Today I shall talk about Dutch cuisine. There isn't any. That's not really true, of course, but it's all boring. Stews and noodly things, vegetables with hunks of meat. Boring. But I am here today to present two exceptions to the boring cuisine rule. One is lekker (delicious) the other is belachelijk (rediculous) in it's disgustingness. I shall start with the belachelijke one, so the lekker one will look even better in comparison.
So, here we have cuisine 1: Maatjeshering. This dish consists of pretty much what you see here: a fish soaked in a marinade (of salt, mostly) and dipped in chopped onions. Then eaten. Whole. And raw. You eat them exactly like this blonde chick. You hold the tail, and slurp. I will temper your disgust by assuring you that the head and the bones are no longer present. This is little consolation for me. These people love this. During the markets you can ALWAYS see someone munching away on onion encrusted herring.
I like to keep an open mind about everything. I prefer to be vegetarian, but I do eat meat now and then so my body won't lose it's ability to process it, just in case I gotta eat some lamb or offend the Maharaja or something. I'll try most anything once, for good or bad. But this open mindedness comes from an understanding that looks can be deceiving. Rather than turning down a dish because it sounds gross, or even smells or looks gross, I go for it. Tasting, and often being pleasantly surprised. However, I KNOW how Maatjsehering will freakin taste: like salty raw fish and onions! Nope. Thanks. Blechkuchen.
Now for the good nieuws. Hagelslag. (Please remember, each 'g' is a guttural sound. The word is almost as good as the dish.) Hagelslag is really the saving grace of these people. Again, it's pretty much what it looks like. Toast. Butter. OMG CHOCOLATE SPRINKLES! These people are brilliant! You can eat a sprinkle sandwich
and everyone thinks you're a normal, mature adult!! (Of course, you can also eat a headless raw fish and they'll think the same, but that's not the point.) I mean, really! This is genius, people. The best part? You can totally go make this RIGHT NOW even though you live in America. Because we have bread, butter, and chocolate sprinkles! AND! You can completely write it off as a "expanding your cultural horizons." See? It's culture! And how can you not love a culture that includes chocolate sprinkles?
That's really all I've got for today. It's been raining and storming since I got back from my Dutch lesson. I took a lekker two hour nap. It was just such a nice day for a nap! The sky was that nice, comfy, sleepy grey, and the rain was falling really hard, and every now and then there was a rumble of thunder. I was out.
I had a very strange dream about living on the 2nd floor of this building and overlooking an Indonesian market with lots of little children running around and laughing wearing very elaborate Indonesian dress. I was trying to wake up from my nap to go out and play with the children, and shop for clothes like theirs at the market. I looked out my window and a man with sunglasses was walking by. He stopped and looked at me intensely. I was actually quite terrifying! He seemed more real than I did at the time. I finally got away from him, and a woman started asking me questions, in Dutch, about how long I've lived here. This part of the dream is at least clear; she asked the same questions I've been answering in class! Haha. I guess I must be learning something! I think I answered them properly too!
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