Our second COOKIE quiz

It´s been awfully quiet here lately. Yes, yes… I know. It´s my fault since I haven´t been translating much into English for a year or so. I promise to finally fix it soon.  Mean time I think you deserve a little treat. That´s why we´re starting a new cookie quiz again!

The rules are the same as the previous time: 

• You can leave the answers in the comments (they are going to be hidden for the coming month and posted only after the quiz is finished) or send to my email: Justine.in.neverland@gmail.com. Please do not leave your answers on our Facebook fan page.
• The quiz ends on October 2^nd. Till that day you have time to prove your love to Dutch sweets.
• When the time is up my adorable assistant Mauricia will choose 3 random winners.
• The lucky ones will receive from me small packages filled with Dutch sweets.

Good luck everyone and I hope you will enjoy this yummy game!

 The second edition of our 

COOKIE QUIZ

1. What is the name of a dessert made of choux pastry filled with whipped cream and covered with chocolate? (The picture belowe)

2. These big ball pastries mentioned above can make you feel really guilty because of its size (and all the calories of course). Luckily there's also a mini version of them, same delicious. What's the name of these small balls filled with whipped cream?

3. One of the more popular cakes in the Netherlands is a variety of a napoleon or mille feuille with pink icing. How is it called in Dutch?

4. Dropjes are THE candies of the Netherlands. There are hundreds of types of them. One of more popular are apekoppen. What is the taste of these monkey heads?

5. When Sinterklaas is coming to the Netherlands, he treats the children not only with pepernootjes, but also with sweet latters. What are these letters made of?

6. Vlaai is next to an apple pie the most common and popular pie. From which province is it originally coming from?

7. One of my favorite pastries in this country is a sweet, a bit sticky bread with a hint of cinnamon. Maurice allowed me to try it for the first time on my birthday (first time celebrated in the Netherlands). How do you call this pastry?

8. Dutch people love a custard-like dessert sold in carton boxes. How is it called in Dutch?

9. Bokkenpootjes means "goat's legs" and it's a cookie made of two crunchy pieces. They are glued with a cream and their both ends are chocolate covered. What are these two pieces made of?

10. What's the name of the cake on the picture below?

Jak smakuje Tajlandia?

Uwaga, będzie o jedzieniu. Czyli mój ulubiony temat. Bo czymże są podróże bez lokalnych potraw, przysmaków, egzotycznych aromatów i nowych doznań smakowych. Od kiedy wróciliśmy jest to jedno z najczęście zadawanych mi przez znajomych i rodzinę pytań: "A co ci się najbardziej podobało? A co ciekawego jedliście? A nie miałaś problemów żołądkowych??". I jak tu zwięźle odpowiedzieć, jak dla mnie jedzenie, to temat rzeka...

Smażonych szczurów nie jadłam. Ani pająków, chrząszczy, koników polnych, czy jaszczurek. Mało tego, nawet ich nigdzie nie widziałam. No prawie nigdzie... Jedynie na Khao San Road, ale to było kompletnie pod turystów. Za 10 bahtów można było NAWET zdjęcie zrobić. Podziękuję i podelektuję się wielkimi krewetkami, szaszłyczkami lub jeszcze lepiej, naleśnikami z bananami. Od tych ostatnich to się wręcz uzależniłam i w ramach odwyku musieliśmy jak najszybciej uciekać z Bangkoku. Choć to uliczne jedzenie... ach, pyszności. 

Skorpionika na patyku?...

Plastikowe stołeczki i miseczki: są. Zestaw przepraw w stylu "ostry", "trochę ostry" i "cholernie ostry": jest. Pałeczki, butelka coli: są. Kilku lokalsów nad miskami ryżu: jest. Zatem jest to dobre miejsce na lunch lub obiad ;)

Naleśniki z bananami i skondensowanym mleczkiem...  pyszności

Jedzenie w jednorazówce? Czemu nie! ;)

