Food

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.

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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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