Restaurant Review: Cafe Luden, the Plein, The Hague.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Sometimes the parents of  our children’s class get together for an evening event… we’ve had very successful Pot Luck, and then it was decided that the Mama’s should have a Ladies Night out, so 8-9 of us met up at Cafe Luden on the Plein, in the centre of the Hague.

The terrace outside the Cafe was very crowded, and  we arrived for a later dinner so elected to sit inside,  right at the back because it was clear that even though it is summer, that the evening was going to cool off considerably once the sun disappeared.

We consequently had the rear of the restaurant to ourselves, had no problems to put several tables together so that we could all be seated together and  proceded to order.

The menu is only in Dutch, but I’m sure that if you don’t speak the language and ask for  help / advice that they will be happy to give you a run-down of the menu in English.

I have food allergies and our waiter was friendly and helpful when it came to checking the menu with the the kitchen  for allergy hazards.

One thing you need to know about Dutch restaurants when dining with a group, is that they won’t make separate bills, or separate the orders on the bills, it’s up to the customer to do the calculations and to split the bill themselves afterwards.

This is standard practice and it doesn’t even matter if five whole families are eating together for a family event,  the total of all the food and beverages will be presented on one bill.

I’ve worked as a waitress before and don’t see why this couldn’t be part of the service, but no matter how much you ask, or where in the country you ask it, the answer is invariably “Sorry, Not possible” so pack a pocket calculator or at least a pen in your bag or wallet so that you can do the maths, especially if it’s a very large group.

Sitting at the back of the restaurant poses low light problems for the camera so I did my best  on the shutter front, so that at least you will have an idea of what the menu is like.

Several of our group ordered duplicate dishes but I did get a sample of  the Main Courses that everyone had…. which were as follows:

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Lambchops with honey/mustard sauce, confit of green asparagus with spring onions combined with a risotto of fresh herbs.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Tuna fillet, with Antibois (which means literally “from the Antibes”) of paprika, red onion, garlic and capers, pasta and sundried tomatoes.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Confit duck, with American potatoes, green Spring vegetables and gravy of red wine and fruit.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Slibtong (I think that might be a relation of a Sole fillet) baked in butter, served with fries and salad.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Tournedos (pronounced “torn -aah-dose”) with a gratin of mozzarella and balsamic gravy, green vegetable mix, and roasted Roseval potatoes.

Lasagne, filled with goat cheese (lead photograph)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Dessert consisted of:

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Tiramisu (homemade)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Dame Blanche (literally means “white lady” and not “dumb blonde“  as one colleague thought in a funny conversation about language blunders years ago) … basically it’s vanilla ice-cream with chocolate sauce and cream… and probably on every restaurant menu in the Netherlands.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

My personal favourite:  Crème  Brûlée (literally means ” burnt cream”).. actually it’s  a creamy vanilla custard baked, a layer of sugar is added at the end which is then flambéed  or caramelized in the oven or with a blowtorch.

The rear of the restaurant, complete with baby grand piano…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We had a great time, a lot of laughter and good conversation…

I did ask everyone to rate their meal so that I could share their opinions here. Sadly although the presentation was well recieved the actual food rated less well. “ Just OK” being the general consensus.

Reasons why? Here’s the lowdown:  the Tuna Fillet, the outside of the fillet was wonderful, great texture and taste, more of this Please… but the center was pretty raw and inedible.

My Confit Duck:  I’ve made this at home and to be honest it turns out far better than what I was served here. Confit is a long slow cooking method, very long, very slow, and the meat should be silky soft and just fall away from the bone at the slightest touch.  This effort was cooked though, but I literally had to scrape and tug it off the bones bit by bit.  It took force, and I mean where the thought runs though your head” ” I hope this doesn’t fly off the plate and hit someone” kind of force. Whatever kind of Duck this was meant to be, it doesn’t scream “Confit” to me.

Other opinions were that the food was about a ” 5 or 6 out of 10” .  I was disappointed that the friendly waiter (clearly more occupied with Front of House and outside guests) didn’t come back to ask how our meal was.  I would have said something if he had… others in our party might have too.

