We traveled over the holidays again this year; last year to Thailand, this year to Europe. The impetus was to spend time with my best friend Amber and her husband Adam, and their daughter (my goddaughter) Mary Grace. They live on the Eastern side of the Netherlands, in a town called Hengelo. We also visited Germany and Belgium.
Besides quality time with our friends, the next-most-important thing was to sample the fare!
Ooooo the Belgian chocolate!
The seafood is rather famous in Belgium.
In Germany our friend ordered 'bacon bread' -- we were curious as to what it would be. It turned out to be many thin slices of bacon (Euro-style bacon, not like American - closer to thin 'Canadian bacon' as we would call it) piled on top of nice bread. With pickles.
The same German restaurant served creamy ice cream and cherries (so flavorful, not canned crap) over a delicate waffle.
Dutch cheese is varied and absolutely delicious. And a little challenging to the uninitiated gastrointestinal tract. Our favorites were pesto cheese and walnut cheese, but clove/cumin or classic smoked gouda were good too.
The Dutch eat fries with mayo, and shockingly lots of it. If you'd rather not have mayo, they have an excellent curry-flavored ketchup. I even brought some curry ketchup home.
We also sampled a few beers along the way... Maybe you've heard of Belgian beers? ;) Less rules than the Germans in their brewing practices, resulting in phenomenal variety and flavor. Um, yeah. I literally went to bed at night saying grateful prayers for the artists at the breweries who made such incredible beers. Some of these recipies were created 900 years ago, seriously.
Probably my favorite beer in the land.
This beer is named after St. Bernard, the saint for which my grade school was named.
There are several suggestive poses of me with this particular beer. . . I must have really enjoyed.
They do raspberry and cherry beers like nothing you've ever dreamed of. Delicious.
And for every beer there is a special glass to compliment the flavors. This innovative glass had a bulbous bottom, so that when you got toward the end of the beer, the flavor of the less-aerated beer at the bottom changed entirely. Outstanding.
Cheers!
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