Gdzie zatem jadaliśmy? Gdzie popadło. Przy ulicznych garkuchniach, w hostelowych restauracyjkach, małych tajskich jadłodajniach, kawiarniach. Nasza stopa nie przekroczyła progu tylko zachodnich sieciówek jak McDonald's, Burger King czy Starbucks. Co nie znaczy, że od czasu do czasu nie skusiliśmy się na burgera, steka czy porcję frytek. Umówmy się, nawet w domu nie jadamy w kółko tej samej kuchni, różnorodność jest jak najbardziej pożądana. Kierowaliśmy się jedynie zasadą: tam gdzie siedzą lokalsi i bez much latających w koło kuchni. I nigdy się nie zawiedliśmy. Problemy żołądkowe dopadły nas tylko raz... kiedy skusiliśmy się na bufet w resorcie! Kolejny dowód, żeby trzymać się z dala od resortów ;)

I jak się do takiej ryby zabrać?? 

Sangsom bucket, czyli whiskey z colą i redbullem z wiaderka. Paskudne, ale trzeba spróbować choć raz w życiu

Nasz absolutny faworyt, Som tam - sałatka z zielonej papai

Niektóre miejsca, do których trafiliśmy były wręcz surrealistyczne. Jak pewna maleńka restauracyjna na Ko Phangan. Z zewnątrz wyglądała jak nędzna szopa. Od środka nie wiele lepiej. Udało nam się dostać ostatni wolny stolik, gdzieś w głębi. Obok nas piętrzyła się fura gratów, pod stołem stał stary telewizor, a personel ledwo mówił po angielsku. Jedynie pojedyncze słowa. Jednak ludzie ustawiali się w kolejce, czekając na wolny stolik. Podczas gdy tuż obok całkiem sensownie wyglądająca restauracyjka stała pusta i aż się nam żal robiło stojącej tam, zrezygnowanej kelnerki. Kiedy nasze zamówienie wjechało na stolik, zrozumieliśmy skąd ten szał. Jedzenie było pyszne! Świeżutkie kraby smażone z chili i liśćmi bazylii. Zatem jeśli traficie kiedyś na Ko Phangan, nie zapomnijcie odwiedzić "Kuchni Mamy Pooh" :) 

Cała fura kalmarów. Opalają się w wiosce rybackiej

Młody kokos to moje kolejne uzależnienie

Wracając do poprzedniej historii o holendersko-tajskim muzeum: przysympatyczna tajska para spotkana przy obrazie Rembrandta nie tylko nas podwiozła. Zaoferowali nam wyprawę na pływający targ. Targ okazał się jednak zupełnie inny, niż go sobie wyobrażałam. Żadnych łodzi, z których sprzedawanoby smakołyki. Zamiast tego cała masa restauracyjek i sklepików wijących się w koło uroczego stawu. Jak się okazało jest to bardzo popularna wśród Tajów atrakcja turystyczna i... franczyza! Dziesiątki takich targów powstaje w Tajlandii, niczym parki rozrywki. Dla bardziej autentycznych doznań Attapol i Jo zabrali nas na obiad. Daleko poza miastem, przy buddyjskiej świątyni mieściła się niezwykła restauracja. Wielkie drewniane stoły, plastikowe talerze i widok na rzekę. Z prosto z rzeki na ogień trafiały olbrzymie rzeczne krewetki! I równie duże ryby. Byliśmy kompletnie zdani na naszych towarzyszy, bo obsługa nie mówiła ani słowa po angielsku. Posiłek jednak był wyśmienity. I baaardzo pikantny. Warto czasem nie mieć planów i spontanicznie przyłączyć się do tubylców. Podejrzewam, że w tamtym miejscu rzadko widują farang, czyli blade twarze ;) 

Nie, to nie włosy wystające z zielonego naleśnika. To wata cukrowa. A ta przedziwna kombinacja to specjalność miasta Ayutthaya

Choć w domu prawie w ogóle nie pijam, w tropikach zimna cola smakuje wybornie

Wisienką na torcie tych kulinarnych doznań był dla mnie kurs gotowania, na który zdecydowałam się jednego popołudnia. Cuda jakie wyczarowałam przeszły moje oczekiwania, a bawiłam się przy tym wyśmienicie. Nawet Mauryc w pewnym momencie żałował, że nie zdecydował się wziąć aktywnego udziału, tylko pasożytował na tym, co ugotowałam. 

