The Netherlands - Rotterdam Blaak Markt

One of my biggest weekend joy right now is my visit to Blaak Markt on Saturday. I have been enjoying open markets even when I was in Wageningen. Blaak Markt is, I believe, the largest traditional open market in the Netherlands.

Cheese, seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, poultry, nuts and spices... you can find them at Blaak Markt, fresh and, in general, cheaper than the supermarket.

 You can also find ready-to-eat foods like kibbeling, Turkish pizza, or gözleme.

Oh, and the flowers in Blaak Markt is unreasonably cheap.

This bouquet of flowers cost me 3.50 euros. Meanwhile, in supermarkets, a small bouquet of chrysanthemum would probably cost you 8 euros. Don't even mention getting them from a flower shop.

But for some reason, I can't find any booths selling beef or pork. Oh well, I'm already happy enough with the abundance of fresh seafood! If you happen to visit Rotterdam and you love seafood, definitely try to eat steamed mussels booth (Mosselhandel).

You have to eat the mussels with your hands, standing. It costs 5 euros for a big bowl of mussels, and when I tried it last time, I counted about 40 mussels. You can either dip the mussels in lemon water, or in a mayonnaise-like sauce with herbs. I personally like dipping them in lemon water better. You can wash your hands in the white bucket provided (they change the soap water regularly), but it would be best if you have tissue paper with you to wipe your hands afterwards.

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The Netherlands - Christmas Market at Wageningen

Since this will be my last visit to the open market in Wageningen, I went out despite having too many things to study for the final exams. I needed to buy a roll of packing tape and some fruits and veggies for the next 5 days.

The moment I set my feet at the market I realized that it was more lively than usual. I saw crowds - mostly families and barely any students - gathering around the city centre, and heard Christmas songs on air. Oh yes, it's this mobile music box I saw on the day Sinterklaas came to the Netherlands almost a month ago!

The city centre is decorated with lights and there were shops along the main street of the city centre - these shops were usually not there!

As I walked further, I saw a signboard that says Kerst Markt (Christmas Market).

Compared to the Christmas markets at big cities like Dusseldorf (Germany) and Antwerp (Belgium), this Christmas market is relatively small and they don't sell as much variety as those mentioned earlier.

But of course, the vital component of Christmas market is not missing: the mulled wine (gluhwein)! Also, it serves erwtensoep, which is the famous Dutch pea soup that everyone drinks in winter (according to my Dutch friend). I didn't drink the mulled wine because I have to study! I don't want to get drunk that early (I'm EXTREMELY weak with alcohol; my alcohol tolerance way below the normal Asian standard).

At the center of the city centrum, next to the church, I saw this mini ice skating rink for kids. I had hoped that there would be one for adults, but considering the size of Wageningen's centrum, an ice skating rink for adults would take up almost half of the open market.

The festivities doesn't end here. There was also a group of Christmas Carol team that kept moving from one place to another, harmoniously livened up the market. They had beautiful voices!

Also these guys from SpecSaver (a glasses company) went out with some kind of goods (they were not giving out those stuffs yet as they walked through the crowd so I don't know what's in there), in such a flashy appearance.

And of course, I didn't forget my initial intention going to the market. I visited the mushroom specialty shop and decided that I had to buy something because this will be my last time visiting such a shop. I don't know when else I can get these exotic mushrooms for such a cheap price.

I also tried oliebollen (Dutch traditional deep-fried dough ball):

In concept it is similar to a doughnut but it is rubbery and chewy, yet at the same time very soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. It is served with confectionary sugar on the top. It is very sinful indeed, but as sinful as it can be, it is very delicious.

The poffertjes (Dutch mini fluffy pancakes) looked and smelled really good too, but my stomach was beyond the limit. I had a huge lunch before I went to the market, which was a really stupid decision I made earlier this morning. The way poffertjes are made is somehow similar to making Japanese takoyaki, but the pancake balls are then folded and topped with confectionary sugar. The Dutch surely love to add confectionary sugar to a lot of things!

