Rolled up ice cream (Or: Rrrollend food truck festival)

Posted on June 2, 2019 by Niki

It’s that time of year again! The Rrrollend food truck festival has returned to The Hague. Today was the last day, although they will be back at Lange Voorhout from August 9th to the 11th.

The highlight of this excursion this time around was the rolled up ice cream (Wikipedia), which I have never had before. The food truck was manned by a team out of Rotterdam (Facebook). It is a semi-solid ice cream made of cream, milk and sugar. The trick is that it is placed on a cold surface (chilled to -20 degrees) while it is being worked on. Check out this photo from the Wikipedia page:

Photo from Wikipedia user Thomson200 

Once frozen, you can roll up the ice cream as shown above.

Our mango mix rolled up ice cream from Friday
Today’s forest fruit rolled up ice cream. The rolling up didn’t go as well, but it was just as delicious!
Categories: Food, The Hague | Tags: , | 2 Comments

European elections 2019 (Or: Time to vote)

Posted on May 23, 2019 by Niki

Well, time for Dutchies to vote that is. As an expat, I can’t vote. Every five years, European elections are held for the European parliament. 751 seats, of which 26 are for the Netherlands; 29 after UK leaves the EU.

Check out how long the candidate list is (!):

Voting list taped up at The Hague city hall

Voters receive the same list, just a bit smaller (but not that much smaller – it’s still almost impossible to fold back up!)

Only UK and the Netherlands vote today. The rest from the European lands vote tomorrow or in the weekend. Therefore official results won’t be announced until Sunday evening, although exit polls started coming in a few minutes ago. Should be interesting…

Categories: Daily Dutch living | Tags: | Leave a comment

Delft blauw in The Hague (Or: Mini statues)

Posted on May 14, 2019 by Niki

The Delft blauw craze will never quite go away. Recently I was visiting Frederik Hendriklaan or the Fred, as the locals call it. I stepped inside Kaatje aan de Rein (Facebook page), a gift shop.

I had to think of my mother-in-law when I spotted these tiny creatures, made in the style of Delft blauw:

They are similar to the two playing cats she purchased at the Gemeentemuseum, a local museum here in The Hague. You can see a picture of the two cats here.

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

Day of Remembrance (Or: Jewish monument of The Hague)

Posted on May 2, 2019 by Niki

Today was a Holocaust Day of Remembrance in The Hague for the Jewish population. There was a small ceremony held in the city centre in the afternoon to remember those who were lost during WWII.

The Jewish monument in The Hague – at Rabbijn Maarsenplein, a Jewish neighborhood prior to WWII

You can read more about the monument at the official website (nl | en). Also something interesting: some of the flowers came from various embassies, including Germany, Austria, and Israel. Others came from citizens.

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

Flowers in the sun (Or: A spring day)

Posted on April 27, 2019 by Niki

Here are a few more photos from last weekend’s gorgeous sun:

The shape of the purple-pink flowers is especially eye-catching.
These bright red flowers are along the water by the Buitenhof
Flowers in the foreground, monument to Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in the background.

The stone building on the right is the former American embassy of The Hague, which since moved further away from the city centre. The monument in the distance is to Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, a Dutch colonel back in the 18th century.

Categories: The Hague | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Avengers: Endgame (Or: Seen it!)

Posted on April 24, 2019 by Niki

Just got back from the midnight showing. Totally worth it!

Categories: Friends&Family | Tags: | 2 Comments

Happy Easter! (Or: Bunny butts?)

Posted on April 21, 2019 by Niki

Happy Easter! Here is a card that Marco and I received:

The card was designed by Marco’s father and his wife.

Both Marco and I were amused by the bunny butt…

Categories: Friends&Family, Holidays | Tags: | 1 Comment

Warm weather (Or: Who needs a jacket?)

Posted on April 20, 2019 by Niki

Yesterday I had the day off so I went for a walk. The weather has been great for the Easter holiday: 70-75F with a ton of sun. One of the places I walked through is the Binnenhof, a place mentioned a lot on this blog. I like going there and watching the tourists, actually. It’s weird to live somewhere that tourists visit. So I go there and watch the families and friends excitedly taking photos of this and that…

Here is my photo, with the beautiful blue sky behind.

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

SET restaurant in The Hague (Or: Experiencing Japanse cuisine)

Posted on April 14, 2019 by Niki

A few weeks back Marco, Roger and I went to SET restaurant in The Hague. We have been there a few times, but every time I went we have just had the lunchtime bento box. This time we sampled from the sushi side of the menu. We also sampled a few Japanese drinks: Calpis (a soft drink) and cold sake.

The blue plate really ties it together… In the foreground is sushi with eel, in the background shrimp.
A look out the window from our seat. The restaurant is near the Grote Kerk (Big Church or St. James church).

I loved where we were seated. It was its own cubby hole. The table was also sunk into the ground a bit (you had to step down to get to it) so it made it seem like you were sitting on the ground without actually sitting on the ground.

And we can’t forget the dessert! So cute.

Ice and sand chocolate dessert

The chocolate sauce drawing was a nice (unexpected) touch. My dessert was called Ice and sand chocolate and was chocolate ice cream. It was quite frozen, which did give it a sort of crumbly texture, so the “sand” part of the name definitely made sense. It was quite tasty.

I can definitely recommend this place. Everything we have had there is delicious, from the drinks to the sushi to the bento boxes. And now I can add the desserts to that list!

Categories: Food | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Pizza dough (Or: Is it really pancakes…?)

Posted on April 7, 2019 by Niki

Here’s an example of things that can be very confusing for non-native speakers:

So the top blue arrow points to the description Mix voor Pizzabodem or Mix for pizza dough in English. So we’re making pizza…

…but the second blue arrow says that the prepared product will make about 20 pancakes. What? It’s just logical enough that it could work – here’s a Dutch recipe for pizzas made with pancake batter. But still, it doesn’t seem right…

I’ve asked a few Dutchies and they all think it is a typo. What do you think?

Categories: Everyday purchases, Food, Reading | 3 Comments

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