Positive notes were  that the waiter was friendly so at least we didn’t have surly service on top of a mediocre meal… and the price was reasonable enough,  I paid Euro 35,-  for my Confit Duck, Crème  Brûlée ,  two Cola Light’s (and my part of the tip for the service).

I was also disappointed because this establishment was chosen for our night out because we had heard it had great food. Something didn’t tally up tonight if that is usually the case.

Oh well, we enjoyed our evening in spite of the food…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Café Luden // Den Haag (The Hague) // Plein 67 // telefoon: 070-3601733

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Learning to be a Tourist in your own Town, Province & Country.

You know what it’s like,  Life is busy, you have family commitments and a small mountain of  appointments to get though each week.

Older kid has weekly reading, spelling, math and a small project homework, which we split into more manageable chunks and tackle bit by bit most weekday evenings. Younger kid loves to trying to read and write so we spend time helping him practice that most days too.

We work on homework  after dinner and after a hour or so of them enjoying the fresh air and (hopefully) sunshine in the park, and we read later in the evening before bed… and somehow in between we fit in music lessons, swimming, visits to Oma (Grandmother), Scouting, Birthday Parties, chores, play-dates  and various other things too.

This sort of family daily routine and semi-organised chaos has become routine for many families and it’s been an issue that doesn’t sit well with me, as I want to increase our family time together that doesn’t include the “have to get this done” stuff.

The other thing that I have to acknowledge is  that our kids have clocked up a lot of frequent -flyer air miles on our frequent trips abroad but have seen rather less of the country they live in. That bothers me.

For that reason we have made a plan, looked at our budget and decided to set aside Euro 250,- each month for “Fun Family Time”.

We will use this money for outings to places in the Netherlands, both near and far and to “be a tourist” in our own country on a semi regular basis.  If we need to stay overnight somewhere we will look for budget accommodation and try and do things as simply as possible.  We want to spend as much of the budget on costs like entrance fees etc as possible.

Any of the budget not used, is added to the next months budget….

So, stay tuned for some spasmodic posts about our outings, rambles and adventures.

Now all I need is advice on how to keep a five year old and a nine year old from fighting constantly in the back seat of the car, sadly our brood haven’t learned to do car journeys very well yet.

In our experience it’s actually easier to fly 14 hours to Singapore and a further 10 to New Zealand because the kids completely understand that  when we are in a plane there will be no possibility to just pull over ” and find a playground” and there are no ghastly yellow arched signs in the skies to turn my Little Mr into a little whining machine that he’s suddenly starving hungry and only Mc Rubbish will do.

He even does his best to look tragic and assumes the pitiful voice of a child who hasn’t eaten for days and who’s begging for a tiny scrap, regardless of the fact that less than ten minutes ago he’s eaten the sandwiches and banana we packed precisely for these sudden hunger pang moments. He also feigns desperate and dire thirst,  regardless of his personal water bottle nestled next to him on the back seat.

I hate McDo with a vengence but somehow Little Mr. hankers after this establishment like a kid on the outside of a sweet shop window. Personally I think he’s in love with the idea more than the food itself, but goodness knows why.

So… the Kiwidutch Clan are going to attempt car journey with kids… wish us luck !

Roti Palace James

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I recently told a friend that I was having Roti for dinner and forgot she didn’t have a clue what this was until a very strange uncertain look appeared on her face… So for her, and you, here is a short tutorial on what Roti is…

Roti is a popular take-a-way in the Netherlands because of the strong historical and present day Dutch connection with Suriname. Roti itself is technically an unleavened flatbread, (but it looks kind of pancake-y with a more savoury taste). It comes wrapped in foil and when you open it you’ll find your circular roti neatly folded into quarters inside.

The Roti’s that we get here (that I have seen so far, at least)  are called roti aloopuri  and roti dahlpuri and are usually served with curries. My favourite one is “Roti lamsvlees speciaal”  (” Roti, Lamb Special”) and I found over the years that I prefer it more than the chicken one.

