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Start of the holiday season (Or: Lights at De Passage)

Posted on October 16, 2024 by Niki

De Passage (the covered shopping area in The Hague’s city centre) has started getting ready for the coming holiday season. It’s a bit early, but in the Netherlands the first holiday is Sinterklaas. That holiday is on 5 December, a full three weeks before Christmas.

It’s not much yet (there’s no Christmas tree yet), but it’s a start.

And in other news: Jeers for beers: mechanic chucks out artwork at Lisse museum from dutchnews.nl. The artwork was two handprinted beer cans left on display in an elevator, so the mistake definitely makes sense. The museum has gotten a lot of publicity due to it, so I am sure they are happy. (The not-beer cans were later found in the trash, so there was no harm done.)

Categories: Holidays, Shopping, The Hague | Tags: Art, De Passage | Leave a comment

Ice cream, you scream (Or: Desserts by SET restaurant)

Posted on October 9, 2024 by Niki

Last weekend Marco and I went to SET restaurant here in The Hague for lunch. I had a bento box, which is what I always get for lunch there because it is so good. I didn’t take a picture this time since I have posted about it before. As always: yum!

On this rare occasion I also decided to get dessert. Here is Marco’s dessert, a mochi ice cream mix.

I have to admit, the restaurant name in powdered sugar is a nice touch. Almost like they know these photos will show up on social media…

I went for the green tea ice cream. It was a great choice, since the ice cream was a slightly more bitter green tea.

Did you know there is a store in Tokyo which sells 7 different types of matcha ice cream (reddit.com)? With 7 being the most bitter and the most intense. That is what I was thinking of while having this ice cream, although I’d probably rate it as 4 or 5 on the “intensity scale”.

Categories: Food | Tags: Desserts | Leave a comment

Oliebollen time! (Or: Grote Marktstraat in the rain)

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Niki

As mentioned in my last post, the oliebollen stand opened yesterday, 1 October. As you can see it was immediately swarmed.

Marco also made good on his promise to go take the picture above and buy oliebollen, so we already had our first ones of the season yesterday evening, with the obligatory coffee.

And yes, it is rainy in the Netherlands of late. I took a chance this morning by not bringing my umbrella on my walk to work. I regretted it around the halfway mark. Boo. It looks like there will be less rain the rest of the week, though.

Categories: Everyday purchases, The Hague | Tags: Centrum, Oliebollen, Weather | Leave a comment

Christmas in September (Or: At Bijenkorf)

Posted on September 29, 2024 by Niki

I was in Bijenkorf yesterday picking up a greeting card when I spotted a sign that the Christmas section was available on the third floor. Of course I just had to see for myself…

It’s true. So I decided to take a few photos of ornaments. The soy sauce because the animal was cute.

And this because it is oliebollen (Wikipedia). Yum.

Oh, and stayed tuned for pictures of the oliebollen stand on the Grote Marktstraat, perhaps. Marco and Roger spotted it yesterday after we went to the movies (we saw Transformers One), although we suspect that the stand won’t open until Tuesday (October 1). It is always interesting how it either opens on October 1 or November 1. Pre-covid it wouldn’t be allowed to set up shop before November 1, but they made an exception for a few years in 2020-2021. But I thought last year it didn’t open until November 1.

Anyway – it is almost oliebollen time!

Categories: Holidays | Tags: Bijenkorf, Christmas, Oliebollen | Leave a comment

Dutch news in easier language (Or: Not just for foreigners)

Posted on September 9, 2024 by Niki

NOS, the Dutch public broadcaster, has launched a new daily news broadcast at 17:00 called NOS Journaal in makkelijke Taal or “NOS news in easy language”. In 2021 they started a weekly news channel on YouTube and now they are changing to a daily format. It will be shown on television at 17:00 as well as on YouTube. They will focus on three topics per broadcast, with each broadcast lasting about 5 minutes, give or take.

It’s quite similar to their Lang verhaal kort or “Long story short” podcast which I have followed for years. The podcast has episodes every weekday, about 5 minutes each, describing one topic. Each episode ends with a short summary so you can be sure of what you just heard.

Here are some news articles about the new service NOS is offering:

NOS Journaal in Makkelijke Taal van start from nos.nl (in Dutch)

Dutch broadcaster launches news bulletin in easy-to-understand language from theguardian.com

The nice thing is the service isn’t just aimed at foreigners – it is also aimed at residents who don’t have the required language skills to follow the news, or the elderly, or similar. The NOS also has a daily news program for children and/or teenagers (NOS jeugdjournaal) but as you can imagine, that is a different audience than the one they are trying to serve with this version.

I don’t need this “easy news” service anymore, but it would have nice when I first moved here. However, the article from The Guardian mentions the letters the Dutch government sends and how hard those can be to read. I agree wholeheartedly as I find most of the letters I receive from the government annoying to read. They are too longwinded. Just get to the point already. A lot of my coworkers who don’t speak Dutch well enough yet will bring the letter to the office and ask around for help translating them.

