Food

Funny sandwich names (Or: Eggstra cheesy)

Posted on October 15, 2023 by Niki

The weather has definitely turned; the cold fingers of fall has arrived. If you’re lucky you’ll get a moment of sun but otherwise it is just wind and rain. Therefore I haven’t taken many photos for the blog of late. So here is one from a month or two ago which I never got around to posting:

It shows two sandwiches which are on sale at the Pathé movie theatre. The one on the right is named “Eggstra cheesy” which is a horrible pun. Good, but horrible.

The one on the right is Boerengezond. That one is less punny and simply translates to “Farmer’s healthy sandwich”.

In other news:

Saturday first day below 15 degrees since May 17; ends record warm day streak from nltimes.nl. 15C is around 60F. It was a nice record while it lasted.

Van Gogh museum stops Pikachu card promo due to “chaos” from dutchnews.nl. They are cute cards (you should check them out) but really, anyone could have known that these would have been snatched up immediately and re-sold by scalpers.

This Dutch company invented sushi krokets (and we’re not sure how to feel about it) from dutchreview.com. (Krokets are breaded, deep-fried rolls usually filled with a sort of meat paste. See also Wikipedia.) This new product is called “crushi”. I am not sure how I feel about it, but who knows. I’d probably try it once.

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10 year anniversary (Or: Dining in style at Blue Blood)

Posted on September 20, 2023 by Niki

Yesterday was our 10 year anniversary. Sometimes we go for a swanky hotel, like the executive suite in Amersfoort, or the awesome views from the nhow hotel in Rotterdam, or the Kurhaus hotel in nearby Scheveningen during corona. This time I went with a nice restaurant since we already have vacation plans later in the year.

I booked a reservation at Blue Blood in The Hague as a surprise for Marco (he didn’t know where we were going until we were there). The restaurant offers “a mash-up of the Peruvian and Japanese cuisine”. I had read good things about both the food and service at this restaurant and they did not disappoint. When booking the reservation I was asked if this was for a special occasion. I of course clicked on anniversary. When we arrived we saw they had given us a table in the corner next to the canal, with rose petals on the table and a glass of cava (on the house) to toast the occasion.

I knew in advance that I wanted the tasting menu. It started off with oysters. The first oyster I have had in my life. It did not disappoint!

The sauce was yuzu sauce, which gave it a lovely sour taste, with Peruvian corn and lots of other goodies inside.

Another plus point: as each course arrived the staff took the time to explain what each component was, what the ingredients were and why it was on the menu. Unfortunately my memory isn’t good enough to remember most of it, but it was lovely to hear what the inspiration was behind everything.

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Friday night with Marco (Or: Enjoying the grub by Kompaan Binnenhaven)

Posted on September 17, 2023 by Niki

A few Fridays back, during that week when the weather was so warm, Marco and I met up in the city centre. We each had an idea about where we could eat that evening to celebrate the end of the work week. Great minds think alike, since we quickly found out we had the same idea: Kompaan Binnenhaven at the Torenstraat in the city centre. They had been open for a while now but we had never gone. With the weather so good it is hard to pass up the opportunity to sit outside in the sun for a while. (Although to be fair the sun was pretty mean, so a bit more shade wouldn’t have been a bad thing.)

Marco chose the pork tacos. Don’t they look awesome?

Whereas I had the Libanese flatbread veggie kebab. This one also had pickled cucumber and red cabbage kimchi which gave it a lovely slight sour note. It combined well with the other components of the dish which had me dancing in my seat a bit. (Marco knows if I really like something I start to do a tiny dance. I was dancing.)

We also shared some salted jalapeño peppers. They were delicious and not actually that spicy considering they weren’t deseeded. The salt was definitely at the forefront with this one (in a good way). Since the jalapeños were grilled there was also a lovely hint of smokiness.

Okay, now I sound like a restaurant connoisseur and I’m not. But it was a great way to end the work week for sure.

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Pretty plates (Or: Tasty food by Umami in The Hague)

Posted on September 10, 2023 by Niki

At the moment the weather here in The Netherlands is gorgeous. It has been about 30C/85F all week, although temperatures will drop back to normal tomorrow. But Marco and I have taken full advantage of the situation trying to soak up some rays (including a visit to the dunes in nearby Kijkduin, but that is for another blog post).

Last weekend Marco and I went to Umami to celebrate Roger’s birthday with his family. It is an Asian fusion restaurant with five locations in the Netherlands. We previously went to Umami for the lunch service. Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs then, since we ended up asking for a doggie bag.

This time we did the shared dining experience over three courses. Each course meant two plates for each person, so with six people we had twelve plates each course. Here are some of the photos I took:

I don’t remember anymore what the plate above was. Probably salmon? But you can get the tone of this restaurant just with that photo.

You would think the above picture is chicken, but nope, it is cauliflower. It came with cauliflower purée, asparagus, coriander oil and olive crumble. And it was just as delicious as it looked.

For dessert Marco had the matcha yuzu cake, which came with matcha ice cream, matcha sauce and raisins. It was a great way to end the evening.

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Standing watch (Or: Nijntje in De Passage)

Posted on September 3, 2023 by Niki

The newest guest in De Passage shopping area is Nijntje:

Nijntje is short in Dutch for Konijntje or “little rabbit”. Outside of the Netherlands you probably know her better as Miffy (Wikipedia). I took this picture on the first day, but if you walk past now you’ll see a sign that says if you take a photo with her and place it on social media you can win a package of Nijntje gifts worth around 150 euros. See also Instagram.

And, just as randomly, here is a photo of the lovely ramen soup I enjoyed earlier in August at Momiji Ramen:

This ramen featured a lovely spicy broth and minced meat. Delicious.

