Food

Kroepoek (Or: It’s made from what…?!)

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Niki

Kroepoek is one of the random snacks that I had while I was over in the Netherlands. I even brought a bag back on the last trip. Like most snacks, it boasts that it is made with zonnebloemolie (sunflower oil).

But its main ingredients are tapioca flour and… ground shrimp. But it is delicious (especially in the various flavors… this one being a more spicy flavor.)

Kroepoek, originally an Asian snack

It’s traditionally an Asian snack from Indonesia and other countries. Since the Netherlands had a foothold in this country for a long time, they took some of the Indonesian culture back to their home country.

I first had kroepoek at Marco’s mother’s house. I then asked Marco what the heck it was, and he graciously got me more at Albert Heijn. It’s definitely one of the snacks I look forward to having again.

Categories: Culture, Food | 8 Comments

Dutch tea (Or: A touch of orange)

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Niki

When Marco’s mother was planning to visit my place last summer, I quickly found that I needed to buy a coffee maker. I usually only drink coffee about twice a year (at the biannual work conferences in January and August), so I definitely didn’t have a coffee maker on hand. But apparently she is the type that cannot function without it…

So a coffee maker was soon purchased.

For a while after she left, I never used it. And then we had a freak snowstorm around Halloween last year, in which I lost power and heat for four days. It was surprisingly cold for not-quite-November. Even after the power returned, I was chilled for weeks after. I found that I started drinking coffee after that. When I drink coffee it’s always black. (Koffie after dinner seems to be a Dutch tradition. Marco had the task of preparing coffee for everyone who visited his place for his birthday in 2010. I was quite amused.)

Dutch tea from Pickwick

Eventually in January or so I came down with my annual (or biannual) cold — I don’t get sick much. So I switched from coffee to tea and started digging deeper into the tea collection that a friend had sent me from Stash Tea. I quickly found that my favorite hot tea was orange. And then earlier this month when I visited Chinatown in NYC, we stopped at Ten Ren for Chinese tea. I haven’t tried those flavors yet. I just remember ginger tea and oolong tea.

And finally, for my birthday, Roger and Marco got me the Dutch blend shown above from Pickwick tea. I didn’t realize that way back when, the Dutch were the first to bring tea into Europe through the East India Company. The above tea from Pickwick is what that company considers a “good representation of the country” – the orange is a nod to the house of Orange-Nassau. Apparently it was developed partially with opinions of Hyves users (Hyvers being the Dutch equivalent of Facebook).

I think I will make another cup tonight…

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Connections (Or: Pretzels and home)

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Niki

[Edited to add: My dad sent me an email saying that I should mention that today is the birthday of William the Silent (April 24, 1533 – July 10, 1584). My parents are definitely brushing up on their Dutch history!]

WARNING: Today’s post is going to be random. The theme is pretzels.

Today when I was on MSN, Marco said he had emailed me a picture. Here is the picture that he sent me:

a bag of pretzels in the Netherlands

The reason that he sent me this picture was because I was always disappointed to not find pretzels at the Albert Heijn we usually frequent – though I probably just missed them. He got these recently from the Hoogvliet supermarket. This got me thinking of my last trip to the Netherlands last summer.

During that summer we planned two trips. One in June for about 10 days, where he and his mom would come visit (her first time in New York City since the ’70s). We also planned for me to come to the Netherlands the last week of July and the first week of August. I was able to get all three weeks off successfully, but his employer asked him to work that week in July and only take the first week of August off.

One of days that he was at work, his mom and I went to the town he worked at by tram and hung out for the afternoon waiting for him to get out of work. We did some clothes and shoes shopping, and had lunch at Hema. One of the last things we did was visit Hoogvliet for some sliced turkey to bring home.

Thus, the Hoogvliet connection reminded me of that same week Marco had off from work. Because that is when I truly fell in love with the Hague – when I suddenly had time to do some exploring on my own and I realized it would be possible to live there. Of course I was quite reluctant to go anywhere without Marco’s phone, since it had Google Maps. Harder to get lost that way! (He used his work Blackberry that week.)

So I guess one could say I am not sure if it would have unfolded the same way if we hadn’t planned both trips. Otherwise he might have been able to to take both weeks off while I was there in the Netherlands and I wouldn’t have explored part of the Hague myself. So in a long winded way, the bag of pretzels reminds me of my future home.

See what I did there? Now the blog title makes sense!

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Popocatepetl restaurant (Or: Finger lickin’ good)

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Niki

Something I have found interesting about my three trips to the Netherlands is how many non-Dutch restaurants there are out there. Which makes sense, since there are so many immigrants in the country.

One of the restaurants we visited (two or three times?) was Popocatepetl in the Hague, a Mexican restaurant. I have no idea how to pronounce that, so I just call it Popo (it’s their nickname; even the website is Popo.nl). You can even take a peek at the menu.

A small card from the Popocatepetl restaurant

The last time I was there I had the ribs. This is definitely an out of character choice for me since I hate getting messy. But it was really, really good. Of course I knew Marco was probably thinking I wasn’t tearing enough meat off the bone, but hey.

Let me tell you – I used every square millimeter of the napkin they gave me, flipping over, inside out, and more. You also get a small dish of water to clean your fingers with.

I think dessert was just a cup of coffee (not sure if I got any of the special flavors they offer), but that was also good. That is one thing I like about the Dutch – the tendency to drink coffee after dinner. Lately I’ve been on a tea kick – even buying tea in a Chinatown shop a few weeks ago. I still need to sample those!

