Nijmegen coffee and lunch tips

Posted in Coffee shops, Nijmegen, Restaurants by

Hey food lovers!

Lazy Penguin here. Lazy Piggie asked me to write about the culinary treats of Nijmegen. Pheeew. That’s quite the challenge, because there’s a loooot to taste in this lovely city! Well, here goes. Let’s start with the coffee and lunch places.

De blonde pater

Consistently excellent.

Well-known and always bustling with people, I just can’t fault de blonde pater. Consistently excellent coffee and food, friendly service, located in my favourite street in Nijmegen (Langehezelstraat) and very fair prices. If you want to try the tried and tested lunchbar in Nijmegen with no margin for error, go here.
Recommended drinks:
If you like your coffee a lot, like, you like it to be a lot, try the ‘espropress’. French-pressed coffee enough to fill your entire coffee-craving mug. Also try their eight treasure tea. There’s nothing quite like it.
Recommended Food:
Everything is good. Seriously. Everything. If I had to choose one thing though, try the ‘pater deli’ for a real treat. A mountain of thinly sliced marinated meat on a bun, you simply can’t go wrong.

blondepater.nl

Sid en Liv

Well made sandwiches and coffee in your- uhhh… Their living room.

This cosy lunchroom wins the price for bringing your home to a cafe. With an idyllic garden behind the cafe, this is the place to go if you like your cafes with a intimate, warm atmosphere.
Recommended drinks:
They have a great selection of teas- dare I say the best in Nijmegen I tasted? Yes I do.
Recommended Food:
Their ‘flammkuchen’, an imported food from our German neighbours, are a delight and quite unique in Nijmegen. I also loved their hot dog for its well-balanced flavours. All food is recommended though.

sidenliv.nl

Fika

Scandanavion delights.

A unique concept in Nijmegen: choose two smaller sandwiches to complete a lunch meal. I simply adore this concept. You mean I get to try more food?! Yes please. The interior is sober yet stylish, Scandinavian style. Just a lovely cafe.
Recommended drinks:
In my memory nothing really stood out. Just try whatever!

Recommended foods:
Who cares?! Just mix and match and try different things with your lunch partner for maximum taste variety! (I liked the carpaccio with truffle mayo, but I’m a sucker for truffle. Go for your gut feeling. Get it? :D)

fika-nijmegen.nl

This was the lunch part, more tips coming soon..

T&C Haus ~ Taiwanese food and dessert heaven in Den Haag

Posted in Den Haag, Restaurants, vlog by

Mango dessert heaven and crispy savory fried chicken? Yes please! You can find it all at T&C Haus. This time we try some Taiwanese food and desserts in Den Haag.

History 

Once upon a time there were two brothers, Chong Lau and Tony Lau. They went to Taiwan and enjoyed the delicious food in eat cafes. They liked the eat cafe style and wanted to bring it to the Netherlands. With their background as chef (Chong) and pastry chef (Tony) they joined hands and created the T&C Haus in Den Haag!

“T&C” stands for “Tony and Chong” or “Taiwanese Cafe” or “Tea and Coffee”… whatever you prefer.
“Haus”; the brothers Lau originate from Germany and this way they keep a bit of ‘home’ in the name. Also the whole family helps at T&C Haus. When you look at their logo you can see the character 台(Tai), which looks like a little house. A well thought through logo.

I also have to praise them for their interior, it just perfect and well balanced for the eye. The colors, chairs, decoration and light is just perfect. I especially love their clock!

The food

The noodles are nice and firm. The taste of the soup is quite light, but very tasty. It’s a good warm meal. The first time I tried the fried chicken, it was soooo good! Thin, soft, but a crispy layer. Nice and salty, juicy soft chicken… It’s like, wow! how do you get chicken breast this soft!? The second time I ate it, it was less wow, because it had cooled down. That’s the downside of making a foodvlog. Your food becomes cold T^T.

The desserts were really good. Not overly sweet. My favorite was matcha tiramisu. The mango cake is really an explosion of taste, as you might have seen with Lazy Penguin. Again, the dessert visuals are also a feast for the eye. So beautiful :3

Cake service

It’s also possible to order a personalized cake at T&C Haus. You can select your favorite ingredients and Tony will create a cake for you. Tony has a background in patisserie and creates the most stunning cakes for birthdays, weddings and other cake occasions. Check out their Facebook photos for the pieces of art.

Price

Our dinner was around 70 euro for 3 persons. We had 3 noodle sets, 2 side dishes, 2 desserts (+free dessert) and 4 drinks. The drinks are also very good! Of course they have Taiwanese bubble tea and the mocha frappé was really yummy.

Visit them!

