This past weekend, I visited my good friend in the Netherlands (specifically, Leiden, but we also visited Delft, the Hague, and Amsterdam). Knowing me, she made sure I tried as much Dutch local fare as I could possibly stomach over my three day visit; and it was quite an enjoyable experience! 
(I could only wish that I had a bottomless pit stomach capacity...)
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| Dutch fried food |
In the spirit of food, let's document this like a multi-course menu:
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| Herring and onions in front of fish stand |
As with many (if not all) Western cultures, we have the "tasty" fried foods: bitterballen (fried meatball with a moist center), kaassouffle, bamiblok, and many others. The kaassouffle is incredibly tasty with the melted young cheese oozing with every bite (more tasty than the stringy fried mozzarrella sticks). Comically, the bamiblok, a fried shell encasing bami goreng, is used to describe a chunky mobile phone.
Next is the Dutch delicacy raw herrings with raw onions. It may sound disgusting, but it is absolutely DELICIOUS!! The herrings are fresh caught and preserved in their own pancreatic juices; they are deheaded and deboned on the spot. I was a little hesitant at first as I grabbed the fish by its slimy tail and sprinkled the diced raw onions over the small corpse. It was a bit challenging, too, as I tried to lift the fish over my open mouth without dropping too many of the diced onions. But after the first bite, I was savouring the flavour of fresh fish (essentially, there was almost no taste of "fish") and the texture of tenderized flesh (from the digestive enzymes). It was like sashimi, but ever so better!
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| Cheese fondue |
For our dinners, we cooked 2 traditional Dutch meals -- cheese fondue and pancakes. The cheese fondue was a little different from the Swiss as we used melted young Dutch cheese and Danish blue emulsified with white wine. The pancakes were a little like crepes but thicker and with the ingredients cooked with the batter. We had the traditional flavours of bacon with cheese and apple with raisin and the non-traditional banana with chocolate as dessert.
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| Dutch apple pie |
The Dutch apple pie (appeltaart) was as tasty as the French tarte tartin but more "bready/cakey." Fresh apples mixed with sultanas and cinnamon were strewn across a thicker base of moist shortcake/crumble texture with a flavour that is reminescent of a spicy apple cake.
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| Dried fruits, fresh milled wholemeal flour, spekken, drop |
And of course, we cannot finish without the cheese. Besides the aforementioned Dutch young and old cheese is the Dutch young with cumin. The flavours meld together wonderfully with the cumin seeds adding a chewy grainy texture. And it is amazing seeing the collection of Dutch cheeses wrapped in red wax strewn across the backs of the cheese stalls in the market. (Additionally, my friend's creation of Dutch raisin bread with Brie resembles a luxurious version of bread with soft butter.)
However, all this food still does not cover all that I tried in the Netherlands: American pepper filet (minced meat spread), drop (licorice candy), spekken (marshmallow that's fluffier and chewier but not as sweet), stroopwafel (caramel sandwiched between thin wafers), appeltaart-flavoured yoghurt, rich creamy orange yoghurt, Puccini chocolates, etc. Overall, I have to say that this was yet another gastronomical successful and filling adventure! And last, but not least, the Netherlands, with its canals, red brick roads and buildings, squares, outdoor seatings, and small cities, is quaint, gentle, and relaxing. I love it all!! 
After nearly a year, I finally decided to wander through the various gardens of John's accommodations on Madingley Road. Indeed, they are huge, luscious, worthy of envy, and probably part of the reason for the outrageous accommodation charges. I thought my house garden was big, but some of the ones across the road are even bigger!
It seemed to taste a little smoky although no smoking is involved at all.
