Eating Experiences 080328/sa

Eating out is an adventures–always–in fact, its becoming one of my favorite forms of entertainment. We’ve finally picked up enough Dutch to know the basics:

rundvlees = beef
kip = chicken
vis = fish
varkensvlees = porkchop


This gets us by most of the time...at least we usually have an idea of what we are about to get...I emphasize usually as we almost always get some sort of surprise.

Okay, armed with these basics, on a rare occasion, we actually can tell exactly what will be served with our meat. These are pretty cool, because, we recognize these:

paprika = paprika
broccoli = broccoli
sparerib = sparerib


Then, there are those items that a little common sense and creative thinking will get you a little closer:

uien = onion
boter = butter
melk = milk
spinazie = spinach
brood = bread
tomaten = tomato
frites = fries


Finally, there are those things that you just have to memorize. Fortunately, since I do most of the shopping and cooking, I’m picking up on the nuances such as:

champignons = mushrooms
aardbei = strawberry
bieslook = chives
knoflook = garlic
kaas = cheese
graan = corn
kaneel = cinnamon
rijst = rice
slagroom = whipped cream


I still get a little confused because so many of the Dutch names for fruits/vegtables contain “appel” in the name...but, no matter what we get, its pretty safe:

appel = apple
sinaasappel = orange
aardappel = potatoe


We still are a little uncertain about the wienerschnitzel. It basically means “chicken fried,” but the meat inside almost always seems to be a surprise. Rick and Hank are lapping it up on a regular basis, but its still very reminiscent of bologna or Spam to me!

Finally, that brings us to the worsts (sausage). Rookworst is the traditional Dutch sausage and the guys love it and I have to admit, it does smell good, but I’m not ready to go there yet.

This brings us back to some of our more memorable dinners. The first meal we had out (at least Hank had) was at KFC. He got a chicken sandwich and as he said, it was the size of a golf ball–that together with a small fry and small coke cost us almost 12€.

Our first “real” meal we took at a little pub in the square after church one Sunday. There Rick had steak, Hank had ribs, and I had the mixed grill which included chicken, porkchop, steak and spareribs. Needless to say, I had a doggie bag, which they do understand over here. (Everyone has a dog or cat.) It was at this meal that I was introduced to a traditional Dutch dish called “witlof” or “witloof.” It is a vegetable related to the endive (still don’t know what that is), and was discovered quite by chance in the mid 1800's in Belgium. The story goes: the head of the Botanical Gardens in Brussels happened to store some chicory roots in a dark cellar and then sometime later discovered that they had produced fragrant white leaves. It is boiled whole until soft (kinda like cabbage) then put in a baking dish, topped with ham slices and cheese and baked. It tastes somewhat like cabbage and artichoke. I think dad would like this as on the couple of occasions I’ve talked him into eating artichoke he said that it tasted okay, but was too much work. I want to try making witlof with garlic, lemon and butter sauce.

Hank’s really not one to experiment much...it seems that every time we go out to eat he orders the spareribs.

Our next adventure was on the way home from the Doornenburg castle. We were all starving and so I asked Tom to help us find some place to eat. We were pretty close to Appledorn, and Tom suggested a place called the Ribhouse Texas in Voorst. Now, by this time we’d been here almost a month and a little “Texas” (home) was sounding pretty good to all of us. We got there a little before 5:00 p.m. and upon arriving found the parking lot to be relatively empty. Inside, only a couple of tables were taken, but when we asked to be seated the hostess in broken English told us that it would be 7:00 p.m. before we could eat. We opted to get something before one of us passed out. While Rick and Hank were taking pictures up front, I went back to ask if she could direct us somewhere that we might could eat quicker and discovered that we’d misunderstood... she said we had to be finished by 7:00 p.m. It wasn’t long before we knew why. Evidently, Texas is pretty cool around here and soon the parking lot was full and so were all the tables.

We’ve got some pictures of the restaurant...yes, I try to always remember to take my camera to record these momentous events...like I said they are always entertaining.

Now, apparently, the Dutch equate “Texas” with “Mexican” because the waitresses were all attired in traditional Mexican garb and the decor was most definitely Mexican...like we see at Rancho Grande or something similar. The menu was what you would find on that of any typical American steakhouse with the exception that they served nacho cheese flavored Doritos and this sweet tasting salsa.

Our next venture eating out was at a bistro in Drenthe. It was awesome and I wish I’d taken my camera...it was almost too pretty to eat. This is where Rick had his initial wienerschnitzel. I had traditional Dutch tomato soup which is wonderful and a salad. I love the salads! No iceburg lettuce here...they put an assortment of greens which mostly look like weeds. I’m trying to find a picture of some of them to post here for you to see. If I don’t find one soon I’ll be forced to buy some and photograph them for you. They are all shapes and colors and each has a distinct flavor which makes the whole experience awesome. Some taste similar to a romaine-type lettuce and others have a stronger taste like fresh sage or something–and NO ranch dressing! (Since I promised Rick I wouldn’t buy any more food just to photograph, I may need some support from you guys on my proposed photo assignment here!)

What I’d have given for a camera on our next outing! This was a hoot. Hank opted for his usual spareribs and Rick was having difficulty deciding or deciphering or a combination of the two. Everything was in Dutch and we were doing our usual picking through trying to find things we recognized when we abut the same time we spotted “hamburger.” Now this sounded like a quick fix to our problem...and speed seemed prudent considering the fact that we were sitting outdoors in a off/on misting 40° rain. So Rick got the burger...which was served open-faced (like most Dutch sandwiches) and topped with a fried egg. Okay, so we missed something in the translation. I’m so lucky to have a guy that will eat almost anything that is put before him!!!

Other than the fact that we got kicked out of two restaurants while in Belgium (we still don’t know why), most of our recent weekend adventures were pretty tame...but still exciting...and fortunately, I did have the camera for this one!

Okay, we’re walking down the street in Valkenburg after touring the castle looking for something to eat. Hank spotted something called the Plaza and thought it sounded good so we headed that direction; however, a sign saying Texas BBQ caught my eye and the guys jumped at the chance for real Texas BBQ. We’ve come to finally figure out that Texas and BBQ here actually means “grilled.”

We enter the restaurant and are already committed when I notice the grills on each table. Now I pretty quickly figure out this isn’t the Benihana Japanese teriyaki-style grill. This is a backyard or patio kinda grill thing going on–in other words, we were going to cook our own food! My daddy also taught me that if you were going to pay for the meal at a restaurant, it should be cooked and served to you! And besides that, I’d already told Rick I was on vacation and wasn’t cooking for three days! So, you guessed it, the guys cooked. Hank really enjoyed it and I’ll have to admit, it was fun! The chips and dip pictured are Doritos and bbq sauce! The guys both liked it...and now I have a substitute when we run out of salsa at home. We also had what the proprietor called goulash which was more like a thick barbeque beef soup and a variety of vegetable salads like coleslaw, potato salad, cabbage something-or-other, etc. We all had spareribs.

The Dutch are real bread eaters and have a variety of flavored butters. The one we had here was flavored with cumen and chili powder. It was good...I need to make a mental note of this one.

I’m also posting in this photo album a couple of other pictures of meals we’ve had that were relatively non-eventful...just pretty plates. My favorite “pretty plates” are the desserts that we walk across the street to have on occasion. I keep forgetting to take the camera, but will eventually remember to get a couple of pictures of them for you to see.

Jimmy, I want to be in charge of desserts for the next missions banquet! I can make them too pretty to eat!

Eating Out 080328/sa