Casual Saturday in Maastricht

After a few weeks of staying in, sickness, frustrating laundry experiences, and just plain business, Dan & I decided to get out on Saturday to run a few errands in town and go see an archaeological exhibit.
 
Actually the archaeology exhibit was my main reason for getting out. I had read about a free exhibit in the Hoofdwacht on the Vrijthof about the archaeological work done when they put in the underground parking. Being a lover of dirt and finding things in it, I didn’t want to pass it up. Unfortunately it didn’t open until noon, so we had some time to kill.
 
I’m very American in the sense that I am most comfortable shopping in a grocery store for all of my food stuffs, but there are occasionally things I can’t find at Aldi and Albert Heijn. The big ones are baking powder and baking soda. Baking powder can be found in a regular grocery store, but so far I’ve only seen it there in little packets. I’ve been told that baking soda (bicarbonaat) can be obtained at a pharmacy but I’m not really comfortable with that. So instead I found both at an Asian grocery store on Markt square. They are products of the UK, but cheap and in decent sized containers. Arm & Hammer, my go-to baking soda in the US, costs over 7,50 euros here. Craziness. I’m not that brand loyal.
 
The other thing we like to get at a specialty store is loose leaf chai tea. Chai is almost always better loose leaf, so we occasionally stroll across the bridge and pick up a bag at Simon Levelt. They have a wide variety of teas, all loose leaf, as well as many sweets, gifts, and coffee beans to boot.

Saturday also introduced us to another Dutch snack: oliebollen. Oliebollen are like a puffed donut the size of a man’s hand and deep fried in oil. Sometimes they are filled with fruit or creme. The one we had was from a cart on Markt square and was filled with banana (a banananballen) and dusted with powdered sugar. (I think the Dutch put powdered sugar on nearly everything.) I doubt it’ll take the place of chocolate filled waffles as my favorite Maastricht snack, but it was certainly tasty.

After a quick stop over at T-Mobile for the nth time to get my voicemail fixed we discovered that the Chocolate Company was open. We’ve been trying to get in there for months now, but they’ve always been closed. Today we went in and had coffee with a chocolate fondue for two for lunch. The dark chocolate fondue came with cake, cookies, strawberries, and bananas for dipping and was a fun and tasty lunch; even if it was terribly unhealthy.
 
Of course this all brings us up to noon and my much hyped archaeology exhibit. How disappointing. I had hoped from a through discussion of the history of layers they’d found under the Vrijthof along with some interesting artifacts and maybe a description of the project as a whole. Instead we got a single room with a few small objects, one picture of the dig project, and several photographs of artifacts with little or no description. A real pity after anticipating an exciting exhibit for so long.
 
We whiled away the rest of our afternoon working on a variety of projects as we are wont to do on a Saturday. Dan worked on his comic, I editing his comic and worked on an article about Maastricht. We even managed to avoid the short hailstorm in the afternoon. A nice, casual day in Maastricht.

Places Around Maastricht: Pinky

Type of Place: Snack Window & Candy Store
Location: Grote Straat, kitty-corner from the VVV.

One of the pleasureable, comfort foods frequently consumed in the Netherlands, especially here in Limburg, is the waffle. These are always the big, Belgian style waffles and usually eaten as a snack or dessert rather than breakfast.   Like Dan says, no day with a chocolate filled waffle can be a bad day.

Pinky serves the best waffles in all of Maastricht. Bar None.  The waffles themselves are quite sweet and can be purchased with powdered sugar on top.  The next step up, and the one I love, is the chocolate-filled waffle with three sticks of chocolate shoved into the still warm waffles fresh insides (pictured). We don’t usually get powdered sugar on top but you can.  The ultimate waffle from Pinky is chocolate-filled with powdered sugar and a swirl of soft-serve vanilla ice cream on top.  Delicious.

Pinky almost always has a line for both waffles and their soft-serve ice cream, which is ok but not terribly inspired.  They also have a candy store with a variety of candies, from chocolate to marshmellow critters on a stick.  It is typically open only until 17:00 (5 PM), expect on Thursdays when they stay late with the rest of the stores.  They are also closed on Sunday.

Stroopwafels: Breakfast is now an Awesome Cookie

Ah, Stroopwafels. The Dutch snack that until now I’ve always had to beg Dan to buy because he thought the store bought ones were stale and bland. Well look at him tucking into that huge, warm, fresh stroopwafel now. Yum.

A stroopwafel is two thin waffle-like cookies with a thin layer of syrup or honey between them. According to wikipedia they oriented in Gouda during the 18th century. They come in all sizes, but are usually round. In the stores you can get them in packages under all sorts of brand names. I recommend getting the honey ones for a sweeter experience.

If you have the chance to eat a fresh stoopwafel, go for it. Like most things, fresh and warm is a recipe for a really wonderful treat. I’ve never seen a booth in Maastricht, but have seen them in Delft and Arnhem in the North.

