A Taste of Holland

You may recall a pre-trip post in which I listed some of the grocery items that family members ask us to bring over from the States.I would like to add a couple of items to that list. During our 4th of July dinner consisting of hotdogs, chips and potato salad, several relatives residing in Belgium cited the following as tastes they love that are impossible to find in Europe:

• Pickle relish (regular dill, the kind you’d spoon onto a hotdog)
• Yellow American-style mustard

So while we took tasty American items like peanut butter to our family in Belgium, the opposite happens, too, of course; in which we travel overseas and find ourselves delighting in various tasty goodies that we want to take home with us or ask others to bring when they visit.There are the Belgian frites that we love, of course. Unfortunately, they don’t travel. Their brief moments of hot, crispy glory teach us the lesson of living in the moment. And there are the sinfully delicious chocolate croissants. They don’t travel, either, so we gorge on them and later confess the sin of gluttony, even as we wipe the smears of chocolate outlining our lips. And then I go jogging to try to counteract the calorie and fat content.Here’s what I would have purchased from a Belgian grocery store, had we been able to get to one before we left for Holland:

• Chokotoff (a tragedy, really, that we couldn’t get ahold of a packet of these chewy chocolates similar to Riesens)
• Cote d’Or chocolates
• Douwe Egberts or Jacqmotte coffee (more for The Belgian Wonder than for me)
• Tuc crackers
• Various specialty cookies
• Wine (The Belgian Wonder likes to bring back inexpensive brands)

Here’s what I would purchase and bring back if Customs would allow it and if they would survive the trip:

• Cheeses–lots and lots
• Salami–lots and lots
• Yogurts and yogurt-ish desserts
• Prepackaged mousse-like desserts found in the dairy section
• Breads, oh my, the breads
• Creme fraiche

Sigh.So we left Belgium without any of that and drove to Holland to stay at a vacation place. I had to give up the hankering for Belgian waffles, frites and chocolates.I admit that I was pretty sad about that.And I’m embarrassed that I was pretty sad about that–that I’m so very shallow and so greatly impacted by my taste buds.But I let go of what was lost and looked ahead to what was possible, what was available, and what was yummy in Holland….The pain of taste-losses was greatly eased when I woke up the first morning in Holland and saw that someone bought the very Dutch Chocoladehagel and Chocoladevlokken!If you ask me, the Europeans have sure got a great thing going–if you start the day with a bit of chocolate, one’s outlook is sure to be upbeat and positive, don’t you think?You see the two kinds of sprinkles in the above photo? The ones on the left are ribbon-shaped. We bought a box in milk chocolate and another in dark chocolate (puur). The ones on the right are more like the sprinkles we would use in the States to decorate cupcakes, only thirty times better. Again, we bought both the milk and dark chocolate varieties.This is standard Dutch breakfast fare, people.Here’s how it works:You take your bread or bun and spread it with some good butter.Ask someone to pass the chocolate…Sprinkle generously…Mmm….they crunch just a little with each bite. I ate mine open-faced, but it’s common to fold over a slice of bread or slap the lid on the bun so that it becomes a chocolate-sprinkle sandwich.Another concept that hasn’t taken off here in the States is sirop. Moms buy these syrups in various flavors. Here is a sampling:The one on the left is “grenadine,” a berry mixture consisting of raspberry, redcurrant, and blackberry; in the middle you see orange; on the right, strawberry. It’s a sugared syrup that they splash into a glass of either “flat” (normal tap) or “petillante” (bubbly) water, to add a dash of flavor. My sister-in-law said that in the flat water, it’s a cheap alternative to Gatorade after sports practices and games; and because you can control the dosage, it’s probably healthier. In bubbly water, it makes a special drink like a carbonated beverage, only cheaper.The lemon syrup is quite tasty and makes a quick and easy lemonade. Combining various flavors produces a fun punch. My kids had a blast mixing them. We were only able to bring back three, because we didn’t make it to the store to pick out more. We brought home grenadine, raspberry, and lime. It’s fun. I’ll be sad when they’re gone, as even I enjoy mixing some with water to make a more interesting beverage. It’s refreshing.The following photo is not really about snacks. In fact, it’s not even a Holland thing–someone brought along this jar from Belgium. I was simply amused by the label that creatively accommodates Flemish and French:Can you see how they’ve put one of the “n”s in parentheses (click on the photo to enlarge)? Choose your spelling according to your language. As I said, this was brought from Belgium to our Holland vacation, so it has to respect both official languages of that land.The next photo was snapped when we’d pulled out several snacks and goodies to sample:The package on the bottom left is “galettes,” those crisp waffle-like cookies we get here in the States, too, that are often served with ice cream. The box on the right was a spice cake that my kids just loved. In the center back are “stroopwafels,” basically two waffle-like cookies with a thick honey (or is it caramel?) layer in between–a honey sandwich cookie. I love them! I found them once at a health food store here in the States way overpriced, so it was nice to get them for only a few euros. To the right is a bag of licorice-flavored gumdrops. Not my favorite, but evidently typical of Holland.Below, in keeping with the snack theme, I thought I would include a photo of a snack shack parked alongside the coast of the North Sea. This is the beach where we would go for the morning if it was warm enough. You can see how overcast it was when I snapped this photo. It wasn’t warm enough to play at the beach. We were actually biking along the dike wearing rain jackets.The tide went way out-and-in each day. When it was out, we would walk what seemed like 300-400 meters to get to the water.And then I thought I’d share a snapshot of an aperitif that the brothers- and sisters-in-law shared:Pastis. If you’ve ever read any of the Peter Mayle Provence books, you’ll recall that old men drink pastis while they’re playing boules, or “petanque.” I’d never had it before that day.Tastes like licorice.Again, not my favorite. I took a few sips, then passed it along to someone who would enjoy it more.That gives you a snack-overview from our time in Holland.Now that we’re back in the midwestern United States, we must carefully ration our syrup and sprinkles–the sprinkles, especially. After all, when they’re gone, our morning chocolate options greatly diminish.I mean, what does that leave us?Cocoa Puffs.Sigh.