Truly a Dutch Evening

Last Tuesday I was invited to a Dutch dinner at a local’s house.  They have taken an interest in Asian culture and has helped a lot of the exchange students from Asia get settled.  Also, they introduce the students to a bit of Dutch culture.  We met when I joined the group to Tongeren.  I was invited along with one of my friends for a Dutch dinner.

We had pea soup (split pea maybe?) and apple pancakes for dessert.  This is apparently a very traditional Dutch dinner.  If you know you will be having pea soup, then you definitely will know that pancakes will be for dessert. 

Pea soup

Served with sausage and bread

I’m not sure I liked the pea soup.  It has an interesting texture.  I definitely got full though.  The Dutch typically eat this in the fall and winter when it it super cold out, but on this day, the sun was shining and it was warm. 

The pancake with apple bits

Dessert was pretty much a pancake with some apple bits that made it sweeter.  Instead of maple syrup, they have an apple type syrup (called Apple Stroop) to go with it.  Its a bit like jam in taste, but less clumpy.  Its not as runny as maple syrup either.  Maybe around the consistency of marmalade and is spreadable (with a bit of effort).  Its too sweet for me, but I might bring back some for you guys to taste.  This kind of spread is very Dutch.

After dinner, I headed to an AIESEC event at UM.  They were having a Dutch night where they were going to play some Dutch games.  They had invited a couple of trainees that were currently in the city (mostly working for BMW) from Poland, Germany and Finland (although originally from Latvia).  The AIESEC meeting was pretty similar to home =)  Organized chaos pretty much.  We played a couple Dutch games and I got to try some traditional Dutch snacks. 

One game we played was an eating game.  Pieces of a cake were strung through some string and held above participant’s heads.  Each person had to finish a piece of cake.  The person that finishes first wins.  It was pretty funny watching people trying to get at the cake above their heads.  Oh – no hands =)

  

Racing to see who finishes first!

I tried a bunch of snacks they had available.  There was a “meatball” that was crispy on the inside.  I say “meatball” because it is (supposedly) made from meat, but inside was all mushy – not what I was expecting at all!  They crispy part was yum though.  Marshmallows, gingerbread cookies and Stroopwafels were other things I tried.  They had licorice as well, but that was a definite no for me.  The gingerbread cookies (called pepernoten) are associated with the Sinterklaas holiday that takes place in early December.  One girl told me that they celebrate both Sinterklaas and Christmas – lots of festivities (holiday decorations are starting to pop up in supermarkets and stores)!  The Stroopwafels are thin waffles that are filled with a type of syrup.  It was really gooey and sweet.  I could barely finish mine.  The Dutch called marshmallows “spekkies” but they just taste like marshmallows – just a bit more decorated.