Thursday, October 2, 2008

More Dutch Fun!

I have only seen two of these in my entire life - the first being when I arrived in our apartment, and the second being the dreadfully strange French movie L'Enfant that Andy and I watched sometime after we got here. It turns out that the thing doesn't simply provide you with water in your kitchen, it's hooked up to the bathroom as well. Happily enough, despite the fact that I think it's got to be some sort of huge fire hazard, it actually heats the water fast enough to provide a hot shower for however long you want to stay in there, regardless of how long your neighbor runs his shower. It turns out that when you start to run the hot water, a series of flames light up to heat the water, and if you move that knob that appears to be on a track to the left, it heats the water less. I actually kind of like it... =/
I really wish we hadn't thrown our old American tube of toothpaste away, then you could see just how much smaller the Dutch tubes are than the American ones. Instead of buying toothpaste every other month or maybe even every three months (I so seldom buy toothpaste in the States I don't even know how often I buy it!), I now make toothpaste purchases at least once a month.
What the heck are those yellow things in my bread???*
I think everyone has heard some little snippet of the cheese rant. Some of you may even have read the accompanying story over at Betwixt Mine Ears. In an effort to find something BESIDES gouda to eat, I purchased this little cheese wedge. I figured that maybe on some off chance it might actually taste a bit like cheddar. Well, it does. But it also has a consistency reminiscent of Velveeta. I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry at the absurdity of cheddar that melts smoothly. Of course, if I could get this in the States, it would surely improve the taste of my already fantastic queso. And now, after being in Spain and in Europe, I find that I must refrain from defining queso just in case you don't know what a Texan means by queso... I think I'm going to need help...
I don't know if they're ducks or geese or what, but they're kind of ugly. It's sort of like that one slightly defective looking duck that's in every duck pond - you can't decide if you should let it starve so that Mother Nature can run her course or if you should give it extra bread crumbs, because it's probably not going to reproduce and all the other ducks probably make fun of it. I don't think these are mutants, though... Poor ugly umm duckies er goosies er whatever the heck you are...
And finally, last but not least, the Chupa Chups. I have loved these things from the moment I first saw them, though that perhaps has more to do with the slogan than anything else... I'd been wanting to purchase a box just so I could take a picture for the blog, but couldn't convince myself that it was really worthwhile. As luck would have it, however, I got a bit of a sore throat this week and thought maybe they might sooth and uhhh relax my throat.

It turns out I should have read something on the label besides the slogan, because I was terribly disappointed when I opened the box and realized they were SUCKERS. I hate suckers. There's always that little bit of saliva that wants to dribble out your mouth where the stupid stick is, and then there's the fact that you actually have to HOLD the sucker in place in order to suck on it. There's absolutely nothing relaxing about a sucker. I hate them.

If, however, you turn the box, you discover that I am not the target consumer, but smokers stuck in locations where they can't smoke are. After all, a sucker "Does not harm those around you!" Oi ve. Anywho, Raquel was kind enough to look up the Chupa Chups online and found out that the darn things are from SPAIN. Now THAT is a country that needs an alternative to smoking...


*I think it's cheese, but it didn't taste very yummy.

2 comments:

Jacque said...

"I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry at the absurdity of cheddar that melts smoothly."

I vote this as quote of the day. :D

Anonymous said...

There is a wonderful cheesemonger at Runstraat 7, De Kaaskamer - multitudes of cheeses to choose from. Hope this helps and improves your search for "good" cheese and improves your mood.

It's a sad day when a Texan can't find something good to say, bless your heart.