I feel like Harry Potter in Prisoner of Azkaban when we as staying in Diagon Alley for two weeks by himself, and loving it! It’s been two weeks since I moved to Amsterdam, and I’ve loved every minute.
When I was moving, people asked me if I was nervous about moving to a new culture. No, actually, I wasn’t. I’ve been to Europe a few times, lived in London for a bit, and have been to Amsterdam twice, so it wasn’t too unfamiliar to me. I think I’m kind of adaptable, anyway, wanting only a few essential comforts – as long as I can get a decent jar of peanut butter, I’ll be just fine. 😛
Speaking of peanut butter. I’ve tried three different brands already:
Calvé peanut butter was very good – slightly gritty and not too sweet.
Dirk van den Broek’s house brand of peanut butter, was very delicious, though extremely addictive for me. I suspect they got some extra ingredients from the coffee shop next door.
I just bought Albert Heijn’s ‘Excellent‘ brand (compare with Meijer ‘Naturals‘, lol) of hazelnut peanut butter – with candied hazelnuts!
Hazelnut Peanut Butter
I mean, just look at that.
Quite delicious. Though it doesn’t go so well in what I THOUGHT would be normal yoghurt… but turned out to be buttermilk yoghurt. I mean, what are those specks?
Buttermilk Yoghurt
I’m eating a lot more meat than I ever did back in the States. The staples of a Dutch diet seem to be dairy, bread and meat. And you can’t forget the appelstroop! (Appelstroop = apple syrup)
Here’s me constructing a sandwich, with all the goods:
(If the animated GIF doesn’t work, click here.)
Making a Dutch sandwich: brown bread, two kinds of liverwurst, appelstroop, tomatoes, cucumbers & young cheese!
Every country seems to have their form of pancakes, and the Dutch are no exception. They have Pannenkoeken (large, very thin pancakes with sweet or savory toppings) and Poffertjes (little bite-size pancakes with powdered sugar)
Poffertjes
Poffertjes & Kaffee
As I was riding by one of the fancier food markets (Marqt), I noticed they were giving out samples! Of course I stopped by and met a nice woman who started this business of making food out of local hunted meat. These were her croquettes made from goose meat. I could taste about as much meat as you can see in the photo below. 😉 But they were delicious! This croquette in my hand costs about €1 in the store though… so, I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t buy it on my own, no matter how delicious!
Kroket or croquette
More photos to come soon! Next I’ll tell you about the parks near me and how beautiful it is riding through Amsterdam!
Bedankt! Tot ziens,
Beth
beth. berens 
You’ve got a follower here. Keep em’ coming.
I thought it ironic that you compared Dutch peanut butter to Meijer brand. Meijer was founded (in Grand Rapids) by Hendrik Meijer. Very, very Dutch.
Cool coincidence! Actually, I was comparing the “Excellent” to the “Naturals”, rather than the actual peanut butters themselves. But cool fact!
The yoghurt you were eating is actually not yoghurt. It is some kind of porridge ”’pap” and griesmeel is made from some kind of grain I think.
Good to know, thanks! Are you from The Netherlands? Is “pap” very popular here?
Well, with the older genertion I think it is. I think younger people eat some of them for breakfast but others like griesmeelpap or ricepap for dessert.
And I think it also depends on your job, I think people with a physically demanding job will probably eat it sooner.
So it’s kind of like an “energy food”?