Happy Tanksgiving

Happy Tanksgiving!  No, it's not a typo.   It is what happens when an American bar in the Netherlands tries to put together a dinner on Thanksgiving day for all those American expats or Dutch people who are just curious.

Our armband.  Tanksgiving!!!

Yes, we dared to go to an American bar on Thanksgiving day to eat what the Dutch consider a Thanksgiving meal.  What is a Dutch Thanksgiving, you ask?  The answer is drumsticks (chicken, not turkey), sausage, meatball, zucchini, macaroni and cheese, bread, and fries.  The closest they got to actual Thanksgiving food was corn on the cob (which, considering how rare corn is in Europe, is actually quite special).  Oh, and no Tanksgiving meal would be complete without the Tanksgiving burrito, filled with ground beef, tomato sauce, peas and carrots.

Who ever said the Dutch can't cook?

When I asked if there would be pie, the waitress said "Pie?  Why do you expect pie?"  

Sigh.

After our meal, we headed outside to watch a bunch of very drunk Dutch guys play football in the Grote Markt.  They had a real football, but clearly did not understand any of the rules (they would pick the ball up after it had bounced several times on the ground, throw the ball multiple times to whoever happened to be open, and instead of tackling, they would pick each other up and kick each other).

Needless to say, it was great fun to watch.  It was made even better by the random sorority girls who were crossing through the football game on their way to a party, dressed up in many strange costumes, from frogs to dinner tables to pink square cheerleaders.

Cruising the Canals with the French - or - the Differeneces between France and the Netherlands

Recently, I went to a conference in Amsterdam.  The conference dinner was on a boat, and we cruised the canals of Amsterdam.  During the dinner, I sat with some French scientists, and they made two interesting observations about the differences between French and Dutch society.

The food:

France: You might remember one of my first blog posts on food in France - particularly, the spread of food provided at a work party.  When food is provided, food is provided.  Chefs to grill whole shrimp before you, and foie gras, chocolate fountains, cocktail glasses filled with various flavored moose, macaroons, and crates of wine are in great supply. 

the Netherlands:  Food is provided.  Great!  You walk into the lunch room, to be greeted with sandwiches with meat.  Next to that are sandwiches with cheese.  (Never, ever both.)  If a Dutch sandwich  had meat and cheese actually touch, the world would collapse.  Then there are these packaged raisin rolls (which seem to be everywhere) and pitchers of milk.  Milk?  Yes, milk.  The delegates of the conference commented the only thing that changed with the spread day to day is the order of the trays.  They also said, "Normally when I go to a conference, I'm so full from eating all the time - this is the first time I go to a conference I'm actually hungry before dinner."  Yes, welcome to the Netherlands.  Here, as my Spanish friend so eloquently put it, people eat simply so they don't die.

Shutters:

France: Every house is equipped with shutters, whether they be metal or wood.  As soon as the sun goes down, the shutters swing closed.  I've never seen inside a French house from the street before.

the Netherlands: The Dutch have nothing to hide.  Take a walk at night and you can see inside half a dozen houses - either they don't have curtains or shutters, or they simply don't care.  While on our canal trip, one of my colleagues was able to see inside a houseboat, where a completely naked woman casually strolled around her house.  Yes, welcome to the Netherlands.

Dutch Food - Let's End on a Positive Note

But let's not end our tour of Dutch food there.  Honestly, there's a lot of food I've come to love here, so instead of ending with "the weird", let's go back and discover some more good things.*

Fresh, hot stroopwaffle

Stroopwafel - nothing says gooey goodness more than the Dutch specialty of two super thin waffles with a layer of melted caramel in between them.  The best way to eat these is to get them fresh and hot in the Grote Markt!

Indonesian food - Indonesia used to be a Dutch colony - therefore, there is a lot of great Indonesian food here in the Netherlands.

Hagelslag - food doesn't get much more fun than this!  Hagelslag are chocolate sprinkles normally put on toast and eaten for breakfast, but you can also sprinkle them on ice cream, make a sandwich out of them, or put them in a crepe**!

Pea soup - it may not sound good, but pea soup with some smoked sausage can be an amazing winter meal.

