Zwarte Piet

Christmas is celebrated in the Netherlands, but commercially it seems that Sinterklaas is the bigger deal. Sinterklaas is celebrated from mid-November when the man, Sinterklaas, arrives by boat from Spain until the gift-giving day of December 5 or 6 (in the case of Belgium). Sinterklaas is celebrated in the Netherlands and former Dutch colonies (Aruba, Netherlands Antilles), and Belgium, and according to Wikipedia, "many Roman Catholics of Alsatian and Lotharingian descent in Cincinnati, Ohio also celebrate 'Saint Nicholas Day'" on the 6th. Hmm, I didn't witness this in my four years there.

Tagging along with Sinterklaas, the basis of Santa Claus, is his helper Zwarte Piet, or Black Peet. Originally there was only one Zwarte Piet, but now there are multiple black helpers. Zwarte Piet can be cute, as depicted here by the supermarket chain C1000.

Here is Zwarte Piet holding up a chocolate number zero, chocolate letters (of the first letter of a child's first name) being a gift traditionally given for Sinterklaas.

But then you see live action Zwarte Piet. Now he's black not because he's a Moorish boy from Spain, but because he's plucked from a minstrel show. Not cute anymore.

And he is everywhere. Here's a Zwarte Piet minstrel, I mean, marching band. The one on the left is giving the little girl some candy from his bag, one of Zwarte Piet's tasks. This picture was taken at my local shopping mall, along with all of the other pictures in this post.

Even at the Albert Heijn there were Zwarte Piets waiting at the entrance and roaming the aisles. This was my first encounter with a live one, and yes, it's hard to see them in this picture because yes, they really are that black. You get a prize if you can distinguish three Zwarte Piets below.

The Albert Heijn Zwarte Piets were really friendly, since even I got some free candy from their sack! In fact, two of them kept piling more and more in my hand. Their rewards for being a good boy this year were pink and white sugar candies in the shape of presents and Zwarte Piet and Sinterklaas himself, kruidnoten which are the dome-shaped ginger snaps, and fun size bags of peanut M&Ms.

Thanksgiving in the Netherlands

It's been less than a week since I bought my oven and I've already put it to great use.

Specifically, a quickly assembled Thanksgiving get-together materialized this week! Two of the other American students found a whole turkey at the Saturday market, so a few of us got together to celebrate. But of course, since we're Americans overseas, and students, this was even more complicated than normal Thanksgiving!

First of all, the others did a really great job roasting the turkey. Only one person had an oven large enough to fit the turkey, but only a different person had a room large enough to host the party. So they shuttled the turkey back and forth. Plus, since we didn't have the day off from school and had class 9-5, they roasted the turkey a bit the night before, and finished it the day of. (And then it was finished off even more in the host's combi microwave-oven since some of the dark meat was a bit red... yet everything was still surprisingly juicy!)

I had the assignment of making the stuffing. I used my favorite cornbread wild mushroom stuffing recipe. Mixed wild mushrooms come in exactly the same package as if they were from Trader Joe's, so that wasn't a problem. Pecans were a problem. They were €2 per 50g at Albert Heijn, and I needed 450g worth for the stuffing and the pecan pie (below). €18, or $27, just for pecans? I don't think so. Thankfully the Wednesday market has a dried fruit and nut seller, and I got 500g for €6.75 (about $10/lb, but still). Then, corn meal isn't really available since corn in every form seems to be a really American thing. So I just bought a french bread loaf, cut it up, and set it out to dry overnight. Turned out really well.













With my pecan problems solved, I still needed to solve a couple other issues with my other assignment, pecan pie. No corn in every form also means no corn syrup. And I don't have a food processor and that's the only way I know how to make pie crust (along with shortening and vodka). So I switched to pecan pie bars using honey as a thickener.

The pecan pie bars went in a shoebox, and the stuffing went wrapped up in the foil I lined my one baking dish with (same that the pecan pie bars were in), put it all in a blue Ikea bag and biked 30 minutes.

Not very traditional conditions, but a surprisingly traditional dinner was the outcome. My first Thanksgiving as an expat, and it was a good one.

Oven!

As I wrote when I first arrived (here), my kitchen was equipped with... a two-burner hot plate. No fridge, no microwave, no oven. I learned through the last three months that actually I can survive without a microwave (a big surprise to myself). But I really missed having an oven. There are so many things that you can make only in an oven (casseroles, lasagna, roasted vegetables and meats, bread, cakes, pies, cookies...)

So to reward myself after finishing the first quarter of school, I went out and bought an oven finally! Now searching for the right oven was quite an event. First of all, toaster ovens aren't really a big thing here. People seem to have a toaster, and either a wall oven or a combination microwave/oven. Like, using the microwave/oven combination seems to be a really acceptable way to bake and roast things. So the selection of toaster ovens is sparse.

I thought about buying a Cuisinart Brick Oven Classic from Amazon.co.uk, but it would have been about $330 after tax and shipping was included (I loved my old Cuisinart convection oven so I was inclined to spring for it). I looked for a Krups toaster oven, Cook's Illustrated #1 rated oven. Surely Krups being a German brand, it should be available, at least from Amazon.de? Well turns out that the Krups oven is only sold in US and Canada! That was a surprise to me - that the US/Cn volume is large enough to support making a line of toasters just for that market.

