Sunday, November 7, 2010

Puff

Saturday was my birthday. My boyfriend had planned on taking me to the Efteling, a theme park along the lines of Six Flags or (my personal favorite) Dorney Park. However, our plans were thwarted by the terrible weather. Cold, wet, and perhaps worst of all, intermittent, rains throughout the entire day do not make for a good roller coaster experience. And I hate getting wet.

Now, my boyfriend has introduced me to many aspects of Dutch culture, from the "one cookie!" people to the circle party to the Hollandse Nieuwe to good kibbeling. But, in all the times that I've visited and all the time that I've lived here, we have never, ever, not once, had poffertjes.

Yesterday we finally remedied this travesty to my integration efforts. There was a little panenkoeken restaurant by the Valkhof which had been recommended to him by a coworker for poffertjes. So there we went, in the middle of the afternoon, bouncy with anticipation.

Now, I know what poffertjes are. The concept of little mini-pancakes smothered in powdered sugar and melted butter isn't very hard to get. But even so, the cuteness of the poffertjes and their deliciousness--they resemble the fluffy American pancakes--far surpassed my expectations. Most of the time I'm a little underwhelmed by Dutch food, but poffertjes are definitely worthy of a SQUEE and are by far my favorite Dutch food item to date.

Overall it was a great birthday. I got this t-shirt and another pair of earrings. I picked up The Chronicles of Pyrdain by Lloyd Alexander, one of my favorite authors as a kid--I'd heart about Chronicles but all I'd ever read was Vesper Holly. I'm on the third chapter so far and our hero is searching for an oracular pig. Yep. It's a blast.

And in the meantime, NaNoWriMo is going reasonably well. I haven't gotten stuck on anything too badly. For the most part it's just taking its time to develop. So overall, a good birthday, and a great weekend.

4 comments:

  1. Have a great time with The Chronicles! LA was one of my favorite authors growing up as well. Still think about the characters he created in that series. How funny! Enjoy.

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  2. Yeah, I've left it in Nijmegen for the week so that it won't distract me when I'm stuck on my WriMo novel...it's that good.

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  3. I really enjoy poffertjes. Did you try the new pannekoeken place on the Markt square? And happy Birthday! 'sorry the weather didn't cooperate with visiting the theme park (but Christmas Market equivalents are not far away...)

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  4. We haven't tried that yet (the boyfriend lives in Nijmegen). I find that Dutch pancakes are a little much for me, but poffertjes are just about perfect.

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