Food

Kruidnoten (Or: Christmas comes earlier every year)

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Niki

Just like many cultures, the Netherlands has this crazy thing where the Christmas displays and food related items appear earlier and earlier every few years. This year it seems the agreed-upon date for all of the supermarkets was September 1 for Sinterklaas sweets, especially kruidnoten (yum) and gevulde speculaas (double yum – thanks Roger for showing me that one). I made sure my parents went home with a package of that, as it’s a seasonal treat.

At least Albert Heijn realizes that the treats are ending up on the shelves earlier and earlier. Above the seasonal area they had this message:

Voor iedereen die kan niet wachten op al het snoopgoed.

For everyone who cannot wait for all of the treats/candy. 🙂

Categories: Culture, Food, Holidays | Tags: Albert Heijn, Christmas, Sinterklaas | Leave a comment

Expensive imports (Or: Twinkies for 15 euros)

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Niki

When Marco and I dropped my family off at Schiphol airport, we stopped at a shop next to the Starbucks. This shop is known for having a small selection of imported American items, including candy, barbecue sauce, and other less than healthy snacks. Imagine my surprise when I found a 15 euro box of twinkies:

Granted, it is a box of 10 twinkies but that still works out to €1.50 per twinkie, or $2. I have also found similar price increases for pop-tarts (English | Dutch) which I have fond memories of being able to get 2 for $5 in America. Here it is €5.50 for one box, although we recently found a €4.50 deal at an Asian supermarket of all places.

The only import place I have visited in The Hague is Kelly’s expat shop which had some interesting stuff with about the prices you expect. Unfortunately sometimes it is easier and cheaper to shop on Amazon UK and have it delivered to the Netherlands. But it’s more fun to go to the stores directly.

Categories: Food | Tags: Desserts, Expat | 8 Comments

Marzipan (Or: pigs and other sweets)

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Niki

Last week Marco and I walked through V&D to look at their deals. They had a sale event going on called Prijzen Circus. According to Marco you can also (sometimes) get some interesting things in the bakery during this time.

Lo and behold, I found pigs made out of marzipan:

They looked quite cute if you ask me. And full of sugar… In the background you can see other treats – everything in that display case was made with marzipan. Crazy!

Categories: Food | Tags: Desserts | 6 Comments

Cookies (Or: Yum, white chocolate cranberry)

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Niki

Time has definitely got away from me. It’s only 17 days until the wedding (!) and tonight I begin my next Dutch class (B1 level). It meets every Monday and Wednesday night for three hours. For some reason I am not that nervous about it, and I’m not sure why. But there’s still at least 4 more hours to get nervous!

A few weekends ago Marco and I went to Hema to work on and discuss wedding details. We were pleased to see that Hema again sells the white chocolate cranberry cookies (and amusingly labels them as “Amerikaanse koekje”, or American cookie). Probably because they are jumbo sized!

As the cookies are made fresh by Hema (I presume) they are nice and soft. They are also very delicious with black coffee…

And now I want another one.

Categories: Food | Tags: Cafes, Desserts, HEMA | 1 Comment

New experiences (Or: Chopsticks for the first time)

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Niki

Tonight Marco, Roger and I went to Sumo, a sushi and grill restaurant, one of our frequent places to eat. But this time we went to celebrate Roger’s awesome grades on two exams he was doing for his work. Two 9/10s! I think he only needed a 6 or 7 to pass… but of course he went above and beyond and studied his brains out. 😉 Go Roger!

Sake and chopsticks

This was also the first time that I ditched my practice chopsticks (oefenstokjes, you can see a random image of them here). The practice chopsticks are held together with a small bundle of rolled paper at the top which causes the ends of the chopsticks to have a bit of spring or bounce to them. Simply squeeze them together and you are good to go for grabbing something.

But nope – this time I forgot to ask for oefenstokjes and decided to shrug and try it with normal chopsticks. It wasn’t that hard, but I admit that I stared quite closely at Marco and Roger’s hands to see the placement of their fingers and try to copy them. It mostly worked!

Categories: Food | Tags: Restaurants | 4 Comments

Mint tea (Or: A first for me

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Niki

At work a coworker offered me mint tea. With fresh leaves! It is the first time I have ever had it. It seems to be really popular in this country – not something I had seen before in America though I probably didn’t go to the right places.

The wedding stuff is going along well for Marco and I, although the stress has started to hit with trying to make the invitations out and get them sent to the printer. But it’s almost done…

Categories: Food | Tags: Drinks | 2 Comments

Popcatepetl (Or: Mexican restuarant in The Hague)

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Niki

Yesterday I went with Marco’s mother for her birthday to Popcatepetl (nickname Popo, since they are smart enough to realize no sane person can pronounce that). I first blogged about the restaurant last year, but it seems like the service has been getting worse since then. This is my third time there since I have moved to the Netherlands and usually the problem is the service.

Granted, it was kind of busy for a Tuesday night and we chose to sit outside on the patio (with the ants, but that’s another story!) but it was still a bit too annoying for us. For instance, a couple came in about 5 minutes after us, and managed to get their food before we even ordered. Yeesh! The only thing we didn’t have to flag someone down for was the drinks when we first arrived. Total time at the restaurant was about 2 hours, 15 minutes, and we didn’t wait too long after finishing the meal to ask for the check.

The food was decent, though. Not spectacular, but decent. I had the nachos with chicken and she had the “Popcatepetl ensalada”, with a lot of different items: salad, bacon, chicken, kidney beans, olives, corn, avocado, a filled jalapeño pepper and some paprika.

chicken nachos (chicken is hidden in the middle, but there was enough)

Popocatepetl Ensalada

We both had a lot of leftover items on our plates that we had no interest in eating, unfortunately.

Categories: Food | Tags: Birthdays, Restaurants | 4 Comments

Bakkerij Toebast (Or: Mocha cake)

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Niki

Another food related post… I know, I know! But this one is… just, sweet.

Here’s a slice of mocha cake from Bakkerij Toebast. Even the design of the plastic surrounding the slice of cake was quite well thought out. And yes, it tasted just as good as it looked…

I was actually a bit amused by the Mocca name plate on top, just in case you forget the flavor. I had a choice of this or apple pie. While I have grown a bit more fond of apple pie since I moved to the Netherlands (especially if the cake is put in the fridge for a bit to let the apples inside chill a bit) this choice was a no brainer. Lekker!

Categories: Food | Tags: Desserts | 2 Comments

Lekker! (Or: Turkse pizza)

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Niki

I had a meeting at the neighborhood library today. There was also Turkish pizza available – lekker! (yum). The pizza was from Restaurant Meydan in the Hobbemaplein.

The reason it is called pizza is because it resembles a pizza before you wrap it up. Mine was half of the pizza. Each box seems to contain three or four dough bases (with a thin sheet in between) so you do get a fair amount per box.

It comes with thin dough and a thin layer of meat. You can add knoflooksaus (white garlic sauce), a bit of salad (I should have added more!) and sambal (the red sauce). I definitely should have added more sambal, as it is nice and spicy. Though it was a bit messy, as it kept dripping out the end that I wasn’t holding. I had a napkin underneath on the table but it soaked right through. Easy to wipe up though.

Lekker!

Categories: Food | 1 Comment

Cinnamon rolls (Or: Marco the master baker)

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Niki

Here’s what Marco decided to bake today. Cinnamon rolls!

If you’re Roger, you should be happy since that means you get to eat some during coffee tonight!

Categories: Food | Tags: Baking | 3 Comments