The “Special” is good because it comes with a boiled egg, the potato and  kousenband (yardlong) beans. The boiled egg gives a great balance of taste and texture to the rest of the dish and should not be missed.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

To be honest we have only ever had the “Specials” and not the regular versions of this so I couldn’t really tell you what’s missing from the regular one, the egg possibly … and (???) hmm I’ll have to ask them next time we order…

The idea is that you break off bits of your roti (the pankcake looking bit) and use it to dip, scoop and soak up the juices and wrap around other parts of the meal.

Technically it’s intended to be a hands-on, hands-only meal, but I’m a drop it, splash it, dribble it disaster at meals even on the best of days, so I tend to keep a fork handy  in order to assist and keep the amount of laundry stain remover needed afterwards to a minimum (gotta think of the environment after all).

I have tried other Roti’s from other places over the years, (B.B.) (before blogging) but ask me which place has been the best so far and the answer “James” is  instant, I don’t even need to think it over, this place is far and away the best so far.

It’s not spicy as in hot peppers/fire, it is full flavour of spices and herbs… the one down-side is that due to the sauce it’s not the healthiest meal on earth, but it’s a take-away, a treat meal, and indulgence and not something we would eat too often. …And the sauce is the best bit!

Considering  that Chinese food is full of MSG, fries are salted to death and other take-away offerings are usually fried come dripping with mayo, friet sauce, ketchup and mustard,  I figure that as long as we do Roti sparingly, we are doing ok.

I’d rate this Roti very highly, the portions are great, you get a small bag of pickled cuccumber and a spicer sauce as well… YUM!

Talk about having a “duh” moment… for several years now Himself has been getting on the bike and cycling to collect our orders until this week when I discovered completely by accident that you can order on-line and they deliver, ….  that’s fairly recent I think ( I know they didn’t when I very first started going there because I asked… clearly they are now up with the times LOL) so I will be logging on to on of the following sites to order from now on!

http://www.justeat.nl/restaurants-rotipalace-james

http://www.thuisbezorgd.nl/roti-palace-james

Roti Palace James, Fahrenheitstraat 354, 2561 EM Den Haag,  Tel: 070-3605461

Openingstijden: Zondag 14:00-21:00, Maandag 14:00-21:00

Signs of the Times … slowly fading away.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I’m interested in old buildings, architecture,  the history of places.

It’s wonderful to see how buildings evolve in style and function, how they change with the times (or don’t).

I particularly like old advertising… and chanced upon this one whilst out on a walk one day.

The unexpected thing about this one is that I found it on what looks like an ordinary house, in an ordinary street full of houses, and not in a shopping street as I might have expected.

There are two signs, a long one and a short one. The short sign is easy enough: “wijnen” means “wines”, but the longer sign has deteriorated to the point where it is no longer legible.

I’ve tried guessing, but there are too many possibilities and combinations to be able to make sense of it at all.

I wonder when this was a business, when, for how long and why it stopped being one.

One thing is clear: businesses going out of business (for whatever reason) are nothing new… it’s being going on for decades, centuries and probably millennia.

Lack of heirs to take over the business?  lack of customers?  fell on hard times?  or suffered ill health? or maybe the owners went on to better or different things? … or simply moved somewhere else.

Who knows? It’s all part of the mystery.

The mystery remains, and will do so until the final letters slowly  fade away entirely.

Then no one will even know that a mystery had even existed….

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Shhhh, or you’ll wake the lady in the window…

Seen in a window on the ground floor of a house… a painting on the glass of a sleeping lady.

Arty, unique, different…  Take a look, but don’t wake the sleeping beauty.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Cars to blow your horn about…

My camera is more of an accessory to me than jewelery. Sometimes I can get a shot of something unusual at the most unexpected times…

Take these for instance. They made me smile, I hope they make you smile too.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

How cool are these decorative flowers!?

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Even it’s butt is beautiful in a quirky way… LOL

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

With this one you just want to say  one word… Grrrrrrrrowl !

