My First European Christmas Dinner

On Christmas afternoon, I caught a train to one of the outer cities of Amsterdam - about 50 minutes away to a city I can't quite remember where I had the pleasure of meeting a real Dutch family and getting to have Christmas dinner with them. It was definitely a very interesting experience - and I had a lot of "firsts" that day.

First, we caught my first European train. People were asking what the train tickets looked like so here is a photo as well as the train.

Anyway onwards to what the house was like. OH MY. It was an amazing house. Apparently large houses are quite rare in Netherlands and so it was going to be very special to see a HOUSE in the Netherlands. But honestly, it was special even for Australian standards. It was a massive house which was exactly the kind of house you can see in movies. Like a fancy house with heaps of art, and everything put in the right place and every room looked like it came out of a movie. It was an amazing feeling to be in such a crazy posh house. Mind, I'm not saying it was like the house for the richest man ever. I mean to say it was like those houses that people who are reasonably fancy would live in.,. There were like a few living rooms, and like a kitchen with an extra kitche, with a giant garage and another garage, and study rooms and play rooms and lots of bedrooms and multiple bathrooms and terraces and sloping grass and hedges which had shapes and ... you get the idea..... Comprendez? No... Ok sorry it's hard to explain - I was just impressed.

We sat in the living room and had some tea and I became a little acquainted with the family. Michel's father did not speak much Dutch, and Michel's brothers and mother spoke it quite well but they did speak a lot of Dutch a lot which is a funny language to listen to. Michel's father also has a expensive hobby. He likes cars. A lot! Like enough to spend a lot of money on it. We went to his garage (which btw was big) - had to take our shoes off before going in and my mouth dropped.It was basically like a car show room, all white with lit up lights on the ceiling to make it look EXACTLY like a car showcase room, with the shiny floors and 7 extremely good looking cars. There were like a few Porsches and a few Asten Martins as well as Ferraris. You know, no big deal.... ok. It was AWESOME. And I don't even appreciate good cars. My idea of a good car is my Bread Van.

Mmmmm...what a beautiful car!

Haha.

Yeah ok anyway. So we started with some canapes - revolving around goat's cheese. There was like prosciutto wrapped around goats cheese, and goats cheese in some dates, and goats cheese balls and nuts and feta and stuff. Not bad, I tried a little of everything. Goats Cheese is ok!

Once dinner was ready we went to the table which was set up very PRO. With like a big metal platter on the bottom with a few forks and knives and several wine glasses - this was going to be a fancy meal! We all were served some sparkling champagne and the entree was one revolving around Salmon. We each got a plate which had a generous serving of grilled salmon (yum, I can deal with that), but also a generous helping of raw salmon and raw salmon mixed with ricotta. HMMmmm... I don't actually really eat Salmon. The cooked one was super tasty though but the other two were a little struggle for me as it was hard to get over the whole "THIS IS RAW" thing. I tried to eat it though. But then I noticed everyone else at the table had gallomped it all down super quick and finished it all. Angela was eating slower but was making good progress to the finish line - so I had to just take a deep breath, and go for it. I'm still not a huge fan of raw salmon to be honest - but in my head saying "its not raw, its not raw, it's not raw" and drinking copious amounts of champagne helped. Still - the cooked salmon was YUM.

The main meal was served with a different wine to complement the meal. It was served with much grandeur and the meal was HARE: Michiel's mother proudly pronounced. "Oh, Wow! Rabbit?" I said. "No, this is not rabbit!" she replied sternly.... "this is Hare!" Very different. My bad. It was quite tasty. It was served with berries, and there was a pear which had been boiled overnight and was very sweet and soft and tasty. There was also some mashed potatos and brussell sprouts. Again, this was all very different to what I usually eat. It looked wondeful but I just wasn't used to it. Again, everyone gulfed everything down but it was so different for me and it took me a little time to adjust. Why? Firstly, I like berries but for some reason not berries with food, or berries in smoothies, etc. I also don't really like brussel sprouts - they are bitter. Still, I ate everything and I did enjoy it - genuinely.

I was getting pretty full now. Then I found out there were another 2 courses. WHATTT?!?!?! Next was cheeses! Yes, lots of cheese. There was 4 giant blocks which came out with almonds and grapes. Such a fancy meal, right? There was Cheddar, Old Amsterdam, Camembert and ... another one which looked like Spinach and Ricotta. Michiel's father was serving it to me, and asked would I like some. Sure, I said - I like spinach and ricotta! He puts a generous helping on my plate and goes: Blue Cheese!

ARGGHHH!!!! I had to eat that hahahaha.

Next came... DESSERT. Chocolate mousse with Berries and Icecream :D More berries. and Mousse! Wow.

Gosh, I was super full after all that and I enjoyed having such an interesting meal. It was a learning experience, my first time really feeling a little "culture shock." It was so nice that I got to experience this kind of thing though, and everyone was really nice to me even though I was saying silly things like Rabbit??? and OOOH Spinach and Ricotta!!!!

On reflection, I realised while I thought I was quite easy going and ate everything.. it turns out I don't. It turns out I am much more picky than I thought. I think that this next 6 months in Europe should be very interesting when it comes to food. I need to learn to eat a lot more cheese and cream and berries and sweet stuff. I'm going to try my best to appreciate and try everything.

We got a group photo before we left also!

OKKK. That was an epic 3 blogs written! And I'm still behind. far out. But I hope you enjoyed them, despite them all being a little rushed. Hope you guys had a great Christmas!!!!! :D