Categories: Daily Dutch living, Learning Dutch | Leave a comment

Almost December already? (Or: Kruidnoten spotted by Albert Heijn)

Posted on August 24, 2024 by Niki

Kruidnoten spotting is a tradition / sport in The Netherlands. The earliest I have spotted them is August 1, although this year I haven’t seen them yet. Marco did, though, and took a photo of them at a local Albert Heijn earlier this week:

I am sure if I went to the local Jumbo grocery store (pronounced Yumbo) I would find them as well. Although I don’t see them offered online quite yet…

Kruidnoten are a confectionery to celebrate the December 5 Sinterklaas holiday. Personally I am waiting for the gevuld speculaas, which is a cake with almond paste inside. It looks like this (laurasbakery.nl). Yum!

Categories: Food, Holidays | Tags: Albert Heijn, Sinterklaas | Leave a comment

Punselie’s stroopkoekjes (Or: Gone… for now?)

Posted on August 18, 2024 by Niki

Recently I read on omroepwest.nl that Punselie’s in Gouda would (at least temporarily) stop producing stroopkoekjes (=small syrup cookies) at the end of this month. See also the message on the official website, in Dutch, which says they hope to be producing cookies again in 12 months after they find a new location and secure new machinery.

Oven from world famous stroopkoek to be turned off: “Difficult and emotional” (article in Dutch at omroepwest.nl). It’s possible if you were on a KLM flight that you were served one of these. The linked article mentions that these were very popular on flights back in the day, but that the company lost a lot of revenue after 9/11. These days the cookies are only sold within the Netherlands because the machinery used to make the cookies is too old to be certified for sale outside of the country.

The cookies are pretty good. They are pretty small*, which isn’t a bad thing when you just want a cookie with your “after dinner” coffee. The ratio of cookie to syrup is also a bit more even here, so they are a bit less sweet than the bigger stroopwafels you can get on the street or in the store. All in all, a nice treat!

* The size of the cookies is given in the name right on the box, with the -je ending: stroopkoekjes. Adding -je (or -jes for the plural) to a word makes a regular sized object small. So, stroopkoekjes is small syrup cookies.

Categories: Everyday purchases, Food | Leave a comment

Robotic servers (Or: Dadawan in the Mall of the Netherlands)

Posted on August 12, 2024 by Niki

A few months ago a new restaurant by the name of Dadawan opened in the Mall of the Netherlands. They bill themselves as “Asian fast food” although there are fusion options. But more importantly, they have robots…!

Okay, okay. The robots generally just bring you your drinks, not the food. But still, it’s a first for me. It was good food as well, although I oddly had a craving for – and went for – a hamburger at the Asian fast food fusion place. It was good, and not so large that it was messy. It wasn’t the best hamburger I’ve ever had, but it hit the spot. If that makes sense.

After you grab all your drinks, he prompts you to send him back to the starting point. Although he’ll go back automatically after a few minute or two if you don’t press anything.

And of course the joke on the screen was “Rice to meet you Leidschendam!” (Leidschendam being the name of the town the mall is in).

And yes, I just called a robot a “he”. Chat-GPT is also “he” for me.

Categories: Food | Leave a comment

What summer needs (Or: An ice cream cone from the Ijskabinet)

Posted on July 31, 2024 by Niki

What do you do on a warm summer evening? You go get ice cream, of course.

The Ijskabinet (literally “ice cabinet”) is an ice cream store in The Hague’s city centre, across the street from the Buitenhof/Hofvijver. They have been there since 2019 but this was our first time.

I knew I wanted a cone, but I quickly opted for a decadent chocolate cone. Then they asked if I wanted sprinkles, and I said yes, thinking they meant the sprinkles would be on top of the ice cream. Nope…

Apparently that meant sprinkles on the cone itself (Lekker! Tasty!).

I got coffee flavored ice cream and Marco got two scoops: yoghurt and lemon meringue pie. Mine was great and hit the spot. Marco liked his as well, although he said the lemon meringue pie flavor could have been stronger.

Ijskabinet does not have a working website, but they do have an Instagram page. I get the impression that the flavors change day by day, so you just need to walk in and see what they have. There is ample seating outside because it is right next to the statue of Johan de Witt which has nice seating opportunities at its base.

Categories: Daily Dutch living, The Hague | Tags: Desserts, Summer | Leave a comment

13678 characters of Boredom yawn (Or: Exhibition at The Hague Library)

Posted on July 24, 2024 by Niki

The Hague’s main library has an exhibition entitled “13678 characters of Boredom *yawn*” (scroll down for English). It’s actually pretty cool, if you’re into word searches.

Ten writers created two sentences each, in a sort of “chain writing” exercise where each sentence was related to the one that came before it. The words found in those 20 sentences can be found in the giant word search in the library.

I didn’t have any time to stop and work on it when I spotted it over the weekend, but I’ll probably go back and see if there are any words left.

The other side of the board was also a giant word search, as you can see below:

The closing event is on 18 September, so you have some time between now and then to find some words. On that day the entire poem will be revealed. Happy hunting!

Categories: Culture | Tags: Libraries | Leave a comment