And here’s a video I found at random in the internet wilds (FYI: he swears once). It wouldn’t work with the monster stroopwafels we ate in Delft, but this could definitely improve the quality of your store bought experience.

Enjoy!

Preuvenemint 2009: Eatting Our Way Through Maastricht

Right up there with Maastricht’s Carnival, Queens Day in Amsterdam, and a pottery-oogling trip to Delft, Preuvenemint in Maastricht is a “Must Do (at least) Once” event in the Netherlands. This year was our first time to visit so we brought Dan’s parents along to share the experience.

Getting In
Preuvenemint in Maastricht is a yearly culinary event that runs during the last full weekend of August, creating a cap to the end of the vacation and summer season here in the Netherlands. This year that weekend was from August 27th to the 30th. On the weekdays, the Preuvenemint opened at 6 pm for dinner and ran late until about 2 am. On the weekends, the event opened earlier for lunch as well.

Like many large outdoor events, this culinary extravaganza is located on the Vrijhof. They actually began setting up the tents and fences a few days earlier, effectively hiding the square behind metal and plasticized canvas. My in-laws found this to be a little confusing; they didn’t realize that the Vrijhof is usually a wide open square. Still, it is the sort of event you can’t miss. A large crowd of visitors and locals attend the event every year too.

Getting Food

The Preuvenemint using special tickets instead of cash to pay for your food. Special booths are available at each of the entrances where you can purchase them for 1,80 euros a piece or in a booklet of 10. The cost is somewhat expensive depending on what food you order, but worth it for the experience. We found that drinks (beer & soda) were usually 1 ticket a piece and plates generally ran from 4-10 tickets. Snack food such as waffles and sate was usually 2-3 tickets. Many places allowed you to sit down, so the best course of action is to order your food and then pay with the tickets when the food arrives.
 
Who’s There
The vendors serving food are mostly local resturants, cafes and hotels; with several Brand beer tents (the same ones that I’ve seen at nearly every event I’ve attended in the Netherlands). Everything from street vendors to CoffeeLovers (a chain cafe) to 5-star hotels were hawking their wares so there seemed to be a little some for everyone. The food varied, but we mostly saw Dutch, French, and Indonesian fare with a couple of Japanese restaurants as well. Of course the other side of this event is advertising for the restaurants. They will serve you the best food than can muster under the circumstances (outdoors & no on-site kitchen) because they want you to come back.
 
There was constant music from the stage set up in front of the gazebo as well. We didn’t specifically check out the music schedule, but during our visits there was a great variety: big band music, Spanish, and 80s tunes, and no doubt some Dutch music as well (but not while we were there).
 
Our Experience
As a group, we mostly went for seafood, starting with oysters and our first taste of Dutch style herring. Yes, tasty on all accounts. We also tried some pork sate (kinda eh) and two forms of mussels. I still prefer steamed to Maastricht-style mussels (in sort of a cream sauce). If you purchased a beer at one of the beer tents, you could carry it around with you, but beverages purchased at a sit down spot need to be consumed while sitting. While we were concerned about the cost of beverages, it wasn’t really an issue.
 
If you attend in a group for the first time, I recommend you do what we did, and share dishes as multiple stops. This way everyone can try something new without duplicating plates. Your tickets will go farther and you’ll get more variety. There were many very nice sitting areas as well, so if you’ve been to Preuvenemint a couple of times, it is probably very nice to relax at one or two locations with a beer or some wine and just take in the experience.
 
Bottom Line
The bottom line is that the Preuvenemint is a tasty, if pricey event. I won’t take every dinner there because of the cost, but it was a fun change to our usual experience and the chance to try some new foods. Go with an open mind and a taste for something different, and you won’t leave disappointed.

Gouda: Saving the Rind

In the long series, of “why didn’t I think of that”, I presents Dan’s idea for saving that last bit of Gouda.

The Netherlands is, of course, know for their Gouda cheese and it is available as widely here as American and Cheddar cheeses are available in the states. The older Gouda is, the harder and sharper the flavor gets. People even eat a type literally called “Oude Kaas” or Old Cheese, which can rival extra sharp Cheddar in strength (I like it, Dan doesn’t). I find it to be vastly preferable to American cheese, but still mild enough to make a good sandwich.

I like to buy my Gouda as a wedge with waxy skin attached (2,50 or so at Aldi), but once you get down to the rind the cheese gets harder and more difficult to slice. Instead of tossing out this last bit of cheese, try grating it for use on pasta and in chicken quesadillas (a Potter favorite).

Just 3 easy step…
1) Tug off the waxy cover. This is generally pretty thin and can be a little tricky to remove, but you probably don’t want to eat it.
2) Grate the remaining cheese. Once the cover is off, everything else is edible.
3) Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I don’t know how long it’ll last, so I’d recommend eating it fairly quickly. If you let it mold, but use your green compost bin to toss it out.

Enjoy your Gouda!

« Previous Entries Next Entries »