This article originally appeared on http://www.justbento.com.
Practical and fun bento box tips and ideas, healthy bento recipes from Japan and the world. Brought to you by Maki of Just Hungry.
Greetings from Holland
posted by mirjam on Wed, 2009-06-10 10:05
Hi everybody,
After having visited this site (and just hungry) on a daily basis for a few months now (I love both sites btw, have already tried out many great recipes), I thought I'd better join the club. So here I am :)
I'm a 39 years old mother of two (boy 9, girl 8), married, living in the northern region of Holland.
I work "outside" for 4 days a weak, which gives me enough opportunities to experiment with bento. Thanks to this site I've already filled it with many great meals, and I plan to keep on doing that. For my last birthday my husband got me a cute "real" bentobox from j-box, as well as a lot of other sushi-stuff (I've never been happier with a box filled with plastic stuff), so I've also started making pictures of my lunches now (before it just didn't look so good :)) and describing them on my blog...never thought of myself as a blogging person, always too busy with other stuff, but you just never know :)
Anyway, so far my introduction... feel free to ask if you want to know something else. Are there any more bento'ers from holland by the way? Because I'd like to exchange shopping tips... J-box etc. are very nice, but it would be nice to have some addresses closer by.
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Hi. Welcome to Just Bento. Do you make bentos for your kids too?
Bronwyn
My blog is Food and Shoes
Hi Bronwyn,
sometimes a bento-style box, but most of the time they prefer a "normal" lunchbox with 2 to 3 sandwiches and a stringcheese...I think that I'll have to blend it in gradually... In holland, lunchboxes are pretty standard, and at the age of 8 or 9, you don't always like to be different from the rest :)
We have a saying here: "Just act normal, that's funny enough" . Think that says it all...
Wow, Holland, that's awesome! Do you have many Japanese restaurants in Holland?
Oneka ga suita!
boulderbento.blogspot.com
日本語を話せますか。私もちょっと話せますよ。友達になりたいです。
Awesome!? just far away :)
I saw you just joined, so Welcome! I don't know if you were already familiar with the site, but I'm sure you'll find many many useful recipes here. I know I did!
Actually I don't think we have many japanese restaurants, although in the bigger cities there usually are some of them. Here in my residence we happen to have one, but it's owned by chinese people I think. Still, we like to go there on a regular basis for tepan yaki.
I guess it's not real authentic japanese kitchen, because here in holland restaurants are more succesful when they tune the flavours to dutch taste... which usually means cutting down on the spices :)
But then again, maybe that is the case all over the world. In places where there are large communities of japanese people, it might be better. ( I mean, over here fairly anyone can cook a reasonably authentic indonesian meal)
Lol, well I've only been to Canada and Mexico, other than the states, so anything outside of North America is cool to me. >.< Thanks for the welcome! I'm cooking a bento right now, actually. Maki-san makes very good bentos. Where my family lives, there are Chinese restaurants and places that pretend to be Japanese, though we have teppanyaki. But where I go to school, there are lots of Japanese places, and I think it's pretty authentic.
I would like to try some dutch food, someday. My boyfriend is Dutch on his mother's side, who came over to Canada when she was like...two, but she doesn't make anything Dutch...oh, but I've had Dutch pancakes, so maybe that counts?
Lol, welcome to Bento, anyway.
dutch pancakes make excellent bento fillers :)
If you need any dutch recipes, just give me a yell!
You need to try olliebollen (if that's how you spell it), they are gorgeous. Dutch doughnuts, with lots of fruit in them.
I'm impressed, you spelled it almost correctly :D But I didn't know we put lots of fruit in the oliebollen? Or do you refer to the grated apple and raisins? And you can cut them in half, and fill 'em up with anything you like ofcourse!
I refer to the raisins and apple! An old school friend's mother always made them for New Year's Eve, but she would never give me the recipe. Eventually (after about 15 years and much hunting and asking Dutch people) I found one in a recipe book, and I make them every now and then for a special treat.
One day I am going to have a doughnut and pancake party, with doughnut and pancake specialties from around the world! I have a poffertjes pan and an aebleskiver pan and a deep-fryer, so with my other griddles and skillets it should be quite do-able.
LOL, I never thought anyone outside of holland would use the word poffertjespan :D
If you already have the recipe for oliebollen, you can also make "smoutertjes". Just heat a skillet, melt a little butter en put heaps of the dough in. Flatten out a bit, and bake both sides untill golden brown... less fat than oliebollen, and your kitchen doesn't smell for days :)
Thank-you! I will definitely do that.
Do these look right?
They were delicious.
Hi Bronwyn! They look great, and as I read they tasted likewise :)
Looking at the pictures made me want to start baking myself right away...
Your fudge looks yummy too by the way...I'll try that one in the near future :)
Hi Mirjam
I moved to Canada 51 years ago, does that count? :-)
We recently visited Japan for 7 days, and when we returned I switched from Indonesian to Japanese cooking. Can't help with the local Japanese shopping in Holland. We have the same issues here with getting Indonesian food ingredients, although more and more is appearing in the Asian food stores.