Sticky rice & mango

Ok przyznaję się... Choć tajskie jedzenie jest przepyszne, czasem marzyła mi się zwykła kanapka lub burrito. Ale nie posunęliśmy się tak daleko, żeby sięgnąć po... bitterballen. Co jak się okazało nie było nawet aż tak trudne do znalezienia. Tu i ówdzie napotykaliśmy knajpki z holenderskimi "specjałami". Jednak nic nas tak nie powaliło na kolana jak "The Old Dutch Corner Restaurant" na końcu ulicy Soi Cowboy. Najbardziej znanej w Bongkoku ulicy słynącej z night club'ów z półnagimi Tajkami. Istna Sodoma i Gomora, epicentrum prostytucji w stolicy Tajlandii. I właśnie tam Holendrzy najwyraźnie czuli się najwygodniej ;) 

For coffee and pie to supermarket

I'm working on my laptop since morning chilling at the same time on a balcony. The sun is pleasently shinning, the cat is happily on a chair next to me. Love the mornings like this. What else would I need to feel even happier? Hmm... well, I wouldn't say no to a coffee and delicious piece of cake. Cake is gone, so I have three options:

• go to the closest cafe, where I'd probably spent way too much time
• run to the bakery behind the corner and make coffee myself
• do the gloceries in a supermarket (especially that it would have to happen today anyway)

You're probably thinking now, that the option number 3 isn't attractive at all? After all I would have to make the coffee from myself anyway and the cakes in supermarket are never as good as the once from bakery or home-made... Well, it's not entirely true. And it's because we have in our neighborhood Jan Linders - a supermarket chain from Limburg.

A cake and coffee to proof in supermarket? Why not ;)

You probably already know about my fascination with Dutch supermarkets. Thanks to them cooking can be so easy, fast and still tasty. But this company from the south made my expectations even higher. No one is surprised anymore with cookies, cheese or piece of ham for degustation in supermarkets. Even freshly fried food is not a sensation anymore. We can find it everywhere. And how about taking a short break while shopping to try some traditional southern pie vlaai (for example with fresh strawberries like they serve it now) and have some coffee or tea? And even better... for free :) And I really don't mean these tinni tiny pieces like for dwarfs but normal sized cake like the one you'd get visiting your aunt.

Suddenly shopping became so much nicer. Only my diet is getting problematic, since I'm doing groceries everyday ;)

How do Dutch people eat strawberries?

Strawberry season has started :) Of course the strawberries are from greenhouses and they don't teste so delicious as the ones that get red from the june sun, however they are quite sweet and they taste like strawberries. The april strawberrie ;) I got tempted by a little basket of these red fruits. The questions is... how to eat them?

We could of course eat the just like that, without any changes and additions or with whipped cream, the way they are the best, but Maurice acted like a real Dutchman and deciaded, that we're gonna eat them with... bread!
- What do you mean with bread? - I did'n get the idea.
- You know... sliced on bread with butter and sprinkled with cane sugar - he answered like it was the most obvious combination in the world.
- It sounds a bit weird... you wanna have a sandwich with strawberries? - I still could't believe.

Beschuitje with strawberries

At the end we agreed on beschuitjes in place of bread. To be honest it doesn't really change much, since beschuitje though sounds like a biscuit is actually a rusk (tho quite delicate and crunchy, it's still just a dry bread). Another proof how important for the Dutch are sandwiches and that they can put almost everything on bread.

- Quite good - I admited honestly after I tried this culinary experiment.
- Told you! - Maus was clearly happy that once again he was right.
- And guess how we like to eat strawberries in Poland? With pasta - I got carried away just thinking about delicious taste of my childhood.
- With pasta? Yuck... you Polish people come with very weird ideas! - said Maurice while crunching his rusk with strawberries... Never try to understand the Dutch ;) 

Cookie Quiz

Inspired by the cookie quiz, which our teacher prepared for us on our last lesson, I decided to have some little game for you too! If I remember well (and I definitely do, cause I checked the archives), there wasn't any contest or quiz on our Neverlandy blog till now. Well it's time to catch up and check how much do you actually know about Dutch sweets :) 

Some of the answers you can find on my blog. If you feel like taking part in our quiz please leave your answers in a comment (I changed the settings temporary, so these comments are gonna be published when the quiz is finished) or on my e-mail: justine.in.neverland@gmail.com. You have time till 22nd April. Than I'm gonna drawn 3 winners. The price in this little contest is a packeage with personly selected by myself typicly Dutch sweets.