T&C Haus
Herengracht 48, 2511 EJ, Den Haag
tc-haus.nl    Facebook

Sun-Tue    12:00-21:30
Wed           Closed
Thu-Sat     12:00-22:00

Recipe: Korean chicken salad

Posted in Recipe by

An easy recipe for today: Korean style chicken salad. It’s healthy, easy and so good! I didn’t expect the chicken to be so tasty. Here are the ingredients and steps:

Ingredients

  • 350 gram chicken thights
  • mozzarella ball
  • rucola salad mix
  • carrot

Marinate sauce

You can use your own favorite marinate ingredients. I used these:

  • 1 onion
  • 2 garlic gloves
  • 1 spring onion
  • 3 table spoon soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon mirin
  • 1 big teaspoon hot pepper paste (next time I would use 1 big tablespoon, it wasn’t spicy enough)
  • 3 tablespoons oil

Cut spring onion, mozzarella in blocks. Mince garlic and onion for the marinate sauce. Cut chicken in slices.

I used a rucola mix salad. Cut the carrot in slices. Use half of the carrots to stir fry with the chicken.

If you don’t like too spicy, use less hot pepper paste and more soy sauce.

Mix sauce, onion and garlic with the chicken. I used an egg to make the chicken even more tender.

Stir fry the chicken first. Add carrot and spring onion later. Stir fry for about 5-8 minutes, till all the chicken is well-done.

Put the mozzarella pieces and stir fried chicken on the salad. Mix.

It must be also delicious on a sandwich! Enjoy!

The T&C Haus foodvlog is still in the making. Coming soon!
Also, it’s Lazy Penguin’s birthday today! Hooray!! 😀

Food diary #3 (week 36, 2017)

Posted in Burgers, Delft, Food diary by

One and Two | A fun week this week, because Lazy Chinchilla was visiting! Remember the sweet totoro-look-a-like from Guangzhou? Well she was in the Netherlands again with her mother, to visit the old friends. And what is the best way to visit friends? With food of course! We had a lovely pizza party at another friend’s house. Talk and eat.

Three | Lazy Bear and I are frequent visitors of the TU Delft Sport Center canteen. We often eat there before badminton. This week the new canteen / cafeteria / restaurant opened their doors! A new menu, a new interior and more places to sit. The menu design is really pretty and we have already tried out 3 burgers. Burgers review is in the picture. I am already a big fan of the sweet potato fries. They feel much lighter than normal fries (and healthier in my mind).

Four | I did it. I tried another onigiri. This time the California taste. The taste was nice, but the rice… AH To Go, learn how to make rice! Or prepare less onigiris, so the rice stays fresh. Or readers: eat it more, so there will be fresh onigiris in the shelves. But still.. good job in bringing the onigiris to the Dutch supermarkets. I still love you, AH To Go.

I still have a lot of things to share, but not enough time to work on it. Coming one day: T&C Haus foodvlog, Dad’s lamb skewer video recipe, African restaurant in Delft review, …. and much more restaurant reviews. Let’s see if I can finish the T&C Haus video for next Friday. Lazy Penguin’s reaction to the food is extraordinary in this one. No spoilers.

YAY! almost weekend! Have a lovely one.

Glasgow travelling tips

Posted in Glasgow, Travel diary by

Ahh, the Glasgow trip is over… It has been a nice trip with badminton, friends, food and culture. In this post I will share some fun things and tips for (your next trip to?) Glasgow.

[Going through my Glasgow photo album to find some good stuff]

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Glasgow tips

  • Toilets are everywhere. Inside the public buildings, like museum, malls, sport center. Watch out for hot water if there is only one tap. It’s really hot!
  • Prepare some coins if you want to take the bus, they don’t have change back. I wanted to take a bus for 2,20 pound, but I only had 2,10 pound. It was walking for me… The big museums are a bit outside the city. About 40 minutes walk from the Glasgow train station.
  • Google maps if very useful to find your way. Pre-download the map when you have WiFi. You only need GPS when using the map.
  • There is free public WiFi everywhere. Restaurants, museums, train, general areas. Sometimes you need to give a email. You can also give a fake email if you don’t want to share your personal email.
  • I found the best restaurants via Google. Google can filter the ‘close to you’ places, but you need to open your GPS. I picked 4+ star restaurants and they were all really good!
  • People who serve you are very friendly. Restaurant employees often start with: “Hello, how are you.” As direct as I am, I just start up naming the things I want to eat and drink. XD
  • Traffic lights are terrible, they are not logical or efficient. Sometimes the car traffic light and the pedestrian traffic light are both red. What a waste of time! That’s why we saw a lot of people just crossing whenever… In the end we also adapted ourselves to the locals. (Friends say the Dutch traffic lights are controlled very well compared to other countries. Aha!)
  • Garbage bins are rare, as I mentioned before. It is hard to find a bin in the city. I was looking for one and I thought I found one, but it was just a big fat pole…
  • The ready-to-eat food from supermarkets (M&S Simply food, Sainsbury’s) and shops are really good. I love the fresh and healthy foods from Pret a Manger. I believe you have to pay an extra fee if you want to eat in.
  • If you only have one day in Glasgow and you want to see a lot of the city, I suggest you buy a 15,-  pound Hop On Hop Off bus ticket (two days is 16,-). This bus takes you around the city for 1.5 hour and it passes the big sightseeing spots, like the museums, university and the city center. You can get off at every stop and take the next bus if you want to travel further. It’s also manageable to walk everything, but if you want to spare your steps, the bus is recommended.

