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

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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A slightly warmer weekend (Or: Temporary moments of spring)

I have to admit it was nice yesterday to wear a lighter jacket and not my winter jacket. The Netherlands is a bit warmer this week, around 9-11C (48-51F). And we haven’t gotten much rain lately at all, especially not in comparison to last month (see also Netherlands on track for the rainiest January ever at nltimes.nl).

Since my mention last week of the Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, I also saw this letter posted on The Guardian’s website: Illuminating Johannes Vermeer’s use of the camera obscura. It reminded me of an episode from one of my favorite podcasts, Everything Everywhere Daily, where the host discussed whether or not Vermeer used this technology. I like the podcast because there are short episodes coming out of every day about every topic under the sun. Each episode is about 10-15 minutes. If you want an even crazier episode you should try Saint Olga of Kiev: The Patron Saint of Vengeance.

Vermeer’s “A woman asleep”, on display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Roger, Marco and I saw it when we were in New York City last November. Read more at their website.

Oh, and in other news – I am having way too much fun playing the newly released Hogwarts Legacy on PlayStation. It is a lot of fun to run around and get collectibles and gear. More fun than actually doing the storyline, perhaps…

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“Chance of a lifetime” Vermeer exhibition (Or: On display at the Rijksmuseum)

If you enjoy the paintings by Johannes Vermeer, then you should consider going to the Rijksmuseum to see the latest exhibition. It will run from 10 February through 4 June. What makes this exhibition special, you might ask? It will feature 28 of Vermeer’s paintings. Considering he only has about 40 paintings credited to him, this is a lot of Vermeer in one museum. The Rijksmuseum was able to get other museums to lend their paintings for the exhibition. For example, it will feature the “Girl with the Pearl Earring” which is normally in The Hague’s Mauritshuis. It will be on loan through the end of March. Other paintings include “Girl Reading a Letter at the Open Window” from Dresden and “The Mistress and the Maid” from the Frick collection in New York. Paintings are also on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre.

If you want to book tickets, see the Rijksmuseum website. You need to pick a date and start time.

See also ‘Chance of a lifetime’ Vermeer exhibition to open in Amsterdam at theguardian.com.

Above: Girl reading a letter by an open window. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Reading_a_Letter_at_an_Open_Window

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Random finds at Xenos (Or: The store known for its randomness)

Xenos is a store which sells random stuff (official website in Dutch). Housewares, posters, keychains, outdoor furniture, food, drinks, you name it. I’ve been blogged about them before – the word “Xenos” is Greek and means stranger or foreigner.

First up we have the cookie dough bites cereal:

When I was growing up, the most unhealthy cereal we had was Cocoa Puffs. At some point in my childhood I also saw Reese’s cereal in the store, but I never had any interest in trying that. Cookie Dough Bites originated as a movie theatre candy in the US. I can remember Marco and Roger buying those at the movie theatre (or at Target and sneaking them into the theatre!). And then suddenly they were sold in the Netherlands. These days they had a dozen flavors and now they are a cereal. Who knew.

And here is a key chain that Xenos sells:

Having been born in the 80’s and spending my childhood playing (or watching others play) Super Mario Brothers, I told Marco that is probably the only keychain I would consider buying. Not that I need a keychain; it would probably go on my backpack if I ever did buy it. But considering Xenos has offered it for sale the last 5 years I am in no rush to purchase it. And if they ever discontinue it, I will always have this picture to remember it by.

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The weather turns cold (Or: Cold for the Netherlands, at least)

This week the temperature has been around 0-5C (32-41F). Of course that isn’t that cold for my readers from the US, but after 10 years in the Netherlands, it is cold. Luckily one of my Christmas gifts this year was a decent set of gloves. They keep my fingers nice and toasty. Mostly.