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Yum (Or: New York pizza a world away)

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Niki

My first ever dinner in the Hague was from a pizza place called New York Pizza. If you remember from a previous post, I arrived in the Hague really late on a Sunday night (past midnight) so my first true dinner was the following night when a few of us hung out a Marco’s place. Thankfully he knew to stock the fridge with Coca-Cola light (known as diet coke in the States).

New York Pizza in the Hague

Later on during that trip, Marco and I stopped at the pizza place a second time, this time in the dead of the night… to get brownie bites and cinnamon roll bites. They must have thought we were stoners.

(We weren’t. Aren’t!)

Patat with pindasaus

Then you also have fries, with pindasaus (peanut sauce). The wrapper says Gezondste patat van Nederlands! or Healthiest fries in the Netherlands. I am not sure how to describe pindasaus but both Marco and Roger love it. I am not quite sure how I feel about it yet, but in moderation, it’s not too bad.

Of course, you would never ever see me put it on top of the fries. Always on the side, but that’s because I hate when most foods touch. Yuck. I’ve gotten a bit better over the years but still. (Note: I would still eat them if it was on top. I just definitely don’t prefer it.)

Thankfully Marco always has a huge jar of pindakaas around. That word translates to “peanut cheese” but it really means peanut butter. Apparently us Americans have a big fascination with it… I didn’t really believe my Dutch friends until I saw a commercial for peanut butter snickers last year. However, I do like the Hershey’s Take 5 candy bar once or twice a year. It has chocolate, caramel, peanut butter, peanuts, and pretzels in it. Yes, pretzels. (Yum.)

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Temptations (Or: The real reason I am moving)

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Niki

Hold on to the edge of your seats. I am going to give you a shocker. The real reason I am moving…

is chocolate!

That’s right folks. Marco had a craving for sweets a few days ago, and brownie mix was all he had in the house. So he whipped up a batch and then sent me the evidence. Tempting, tempting…

Marco’s brownies that he made from scratch

Continue reading →

Categories: Food | Tags: , | 2 Comments

Pasta (Or: Pasta pasta pasta)

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Niki

I’ve never been a good cook. Heck, I’ve never been a cook. I have been known to believe the microwave was about to blow up, or the oven, or… So when I moved to the East coast to get my Masters at Rutgers University, I wasn’t too worried about not having anything but a fridge, freezer, and microwave.

I’ll admit it was an interesting arrangement, but the apartment was cheap enough. I lived off sandwiches most of my time there, generally PB&J or turkey with…LOTS of mustard. Most of my food and groceries came from the deli up the street. There really wasn’t a proper grocery store in New Brunswick. I could either walk a mile to K-Mart (a department store with some food) or Rite Aid in a completely different direction. Still far away.

Continue reading →

Categories: Food, Marco&Niki, The Hague | 6 Comments

Streets (Or: Wandering through the Hague)

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Niki

It’s been a crazy day, but it’s nearing the end. I will say the most random thing of the day was learning to use the JAWS screen reader to help a student find scholarly articles. The craziest was confronting another bus passenger (from a nearby psychiatric hospital, no less) about the laws of momentum and perhaps he would like to hold on to his cup of coffee, rather than letting it spill all over the floor?

Perhaps I’ll make a cup of koffie (coffee) later. But it’ll be straight – the only time I add anything is when Marco is around and we make french vanilla coffee. Yum, vanille suiker (vanilla sugar).

Marco was kind enough to take some pictures of some places in the Hague that hold special or fun memories for me.

Continue reading →

Categories: Food, Shopping, The Hague | Tags: , | 2 Comments

Scheveningen (Or: Walking amongst sand and seashells)

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Niki

Scheveningen, one of the districts of the Hague, is a seaside beach resort. I first visited there in December 2010, wearing a heavy jacket and swearing a bit at the hefty sea breeze. I was shocked to see a few folks surfing – in full wet suits, of course.

The Scheveningen pier which juts out into the North Sea (Summer 2011)

The second time I visited was in early August 2011. The temperature was a bit warmer (maybe 70F or 21C) although the water was still ice cold. Hordes of seashells washed up with every wave, making walking along the beach a very cautious maneuver.

The Kurhaus, a restaurant and hotel near the beach. Note the child in mid-swing of a bucket.

After my fiancé and I headed back up the beach, we walked along the boulevard for somewhere to eat. We finally settled on Copacabana, where I had the Copacabana burger (chicken, tomatoes, pickles, cucumbers, some variation of mayo, etc). It was huge and hard to handle but oh so good. While we were waiting for our food, the sun set and the chilly sea wind took over once more.

Walking along the boulevard, including a pancake restaurant ('t pannekoekenhuisje)

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Dutch gourmetten (Or: An exercise in hungry patience)

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Niki

One of the traditional Christmas activities for the Dutch is gourmetten, where a grill is placed in the middle of the table and small pieces of meat, potatoes, and extras such as mushrooms are cooked. The meal is very social in nature — it can take a few hours for enough meat to be cooked so expect to get a lot of talking done!

The top of the grill is shared. Below are individual grilling areas for each person, where the food is placed on a little spatula. You can also share brood (bread) and knofloofkboter (garlic butter – yum!).

A typical dutch gourmetten meal

Within the Netherlands, it is possible to visit grocery stores (for example: Albert Heijn) to purchase special gourmetten sets which include pre-cut meats. Of course, you will pay a few more euros for this convenience…

Categories: Food, Holidays, The Hague | Tags: | 3 Comments

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