This should be interesting (although they don’t have any details yet): Disney to collaborate with Rijksmuseum to celebrate its 100th anniversary from nltimes.nl

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Eating habits (Or: How they can change)

Posted on July 5, 2023 by Niki

Last weekend I had a day off so I decided to visit the Mall of the Netherlands. It is for the most part a very American looking mall, with dazzling store fronts and small food stands set up in the middle of the walkway. When it first opened I was surprised to see that the mall’s owner is Westfield. I found that particularly interesting considering I lived near a Westfield mall growing up in the US, so it felt like a piece of home.

For lunch I decided to go to the food court on the upper level of the mall. Technically I am European enough these days to want to write that it is on the 1st floor, but any American readers might think I mean ground floor if I say that… (Ground floor = 0 or “BG” for begane grond.)

After walking around looking at the options I chose Laffa, a place which serves Middle Eastern street food. I went for the falafel, which was of course delicious.

That made me realize that eating habits definitely do change, at least for the most part. I hate peas (still do), but if you grind them up or change the texture I am much more likely to appreciate them. I love falafel, I love roti bread.

Back when I was a kid I was mostly enjoyed chicken fingers. Heh. I still have a memory of scrapping spaghetti into a trash can when no one was around as a young picky eater, not realizing that it would be very obvious if anyone looked into the trash can or saw the marks on my plate. Obviously I was caught. For the record, I am still not a fan of spaghetti, but I do love penne. Growing up we called it mostaccioli.

Who knew I would move here and get to eat Vietnamese, or sushi, or Indian, or Indonesian, or Greek whenever I want. Of course, I still need to broaden my horizons a bit more. But it is a start.

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Rrrollend food truck festival (Or: Enjoying the sun)

Posted on May 22, 2023 by Niki

We finally have some good weather here in the Netherlands! Unfortunately “good weather” in this case is about 19-20C, or 64-68F. But we take what we can get.

This past weekend was the Rrrollend food truck festival, this time by the Hofvijver. I am not sure if this is the first time that it was held there; usually it is at the Lange Voorhout or by Maliveld. People were enjoying the weather. Some were even sitting by the water, although maybe that was just to find a good seat — it was pretty crowded there after all. But dangling your legs over the water is a nice way to enjoy the sun.

A few weeks earlier Marco and I were at Anne & Max, a (chain) café found throughout the Netherlands. Check out the cool pattern on the cappuccino:

The cake in the background was a lime cake, but it was a bit drier than expected. It was still a fun time with Marco, though.

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Breakfast in The Hague (Or: By Hoender en Hop)

Posted on February 19, 2023 by Niki

Breakfast really isn’t a thing in the Netherlands. At least not the all-you-can-eat and free coffee refills on the side type of breakfast, unless you book a hotel maybe. Recently we read that there is a restaurant in The Hague’s city centre which has a more extensive breakfast that sort of reminded us of American breakfast. We decided to go this past Friday because we both had the day off.

Hoender en Hop translates to something like “Poultry and beer” (Hoender means grouse, a bird, in English). The restaurant is part of the Grote Markt.

This was round one — the highlight for me was the pulled chicken (at the bottom), while the highlight for Marco was the maple-glazed bacon on Marco’s plate at the top. And I even had a bit of scrambled eggs, which is something that only happens every few years at most. Other things on offer were little pancakes and Belgian waffles.

The food was good, the coffee was good. The only thing I might do differently is try it on a Saturday or Sunday. It was pretty quiet on a Friday morning, which meant that we had to wait a while for the coffee refill and the pancakes and waffles weren’t hot anymore. If you had more people taking part in the buffet obviously things would be refreshed more often.

It was definitely worth it, though. We will go back for sure.

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Food truck festivals (And: News from The Netherlands)

Posted on January 15, 2023 by Niki

Good news – the food truck festival Rrrollend is coming back for a special winter edition from March 1 to March 5 at the Lange Voorhout. Official website in Dutch. Indebuurt.nl (also in Dutch, it means “in the neighborhood” reports that the winter edition means they will be selling glühwein (mulled wine) and hot chocolate. Yum. Rrrollend will also be back in The Hague in Mid-May (at the Hofvijver) and in mid-August (at the Lange Voorhout).

Above is the shaved ice cream Marco and I enjoyed back in 2019.

In other news, The Hague’s public transportation company will stop selling HTM bicycles in The Hague on February 1 (official website in English) due to low demand. Most people use the NS train company’s bicycles instead. The bikes will be moved to Zoetermeer, a suburb of The Hague, where the demand for them is higher.

The cool event in Scheveningen is open for one more week (the last day is the 22nd). You can go ice skating or view ice sculptures. Official website in Dutch.

If you want to travel to Utrecht, you can also visit the I Light U light festival going on through January 29. The artwork is all in the neighborhood of the main train station. Official website in English.

And finally, we had some pretty strong winds last Thursday. Some planes were asked to use a runway at Schiphol airport that is not normally in use (the Oostbaan, or East runway) but one plane arriving from Detroit still managed to land the plane just short of the runway. Although to be honest I don’t know how much you would feel that as a passenger. See also dutchreview.com in English.

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Happy New Year! (Or: Oliebollen time)

Posted on January 1, 2023 by Niki

Happy 2023, everyone!

Marco and I made oliebollen a few days ago. It’s a donut-like snack that you fry in oil and then cover in powdered sugar.

Of course, purists would say that donuts took their inspiration from oliebollen, not the other way around.

I also purchased some apple beignets from the oliebollen stand at the Grote Markt yesterday. New Year’s Eve is the busiest time of the season for oliebollen stands; this particular one opens at 06:00 on New Year’s Eve.

Here is a look at some photos of the New Year Eve’s fireworks above The Hague, from regio15.nl (article in Dutch).

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