A few random photos from an Albert Heijn in The Hague:
It is smoked meats (meat covered in spices like paprika, black pepper, and similar).
Just a random thing that caught my eye – “Hmm, this would make a good photo for the blog.” 🙂
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Coca-cola truck (Or: Christmas time in The Hague)
A few days ago a coworker of mine showed me a few pictures she had taken around The Hague. As she comes from a warmer climate, she loves to see how Christmas is celebrated here — not that The Hague is that cold. Her favourite pastime seems to be visiting Christmas markets, which is pretty cool.
The first picture she took was of the holidays Coca-cola truck in the city centre:
And the other one she took was an awesome picture of the holiday lights at the Plein. I just love the hazy moon:
In the middle, to the left of the Christmas tree, you can just make out the statue of Willem the Silent, which I previously blogged about.
Pans by Vivo (Or: Albert Heijn promotion)
Albert Heijn’s latest promotion is saving up for pans designed by Vivo. The last promotion Vivo did for Albert Heijn was kitchen knives. That promotion was kind of funny because people ended up complaining that the knives were too sharp. (Seriously? What did you expect?)
But this time we have luxury pans. Cool.
Actually, Marco and I don’t really need anything, so we’ve been saving up for Roger to use them if he wants.
Since this photo was taken we’ve collected more stamps – at this point we have exactly enough.
Definitely “luxury” pans – one pan requires 60 stamps. In theory you receive one stamp for every 10 euros you spend, though there are ways to get additional stamps if you buy certain items and sometimes you get more stamps than you should.
We’ll probably keep collecting stamps on the off chance someone else needs them, but I don’t think we’ll attempt to fill another card. However, we have until mid-February so you never know.
An illusionary pizza (Or: Marco’s latest creation)
Marco made some pizza last night:
But this pizza wasn’t what it seemed. This pizza is actually a dessert! The pizza dough is white cake, while the cheese is a yellow cream (it was already yellow, but yellow food dye was added to make it an even brighter yellow). The pepperoni is actually strawberries, though in this case it was preserved strawberries out of a can because they tend to be darker in color. There is a bit of pineapple to look like onions, as well as a bit of mandarin to look like orange peppers. The “spices” on top of the cheese is actually shaved chocolate.
I never would have thought pizza would go so well with coffee! Here’s a look at his other creation, a dessert “hamburger and fries”.
Sinterklaas! (Or: 5 December)
Today is Sinterklaas in the Netherlands (Wikipedia: Dutch | English). Mostly celebrated by kids who receive small trinkets in the weeks leading up to the holiday. Everything culminates in tonight – Pakjesavond, or “Evening of presents” as a loose translation. It’s no secret that Sinterklaas is bigger than Christmas for kids, but it’s still weird to realise this coming from the US.
But – one tradition that you’re supposed to adhere to is not putting up the Christmas tree until the day after Sinterklaas leaves.
Erhm.
No comment.
Gevulde speculaas (Or: Another dessert by Roger)
Yesterday Marco and I visited Roger and were treated to gevulde speculaas. This translates to “filled speculaas” – the speculaas is filled with almond paste and the speculaas cookie is softer. I liked the homemade version Roger made – it was a lot less sweet than what you find in the stores. It’s mostly made around the the time St. Nicholas visits the Netherlands (5 December, Sinterklaas in Dutch).
Here is a look at the entire piece, before it was cut:
Almond paste inside, almonds on top…
And a look at a slice of it, where you can more clearly see the almond paste inside:
Delicious!
Aim Aroy (Or: Thai restaurant in Tilburg)
Last Saturday (Nov 19), Marco, Roger and I went to a rock concert in Tilburg. We saw two bands – Killswitch Engage and Bullet for My Valentine. It was a lot of fun, even if Tilburg really is not that close by. It is about an hour to an hour and a half depending on what train you can get. Luckily it was on a Saturday night, since we got home closer to 1:30AM.
But before we went there, we stopped by a small Thai restaurant for dinner. We had a 4:30PM reservation so we wouldn’t be late to the arena, but that meant we were the first ones there – even before the cook! We could see someone inside, so we decided to wait outside and see what happened. Long story short, they soon took pity on us and let us in.
This is my blog, so I can decide to start with the dessert picture. Check this one out!
Spekkoek and coffee
If you don’t know what spekkoek is, check out the Wikipedia article.
Although it definitely was not the best lighting, I took a picture of the darkening sky from inside the restaurant:
The decorations here are just a silhouette against the sky.
This was also a nice decoration, in the corner of the restaurant.
Appetizers to share – spring rolls and Thai (chicken) sate
A look at my food – chicken and veggies in a green curry, with a side of white rice.
My meal was a bit spicier than I expected, but Marco offered to finish off the spiciest part, the soup!
If you’re in the neighbourhood and you like Thai food, I do recommend checking this one out. It’s a bit small, though, so reserve in advance. They have a lot of takeout traffic as well.
And: good dinner choice, Roger!
Categories: Food, Tilburg
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Bijenkorf (Or: A look at Bijenkorf’s 2016 Christmas selection)
I am officially posting on my brand new computer! I picked it up on Wednesday night and it looks gorgeous. I have missed being able to easily make blog posts, and now it is even easier – turn on Bluetooth between my iPhone and MacBook, and I can transfer photos without any extra cables! Of course, the move to a Mac has been an interesting one, but that’s what I have Siri for, right? At least she knows where to find various settings…
(Speaking of which, it was very disconcerting to hear a male Siri! That was one of the first things I switched…)
I recently went into Bijenkorf (rather than just staring at their pretty Christmas trees outside) to have a look at their holiday section.
Very contemplative…
Below is a look at some of the Christmas trees on offer. This year (maybe for the first time since I moved here?, they did not have the large Christmas tree near the front of the store). In its place was a Piet hanging from the ceiling. I was not able to get a picture of it, unfortunately.
Say hello to the party tree!
Bijenkorf does like to colour-coordinate their Christmas trees!
A bit too pastel for my tastes, but I can see how others would like it.
Christmas items for purchase at Bijenkorf, The Hague
Until next time!
Holidays at the Grote Markt (Or: Colorful decorations)
Last week I took some photos of the Christmas trees by the Bijenkorf (a department store). This week I was able to take a few photos of the lights along the Grote Markt street:
The new tear-shaped lights the city put in earlier this year look really nice!
Lights by the entrance:
And a look at the lights in the other direction, towards the movie theater and Primark:
Oh, and today a coworker brought in 12 oliebollen (sorta doughnut-y pastry that is usually made with raisins inside and covered in powdered sugar). They started selling those on November 1st… It is always something to look forward to!
Here we go (Or: Christmas at Bijenkorf)
Last week Bijenkorf (an upscale department store) put up their Christmas decorations. See for yourself:
They also put the lights up outside of the building (here is a photo from 2013).
In other news – I finally ordered a new computer! As you can see from this photo of a library book, I am switching from PC to Mac.
If you ignore that one semester in college using a Mac and QuarkXPress for a student job, it will be my first time using a Mac. And yes, it might be geeky but the book has been helpful explaining the differences in keys and in the dock at the bottom of the screen where all the program icons can be found.
Although I have a few more weeks to wait, the computer can’t come soon enough. I wanted to write this blog post on my netbook, but Chrome errored when I tried to open it. I restarted my computer but it has been stuck on a blue screen which says “getting Windows ready – don’t turn off your computer”. For a half hour. Heh…
Update: it came back after 45 minutes, although Chrome is still erroring. Oh well! That is a problem for another day.
Life in the Hague 