Here is one of the items we had at De Gezelligheid (a restaurant in Leusden) a few weeks back. A strawberry slush drink. Yum!
Of course the drink would have gone over even better today, as it was officially shorts weather after getting home from work. Heat wave!
Yesterday I had a videochat with my parents to celebrate my birthday. Imagine my surprise when the videochat connected and I saw this cake:
German chocolate birthday cake!
That’s right. They bought a cake for me, even though I was in a different country! I then got treated to “Happy Birthday” from my parents, all the way across the ocean. 🙂
There wasn’t much in my notes from Thursday’s class – we did a lot of practice exercises it seemed. One thing I did write down was this exchange:
Pretend someone calls you and asks Is Mary daar? Is Mary there?
How do you refer to ‘Mary’ when you answer? Nee, …. is niet hier. No, … is not here.
In English it would generally be ‘she’ or ‘he’ (ze/zij or hij). It’s possible in Dutch as well. But in Dutch you can also say: Nee, die is niet hier. die refers back to the question, rather than the person itself. (This is much like my last post about Er, where I said er could refer to an entire idea/phrase/statement.)
And since this wasn’t the most comprehensive post, here’s a picture of dessert!
cinnamon ice cream with chocolate sauce and whipped cream
It’s from Spize, a Thai restaurant in The Hague. We went there back in January. Yum!
Some weeks ago Marco brought home some kokoskransen cookies. Â This is a soft coconut cookie. It actually tastes pretty good!
An all-time Dutch favorite: a cup of coffee with a cookie
But there is one unexpected thing about it…
There’s a small paper on the underside. It makes sense – the cookie is ever so slightly sticky, so individual cookies need to be separated somehow. I remember the first time I had these at Marco’s dad’s – I was quite confused when I saw the underside and tried to pull off the paper before Marco gently told me it was edible. Indeed! I had no idea…
It as weird to eat the paper as well, let me tell you. My brain told me I mustn’t. But I did anyway.
And now for something not Disney related….
Last Sunday Marco and I went to Athene Palace, a Greek restaurant in The Hague. You are served a shot of ouzo shortly after arriving. It’s a Greek, anise-flavored alcohol. I usually order a variety dish that contains a bit of french fries and rice, along with various meats like suflaki, suzuki, gyros, and chicken. Good stuff!
Another person in the party ordered this dessert:
I forget the exact flavor, but if you like whipped cream this is definitely the dessert for you. I’m more of the dame blanche type. My favorite way to eat that ice cream dessert is to ration out the fudge sauce so there is still some sauce left even near the end of the dessert.
The only drawback to this restaurant is that it can be hard to signal a waiter to bring the check. However that is true of lot of restaurants in this country it seems. Others might say they are just giving you enough time to converse afterwards without being bothered, so it really depends on your viewpoint.
On Sunday Marco and I visited the Cheesecake Company in The Hague, over on Torenstraat. This is also what we had at our wedding – two strawberry cheesecakes, one chocolate cheesecake, and a smaller white chocolate cappuccino cake for Marco and I (the one that we symbolically cut together).
This time we had their stroopwafel cheesecake. It was delicious.
stroopwafel cheesecake
Near where we were sitting is also a board you can write on with chalk:
And another picture:
Of course, once we were done we asked for some razma-limey (raspberry and lime) cheesecake to go, for later. That is definitely one of my favorites.
When Marco and I dropped my family off at Schiphol airport, we stopped at a shop next to the Starbucks. This shop is known for having a small selection of imported American items, including candy, barbecue sauce, and other less than healthy snacks. Imagine my surprise when I found a 15 euro box of twinkies:
Granted, it is a box of 10 twinkies but that still works out to €1.50 per twinkie, or $2. I have also found similar price increases for pop-tarts (English | Dutch) which I have fond memories of being able to get 2 for $5 in America. Here it is €5.50 for one box, although we recently found a €4.50 deal at an Asian supermarket of all places.
The only import place I have visited in The Hague is Kelly’s expat shop which had some interesting stuff with about the prices you expect. Unfortunately sometimes it is easier and cheaper to shop on Amazon UK and have it delivered to the Netherlands. But it’s more fun to go to the stores directly.
Last week Marco and I walked through V&D to look at their deals. They had a sale event going on called Prijzen Circus. Â According to Marco you can also (sometimes) get some interesting things in the bakery during this time.
Lo and behold, I found pigs made out of marzipan:
They looked quite cute if you ask me. And full of sugar… In the background you can see other treats – everything in that display case was made with marzipan. Crazy!
Time has definitely got away from me. It’s only 17 days until the wedding (!) and tonight I begin my next Dutch class (B1 level). It meets every Monday and Wednesday night for three hours. For some reason I am not that nervous about it, and I’m not sure why. But there’s still at least 4 more hours to get nervous!
A few weekends ago Marco and I went to Hema to work on and discuss wedding details. We were pleased to see that Hema again sells the white chocolate cranberry cookies (and amusingly labels them as “Amerikaanse koekje”, or American cookie). Probably because they are jumbo sized!
As the cookies are made fresh by Hema (I presume) they are nice and soft. They are also very delicious with black coffee…
And now I want another one.
Marco and I have figured out what we will be having for our bruidstaart (wedding cake). The decision was the case of ‘a friend of a friend’; we have chosen the Cheesecake Company in The Hague.  The American owner, Rebecca, does some beautiful cheesecakes for weddings, with some pretty crazy flavors.
After a lot of tasting with family, we finally moved away from the crazy flavors (like razma-limey, a sourish combination of raspberry and lime) and settled with two strawberry cheesecakes and one chocolate cheesecake — double chocolate chocolate chip to be exact. …Though it’s not nearly as insane as ‘Death by Chocolate’ The smaller cake for Marco and I is cappuccino white chocolate. That’s the actual cake that he and I will cut. Yum!
Life in the Hague 