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Coconut Cream Truffles, a Step-by-Step tutorial.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I ripped this out of a magazine I was finished with while traveling abroad…  because they looked so tempting.

I’m not a big fan of white chocolate or coconut flavour but made them for a party and thought Hubby would love them… well, shock ! they were the surprise hit of the party and I really liked these too! They quickly made it into my family handwritten recipe book.These are easy to make and can be made in advance, both major points for making it onto my menu’s.

This recipe calls for Coconut essence and I can’t get it here in The Netherlands … it probably makes the taste a little less intense.

You choose .. if you are a true fan of coconut throw it in, if you don’t have it or like the taste as much, I wouldn’t worry at all about not adding it because this recipe is brilliantly popular without it too.
I no longer worry about not having the coconut essence on hand because the favourite flavour here is variation of the recipe where I add Bailey’s Irish Creme, believe me… make these and they will be an instant hit with the chocolate lovers of your family and friends!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Coconut Cream Truffles

Servings: approximately 50 chocolates.

Ingredients:

375g white chocolate (13 1/4 oz)
150g butter (5 1/4 oz)
1/3 cup coconut milk
2 teaspoons coconut essence
1 cup desiccated coconut (shredded coconut UNSWEETENED)
3cups icing sugar (powder sugar)
375 g dark chocolate or milk chocolate, for coating truffles
2-3 tablespoons Tia Maria or Baileys Irish Cream, etc (Optional)

Directions:
Prep Time: 25 mins

Total Time: 2 1/2 hrs

Gently melt butter and white chocolate in large bowl in microwave.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

For best results don’t over melt, if just a few chocolate pieces appear solid, stir them in with what has already melted until it’s all smooth.
Add coconut milk, coconut essence (optional), desiccated coconut and icing sugar. Stir until well mixed.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

NOTE: Sometimes when I make this, the mixture is stickier than other times, you can either add a little more icing sugar to the mix or just put the mixture in the fridge for a while and it will firm up on it’s own.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Recipe says chill so you can roll it into balls, freeze etc, but personally I have found two different ways to do these and you can choose which suits you best:

Method One:  Cover a small tray or board with cling-film (plastic wrap) take a spoonful of the mixture  and roll it into small balls.  Place the balls on the tray and when the tray is full, place it in the freezer for at least several hours (or overnight) to firm up. These balls are a bit  messier to make, but will look very professional and sophisticated when they are finished.

…OR…

Method Two: Spoon the mixture into two small plastic bags so that  they form slabs about 2cm  (thick, and place  it into the freezer for at least 2 hours.
Remove slabs from freezer, peel away plastic bags and “dice” your mixture so that you have a plate full of little cubes. These cubed ruffles are more rustic and will look a little less sophisticated but will still taste brilliant.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Microwave your dark or milk chocolate mixture until half of it is melted, stir until all is smooth (doing it like this meant that the mixture started to set quickly and evenly around the cubes and didn’t just make puddles at their bases).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Dip the cubes one by one into the darker chocolate mixture, turning over with a teaspoon until evenly coated. Place coated cubes onto a tray lined with foil ( or cling-film/plastic).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Once you have dipped your truffles in their chocolate coating leave them at room temperature to set, and store in a cool place (NOT the fridge as this will cause the coco butter to separate from the chocolate, which is known as having your chocolate “bloom”).

I loved the suggestion about the other flavours and played around with it — some of our guests preferred 2T Tia Maria etc for a softer more mellow taste, other preferred theirs with 3T for a stronger taste.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The mixtures with the Baileys/Tia Maria were softer and a little more sticky than the original, so *slightly* more messy rolling them, (putting the mixture in the fridge for a while will help with this a lot) and your guests will love you for the 10 minutes extra work.

The truffles in the following photos went to work colleagues in celebration of the World Cup, Netherlands v’s Denmark  match,  (Orange markings for the Dutch, and White crosses for the Danes)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The Dutch: Streets ahead in some things…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Any regular readers of this blog know that I enjoy looking at rather ordinary things…

Todays photos and comment are because I like the Dutch approach to roadworks. (In this instance anyway).