Speculoos - a crispy cookie with a lot of spices.  Often they are shaped like a windmill or something equally Dutch looking.  Great with cocoa or tea, and there is also a spread version you can use on toast. You can find a recipe to make your own speculoos spread here.*** 

Poffertjes - little poofy mini pancakes.  They are so good.  Imagine a pancake, but smaller, much thicker, and grilled in a ton of oil.  Then you can sprinkle you favorite toppings on top, including powdered sugar.  You can learn how to make them here.

As the Dutch say... eet smakelijk!

* Mostly because I forgot these items when I wrote my blog post Dutch Food - the Good and felt guilty about it.
** This last one is not a traditional Dutch way of eating these...
*** I don't actually expect anyone to do this, but I will give a point to anyone who makes this for me.  :-)

Dutch food: The Bad

But of course, our tour of Dutch cuisine does not end there.  When I was preparing to move to the Netherlands, one of my friends who is Spanish (a culture that cares about food) who used to live in the Netherlands warned me: the Dutch do not eat for enjoyment.  They eat so they don't pass out.

After coming from France, where eating was an essential part of life and enjoyment, this is a shock for me.  Solely eating so you don't die?  Where's the fun in that?

Because of this, the Dutch have invented some interesting foodstuffs that lack on flavor, or have bizarre flavor, but keep you alive.  Maybe.

During a conference, they had some nice looking pastry things.  I decided to try one. Imagine my surprise when I found that inside it was filled with pasta and tomato sauce.

Then there is the Christmas "favorite" oliebollen - donut-like balls of dough soaked in oil, so much so that they are actually dripping in it.  Sometimes they are filled with creme or a fruit like concoction, but over-eating them (as in, more than one) can cause serious illness.

Friends Nico and Shasta taste oliebollen

Then there is the Dutch version of vending machine - a wall of doors that open to provide hot dishes such as sandwiches, hamburgers, croquettes (breaded tubes filled with some sort of meat).  I have been warned that the only appropriate time to eat from one of these vending machines is at 4 am when nothing else is open and alcohol has impaired your judgement to a level where you don't know any better.

Late-night Dutch dining

Then there are dropjes - dark black licorice candies... with one important difference - they are salty.  I remember the first time I tried one - a Dutch friend handed me the candy, smiling deviously as she said "try it", and then laughed manically as I spit it out.

Dutch Food: The Good

Food is probably one of the most interesting parts of experiencing a new culture. It is something that you deal with every day, and each culture has their own unique spin on this facet of everyday life.  Of course, living in a new country brings lots of opportunities to also form (rather strong) opinions on the food.

Living in the Netherlands has had its ups when it comes to food.  A lot of these involve dairy products.  The yogurt, for instance.  Oh, the yogurt.  I will be forever ruined when I eat yogurt anywhere else for the rest of my life.  The yogurt here is like cream - thick, indulgent, amazing.  And the cheese.  The Dutch sure know how to make a good cheese.  They are different from French cheeses  - they are typically harder and eaten by the slice.  Sometimes they are filled with yummy things like mustard or walnuts. 

Stamppot

The Dutch also love their hearty meals.  Stamppot is one of these meals and has become a regular addition to our kitchen.  It's cooked in one pot - to save on dishes - just boil some cubed potatoes, then add a vegetable (such as kale, carrots, or cauliflower) and put a smoked sausage on top.  When the potatoes and veggies are done - take out the sausage, mash the veggies and the potatoes together - and then serve with the sausage to make a good one pot dish.

Then there is my favorite Dutch food - mustard soup.  Mustard soup?  How can you make a meal out of a condiment, you ask.  Well, let me tell you - it works, and it is delicious.  Here's the recipe - the best type of mustard for this is the Groninger mustard, but I realize that may not be available everywhere, so get a good large grain mustard.  

Groninger Mosterdsoep (Groningen Mustard Soup)

Ingredients:

Mustard soup - good with some hearty bread!

-       1 cup of lardons (cubed thick bacon)
-       a shallot or a small onion, diced
-       2 tbsp butter
-       2-3 teaspoons grainy Groninger mustard (or another grainy mustard)
-       ½ cup flour
-       1 liter chicken stock
-       ½ cup sour cream

1.  Fry the bacon until it's crisp.  Remove from heat.
2.  Sauté the onion and the butter until the onion is translucent.
3.  Add the mustard.
4.  Add the flour and mix for about 30 seconds.  No longer!  If you do it longer, you run the risk of the smoke detector going off, which has happened to me before.
5.  Pour in the stock and whisk until smooth.  Simmer for about 10 minutes.
6.  Add the bacon once more, and then add the sour cream.  Stir until smooth and heat through.