As for oliebollen, I though they were supposed to have currants in them? :-) Either way they are messy to make, thanks for the smoutertjes idea, I will try that in the winter.
Anyway, welcome to the world of Bento and Japanese cooking in general. Wonderful flavours and not difficult to make.
Once a dutchman, always a dutchman :) Ofcourse that counts!
51 years is a long time though, do you still speak dutch? Of has that been long forgotten?
A saw that in the mean time, another dutchy joined the club too.
I think you're right about the currants, we usually put currants and raisins in them, as well as the grated apple which makes the oliebollen a bit less "heavy". My grandmother also mixed in some sucade, but since I don't like it, I don't use it myself.
The smoutertjes are a recipe from Zeeland, it's a traditional newyears day treat.
Hi, I'm from Utrecht (Holland)! I'm a bit short on time at the moment, but I wanted to say hi anyway :)
Hi to you too :) I don't have much time either, just dropped in, and about time to go to bed...
talk to you later than!
I've also started making pictures of my lunches now (before it just didn't look so good :)) and describing them on my blog...
And where can we find your blog? ;)
I'm too lazy to start a "real" blog, so I used the blogfunction on Hyves (for the non-dutchies: that's a dutch communitysite). I'm not certain if it's accessable for everyone, maybe you can try it out?
http://roos039.hyves.nl/blog/
It says:
Private profile
Unfortunately this profile is not visible to everyone.
The Big Onigiri.
- Wherever you go, there you are. -
...strange, when I check the settings it says "visible for everyone" ... maybe I should just join the flickr-group :)
[edit].... so I just uploaded some of my bentos on the just bento flickr pool...feel free to commment! (roos039)
I checked out your blog yesterday, looks great!
Hi Mirjam
I am also Miriam ,my mother is Dutch (from Zeeland) but I live in Scotland. I lived in Japan for 5 years and love to cook. This is a great website. I hope you get lots of nice ideas.
x
Hey everybody,
I've been visiting this site (and the forum I must admit) for a few weeks now, and today I finally made the final preparations to start bento-ing!!!! In the past few weeks I read a lot about bento, bought a cookbook, bought about everything in 3 toko's (asian supermarkets) and bought 2 bento boxes.... today I mad my first onigiri and inaguri zushi, and some sushi (which I have made before).
Unfortunately it was past lunchtime (and I had to try everything during the cokking right?!) so I haven't made a bento yet... but tomorrow....
Are there already some bento-ers drom the Netherlands who know where to buy bento-stuff in the Netherlands?
Ah yes, before I continue reading about bento, a bit about me: I live in Nijmegen where I finished my studies at university 1 1/2 years ago. I've had different jobs since then, and at the moment I'm looking for antother job. Besides cooking I like reading and travelling.
That's me!
Hi Annemieke
Did you manage to find "real" bentoboxes in Nijmegen? Because I haven't been able to find 'em yet. I'd like to have more, different boxes, but shipping them in from japan is not something to do too often...
once you've got a good box, that's half the work, I think. foodpicks and stuff you can get in various places (mostly not as ubercute as the stuff on j-list, but a lot cheaper also). Xenos happens to have fun stuff from time to time, as well as some japanese cooking stuff and a lot of dry fruits.
And whenever you're shopping in a new town, check out the cookingsupplie-shops. Also nice: www.deleukstetaartenshop.nl
It's actually about baking (made me wanna try a wedding cake...), but they have a huge assortment of cookie(or veggie) cutters, and other decoratingstuff.
Heyho,
I've finally decided to join this forum, after lurking here for a couple of weeks. I'm a 26y old male from the Netherlands. Currently I'm maintaining the public green(parks and stuff) as a living, but I hope to start an educatation again soon. Since 2 weeks I've been trying to make bento's for my lunch during the week. At this point it's still just a box with bread and some chopped up fruits, but it's still a vast improvement over the stail bread with mucky cheese on it. I've uploaded my latest creations to my new flickr account which you can find on http://www.flickr.com/photos/41972586@N08/ . Next week I'm planning to finally replace the bread with pasta or mashed potatoes.
Hi there. There's nothing wrong with sandwiches in bentos you know - plenty of people do it regularly. Your bentos look fine - such nice fruit! I'm in New Zealand, and we're just coming up to spring - a long time until the berries are ripe.
Welcome to the forums! You've made a great start to your bento life I'd say!
Heyho! And Welcome.
Isn't it amazing how good the very same food can look once we begin placing things in an orderly and colorful manner! Excellent color and assortment on the fruits and veg, BTW. Good start. We begin eating with our eyes after all. You could spark it up a bit by placing somethiing in the intersection of the sandwich cuts. Another approach would be to cut the sandwich in narrow strips that could be placed cut-side down. Visually you would have some interesting vertical lines and you would have a dry bread section touching the fruit & veg, so there would be no flavor transfer. Myself, I love those green plastic grass divders (baran). I tuck them throughout my bento to set things off and keep flavors separate.
To all of you Dutch members, I am look forward to seeing photos of Dutch foods that I could add to my repertoire. My current menu selections are a mix of Japanese, Mexican, Italian, and good-old leftovers.
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