Friday, July 18, 2014

J is for…



…Jan Hagel! It is a delicious cookie with almond shavings on top and sometimes little pieces of candy sugar. Me loves it. It is crunchy and spicey and made with a special mix of cookie spices. It goes really well with cinnamon tea, a latte coffee or just a delicious big glass of cold milk. But that is not the only Dutch specialty starting with the letter J! (Jan Hagel cookies)

But first: remember when me talked about Ecomare? Me have seen a beautiful seabird there called Jan van Gent (gannet). It was there because he was injured and the people of Ecomare kindly nursed it back to health. The Jan van Gent birds live around the North Sea and around the Dutch island of Texel. On this island they have a specialty called ‘Juttertje’, named after the strandjutters (beachcombers). It is a hearty liqueur you can compare with other herbal liqueurs, like Beerenburg and Jägermeister. Also other regions of the Netherlands have herbal liqueurs. It is not for little blue monsters though. Just like the Dutch Jonge Jenever (young gin).


Juttertje / Jenever
Above: Jan van Gent

Me rather talk about food though. The Dutch love to put a little jus (gravy) on their dinner. Especially when they eat stews like hutspot. They make a little pit in the middle of their food and fill it up with gravy. Another sauce that is very Dutch is joppiesaus (joppie sauce) and it is used on snacks like fries and such. It is some special kind of yummy mayonnaise.


Jus in a ‘kuiltje’ (pit) / Joppiesaus

Well that concludes the letter J. Me cannot wait for next week. O boy O boy O boy what a week that will be!

No comments: