Dutch snacks

I was tempted to entitle this post "Dutch food" but I think many Nederlanders would quickly point out that what I'm about to talk about is not a true representation of their "food", so I'll stick to what I know best from living here...  their snacks!

I've been living here for 8 months now and there are loads of foods I would definitely miss if I come back to the UK.

Firstly, they make the best pancakes in the world here (not really a snack but considered an actual meal here, and they are certainly the price of an evening meal back in the UK at approx. 9EUR for 1 pancake)... they taste like nowhere else in the world and I love them.  Back when I visited Radboud University in Nijmegen for a week, I found the canteen there served pancakes once a week... here in Leiden I've been here for 8 months and they've only served pancakes twice in that time... maybe I should be grateful for the sake of my waistline.  What a shame they don't celebrate pancake day here like in the UK... but I suppose you could argue that any day could be pancake day with the numerous pancake houses in each city.

Secondly, FOOD FROM THE WALL... yes, how can you possibly resist food when they put it in the WALLS?!  It looks at you as you walk along the street or the train station or the shopping malls... just begging you through the little glass doors, to eat them!  They're kinda like giant vending machines full of deep-fried meat.  Items range from huge elongated chicken-nuggets to frikandels (elongated meat thing in a sausage shape), crockets (kroketten) deep-fried bread-crumbed mashed up bits of meat (MUCH tastier than I'm describing, believe me), something when directly translated is called a "Meat staff" (you couldn't get away with that name in the UK) and other deep-fried items such as cheese, rice and even balls of noodles!


If you go to a pub for after work drinks or networking events etc, all drink occasions include plates of these crazy deep-fried snacks plus spring rolls etc... forget two pints of larger and a packet of crisps, here it's a heineken and a plate of bittenballen (deep-friend breadcrumbed balls of meat-goo!) - heavenly!

But what I can't understand, is that back in the UK for lunch, most people I know might have a sandwich, soup OR salad.  Here, people have sandwiches, soup AND salad.  And when I say sandwiches, I failed to mention that this would usually consist of half a loaf of bread in one day and often (but not always) contain smushed up versions on the deep-fried snacks I've just mentioned.  Not to mention then washing it all down with two pints of milk and some yogurt!

So why is it that the UK is a much more obese nation than the Netherlands?  Can it really just be the cycling they do here?

Right, all this talk about snacks is making me hungry.... gotta go look in the walls....

My Dutch discovery of the week

Good news everyone (just in case you were all panicking)... I've discovered that Dutch baked beans (although they come in glass jars and are called white beans) are just the same as our baked beans back home.  I'm sure Rich will be relieved as there's one thing I won't be asking him to stuff into a suitcase (along with the regular supply of brown sauce and breakfast cereal).  Believe me I'm very pleased as I once tasted French baked beans and never, ever will again, put it that way!  - I'm pretty sure they had no flavour, just red food colouring.

Anyway, feet up now with a jacket potato, cheese, beans and brown sauce... you can take the girl out of England but you can't take the England out of the girl!

Did you know...?

Did you know...

...baked beans come in glass jars in the Netherlands

What a busy but excellent week

Had a fantastically busy week:

Mon - went to play ice hockey in the evening, the hockey itself was great (but I hate ice compared to wheels, too damn slippy and it made me miss roller hockey even more that I was already doing), but it nearly killed me getting there with my enormous hockey bag on my back (big enough for me to fit in and yes I have tried) and my hockey stick in one hand, precariously balanced on my bike, cycling for 15minutes in the rain.  15 minutes doesn't sound long but half way there I had severe back, shoulder and chest pain!  It only took 2min to kick in on the way home!  Won't be going again, too impractical to reach.

Tues - had my work Xmas meal.  Great night, we went on an outing (uitje) first to the university observatory where we viewed jupiter and it's moons, very cool.  Had a lovely meal (I really, really miss cider here tho, I'm not a beer drinker so I'm finding the pubs rather restricting) and I must remember to ask for my meat well done, everything comes rare and bloody as standard here, hate my meat half alive on my plate!