COOKIE QUIZ:

1. Bossche Bollen are specialities of a Dutch city. Which city is it and in which province does it lay?

2. What's the name of a kind of "donut" that is traditionally eaten on New Years?

3. Dropjes are I guess the most popular and best known dutch candies. The have black color and very strong, characteristic taste. What taste is it?

4. I can never say no to stroopwafels. They are a kind of thin, sweet wafers with a thick, sweet substance in between. What is it, that glues these wafers together?

5. When Sinterklaas is coming to the Netherlands, his helpers Zwarte Pieten are treating children with small, round cookies. How do you call them?

6. Speculaas has its specific taste thanks to the mix of certain spices. Name at least three of these spices.

7. When I child is born in a dutch family, the visitors are treated with beschuit met muisjes, a kind of biscuit with an anisic candy sprinkles. What color are those muisjes?

8. Every single cafe in the Netherlands is serving a typical dutch pie. What pie is it?

9. Gevulde koek means "filled cookie". What's the main ingridient of this secret filling?

10. What's the name of the cake on the picture below?

Good luck and hope you´re gonna have fun with discovering all dutch goodies! :)

The last day of school

A year ago in April I started the learning the dutch language for serious. A year after I finished my studies I was about to go back to school like as a freshman. Learning the basics of the language, how to pronouce some letters, listening to funny, childish songs and doing a lot of homework. It was an amazing period. I learned a lot not only about dutch language, but also about the culture and tradtions of the citizens of the Netherlands and many countries where other students were from. I met so many nice and interesting people. With some of them I got good friends. My life here in the Netherlands would not be the same anymore without their presence.

The wasteful wives club ;)

However everything has its end and so did the language course. Our last lesson was fun and so relaxed. Instead of doing another grammar exercises, writing mini-essays or analizing our common mistakes, our amazing teacher prepared for us... a cookie quiz! 

We were divided into three groups. Each group got a set of typically dutch cookies and candies and we had to connect the sweets with right names and descriptions. Of course sometimes it required some proof testing! Gotta say I didn't have any problems with this ;) Maurice was later joking that a glutton like me should be a separate one-person group. 

The next task was to advertise the cookies by every group. And that's when the real fun started. To win the contest we were coming up with sometimes ridiculous and hillarious ideas and arguments. Everyone was laughing and joking. It did not look like a lesson at all. Rather like a meeting of good friends. 

Our group with two great teachers in front and our only guy ;) 

 Now there're only exams left and than... keep intergrating with this tiny, funny country and its citizens :)

New Year's delicious sin

I'm strarting to be seriously worried about my weight. Chrstmas time is always difficult for such glutons as me. There's so much deliciousness attacking from each side. Chain cafes are offering christmas specials such as gingerbread latte with whipped cream. Patisseries tempt with adorable cookies and savory cakes. In supermarkets chocolate figures of Santa Claus, cinnamon star-shaped cookies and other goodies wrapped in a golden package are taking over. However the most dangerous is visiting the city center during a day. In different parts of the city (mostly in the center and around big supermarkets and shopping malls) trailers with oliebollen are placed.

Oliebollen are sweet, yeast dough "balls" fired in deep oil. They are in a way simillar to polish donuts, but a bit thicker and heavier. You clearly can't call them a light snack ;) They are of course the best while still warm, freshly baked and lavishly covered with powdered sugar (I'm always getting messy and my coat is all covered in sugar as well... what a grace). There's quite a big choice: starting with traditional plain oliebollen, krentenbollen with raisins, more fancy ones with appels, cream, cherries or raisins soaked in rum. Yummie!

