Food adventures in Leiden Holland

At last I have a little time to write up some of my recent food adventures. Now, to me, a food adventure can be something as simple as buying a steak in foreign butcher's shop and trying out a smattering of Dutch or enjoying an eel cob at the Wednesday market in Leiden, Holland.

My friends Emma and Ronald invited me over for almost five days holiday last week and I stayed at Ronald's house instead of a hotel. It was very nice to be in the city centre in a Dutch town house. Both Emma and Ronald made me feel very welcome. Poor Emma has recently had a cycling accident and is suffering with a broken shoulder.

I arrived mid afternoon on the Tuesday after my one hour flight from East Midlands airport and a half hour train ride from Schiphol to the main station at Leiden. Ronald's house was within five minutes walk from the station. I had been to Leiden before in October 2014 but had forgotten just how many cyclists there were on the roads. Hundreds of them!

Once I was settled in we three went for a walk through the city on this gloriously warm and sunny late Tuesday afternoon. Since coming back I had forgotten the fine details of the café we went too for tea. Emma reminded me of the following details;

Emma "It was "La Bota." You had Smoked Chicken Salad, Ronald had Spare Ribs with Garlic Sauce, and I had Chicken Satay (from the former Dutch colony Indonesia).

The Dutch is:
Gerookte Kip Salade

Spare Ribs met Knoflook Saus
Kip Saté

The side dishes were chips (frietjes) and red cabbage coleslaw (rodekool salade)

Your pudding was Apple Pie with whipped cream (Appelgebak met Slagroom)

Yes, slagroom is a word and it means whipped cream.

I had Koffie Verkeerd, which literally means "wrong coffee" because of the amount of milk. It's basically a latte. I also had Verse Munt Thee (fresh mint tea), which is a sprig of mint leaves in a glass of boiling water, something they picked up from the Moroccan immigrant population."

In the next blogpost we visit the Wednesday market where we sample kibberlings ( a battered fish snack from the Netherlands) and I try an eel cob. "Dag!"