If I don't have time to post on Christmas, I hope everyone will have an enjoyable Christmas! :)

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The Netherlands - Shiitake Beer

Stir-fried mushrooms are my favorite. I was really excited to find a mushroom specialty shop at Wageningen's open market. They had a stall that specializes in mushrooms.

They have almost all types of edible mushrooms I've encountered in my life. Before this, I enjoyed a large variety of mushrooms cooked in many different ways in a restaurant called Mushroom Pot in Singapore. This stall sells monkey head mushroom (because the texture of the cap feels like a monkey's hairy head - when I rub it with my hands I felt like petting a monkey's head), one of my favorite mushroom. It has a texture like a meat when deep fried: slightly chewy, slightly fibrous.

I bought a small jar of black truffle sauce as well. It costs 7.95 euros, but I think it's worth the price because you only need a little bit of black truffle sauce in a dish. It has a really strong fragrance and taste.

And then, next to the jars of truffle sauce lies beer bottles. Shiitake beer, yup.

I was super curious about this. Technically, mushrooms don't contain a lot of sugar. I'm not even sure if the beer is completely fermented from shiitake mushrooms, or they just added shiitake flavor to it. There was no other information on the label, and the only information available was on paddestoelenrijk.nl.

Google Chrome automatically translates foreign languages into English, but it has some limitations. The translation I got from the website about the shiitake beer was:

"On craft brewed beer with Shii-Take your own nursery.
Made by Special Brewery Oijen."

The original text was:

Op ambachtelijke wijze gebrouwen bier met Shii-Take van eigen kwekerij.

Gemaakt door Speciaalbierbrouwerij Oijen.

It would be great if someone could help me translate this properly, but my guess is that this beer is uniquely crafted by brewing the beer using self-grown shiitake. To simply put it, there is no further information about this beer. Not even the alcohol percentage.

The taste? I'm sorry, I had to stop drinking it after the first sip. It doesn't really have a strong taste, but it's weird. As a mushroom lover I might be a little bit more sensitive towards the aftertaste from mushrooms, especially shiitake because it's the most commonly used mushroom in Asian soups, and I've been eating it for years. I would expect this kind of flavor to go well with savory applications. Not beer.

I couldn't finish drinking it, but I saved it. Have you ever heard of chicken cooked in beer? Yes, it was quite popular, at least I know it was popular among college students when I was in the US. Cooking chicken in shiitake flavored beer? I think it would taste awesome: extra umami factor added. I'll post the results when I'm done cooking it tomorrow for dinner :)

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The Netherlands - Kibbeling (fried fish) in Open Market

The open market every Saturday is one of the highlights of my life in the Netherlands. When I was in the US, there is also something similar called the farmers market. However, even though they offer fresh produce, most of the vegetables and fruits are more expensive than those sold in huge groceries stores like Walmart. Plus, they close really fast, around noon. By then, most of the good stuffs will be gone.

In the Netherlands, the open market is normally huge. I heard the biggest open market can be found in Rotterdam, and I'm proud to say that I've been there. It was truly large, and they have wide selection of produce and goods like cheap clothes, accessories and house wares.

Every time I passed the market, I always see these fried fish called kibbeling being sold in stalls that sell fresh fish and seafood. At first I thought these fried fish would be soggy and oily because it has been left in open air for quite some time and it's always chilly outside. My mind associates it with french fries that have been stored in an air-conditioned room for an hour.

But being adventurous, I can't help but to try it. I bought these for 3.50 euro. And of course, all fried foods in the Netherlands has to be eaten with mayonnaise. After all, they call mayonnaise frittesaus (the sauce for fried foods).

The kibbeling turned out to be very fresh and crispy. The fish meat was juicy and delicious. It really went well with the mayonnaise. It's SUPER GOOD.

How many calories? Bah, I don't care. It's too delicious to miss!

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