I then went for a black DeLonghi oven, since the controls felt most solid and looked the nicest. After I took it home (by bus), I found out that the heating elements were practically in the middle of the oven, which made the space to put baking dishes in very narrow. Plus everything inside felt cheap, as in, I was able to dent the baking pan just by pressing my thumb and index finger together. So I took it back to the store (by bus) to return, and then came back with this Tefal.

The nice things about it so far are:

- very spacious, the heating elements are really close to the top and bottom leaving a big cavity in the middle

- 5 rack positions, and the rack is reversible at different heights so there are really 10 total positions.

The not so nice things are:

- the timer goes all the way to zero only some of the time; sometimes it just stops at 5 minutes

- doesn't tell you when it has finished pre-heating

- slow to heat up so toast will turn out dry (not really made for toasting, but learned that if you put in a frozen slice of bread it will turn out well)

- no crumb tray

So yeah, there are a few negatives already, but so happy to have an oven nonetheless!

Planting and crossing my fingers

I finally got some flower pots from Ikea to plant my free bulbs in. Since this is the first time planting bulbs, I asked my mom and looked online for more info. Here are some tips I learned along the way.

First, you have to get soil specifically for planting in pots since it's different from soil you find outside in the ground. Here's the bag of potting soil that the garden center recommended. They said since bulbs should not be next to a lot of moisture, this soil was best because it was particularly non-water-retaining.

Your pot needs to be able to drain water as well, and many recommend lining the bottom of the pot with pebbles or pottery shards, along with having a hole. I didn't have pebbles or pottery shards, so am just relying on the hole and draining it into the gutter on my balcony.

I read lots of differing guidelines on how deep to plant the bulbs, anywhere from "near the top" to "4-6 inches" to "2-3 bulb-widths." I planted my small- to medium-sized bulbs about 4 inches down; you should make sure your pot is deep enough to accommodate both the roots as well as the soil on top.

Make sure your bulbs are firm and bruise-free (just like garlic). Then nestle them in the soil and sprinkle some fertilizer inside (I think this is optional). I then watered the pots after I covered the bulbs with soil just to moisten.

Here's hoping the flowers come out in the spring!

American (fast food) in Europe

You probably already know that McDonald's outside of the US are often quite different than the ones in the US. Different food, different, often more upscale decor. Here's my local one; pretty nice huh?













I started going to McDonald's once in a while as a treat, and noticed that the strategy in the Netherlands is quite different than in America. They really depend on constant food "news" to drive repeat traffic. New menu items are rotated in and out on a weekly or biweekly basis.

The last few weeks has been the "Great Tastes of America" series. This I needed to try. An American chain in Europe, introducing a line of burgers that's representing America. All done up in a font that harkens back to mid-century diners and big cars with big fins.

The ad copy says "try the best burgers from America" and the three burgers on offer on successive weeks were:

- California Classic, with bacon and "sun-blushed tomato sauce"

- Chicago Works, with bacon and herbed creamy sauce on a cheese bun

- Arizona Grande, with bacon, peppered cheese, spicy creamy sauce on a peppered bun

I've got to say, each one was a bit of a let-down. The sauces didn't work that well, and the main benefit of each burger was the bacon. It seems like the American theme is a recurring one, with past series including Arizona, Canada (?!), and New York burgers (click here for commercial).

The other American chain with a limited time special-American offering was KFC. I loved KFC in China and SE Asia, but somehow in the west I'm not so crazy about it. But on seeing they had a "Texas" offering I decided I needed to try it in the name of research.

The Texas Boxmaster is a calorie bomb with fried chicken, cheese, and hash brown patty all in a flour tortilla. My complaint here is the same with a lot of wraps - the tortilla is limp and flour-y tasting, while the components inside don't meld together well (sometimes you get a bite of chicken, sometimes just bbq sauce).

Shopping for garden supplies, on the bike

I've gotten used to relying on the bike, bus, and foot for all transportation needs in the Netherlands, but it's not to say I don't long for the Prius often. As an example, I just bought three 50 lb shelving units from Ikea, and took them on three separate walking and bus trips since, you know, there's only so much you can carry yourself at once.

Another example are my trips to the garden center (tuincentrum) on the outskirts of Eindhoven. It's about 3.4 miles away from my apartment and I don't think any buses run there. So biking it is. The first time I went I came back with three pots of bamboo, and a few pots of small houseplants, and a bag of gravel, along with all of my grocery shopping for the week which I had done earlier in the day. The bags on the back of my bike actually look quite cheerful with the green bamboo shoots sticking out!


















This weekend I made another trip to the tuincentrum, this time to get potting soil and fertilizer for the free tulip bulbs I got (as I wrote about here). It was a long 45L (1.6 cu ft) bag of potting soil specially recommended by the staff for bulbs. So I straddled it across the back and into both bags. Happy to report no incidents for the 3.4 mile bike ride back!

You know you live in the Netherlands when...

...you get a free package of flower bulbs at the cash register. I'm not sure what the promotion was for exactly, since I only bought €3.30 worth of 3M sandpaper at Praxis, one of the home improvement stores in the Netherlands. But there it was, a pack of 3 assorted, unidentified flower bulbs to plant now, to bloom in the spring.