Het Voedsel (Food)

Grocery shopping is sometimes a surprise adventure. For the most part, even if we can't read the labels, we can tell what the product is by looking at it. But sometimes, finding what you're looking for is unexpectedly tricky. Usually when this happens it can be categorized as one of the following scenarios:

1. Things are packaged differently than we expect ie: condiments in tubes.
2. We are looking for a very specific thing, and we don't know the Dutch word for it.
3. We're in the meat section.

The dried herb & spice section is definitely one of the hardest to navigate. Ross takes his herbs & spices very seriously, and the first time we went to the store we easily spent over half an hour picking up the little jars, and trying to figure out what was inside. Now when we go to the store, I try to divert him from the spices by seeing if the deli has any samples of kaas (cheese).

Some of the spices were easy to figure out like basilicum, rozemarijn, tijm. Some we weren't sure of, but were willing to trust our instincts, like komijn (cumin), and zout (salt). But some are so different that we needed translated. What is knoflook poeder, knolselderij, & peterselie? Garlic powder, celery root, and parsley, obviously. I'm not going to pretend I wasn't disappointed when I found out the jar with the exciting and curious label dragon--which spurred ideas of a magical and powerful meal--was just plain-old tarragon.

Reading a menu is pretty much a stab in the dark, but the little French I learned in school has found a use. Sometimes we can figure out a meaning by recognizing the French root. For example framboos is raspberry, a pompelmoes is a grapefruit, and champignons are what both the Dutch and the French call mushrooms.

I've learned to look out for anything with paard (horse) in it. We've also learned that if a broodje (sandwich) is €2 or less, it's probably not lekker (delicious). We've eaten bitterballen, which was lekker. Ross tried haring, which he thought was lekker, but had to stop because he was allergic to it. I haven't tried it yet.

For the most part, the brood is not-so lekker. We are fortunate enough to have a great bakery on our street, which also makes very lekker-looking candies and chocolates. For a treat, Ross likes to head down for some appleflappen. This happens almost every day.

Cooking without an oven has been interesting, and we've accommodated by making pasta sauce, stew, chili, and of course kerrie. No, not cherry – curry. The stores here are filled with so many different kerrie pastes, and hopefully we'll get a chance to try many of them before our time here is over.