Food in the Netherlands

This guy was hanging out in a particularly touristy area in Amsterdam.

Amir and Marieke were wonderful hosts, and brought us to a lot of different and beautiful places.

a small cheese production facility in Volendam

Fresh fish snack vendors are common in Volendam, right on the water. Broodjes are hearty little sandwiches.

Haring are wonderfully rich raw herring filets, usually served with raw sweet onions. The cylinder above contains stroopwafels, thin waffels filled with rum butter caramel.

This bakery is a stall at the farmer's market in Soesterberg. Note her costume and the prism- shaped, seed- encrusted loaves on the display case.

Flies would disgust me a little, but bees were somehow charming.

These are SOESJES! A phonetic pronunciation would read as SOOSH-yes. Like profiteroles, soesjes are choux pastry balls filled with whipped cream or pastry cream. I never thought I would like something like this, but it makes a huge difference when you have something that is made freshly from great- quality ingredients. I also was surprised by how much I loved a fresh Liege waffle-- soft and dense, riddled with molten pearl sugar.

A fruit, drink, and ice cream vendor in Marken displays mostly fresh berries. Fresh, ripe, intensely flavored berries.

a cute fruit bag

strawberries

Carrot balls at the supermarket strike me as more wasteful sculpted food like "baby" carrots.

Save the best for last-- Marieke's delicious homemade meat pie, filled with ground beef and shredded carrots.