Food

Warung Mini (Or: World famous saoto soup)

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Niki

Yesterday, Marco, Roger and I ordered dinner from Warung Mini. Marco had to be on pseudo stand-by for his work for 13ish hours, which turned out to be even more annoying than he could have imagined (though it all worked out) so he definitely didn’t want to think too much about what was for dinner.

It was my third time ordering from this restaurant but my first time trying there apparently world famous (!) saoto soup, which has chicken, egg, bean sprouts, vermicelli noodles and potato bits. The bean sprouts are actually the most interesting addition to the soup since it does give it a bit of a crunchy texture.

Oh, and we mustn’t forget about all of the spices – halfway through the soup it felt like the bottom of my throat was on fire, although my mouth was fine. I went through a lot of water!

Dessert was bakabana – bakked banana. It was pretty good (even cold) but alas, I did not get a picture this time!

Categories: Food | 1 Comment

La Lanterna (Or: An Italian restaurant in The Hague)

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Niki

Last night Marco, his mother and I went to La Lanterna in The Hague, for an appetizer, entree, and dessert. His mother and I both had minestrone soup, while Marco went for “inferno soup”, so named for its spiciness. (Helaas [unfortunately], the soup wasn’t an inferno!)

For dinner, I had pizza primavera, with tomato, cheese, ham, salami, mushrooms, and green/red peppers. I just had to take a picture of it because it was so colorful…

My tastes lean a bit more towards thick pizzas (as I love the dough), but for a thin pizza this was great.

And then there was my dessert:

Yum! So sour. You have before you a lemon which has been hollowed out. They stuffed lemon ice cream inside, placed a bit of whipped cream on top, and then replaced the “top” to make it look like a hat.

Marco’s mother’s dessert. More ice cream!

Marco’s dessert. Even before you took a bite, you were definitely drawn in by the plate. The bottom of the plate had a thin layer of glass covering the real bottom of the plate, with a tiny bit of space in between. This caused nifty looking shadows with all of the little pieces they threw around the dessert itself.

All of the dessert portions were big. Of course, I kept scraping on the inside of the lemon searching for more ice cream, but had to stop when I realized I was really just eating the innards of the lemon!

Categories: Food | Tags: Desserts, Restaurants | 2 Comments

Roti (Or: A Dutch variation)

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Niki

Last night Marco and I went to his father’s house. I had roti for the first time. Of course, there are many different ways to make roti.

In this version, you have the wrap underneath, as well as small green beans, potatoes, and chicken that is so tender it falls off the bone. You cut off a triangle (like a pizza slice), and then pile some of the food on it. You then wrap over the edges. You can either spear it with a fork, or eat it with your hands.

Dessert was ice cream with fudge and pieces of mango. Yum.

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A surprise (Or: Soft pretzels made from scratch)

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Niki

One of the things that I miss from America is Super Pretzels, which you could pick up at the Shoprite grocery chain. They are frozen pretzels which you could microwave in about 60 seconds.

And of course there’s the addiction to the Madison Square Garden soft pretzels, with hot cheese to dip it in…yum.

Tonight Marco surprised me with this:

As a joke he made them into simple figure 8’s, rather than the more traditional pretzel shape. They taste awesome! We’re currently enjoying our spoils with a white beer, Korenwolf, with a dash of lemon juice for added flavor.

Go Friday!

Categories: Food, Marco&Niki | Tags: Baking | 3 Comments

Stamppot (Or: A Dutch tradition)

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Niki

Today’s dinner was stamppot, which is usually potatoes matched with a vegetable. This version used sauerkraut mixed in with mashed potatoes. As Dutch are inclined to do, Marco mashed a hole in the middle of the mix to add gravy. The on-the-side meat was smoked sausage.

It actually was pretty good, although admittedly I was still in the “it’s slightly sour mashed potatoes” frame of mind, except when the texture stated otherwise. ;p I probably could have mixed the sausages in, but I am the type of person that eats one food at a time and doesn’t mix that much.

Categories: Culture, Food | 4 Comments

Saturdays (Or: Megastores and Warung Mini)

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Niki

Today was a pretty fun-filled Saturday, although I definitely started to drag by the end of it. At 1PM, Marco’s mother dropped by. All three of us went to Megastores in the Hague, which is a larger sized mall. As the temperature has been dropping a bit, it was nice to find that it was an indoor mall. Most of the stores in the mall are furniture stores, although you can also find Dutch staples like Hema, Kruidvat, and Xenos (a thrift store of sorts).

Kind of interesting – this mall uses flat escalators rather than step escalators. It’s a bit of a steeper incline, but otherwise it works.

The first store that we went to was Woon XL, which was an Ikea-like store. Complete with routes to follow (arrows on the floor), various room design displays, pencils to fill out your order card with, a back area to pick up larger items, and a cafeteria at the end. We picked up a nightstand and a medicine cabinet, although we have to figure out how to get the latter up on the bathroom wall.

A crazy looking, huge rug with stuffed animal-like objects stitched onto the top. Good luck finding anything if you drop it in this rug. Seriously… what were they thinking?

Afterwards, the three of us went to a few other stores to look at perspective washing machines and also to McDonald’s to split an order of chicken nuggets.

Just for mom – an from-afar look at an Aldi store (since my parents also have Aldi stores near Chicago where they live). You can even see the carts in the front, presumably also requiring a coin to release them. But I am not sure.