Wed - At work in the afternoon I had a FOUR hour web-editing course.  For all you guys at Warwick, you are never, ever, ever to complain about SiteBuilder ever ever ever again, Sitebuilder is literally a palace of dreams compared to whatever they call their old fashioned system.  I genuinely feel like I've woken up and it's 1998 and I have to try and use the internet... I was hoping I would learn new skills in this job but now I'm worried in my next job I'll look like a total Neanderthal from being used to working on this old thing... WYSIWYG?!  What's WYSIWYG they ask?!  Blimey!  Not only that, but they're all still working on office 2003.  It's nearly 2012 right?!  ARGH!

Thurs - I had my first actual proper Dutch lesson (I'll do a separate post all about language, this could be a biggy!)... After my weekend in Antwerp and practising in my drunken Dutch at my Xmas do where I feel I absolutely blew people away with my "would you like some water, it is cold" and "why is mummy washing the dog?" sentences (good huh?) I was BRIMMING with confidence.  That was until I turned up to my lesson on Thurs where the bloke talked to me in Dutch the entire time (what was he thinking?) :-p  More to come language wise, I'll check back into this later!  Right now, confidence not so brimming, perhaps I need some more gluhwijn?

Fri - Was at a medical conference all day, felt a bit out of place, I've never heard anyone speak so openly and unashamedly about vaginas for a whole hour.  Other than that I'm now left wondering about a whole variety of diseases and also wonder how many mice the med. dept get through here each year?  The food on the other hand was brilliant (I will also post about food later, the food here (esp the snacks) are AWESOME (I wonder how much weight I've put on?)), I had a nice evening meal too.

Mijn fijn weekend met Rich

Had a brill weekend with Rich.  We went to Antwerpen for the day on Saturday.  The trains were jam packed, I think Belgium must be a popular weekend destination for Hollanders esp at this time of year.

I was expecting Antwerp to be a lot smaller but it's massive, like a capital city and the architecture was beautiful.

The Xmas markets were nice and the mulled wine (gluhwijn) much cheaper than back in the UK but believe it or not, although it sounds more exotic to head to Antwerp for Xmas markets, the Brum one is much bigger and better, the one in Antwerp didn't sell Xmas decorations or toys or trinkets or much food.  In fact watching this video made me miss Brum (which I didn't think was possible!!):

Other than that, bought an enormous Nepalese jumper as thick as a sheep and warmer than my coats, that ought to help in my freezing cold office, and I practised more Dutch in Antwerp than since I've been in the Netherlands ("hoeveel kosten de chocolade appels?" for example!).

Oh and also, I've never seen a "fresh" hot chocolate before (I imagined hot choc with fresh cream) but no... it's a massive mug of steaming hot milk with chocolate on a stick on the side.  If I hadn't seen someone else order one I would have assumed you ate the chocolate on a stick, but you stir it into your hot milk!  Never had the chance to try one (I was having a regular hot chocolate when I saw someone else being served this), can't wait to have one at some point tho, hope they do them in the Netherlands, suppose I could always dunk my twix into a glass of milk but it just wouldn't be the same right?!

My first week

So, I've been here exactly a week now and what have I learnt so far?

Good things:

I could spend hours going around the supermarkets and canteens, the food here is fascinating and I want to try it all.

People have been really, really friendly.

I've tried out a fair number of sports clubs, all great fun so far.

I went to my first ever Thanksgiving Dinner.

Not so good things:

I was told my birth certificate is too old to be valid here... should I be insulted?

Online banking is a palaver.. they give you an enormous calculator type device which you plug your card into and then you plug it all into your pc.  Every 2 minutes you get an error message.  It took me three days of trying to buy a train ticket.

I got turned away from the volunteer Dutch conversational buddying place because I couldn't speak good enough Dutch... it's not my fault that Rossetta Stone taught me to say "The white horse doesn't swim, the white horse runs".  Besides, I've taken to only saying things that rhyme so I'd feel sorry for my conversational partner.. I like to order white wine (witte wijn - pronounced vit-er vain) and tell people wij kommen uit Rome (we come from Rome - pronounced Vie Voner In Romer).  Never mind!

My favourite Dutch words so far:

Stropdas - Tie
Grootsteen - sink

Oh yeah, and I love the fact that they don't have gloves here, they have hand shoes!  Very cute.