What’s next?

It’s time for more Foodventures with Lazy Penguin. Today we will be shooting in Den Haag at a Taiwanese restaurant. Video coming soon…

Have a lovely weekend!

Glasgow day 5: Edinburgh

Posted in Glasgow, Travel diary by

On the 5th day the badminton watchers were done with the matches. We booked a bus to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. You can buy a ticket online for the CityLink bus, which goes to different cities every 15 minutes. It’s also possible to buy a ticket at the bus station.

Edinburgh is a very pretty city, a lot of Gothic style buildings. Glasgow feels more like a metropolis and Edinburgh is a like a ‘Belle and the Beast’ city.

Castle of Beast

We went to the Museum of Scotland (building on the right). The entrance is free again. The exhibition is also very fun. Ranging from stone age till the modern age. It’s too big to watch everything, so pick out your favorite topics. The building is a mix of an old building and a new part. It’s like a maze.

I found a piggie! It’s a staff.

Industrial age area.

For dinner we went to ’10 to 10 in Delhi’, a small Indian restaurant near the university campus. The food is really tasty and cheap. It’s not very spicy or strong herb taste, but it tasted really good. They also have Chai’s which are better than those sweet mixtures of Starbucks.

Vegetarian curry

A special twist to the Indian curry. The meat is wrapped in a white Roti. This lamb curry was exceptionally good. And only for 5,50 pounds! I might dedicate a separate blogpost to the place…

There is a Marvel / Harry Potter store were you can buy merchandise. ‘Galaxy’ on 47-49 South Bridge, Edinburgh. Apparently there a lot of Harry Potter shops. Two new shops opened called Diagon House (42-44 Cockburn Street and 40 Victoria Street)

Did you know Harry Potter uses his wand to change the TV channel? Apparently you can buy one for 69 pound and try it yourself.

End verdict: It was a fun Glasgow trip. I would really recommend to visit the two cities. Food is great (if you pick 4+ starred restaurants on Google), shopping is fun, museums are really the best I have ever visited and they are for free. The people are really friendly.

Glasgow day 4: museums, uni, city bus tour

Posted in Glasgow, Travel diary by

I saw two really good museums today:

“The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum” has art from different countries, old and a bit newer. The grouping and placing of the objects are really well done. There are interesting information cards and they have a bit of sas in them. They really tell you a story or talk to you. I loved it, even though I skipped a lot. The things I read were funny and informative. The building is also very beautiful.

These days till 1 October they have comic art showcased of the artist of Superman, Batman and Jupiter’s legacy. Frank Quitely, is from Glasgow and one of the artist who draws the superman comics for Marvel. The whole museum has free entrance, but this event costs 7 pound. It was very interesting to see the drawing process. I learned alot from it.

The buildings here have really pretty lettering

New heads and old heads

Artist: Frank Quitely

Cute cups running away

The other museum was “Riverside Museum”. Today there was also a walk for cancer event going on, and Riverside museum was the end station. A lot of yellow shirted people were in front of the museum.

This museum offers a big collection of old cars, trams, bicycles, scooters and miniature boats. It’s really stuffed with mobile vehicles. I loved the part where they have build an old style street. Maybe from the 1920-1950’s? With all kinds of shops from back in the days. They also have interesting stories and interactive screens.

Building is designed by Zaha Hadid Architects

Old style street with shops

Interesting description stories

Further I took a stroll to the Glasgow University. There are beautiful Gothic style buildings on campus. Even the chairs were admiring the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

Just chillin and enjoying the view

Gothic style. Main building? Inside were a lot of Chinese students/tourists.

There is a big difference in architecture. Modern buildings in the back. The Glasgow uni library is one of the biggest in Europe(?). Too bad I couldn’t go in. If you have a student card from any uni, then you could go in. They have open days for non-student visitors. But not today.

The food today was delicious in the morning. And a bit less in the evening. I had pancakes with bacon as brunch. And we had KFC for dinner. The badminton watchers came back late (22:00ish), so many places didn’t serve food anymore. But actually you can go to a pub, some still serve food till 23:00. But we only found out after dinner.

Last whole day: to Edinburgh!