Stanley Eats a Waffle

Recently, I had a visitor to my home in the Netherlands.  He was very small, very flat, and arrived in an envelope.  His name is Flat Stanley.  He told me that he was crushed when a bulletin board fell on him.   But he's a pretty optimistic fella, so he uses his new condition as an excuse to easily travel around the world.  A postage stamp is a lot cheaper than a plane ticket  - a fact I can attest to.  So his first stop was to visit me.  I took him around my little city.

Spring is just beginning, so Stanley had the opportunity to frolic in the flowers.

Stanley visits the main church in the town - it's called the Martinikerk (kerk means church, and Martini- is for St. Martin).  This church was started in the 1200s - it's the oldest church in Groningen!

Stanley hits up some of the shops and restaurants off the Grote Markt (meaning large market).   Notice how each of the buildings has a different shape for a top.  These shapes were used before buildings had numbers for people to remember where they lived!

At this point, Stanley was getting pretty hungry, so I treated him to a stroopwaffel.  A stroopwaffel is a very special Dutch dessert - it has two very thin waffles with melted caramel in the middle.  Very yummy!  In the background is a building that has gold on it.  It was built in 1635 and was used as the tax office - now it's a fancy restaurant

Stanley stands in front of the ring canal, which goes all around the city in a circle.  Some of the boats behind him go sailing, others people live on!

Next, Stanley accompanied one of my friends for a short trip down south.... stay tuned!

The Yule Lads and a Flesh Eatting Cat

Since our visit to Iceland was shortly after Christmas, we were able to enjoy some of the Christmas traditions of this isolated island.
 

Perhaps the most terrifying part of the Christmas season is the omnipresence of the Yule Cat.  This frightening feline watches children with the most sinister of intentions.

The Yule Cat is watching you...

Eye to eye with the Yule Cat

The Yule Cat has a strange taste in food - he eats those children who do not receive clothes for Christmas.  Therefore children in Iceland don't moan on Christmas morning, "Grandma gave me socks again?  But clothes aren't fun!"  Instead they exclaim in relief, "Grandma gave me socks!  I get to survive another winter without becoming cat food!"

Christmas also brings the Yule Lads, thirteen brothers who come throughout the Christmas season to leave gifts for good children, and rotting potatoes for bad children.  They have interesting names and bizarre personal stories, and most have an affinity for stealing things.  For example, Spoon Licker steals wooden spoons to lick them, and is very thin because he doesn't eat well.  Sausage Swiper hides in the rafters and steals sausages, and Door Slammer slams doors.  Children can expect to hear doors slamming, or have sausages missing from the house, or see spoons covered with saliva, depending on who visited the night before.  We happened to run into one of the Yule Lads on the street one night - a point if you can name him. 

The Christmas season in Reykjavík.  

Icelandic Christmas food is very special.  The traditional drink is Malt og Appelsín, made by mixing together equal parts of a non-alchoholic malt beverage and the orange soda Appelsín.  It's amazingly delicious - it almost tastes a bit like a chocolate orange.   

The traditional Christmas meal is smoked lamb (delicious), potatoes with a white sauce, red cabbage, and yummy giant peas.  

This is paired with a thin bread, sort of like a crispy tortilla, called Laufabrauð, or leaf bread.  It has a wonderful buttery taste!  

Whale - It's What's for Dinner

The Reykjavik convention center and opera hall stands on the edge of the sea.  People either think of it as monumentally ugly (and hence, a waste of money) or really unique and beautiful. 

I'll just say that it did provide us some unique photos!  

And a unique selfie!

We walked along the shore of the city.  In the backdrop, windswept mountains enrobed in clouds testifies to the potential harshness of winter here.

Along the shore is this unique statue.  A point if you can guess what it symbolizes (no google).  (Hint: Take a look at my husband in this picture!)

The colorful buildings of the harbor, which will probably be much busier in the summertime, when whale and puffin watching tours depart from here.