Though olibollen are traditionally eaten in the Netherlands on New Year's, the trailors can be found waaaay earlier. Usually since the end of November. Sometimes ever earlier... My parents had a chance to try the already in the beginning of October! They are sometimes available at carnivals. We're already planning to make a lot of those "donuts" for New Year's Eve and than, starting from the first day of 2013,we're gonna promise to go on diet. However most likely after one week we're gonna see this resolution as one of those rediculous things people do while drunk/hangover and at the end just simply forget about the whole idea ;)

Churros with powdered sugar

Lately I'm seriously addicted to churros. Though they are typically spanish, this year they are good friends with the oliebollen. Crunchy, delicious and same caloric (like all the yummie stuff fried in deep oil). Ohh my poor diet.... watch out and try to survive till New Years!

The best proof of the dutch love for oliebollen is the fact, that since 1993 there's a contest being organised to find the best oliebollen baker of the year. A group of ten jurors is trying the samples and judging the taste of the "donuts". Later you can find the results in the "Algemeen Dagblad", a newspaper that started the whole national test of this New Year's speciality. Within last 13 years the title of the best oliebollen baker was awarded to Richard Visser's Gabakkram from Rotterdam for 8 times! This can mean only one thing: the next time your're planning to visit Rotterdam in december make sure you'll find this famous stall and try the best oliebollen in Holland!

Chestnuts picking

Autumn in its fullest. Full of colors and warm shades. My favorite season. The most beautiful version of the autumn you can find always in a forrest. That's why we went last Sunday on a pleasant walk with Maurice in Beek. Thank God there are so many pretty forrests and hills (quite rare in Holland!) around Nijmegen.

Chestnuts season is open. Actually I think it's already late season for these. Neverthless we could still find quite a lot of them in a forrest. Laying there on a ground and hiding in their chestnuty prickly armors. The eatable chestnuts (which I'm talking about) have way more and much thiner thorns than the chustnuts I know from Poland. It's actually very difficult to pick it with your bare hands. However the temptation is too big to resist, since they are so tasty. I've tried chestnuts for the first time in my life a year ago on a very similar stroll in the Kastanjedal (Chestnuts Valley). They taste a bit like nuts, but more delicate. And the are deliciously crunchy.

Apparently they originaly come from the Mediterranean area and we owe them to Romans, who set here in Nijmegen their camps. The surrounding hills were perfect strategic points for Romans. The soldiers liked the chestnuts so much, they brought here the trees. And now, thanks to the legionnaires Justine can enjoy the chestnuts picking. It seems that the smell of the nuts on my hands was very appealing to the group of cows we met, since they all wanted to befriend me ;) 

PS. Sorry for the quality of the pics, but I had only my cell phone with me.  

Breakfast craziness

- Dutch people are weird, same as their food. Who the hell is eating chocolate sprinkles on bread for the breakfast?! In my country we're using these for decorating cakes and desserts - said one of the students during our coffee break between one of our first lessons.

- Actually... it is weird, but I like it - I shocked my company - I even have a sandwich with hagelslag today for lunch.
- Really? How does it look? How do you eat that... Show me your sandwich! - other student got intrigued.
So this is what happened, I had to take out my lunch, open my sandwich and show it to everyone to satisfy their thirst for knowledge.

The famous hagelslag in its traditional form

That's true, dutch breakfast can be surprising. Especially if someone's a sweet tooth. In almost every single house in Holland you can find a jar of peanut butter, nutella and a box of hagelslag, the chocolate sprinkles I mentioned above. It's super popular among the children and even adults, and the best proof for that you'll find in supermarket. There are many sorts and tastes of these little chocolate-sandwich-candies: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, with a fruity or anise taste, small sprinkles, bigger strings... in winter you can even find a special edition: spekulaas taste (cookies with gingerbread spieces).

