Work is insanely busy these days! But here is a photo of:
- Coffee! Yum.
- Brownie. Handmade by Marco.
- Vanilla ice cream. Also handmade by Marco!
That’s right – guess who got an ice cream machine for his birthday! Lekker!
Food
Hot and cold (Or: Brownie, ice cream and coffee!)
Haagse Wereld Hapjes (Or: Bites of the world)
At the end of June Marco and I went to the Haagse Wereld Hapjes food festival at the Lange Voorhout. That translates to something like ‘Bites of the world, from The Hague’. It featured 25 different restaurants based in The Hague or surrounding area, with cuisines ranging from Persian to Argentinian to Slovakian.
The one restaurant that caught my eye was Pops, an American restaurant over in nearby Wassenaar. They really outdid themselves with their decorations:
A look at the overall area:
And, of course – you need entertainment with your food:
It was a fun experience and a great initiative by the city!
A burst of color (Or: Homemade pizza)
Friday night after work Marco made homemade pizza. With three types of paprika (bell peppers), onions, two types of cheese and jalapeños. On the left side you have sun-dried tomatoes while on the right side you have ham. Lekker!
Categories: Food, Marco&Niki
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Coffee and apple pie (Or: Bagels & Beans)
I was looking through my phone recently and I came across a few photos that I had taken earlier in the year when Marco and I went to Bagels & Beans here in The Hague. The first time I had ever had a mochaccino… it was pretty tasty! I generally go for black coffee, but this choice was not to be ignored.
Marco’s cappuccino above and my mochaccino below
And a look at the apple crumble:
Instagram highlights (Or: A wall of cheesecake!)
A month or two ago Marco and I went to The Cheesecake Company on Torenstraat here in The Hague for — you guessed it — cheesecake. It’s not the first time I’ve blogged about them and it won’t be the last. Marco and I even choose this cheesecake for our wedding cake, it’s that good.
During this visit I just had to take a photo of the “wall of cheesecake” that is prominently displayed:
A closer look reveals that it is Instagram photos:
It’s a really clever idea to bring a bit of color to the shop, as well as advertise what you make and your Instagram account in general.
It had been a while since we visited so we took our usual white chocolate cappuccino cheesecake (this was the flavor we chose to ceremonially “cut into” at our wedding):
And for a light, fresh flavor we chose lemon cheesecake:
If you’re in the neighborhood, I highly recommend a visit!
Key lime pie (Or: Homemade goodness)
Marco and I had a few guests over on Monday night so he decided to make key lime pie:
It’s a great treat – not too sugary, and a hint of sourness from the lime and the raspberry smear (as well as the frozen raspberry stick on top). The pie crust is from Kelly’s expat shop.
Yum!
A few delicious meals (Or: Fajitas, Chicken Indian style)
Friday Marco and I made fajitas. I just love the colors of the photo!
Cooking fajitas in a wok pan. Everything (red and white onions, peppers, courgette, coriander, tomatoes…) and of course awesomely seasoned chicken!
Saturday, Marco, Roger and I made an Indian dish – chickens with (whole) shallots.
Chicken and whole shallots in the lower left, rice and green beans. In the upper left you have a ‘keep warm’ device generally used for tortilla wraps. In this case, though, it is keeping the naan bread warm.
It was quite tasty – and let me just say, the shallots just fell apart. The receipt came from Indian Food and Cooking by Mridula Baljekar, a Christmas gift from Roger to Marco. (Marco got a lot of cooking items this Christmas!).
Categories: Food
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Be the first to defuse an exploding kitten (Or: Fun card games)
For Christmas Marco and I got Roger a copy of Exploding Kittens, a card game “for people who are into kittens and explosions. And laser beams. And sometimes goats”. In this case we got the NSFW version, but they also have a normal version.
A look at the card game
It’s an interesting card game. The goal is to not get an exploding kitten card (the black card at right). If you do, you are out of the game unless you also have a green defuse card like the one on the left. Two interesting twists:
- You end your turn by picking up a card, rather than starting your turn by doing so.
- There is no need to reshuffle the current deck because the game will definitely end by the last card. This is because you the number of exploding kittens and defuse cards is based on the size of the group playing, and you always have one less defuse card than exploding kitten card.
We also played a game of Skip-Bo, another card game. That game has the advantage of time management – the number of cards you deal at the beginning of the game to each player is your choice. If you deal less cards, the game ends quicker than if you had dealt more cards.
Finally, a shoutout to a friend living in Japan who sent over some nice snacks. In this case, the Japanese snacks are the larger pieces in the upper right:
Not quite sure what they are made of, but they were good! Thanks again!
The other snacks are sour cream and chive pretzels as well as Dutch borrelnootjes (“party nuts”) – Dutch Wikipedia. They are peanuts surrounded by a salty, spiced layer. A bit hard to describe, but tasty in moderation.
A gift from Marco (Or: …Now I am craving chocolate)
Chocolate!
Marco bought these for me – they are the size of drink coasters (onderzetters, in Dutch) and the theme is chocolate (droooool):
The four sayings are:
- Chocolate comes from cocoa – which is a plant – therefore chocolate counts as a salad. The end.
- Chocolate doesn’t ask silly questions. Chocolate understands.
- All I want is peace, love and a chocolate bar bigger than my head. (My favorite!)
- I love you more than chocolate, but please don’t make me prove it.
Yum.
Time to “gourmetten” (Or: Fun in the Netherlands for New Year’s Eve)
This year we are celebrating New Year’s Eve at Roger’s. One of the most important parts of that (besides hanging out with friends, of course!) is “gourmetten”. Below is a picture of all of the gourmetten foods Roger purchased for the evening, although we already know we won’t be able to eat everything.
“Gourmetten” is a Dutch tradition of frying meats and (to a lesser extent) vegetables on a small grill on the dinner table. You can see pictures of the gourmet grill in the 2015 New Year’s Eve blog post I made. Roger purchased a new grill for 2016, so I will try and take some photos of that in action. I can’t wait!
Life in the Hague 