One of the older boats.  Many fishing boats still depart from here. 

The lake in the center of Reykjavik was partially iced over - notice some of the birds swimming, while others stand on the ice. 

Near the center of the lake, many people ice skate.

An interesting statue...

This street is named Burgerjoint, after the Burger joint that is on it.  Talk about good publicity.

Nearby is a very famous hot dog stand.  Their menu is very simple: hot dogs and soda.  That's it.  We ordered some hotdogs.  They came with crispy french onions on the bottom and two types of sauce - one like a mayo, and one that was brown - and sort of indescribable when it comes to taste.  But the combination of the dog, the onions, and the sauces were truly yummy, and made us understand why this understated hot dog stand could stay in business, even with it's slim menu!

There are some other weird things on the menu in Iceland - namely, whale and puffin.  Most countries actually ban eating whale, and puffins, while not endangered, are not exactly thriving either.  

Bram tries some puffin....

Just kidding!!!  We love puffins!

Neither puffin or whale are a traditional Icelandic dish, and mostly tourists eat these animals just to say that they have eaten something new and weird.  Kind of sad, considering there are lots of other, environmentally conscious choices when it comes to meat.  (Puffin doesn't even taste that good, from what I hear.)  So if you go to Iceland, don't eat the puffin or the whale!  Let them live for another generation! :-)  

Sharing Dutch Food Adventures

Over the Christmas holidays, we had our friends Nico and Shasta, who are temporarily living in Scotland, come visit us.  Their visit coincided with Sinterklaas day, so they woke up to all sorts of goodies and chocolate in their shoes the next morning.

Of course, a big part of every visit to a new country is to try the food.  On their visit, we had an opportunity to show them the local specialties.  For breakfast, we had hagelslag, a very popular Dutch breakfast food.  Most of the time, it consists of mostly chocolate sprinkles, but it can come in many different varieties - vanilla, blue or pink anise flavored (typically used to celebrate the birth of a boy or girl), or thick, ribbon like sprinkles.  This particular one is green and chocolate ribbon sprinkles, with some alligator heads thrown in for good measure.  Shasta was also treated to a mega-hagel!

Stopping by the Grote Markt, we also shared with them the popular dish of french fries, accompanied with garlic mayonnaise.  

Fries and garlic.  Yum!

Since it was the Christmas season, they also got a chance to try oliebollen.  Oliebollen are balls of dough (sort of like donuts) left to soak in .... oil.  Not the healthiest thing on the planet, but very yummy, and very Dutch.

Sampling the oliebollen

Oliebollen can also be filled with all sorts of yummy things, like cream or fruit.  Nico got one filled with cherries. 

Another popular thing that we showed them, but did not try, are the popular vending machines that you can find all over the Netherlands.  These vending machines consists of rows of shelves, each with their own little door.  These vending machines sell things such as hamburgers or chicken sandwiches, but also the very Dutch creations such as croquettes (breaded things containing some sort of meat look-alike) or deep fried Scotch eggs.  My Dutch colleagues told me to steer clear of these vending machines, stressing that they are only to be used at 3 am after a long night of bar-hopping when there is no other option. 

A City of Islands

I soon discovered that Stockholm is one of my new favorite European cities.  It is really quite beautiful!  A huge fraction of the city is parks, and the city crosses 14 islands, with a maze of bridges crossing from island to island.

It's also quite easy to get lost in.  Especially when you loose track of what bridge you are crossing, and what island you are crossing to/from.

Crossing one of the many bridges into Stockholm.

Approaching Old Town Stockholm.  The buildings grow more colorful...

... and the streets more narrow.

One of the main streets leading away from Old Town Stockholm.

The Royal Palace.

Of course, no holiday is complete before being serenaded by a group of singing and dancing Hare Krishnas. 

Swedish Hare Krishnas.

The much more stoic guards.

During the changing of the guard ceremony.

The colorful main square of Old Town Stockholm.

St. George slays the Dragon.

Some streets are so narrow that even street lights have a hard time fitting in.

Meeting the locals.  A point if you can guess who this is.

In Sweden, God comes boxed!

The Swedish, like the Finish, like eating reindeer.

One of the few remaining telephone booths in the world.

An operational Viking ship!