The most dutch product ever CHEESE: young - soft and creamy or old - a bit harder and way more flavoury

Thre's basicly one rule: whatever Dutch people eat for breakfast, it has to be on bread. Cheese, ham, jam, pate, hagelslag... even fried or scramble eggs are served on a break as a sandwich. The citizens of this counrty are crazy about their bread, which is a perfect explenation for their amazing bakaries. But what if suddenly someone has a completly irrational idea and wishes to eat something else that the bread? Well, they have for example sweet buns, like krentenbollen with raisins. They are not too sweet, since they are made of yeast dough. They eat it also with butter, just like a normal buns. An extraoridinary morning dish, perfect on Sunday morning and loved but the Dutch could be poffertjes, a tiny little pancakes. They are delicious, puffy and served with a lot of powder sugar or supersweet sirop stroop. There are also fruity versions of this sirop and I think the most popular one is sweet and sour appelstroop. Lekker!

Mini krentenbollen, meaning the yeast dough buns with raisins

A slice of bread with appelstroop and with hagelslag

And what did you have for breakfast today? :)

Bread for a good cause?...

I'm starting a weekend of a very intensive studies. The weather is (finally!) nice, so I can also enjoy the warmth at the balcony. I just decided to take a short break for coffee and went to the closest bakery for some cake :) Ahh, the Dutch bakaries... I love them!

No doubt, these were the first and favorite places for me to practise my ability of speaking this weird language. Why? Because the women working there are always nice, friendly and smiling. And also patient enough to listen to my struggles and watching how I'm improving. I'm getting enthusistic just thinking about visiting a bakary. What a wonderful place!

Not only they offer a wide range of all kind of bread, sweet buns mostly made of French pastry, tasty snacks, but also cakes, pies, cookies, donuts, tarts and gateaus. And all of it looks so... mouthwatering. Ok, ok... in Poland we also do have bakaries, where you can buy some sweet pastries and cakes, but here it's a real mix of a classic traditional bread bakary and an amazing patisserie. One more great thing: if you didn't have time in a morning to make yourself a sandwich or you just feel like having a healthy snack, most of the bakaries I know offer... delicious, freshly made broodjes. Something to drink? Why not! They also have it. 

Source: https://www.facebook.com/BakkerBartNijmegen

I especially like two bakaries: the one above Bakker Bart, which is actually a chain of bakaries and against of what you can see on a picture, it's always freaking busy. But they have great broodjes :) The other one is just two streets away from our hen house and seems to be more traditional. Neverthless the range is still very wide. Bakkerij be Bie has one more thing I love about them. Since 1. April they are selling Sint Stevens brood, which is a delicious round bread with many different seeds and grain. The name is related to the St. Stevens church, bacause a part of the income goes for support a renovation of the church. I find this church as one of the city's symbols as it dominates the city's center. Surprisingly the City Hall did not allocate anything of the budget for renovation. This is how Nijmegen is taking care of their tourism? Shame!

Cookie (or rather cupcake) monster

Last week was quite busy mostly with planning, baking and decorating. Few months ago I agreed to prepare pastries for a wedding of a Dutch couple.Back than I had no idea I'll be already busy in June and that this project is gonna cost me so much time and energy.

So, Ladies and Gentelmen, here're the reason of my last week absence (at least partial reason):

Quality of pictures is not ideal, but it's fault of my camera. It's not doing well with pics in a dark rooms. With the flash colors are weird and without flash it's blured... I tried as much as I could. Cupcakes are maybe also not as perfect as I'd wish, but I'm still very pleased with the result. Almost 50 cupcakes and mini wedding cake with a movie theme, just a the newlyweds wished.

How did it actually happen, that such a homemade amateur like me prapared wedding pastries? Well, it's because of Maurice ;) I like baking in general and usually I made too many cupcakes. I didn't want to feel guilty after eating half of them, so I was trying to give them to everyone around. Also made Maurice to take few to work. His collegues were quite pleased with this treats and after some time they started asking him: "When is your girlfriend gonna bake some cupcakes again?" At the same time one of his collegues was planning to get married and they wanted with his fiance to have some little sweet treats for their wedding. Cupcakes were perfect for that. Since Hans was quite enthusiastic about my pastries, they asked via Maurice if I could bake some for their wedding. Back than I had even too much time and it's a pleasure for me to make these little "pieces of art" so I agreed. We discussed the details, like taste, colors, decorations and I got this order.

This way on Friday I could proudly confirm the question picking up the phone: "Are you the baker?" Yuuuuup...