“Lekker”
My trip to the Netherlands.

lek·ker [ lékker ] adj. Def: enjoyable and pleasing

My friends and family who know me well understand that I usually plan all of my excursions -- be it a jaunt in my neighborhood, domestic, or international around the pursuit of food and wine. They also know I’m the kind of girl that gets moody and upset when I encounter nothing but tourist traps and mediocre food but they also know I can get ridiculously giddy and unusually silly when I find the goods. Yep. I have really high expectations and they all have to deal with my emotions sometimes. Most of the time however, they are the beneficiaries of the good stuff so they can’t complain too much.

So when I travel, naturally I spend a lot of time considering the options, wasting work time pouring over egullet, and other food dork blogs. This time, as it was my third time in the Netherlands I left the responsibility in the hands of my capable host. My good friend Pepijn. Pepijn is a chef, restaurateur and of course a foodie. We had a passionate love affair for a while, consummated over a plate of oysters with champagne sauce back in the day. He was the first boy to ask me if I wanted an aperitif before dinner and skillfully seduced me by pairing wines with each course we had. I was smitten. I would also say he is largely responsible for turning me into the food dork I am today.

So I think you can deduce I was in very good hands when the first thing my host says to me as I give him a big hug is “Let’s get you some Oliebollen!!!” My jetlagged head was a bit confused. Wha? Talking dirty with me already? I joked.

He walked me over to the booth outside the airport which looked suspiciously like a fried dough station you would see at a carnival. Oliebollen are one of many fried treats the fortunate tall and slim Dutch consume. They are especially popular around the winter holidays and there are lots of shops and stands to satisfy your craving. Olibollen is a chewy raisin yeast dough that is fried and doused in confectioners sugar. Kind of a hybrid between fried dough and a doughnut. Served hot with the sugar melting into the dough they are extremely tasty, especially after an overnight flight or after a few shots of Genever (Dutch gin).

I couldn't get the damn camera to work at the airport so here is a picture of some homemade ones that I sampled for the second time about 12 hours later. For good measure those are some banana and apple fritters to the left too.

mmmm...olibollen

Yeah baby. Fried food is even better with a Dutch accent.