<OLLIEBOLLEN3

Haai!

I have been in the Netherlands now for round about two months and so I could alrady try some typical dutch food: So here is a resumé about my experineces - Enjoy!

On my first evening of my project I tried out Stamppot, which is "a traditional Dutch dish made from a combination of potatoes mashed with one or several vegetables" (thank you Wikipedia).
Since I am a vegetarian I skipped the sausage that is normally served with it and just added some sauce. To be honest: I did not really like it and for me it did not taste like a lot so I will probably not have it again. A  few weeks later than I had my online On-Arrival Training at which I needed to work on a small project about Dutch food culture. Therefore I asked some people on the street about their favourite dutch dish and there it was again: almost all of them said Stamppot! After that I realized that this was one part of the dutch culture that just wasn´t for me.

BUT ignoring my experience with the potatoe smash I discovered another part of the dutch food that has convinced me 100%: THE SWEET STUFF - to be fair: I have to add that I have always liked sweet food, so I was pretty open minded about that. My first love were the Olliebollen, which is basically just fried dough served with powder sugar. Sounds simple but believe me: it´s amazing!  There is also another version of them which is with raisins (Krentenbollen) and another one that is filled with pudding (Berlinerbollen). Typically you can find all of those around christmas / new years eve time at some stands where people sell them. At those places most of the time there is anothe sweet thing you can buy, which is a slice of apple that is surrounded by dough - basically it tastes like dough with apple sauce, this one I don´t like as much as the others.

Another really nice thing to eat is the Poffertjes, which are basically just really small pancakes that are served with powder sugar or for example Nutella. Those are as well sold on the streets and you can watch the people making them for you - it´s really worth it.

One of the most favourite dutch candy is probably the Stroopwaffel. I tried it after I have already been in my project for several weeks because I did not really thought the two thin waffels, sticked together with some caramel sauce, would taste anything but dry but apparently I was proven wrong - they are really delicious and you can also buy them fresh-made and with some toppings on the street but also in the supermarket made by a fabric (these are good as well).

But let´s return to my workplace because I discovered two other sweet things there that I hadn´t known about before I started my project: Vla and Hagelslag. Vla basically is just pudding but not in a glas or in a plastic cup but in a tetra pak, same as used for milk, that is offered in many different flavours (chocolate, with chocolate bubbles, with vanilla and strwaberry...) and a little bit more liquid than normal pudding. The children get a little bit of it for desert after the main dish - I really like it as well. :)
Hagelslag is used to put on bread and basically just little chocolate drops you can use instead of chocolate pasta or jam if you want your bread to be sweet. I have seen that before in Sicilia than I was there for vacation many years ago but not as much as in the Netherlands and never again since that. This is as well: Jana approved!
Ahh and also they really like to eat pindakaas, peanut butter, or Appelstroop (I did not really try that one already but it seems like a kind of jam but stickier and with appels, pears and grapes) on their bread - that was new for me, too.

As you can see I am really convinced by the dutch´s sweetness (in food as well as in kindness) but I am also impressed by the creativity I saw here,- or have you ever tried fries with apple sauce before...? - Me neither (not as bad as you could imagine it!). Food is probably one of the things I am most passionate about, so I am happy that even though Stamppot isn't really for me, I can find myself at home in the dessert area!

Hope you have a great time, stay safe!