My streak of never taking a sick day at work has ended after about 20 years, unfortunately. The last time I took one I was a student worker at my university’s library back in 2003 or 2004, to give you some idea. It isn’t that I am stubborn, I just don’t get that sick that often. Or there was the one time my body decided to get sick around 7pm on a Friday evening, I was confined to the bed for the entire weekend, but then somehow felt well enough to go back to work on Monday. That sort of craziness.

This time I think it was a light version of the flu as the Netherlands is in the middle of a flu epidemic at the moment. I did test negative for corona. I suspect I picked up the flu virus at the hairdressers on Saturday as I was there for a while. Either way, the worst is over, Marco was very loving and received many brownie points, and my sick day record has officially been broken.

In other news, check out the chocolate egg selection at Jumbo (a supermarket):

Because of course Easter eggs start getting sold as soon as the New Years Eve memorabilia is out the door. Some of the flavors include caramel sea salt, nougat, creme brûlée, brownie, tiramisu and peanut butter. At this point, those all sound pretty normal as Jumbo usually has a huge selection.

Random link that might interest you: 11 books based in the Netherlands to add to your reading list from dutchreview.com.

Categories: Everyday purchases | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Food truck festivals (And: News from The Netherlands)

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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A new Dutch reading board (Or: This one is a bit tastier)

At some point last month Marco and I were at a store and spotted a different type of reading board. Dutch reading boards have been used for over a century to teach kids how to read. It shows all of the commonly used consonants, vowels and diphthongs in the Dutch language, with words and pictures like aap, noot or mies (ape, nut, word for a woman or kat). See also the photos at this Dutch Wikipedia page. You can also read more about the history of Dutch reading boards (link in English).

Or you can just admire the reading board that Marco and I spotted that is crafted especially for men, apparently:

Leesplank voor kerels = reading board for men.

And here is a random link of the day: in 51 places in The Hague you can take an umbrella / leave an umbrella for free (article in Dutch at denhaag.nl).

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Happy New Year! (Or: Oliebollen time)

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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Sweet treats (Or: Van Delft store in The Hague)

Earlier this month Marco and I visited the Van Delft store in The Hague. They are well-known for their stroopwafels, kruidnoten and pepernoten.

Here is a look at their store setup this year:

Above: a look at some of the kruidnoten flavors they have on sale.

A close up look. Think of flavors like intense orange, disco dip, white chocolate, dark roasted coffee, etc. I bought a bag of the dark roasted coffee flavor. Yum! Of course, kruidnoten are a treat for Sinterklaas (5 December) so they aren’t being sold at the moment.

In other news

Categories: Culture, Holidays, The Hague | Tags: , | Leave a comment

10 years in the Netherlands (Or: Can you believe it?)

Today marks 10 years in the Netherlands! Wow. I almost can’t believe it. Although maybe that sounds a bit too negative – I do love living here and don’t miss living in the States.

Here was my post at 5 years. I didn’t bake cookies this time for my coworkers like I did last year (delicious, soft, chewy lemon cookies. Yum.) Maybe next time. A lot of coworkers choose to work remotely and only come in once a week, so it can be hard to know when there are enough coworkers around to share in the sweets.

I have visited the Royal Christmas Fair a few times this year already though (just like 2017). Once with Marco right when it opened and once with coworkers. The fair runs through 22 December this year and sells a mix of crafts (like nativity scenes, candles, ornaments) and food (like sausages, raclette. crepes). Oh and also some very tasty mulled wine. Although we call it by its German name, glühwein.

Above: a look at some of the nativity scenes for sale at one of the stands.

In other news, here is the most random thing that happend today: Marco and I were flipping through the channels this afternoon and we came across an infomercial selling very sharp kitchen knives. Strangely enough the original presenters were speaking English, but it was dubbed in German and for good measure subtitled in Dutch. It was a bit hard to watch. Normally you would just get the original programming, English speech and all, with Dutch subtitles underneath. We don’t dub anything in this country.

Categories: Holidays, Marco&Niki | Tags: , | Leave a comment

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