My New Obsession

Everyone knows about Nutella right?  That hazelnut spread that is part of of a “nutritious” breakfast?  Well this stuff is even better!  They’re called Knoppers and its like Nutella but in cookie form.  Its a combination of wafer, chocolate, hazelnut and nougat cream filling <3  Not too sweet, but sweet in enough~

A Canadian Thanksgiving – Dutch Style

This past weekend I decided to make Thanksgiving dinner with a chicken instead of a Turkey.  People don’t eat Turkey here and it can’t be found in the grocery store.  I was making dinner with some help from a couple others.  There were 6 people eating dinner: 2 from Taiwan, 2 from Poland, another from Turkey and me!

One of my friends had a roommate with a largish toaster oven and I was able to roast a chicken.  I’ve never roasted a chicken and I was super scared.  In the end it turned out pretty good.  It was slightly burnt on the top and the stuffing was falling out, but the chicken turned out pretty tasty.  Definitely proud of myself =)  We also made orange glazed carrots, candied yams, corn, stuffing, gravy and some veggies and dip.  The only true disaster were the orange glazed carrots, but the girls from Taiwan really liked it. 

Turkey Roasting ^^

The full menu

Apple Tart (no pie)

It was really good meal and I’ve already finished my leftovers.  All my dinner guests have never had Thanksgiving dinner before (not that this was a true Thanksgiving dinner).  They knew of the concept of Thanksgiving, but didn’t know what it meant.  So it was pretty cool.

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.

Market Day!

On Wednesday and Fridays, the Centrum is turned into a market with stalls selling everything from fresh groceries to fabrics to perfume. Apparently, the market on Wednesday is famous for its cloth and fabrics and the Friday market is known for its fish. My first day here, I had stumbled upon the market as it was being taken down. This time I headed out earlier and was able to wander around and see what was being offered.

There were tons of people walking up and down the stalls. On the outside of the square, were the food and produce vendors (meat, cheese, baked stuff, fruits & veggies, and hot food). On the inside, there were stalls for everything else, such as fabrics, card making supplies and clothing.

The inner stalls

Prices are pretty reasonable. One thing that stuck out in my mind was the price of the flowers. For a bouquet of roses it only costs 5 Euros (approx $8CAD), but if you got those roses in Canada, it would be super expensive.

Veggies galore! Super entertaining group and really decent prices!

The produce is fresh and definitely cheaper than going to the grocery store (and the market environment is fun too). I ended up getting some oranges (they're HUGE) and some cookies from the bakery. I think next time I'll get something from one of the meat stalls... First I'll have to figure out what "chicken thighs" is in Dutch...

Mmmmm freshly baked goods! Smelled like heaven =)

YUM! FOOD!

I've been doing a lot of eating lately (and no exercise >< unless you count walking...). On Saturday I went to Dutch buffet. They had underestimated the number of people they had sold tickets to and there wasn't enough room in the restaurant and definitely not enough food. By the time I got to the table, there wasn't too much interesting stuff left.

What my plate looked like

It just seemed like typical western food. It was pretty good, but wasn't all that different. The kebab on the upper left corner was the most interesting (I think). It was covered in a peanut like sauce. My mom had told me that Indonesian food is really popular here. I have definitely noticed in the grocery store that the food sold is very heavily influenced by Indonesia (I see lots of Nasi Goreng pre-made.)

On Sunday, I headed to the food festival (Preuvenemint in Dutch) in the main square. There were lots of musical entertainment and tents serving food and beer. To try the food you need to buy tickets.

Front of my ticket

These tickets can be exchanged for food depending on the stall's "price" list. There was a wide range of food available from sushi to Korean to Dutch food. I really wanted a sausage as I was unable to try one at the buffet. The only place was this:

I ended up getting a Grillwurst which just looked like a hot dog to me. It was served in a bun with lettuce and some mayo. It definitely did not taste like a hot dog. It was really juicy =)

Cantus

A couple nights ago, I headed to a Cantus, a traditional Dutch beer and singing party that was organized by the student exchange group here. They led us to a club quite a distance away from the residence.

Outside, waiting for them to let us in

Inside, there were long tables set up with benches up and down both sides for us to sit on.

More waiting for the start inside the club

Basically, a Cantus has two "players." There is the Senior who is in charge of running the event and the Corona, the remaining people participating. The Corona cannot drink unless the Senior says you can. If you don't follow the command, you get punished. Punishments were being forced to drink beer mixed with unappetizing ingredients (although by AIESEC standards, they were pretty dull...).

Song lyrics and instruction booklet

The sequence of the Cantus starts with singing a song. They provided us with booklets of lyrics to some well known songs (I Will Survive, Summer of 69, the FRIENDS theme song, Greese medley, and It's Raining Men among others). After the song, there is a toast before the Senior tells us how much to drink. There are three commands:

• Ad libitum - drink however much you want
• Ad fundum - drink until your glass is empty
• Ad statis (??) - drink until the Senior says "statis" meaning stop (I forgot the exact spelling)
  

If you drink at any other time (like during the song) you'll get punished.

Pouring out the beer - from a watering can

It was definitely an interesting night. Lots of beer was consumed and people got rowdier and rowdier as the night went on. By the end of the evening, the whole room was soaked in beer. People had spilled beer pouring it causing everything to get wet. Right before they kicked us out, people were starting to throw beer around (apparently at normal Cantus' this happens at the beginning?!). Half of my body got soaked in beer, but I ran for cover and was able to escape most of it. Some people I met were completely soaked head to toe.

Afterwards, I headed to the Centrum for some frites. I had seen tons of people walking around with them smothered in mayo so I decided to try that. It was pretty good although the mayo was a bit much. Its a lot tangier than what we have at home.

Frites avec mayo (a la gauche) et ketchup (droit)

It was definitely an interesting night. I met tons of people and found out a bit about Dutch (student) culture. I can't wait to take this tradition home with me!

Adventures in the Grocery Store

Despite everyone (more or less) being able to speak English, everything is still written in Dutch. After I had gotten settled, I decided it was time to search for a grocery store. I had been told it was close by, but got lost searching for it. Finally I was able to find it after many different people giving me directions. Everything here is really different. The packaging, flavourings, brand names... It was so disorienting walking in to see groceries that are the same as home and yet very different. For example, at home, heading down the chip aisle you see Sour Cream and Onion, BBQ, Ketchup and Salt and Vinegar flavours (among others). Here, there is nothing like that. Instead they have Paprika (see pic below), Bolognese (I thought this was a type of pasta?!), and Cheese and Onion. There are a bunch of other flavours, but each as unique and different as those.

I bought a bag of Bolognese flavour chips and they don't really have much taste. At one of the events I went to I tried the Praprika flavoured ones which weren't bad. For the most part, chips here are less salty and have less intense flavouring compared to those at home.

Getting fruit and veggies is an interesting process too. They have these machines (see pic) where you can weigh the produce, select what it is and then it will give you a sticker to put on your bag. Cashiers don't have to memorize code after code like at home.

Produce sticker machine

The end result =)

Another thing drastically different is the availability of alcohol in the grocery store. They have a couple aisles filled with wine, beer and other alcohols. Definitely weird coming from Canada...


One thing I heard a lot about was the cheese here. There are soo many varieties. Some of them look scary (and smell funny). Can't wait to try the different types. Mmmm cheeeeeeese!