By then it was time to go home. As we walked up to the front entrance of our apartment, we spied Roger who had arrived just before us and was waiting in the foyer by the mailboxes. So the four of us went upstairs together.

Dinner was from Warung Mini, a Surinamese/Indonesian restaurant. I had Rijst kerrie lams groenten – which was a large container of lamb in curry sauce, with vegetables, and a large container of white rice. The lamb in curry sauce was so good – perfectly spiced (but not spicy). Dessert was a baked banana (bakabana).

Categories: Food, Shopping, The Hague | Tags: Malls | 3 Comments

Oliebollen vendors (Or: The crazy things to get noticed)

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Niki

From Marco…

When Niki and I were doing some shopping the other day, we walked past an oliebollen kraam. While we didn’t buy any, we took a picture. Usually they are just regular looking food truck types.
This one had some crazy winter type stuff painted on it, of the “Tiroler” type. So some buxom serving wenches, beer steins etc. We didn’t need to buy oliebollen since my mom is making them for us. Yay.

Today was a lazy Sunday. We went to the Albert Heijn to get soup and bread for dinner and we read some pages of a Dutch book. Then we prepared to watch football. The Chicago Bears just won their game (but aren’t guaranteed a playoff spot yet) and next up are the Packers.
Oh and I spent some time playing a game on my tablet (playmobil pirates) while Niki did some work for the Avatar game we play.

I can’t believe we have one day left in this year.
It’s been a hectic one but a good year.
Now we gear up for 2013… Probably even more hectic. But Niki and I are ready for it!

Categories: Food | Tags: Desserts, Oliebollen | 1 Comment

Twelfth day (Or: Some keys of my own)

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Niki

One of the trips that Marco and I made this week was to the key shop to make copies of his keys (apartment entrance key, apartment door key, and mailbox key). 🙂

In my defense, I did not ask for the kitty design. It was just the one that they currently had available. ;p (But it does make it easier to tell the three keys apart, that’s for sure!)

Marco, Roger and I also went to Sumo (sushi and grilled restaurant) for dinner. In that restaurant, you are served in rounds, and it is all you can eat (if you arrive at 5PM like we did, you can eat until 7:30PM).

A drink of sake!

You can have up to 6 rounds of food, and you can have 5 items per person per round (so really it’s just a maximum of 15 total).

round 1 of 4 (the first few dishes – probably about 6 or 7 more to arrive). Mostly sushi, with some chicken on the left and some mixed fruit in coconut sauce on the bottom (the last being sooo delicious)

We got to round 4, though we took it slow and ended at 7:30PM.

Dessert is your choice of an ice cream scoop. I had green tea, Marco had mango, and Roger had red bean ice cream. Good stuff! Next time I definitely need to try the mango ice cream, as it definitely had a kick to it.

Mango ice cream on the left, red bean above, and my green tea ice cream on the bottom

Categories: Food, News | Tags: Restaurants | 3 Comments

Ninth day (Or: Another Christmas meal!)

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Niki

Today Marco and I went to his dad and wife’s apartment for another Christmas meal. (Yay – two official days of Christmas means two meals!)

We had soup for an appetizer, which was noodles, chicken, and some sort of small green leaves. Afterwards, we were served a baked egg resting in tomato sauce, which was interesting. I have not eaten many eggs in my life, but it was nice as a rare appetizer. You can actually see it in the image below, on the plate.

The main meal is pictured below:

The furthest left dish was chicken legs (chicken on a bone). The second dish on the left was green beans with onions. The following dish was chicken with sauce, and then furthest right dish was rice with curry.

Dessert was chocolate and vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce and a yellow sauce that can only be described as “bitter eggnog” (it was good) and a hard waffle to sample. Afterwards we all enjoyed a cup of coffee (zwarte or black for me). As you can tell below, the dessert was already half eaten when the picture was taken. ;p

At some point during the night Marco set up the Christmas present he gave his dad – a new wireless router. It only took two tries and a hard reset of the router and modem to get it started, but it worked after a bit. Then since they had wireless internet Marco and I could finally set up their Apple account for their iTouch. Once that was finished, I downloaded a Dutch news app for them (Nieuws RTL) and a Mahjong app. I figure by tomorrow both of them will have downloaded twenty game apps… each. 🙂

Categories: Food, Holidays | Tags: Christmas | Leave a comment

Eighth day (Or: Dutch gourmetten in action)

Posted on December 25, 2012 by Niki

Today Marco and I went to his mother’s for a Christmas meal. I was pleased to hear that we were going to have gourmetten, something I haven’t had for two years.

First, a picture of the gourmetten pan warming up, with oil on top and in the six little pans below. We turned it on in advance and waited for about 30 minutes.

Above are most of the condiments that she provided, including the yellow mustard (an American thing, but sold at Albert Heijn), mayonnaise, knoflooksaus (garlic sauce), salt, pepper, etc. There was also little pieces of bread and garlic butter, which I find quite tasty.

Above, some of the things that were put on the pan – at bottom, little individual pizzas (yum) and up top, green beans wrapped in bacon.

The Dutch gourmetten set in action – chicken and pork on the left, sausages in the middle, and bacon (I think) and other meats on the right. Below was shoarma I believe. Yum. In the bowl at the bottom of the picture you can see pindasaus – one of Marco’s favorite sauces. It’s from Indonesia. I actually liked the way that his mother made it – lighter on the tongue. The store bought version Marco used a few days earlier was a bit too heavy for me.

Categories: Food | Tags: Gourmetten | 4 Comments