Everyday purchases

January (Or: Hurry, before it is to late to buy your chocolate Easter eggs…)

It’s January, so Albert Heijn has started selling chocolate Easter eggs (Who needs Valentine’s Day anyway?):

The yellow ones are white chocolate, blue is milk chocolate and red is dark chocolate. The ones on the right side are mixed bags – for example, the purple ones are a mix of praline eggs.

Some noteworthy upcoming events in The Hague:

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Amazing Oriental stuffed animals (Or: Who knew snakes could be cute?)

Did you know 2025 is the year of the snake? (Almost. Chinese New Year is 29 January.) The year when you were born determines zodiac sign you are, for the most part (travelchinaguide.com). Mine is pig/boar…, which means you can probably guess what year I was born.

In The Hague we are lucky enough to have some Asian grocery stores. The biggest one is Amazing Oriental which has a few stores in the city centre. I took this photo of this year’s commemorative stuffed animal:

If you spend 30 euros you can get one of these, while supplies last. The supply only last a few weeks, so it is better to get them while you can if you’re interested.

Kudos to Amazing Oriental for making snakes look cute, too…

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Feminine products available for free (Or: At The Hague’s library)

Some months back The Hague’s central library made some changes to their bathrooms. Previously, only the bathroom on the 1st floor was open to the public, and you either had to show your library card or pay a small fee of 50 cents to use it. That is quite common in this country, with cafés and restaurants being one of the few exceptions.

Earlier this year, the library opened up bathrooms on all of their floors for free There was much rejoicing, since it also meant you didn’t have to go back down to the 1st floor just to use it. I usually go to one of the bathrooms on the higher floors, though. The first floor bathroom can be a bit crowded because it is the first one you come across if you use the escalators.

A few days ago, I used the one by the first floor and noticed the library’s generous supply of feminine products:

You don’t often see this offered for free in The Netherlands (as far as I am aware anyway). it’s a great initiative.

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The Hague in legos (Or: At the local Lego store)

Spotted at the local Lego store on the Spuistraat:

Storks, tulip fields, windmills… it sums up the touristy side of the Netherlands (and The Hague with the stork) nicely.

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Join the craze (Or: Takkie and Siepie by HEMA)

The Dutch department store HEMA has a few characters that are associated with their brand.

  • Jip and Janneke, a boy and girl from the book series of the same name (see also English Wikipedia). They have been associated with HEMA since 1993.
  • Takkie and Siepie, the dog and cat of Jip and Janneke respectively. Takkie is Jip’s daschhond and Siepie is Janneke’s cat.

The Takkie and Siepie merchandise was all over during last year’s Christmas – it was almost impossible to get certain items and the homepage of hema.nl told people to check store inventory before going to the store to prevent disappointment. Part of the craze started because the two pets appeared on a HEMA holiday commercial (you don’t need audio to understand the story).

This year HEMA brought out the Takkie and Siepie merchandise out in full force, and I don’t blame them.

Here are some examples. First, Takkie as a rocking horse (funny that the stickers also mention “use at your own risk”).

Takkie stuffed animal with an adorable sweater:

Christmas tree with Siepie ornaments (at least it looks like Siepie):

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Oliebollen time! (Or: Grote Marktstraat in the rain)

As mentioned in my last post, the oliebollen stand opened yesterday, 1 October. As you can see it was immediately swarmed.

Marco also made good on his promise to go take the picture above and buy oliebollen, so we already had our first ones of the season yesterday evening, with the obligatory coffee.

And yes, it is rainy in the Netherlands of late. I took a chance this morning by not bringing my umbrella on my walk to work. I regretted it around the halfway mark. Boo. It looks like there will be less rain the rest of the week, though.

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Punselie’s stroopkoekjes (Or: Gone… for now?)

Recently I read on omroepwest.nl that Punselie’s in Gouda would (at least temporarily) stop producing stroopkoekjes (=small syrup cookies) at the end of this month. See also the message on the official website, in Dutch, which says they hope to be producing cookies again in 12 months after they find a new location and secure new machinery.

Oven from world famous stroopkoek to be turned off: “Difficult and emotional” (article in Dutch at omroepwest.nl). It’s possible if you were on a KLM flight that you were served one of these. The linked article mentions that these were very popular on flights back in the day, but that the company lost a lot of revenue after 9/11. These days the cookies are only sold within the Netherlands because the machinery used to make the cookies is too old to be certified for sale outside of the country.

The cookies are pretty good. They are pretty small*, which isn’t a bad thing when you just want a cookie with your “after dinner” coffee. The ratio of cookie to syrup is also a bit more even here, so they are a bit less sweet than the bigger stroopwafels you can get on the street or in the store. All in all, a nice treat!

* The size of the cookies is given in the name right on the box, with the -je ending: stroopkoekjes. Adding -je (or -jes for the plural) to a word makes a regular sized object small. So, stroopkoekjes is small syrup cookies.

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Spotted (Or: A real live cat at the cat gift store)

A few months back I did a blog post about the cat-themed gift store Meow & Muse in The Hague’s city centre.

Today when I was walking past (outside of the store’s normal opening hours) I noticed a cat in the window!

He (or she) expertly avoided knocking over any merchandise. This cat definitely owns the place.

If you haven’t been there yet I can recommend checking it out. It’s at the Nieuwstraat, not far from the Grote Kerk.

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Not as special (Or: Cruffin from Albert Heijn)

Last week I posted about the cronut Marco purchased for me which was delicious. This week he decided to try the next croissant variation that the world has thought of: a cruffin. Even Safari’s spellcheck doesn’t know what to make of this invention.

It wasn’t nearly as impressive as the cronut, though. It was a lot less sugary, except for the bottom. It could be something tasty to eat for breakfast, though.

In other news:

There is actually a lot more going on this weekend. Check out The Hague’s weekly agenda.

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Sugary goodness (Or: A cronut from Albert Heijn)

Apparently cronuts (a crossing between croissants and donuts) were first made in New York City in 2013 (Wikipedia). But I first had one last year, from the Dutch grocery store Albert Heijn. Technically I’m not a huge fan of sweet stuff – I like it in moderation – but this is a nice exception. A few times a year.

Check out Marco’s lovely knife work to show off a cross section of the cronut. So much flaky goodness! And the texture does indeed taste different than a normal donut.

Consider this your public service announcement (PSA): if you live in the Netherlands and have an Albert Heijn nearby, see if they stock cronuts. They come in packs of two. Put it in the fridge for a few hours so it gets a bit colder before you eat it. It’s also great with a cup of black coffee to counter the sweetness.

Although you’re talking to someone who loves storing her gummy bears in the freezer, so maybe take my advice with a grain of salt…

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