This street is having a cable laid under the footpath, so they need to dig a hole under the footpath.

In other countries where footpaths are mostly covered in asphalt, there are usually a series of crazy strips and isolated holes that have been filled in from roadworks like this, invariably there is subsidence between the various patches, rough edges and cracks that form, invariably it looks haphazard and messy too.

Instead of patches of mis-matched asphalt, all they have to do here is to remove a narrow strip of paving stones, dig the hole, lay the cable and then relay the paver’s afterwards.

Voila,  the pavement is restored and looks just like before… I know I probably need more of a life, but I think this is cool.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Oops, a Kiwidutch Apology is in order…

I need to apologise to you my dear Readers, I don’t profess any technical proficiency in anything at all, and often when I’m posting I get rather tied up in knots.

I started making posts in “Draft” format, but if you edit stuff and then just want to quickly update I found to my dismay that it was all to easy to forget to press “draft” again, and it would publish, Ready or not!. (Grrr)

Then I switched to using the “Publish On” scheduling feature that allows me to queue ready-made completed posts and publish them at the time and date I want. I find it better  than “draft” but not perfect … one aspect I constantly have troubles with is the date layout in the dashboard : it’s  Month, Day , Year method in the style that North Americans will be well used to but which confuses the hector out of me since I’m used to Day-Month-Year.

Since I’m trying to schedule posts I often have to look twice or three time at the, and even then, it happens semi regularly that I think I’m setting up  a draft post in for 6 August  (06-08-10) and instead it’s on 08-06-10 and worse, it posts immediately!!! (ouch!)

Today I did it again!!!… Yes, I quickly removed it when I saw it later, but my humble apologies for posting these little blips of posts that I really wasn’t intending the world to see (before they are ready at least).

Aggggh, I WILL try and get better at (not) doing this I promise.

Apologies again…

Now…

… back to Blogging!

Domein Hof Te Dieren Wijngaard, A Dutch Vineyard…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Summer in The Netherlands means a range of end-of-school-year activities, Social invitations, visitors and travel near and far around the city we live in.

Whilst delivering Kiwidutch daughter to a holiday event  in the Veluwe in the East of The Netherlands recently we stumbled upon several interesting places that we wanted to explore on the return trip.

This is how we came to be visiting the Domein Hof Te Dieren Wijngaard just outside the village of Dieren.

The Domein Hof Te Dieren building was first referenced in literature 1168, with an attached farm.

By 1647 it had evolved into it’s most well known structure, and the historic estate become a “jachtslot” (hunting castle) and was well used by Prince Willem II but in 1795 it burned down.

In 1822, it was rebuilt but burned down a second time in the closing years of World War II.

There has been subsequent talk of rebuilding it yet again but nothing has come of this plan to date.

Today this is the Netherlands largest walled vineyard, it’s total area of 3 hectares enclosed on three sides specifically built to provide a warmer climate.
The North and West winds are almost totally screened out and the wall gathers the warmth of the day and radiates it out at night.

The first grape harvest was in 2005. There are 10 organic grape varieties, 6 for wine and 4 for consumption.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

On set Sunday’s in the month, the vineyard hosts a market of locally made items… ( sadly we missed it by one day)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Cool coat hangers in the hallway..

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

And beautiful flower head by the entrance…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The vineyard also offers tours and wine tastings for groups up to 15 people.

We buy a bottle of red and a bottle of white to take home with us.  We’ve tried the red,  it’s a full fruity taste, but personally for us it has rather a too strong acidic after-taste. It’s drinkable but not one of the best wines we have ever had. Still, it was nice to have tried wine from a Dutch vineyard and to see what it’s like.

Domein Hof Te Dieren Wijngaard  // Youp en Riet Cretier  // Arnhemsestraatweg 16    // 6953AX  // Dieren   // Tel: 06  223 99 642    // Website: http://www.domeinhoftedieren.nl/index.htm (Dutch language only)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)