One of my favourite things about Christmas growing up was the seasonal food. Specifically: eggnog. I remember the first time my mom would bring home a carton of eggnog in early December I would get super-excited and drink multiple glasses of it knowing the Christmas season had officially arrived. Now I think eggnog, if not available year-round, is at least on the shelves at Safeway from September to March, not surprising in a country where Santa's villiages go up in malls before the Halloween candy has left the shelves.
The Dutch, however, seem to have a variety of foods that are actually Christmas-themed and seasonal, or at least I never noticed them on the shelves until the last couple of weeks. Two such foods I have already sampled, fallen in love with, gorged myself and and become sick of, though I'm sure I'll come around on both again...
Kruidnoten
Literally, "herb nuts" (?), are delicious little ginger-snap like cookies that come in giant red bags. These were my first Dutch christmasfood addiction or, more specifically, their chocolate-covered counterparts were:
Come on, now. As if anyone could NOT eat an entire bag of those in one sitting.
Wikipedia funfact about Kruidnoten: apparently the Dutch throw kruidnoten "in handfuls through the room so children can look for them. Originally this is an ancient fertility symbol (like a farmer sowing seeds) not unlike throwing rice at a marriage." What's not to love about fertile children rummaging around on the floor for scattered cookies? All I know is I wouldn't be above picking up one of these bad boys off the floor and popping it into my mouth. And my floor is pretty disgusting.
Marzipan
Current bane of my existence, as will be explained below. Marzipan of all varieties seems to be pretty central to Dutch Christmas, especially if it's in the shape of a pig:
I noticed my first giant marzipan pig at the department store V&D in late October. I haven't been able to track down any info on the marzipan pig specifically as it relates to Holland, though this is apparently also a big thing in Germany and Denmark where piggies are symbols of good luck. I have yet to buy a marzi-pig yet because they are so freaking cute. As some of you might know I didn't eat pork from about 1996 (or whenever Babe came out) up until a year or so ago based entirely on the adroableness of pigs and not wanting to inflict pain on something so cuddly. Unfortunately pigs' deliciousness won out over their cuteness (damn you multi-talented swine!!) but I think I'm still a little ways away from eating a piggy that still has its face. And curly little tail.
Sidenote, on looking at YouTube videos about how to make marzipan pigs I stumbled on this monstrosity:
WHO WOULD EVER MAKE THOSE???? OR EAT THOSE???? Some people shouldn't be allowed near the internet.
Anyway, while I haven't had a pig yet I've reached a crisis-point with my love for marzipankartoffeln or "marzipan potatoes":
These little gems are balls of marzipan, dusted in cocoa powder and cinnamon. So simple, so beautiful. Like the noble potato itself. It was my realization that I have eaten over 300g or a whopping 1257 calories-worth of these bad boys in the past 36 hours (in addition, begrudgingly, to regular food) that inspired me to write this post.
Again, I was unable to find any information about why tiny, fake potatoes are synonymous with Christmas here, but I'm not complaining. Another bonus is they seem like something that would be extremely easy (if expensive) to make at home. Basically, buy a bunch of marzipan, roll it into little balls and roll the balls around in cocoa and cinnamon. Repeat millions of times.
So so far those have been my only two Dutch Christmas addictions. There is apparently a large market going up in Museumplein in a few weeks, so I'll be sure to write about any treasures I find there. Between the two treats listed above and Stroopwaffels I have so far found three Dutch sweets that have caused me to lose all rationality and eat so many that I literally make myself sick. Well-played Holland, well-played.
I fully agree. Christmas foods are one of my favorite parts of Germany as a whole. We also have "Pfefferkuchen" and "Spekulatius" here, which are unbelievably delicious spice cookies and I assume similar to the Kruidnoten. Even the Swedish seem to have their own variety called "Pepparkakor," which you can buy at IKEA in massive tins for like 3€ and eat the whole thing in like 3 days... We also have tons of bakeries filled with the most amazing and adorable marzipan everything (I haven't seen babies yet) and I believe I even too a picture of some very exceptional piggies last year. AND we have the marzipan potatoes, which, as you pointed out, are amazing. Lebkuchen is pretty much my favorite German Christmas delight though. We started buying and devouring packages as soon as they hit the stores back in September. I would say Lebkuchen is the origin of gingerbread except that it's puffier and comes in many more varieties (chocolate covered too of course). I saw a show on TV last year about how they make it and apparently they make the dough in January and it has to sit for like 11 months before they can actually make the cookies. Fascinating. And slightly worrysome. -Caitlin
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