted on April 2, 2021 by Niki

Since Marco had to work today and I didn’t, I decided to treat him to some soft pretzels from a nearby Austrian shop, Wiener Konditorei. They recently expanded their pretzel options to include sunflower seeds and sesame seeds, so Marco asked for a pretzel with sesame seeds on it. In theory I ordered a salted pretzel but as you can see, there wasn’t much salt on it when I got home. (No matter – I broke out the sea salt grinder at home and was good to go.)

My favorite dipping sauce with soft pretzels is yellow mustard, purchased either at the local expat store (Kelly’s) or the local Asian store, Amazing Oriental. It is a bit cheaper at Amazing Oriental however the stock is hit or miss. You might not see it for a few months. Luckily the expat store almost always has it.

Marco’s dipping sauce of choice with his sesame seeds pretzel was Frank’s buffalo wing sauce. Original and buffalo wing Frank’s have been available at Albert Heijn (the local grocery store) for a few years now. They don’t have my favorite extra hot variant anymore, though. I miss that one a lot! It is great on burgers.

Have a great weekend, everybody! Roger, Marco and I will be enjoying gourmetten tomorrow (gourmetten is traditionally done for Christmas, New Year’s and Easter – and any other time of the year you want it, of course).

Categories: Food | Leave a comment

Comfort food (Or: Spanish stew from FOAM)

Posted on April 1, 2021 by Niki

Here is a look at a recent meal from FOAM here in The Hague (via the FOAM@home service on Fridays). Spanish stew with butter beans, tomatoes, olive, parsley and lemon, with bread on the side.

The taste was subtle, in a home comfort kind of way where no one thing dominated at the expense of other ingredients. The butter beans (large enough that you can easily see them in the photo above!) provided a great texture to the dish. It definitely reminded me of the chili that we ordered from FOAM earlier in the year; that was also comfort food. I really liked the bread too – I could taste a hint of salt in the background. Good stuff.

Eurovision to be event experiment; Half of audience welcome from nltimes.nl. Back in 2019 the Netherlands won the Eurovision Song Contest with Duncan Lawrence’s “Arcade” (YouTube link), which gave the Netherlands the right to host the competition in 2020. After a long search the Rotterdam Ahoy was chosen as the venue. …and then corona happened and the event was delayed a year. Opps. So here we are, in 2021, hoping to finally hold the event. Should be interesting.

Categories: Food | Tags: | Leave a comment

A lovely sunny day (Or: Counting down to the weekend)

Posted on March 31, 2021 by Niki

Oh, I know it is only Wednesday. But I have Friday and Monday off, so the weekend will be extra long this time! Today was the last of the sunny days for a while. Of course you know what that means: Parks closed, alcohol banned as youngsters flock to the sunshine from dutchnews.nl. On the opposite end of the spectrum, thanks to daylight savings the government has agreed to allow the curfew to start at 22:00 instead of 21:00 (nltimes.nl), from tonight. Here is hoping people use that extra hour responsibly (exercise, etc.).

If you live in Utrecht or in the nearby area you can sign up for Utrecht’s open bar experiment (also nltimes.nl). Five bars will be open for business 14 April to 17 April (of course with social distancing in place). I suspect that one will be “sold out” within 20 minutes of going online, just like the concert experiments earlier in March. First Covid self-tests now available at Dutch pharmacies (also from nltimes.nl). These self-tests take 15 minutes to give a result. Their accuracy rate isn’t as high as the government tests but they can help in situations where you want to take a test before visiting your grandmother or grandchildren, for instance.

The above article talks about Scheveningen getting their own color system (green, orange*, red) to show how busy the area is. In extreme cases, code red can be called, allowing roads to be closed off. As the colors progress to orange and red, more “peace officers” (Wikipedia) could be called to the area.

* = Dutch like the color orange, so they use that instead of yellow.

Categories: News | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Spring has been spotted (Or: Sunscreen options at Albert Heijn)

Posted on March 30, 2021 by Niki

You know it is Spring when the sunscreen is on display at the local Albert Heijn. In this case it was on display at the self-service registers, which might make you think that the coming temperatures will be blazing hot, like 36C/100F. Nope. We are looking at around 22C/72 F for today and tomorrow before the temperature drops again. Don’t get me wrong – sunscreen is still needed at those temperatures if you spend enough time outside. I just always find it funny when I see sunscreen on display in the Netherlands.

I also wanted to complain about how expensive sun screen was here in comparison to America, but after quickly checking Walgreens I realized that it is pretty much expensive in both places. Who knew. I don’t go through sunscreen that quickly, that’s for sure!

Categories: Everyday purchases | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Keep to the right (Or: Spray painted measures in The Hague’s city centre)

Posted on March 29, 2021 by Niki

The Hague has replaced the “keep to the right” stickers on the Grote Markt with spray painted versions. Well, the old stickers are still there but most of them are half torn off or trampled. So “replaced” is probably not the most accurate description.

The photo above was taken at the Grote Markt, just before Bijenkorf (so just before this photo which I posted over the weekend).

In other news…

Groninger Museum to celebrate stolen Van Gogh painting a year after the theft from nltimes.nl. The special website (with facts and background information about the painting) will launch tomorrow.

Ever Given sets course for Rotterdam after six-day Suez blockade ends from dutchnews.nl. 400 meter ship gets stuck in the Suez canal at a part that was only 300 meter wide. 6 day blockade occurs. Opps? Interesting fact: most of the ships that were stuck behind this one were also destined for the Rotterdam port, meaning there are three delays: waiting for the ship to get unstuck, waiting to get through the Suez canal, and waiting to get unloaded at the port in Rotterdam.

No more free plastic bags in fresh produce section of Albert Heijn from nltimes.nl. That makes sense. I am only surprised it took so long. I already have a reusable bag for fruits and vegetables – Albert Heijn has sold them along side the free plastic bags for a few years now – but sometimes it is easier to use a plastic bag (especially when you get two types of things that both need to be weighed).

Categories: The Hague | Tags: , | Leave a comment

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