Dutch Language Blog

I know, a meal with chicken, curry and rice does not sound that Dutch, because where are the potatoes? But it is and also one of my personal favorites. So let me tell you how to make this meal yourself. There are more difficult ways and easy ways to do it, so I picked a recipe that sounded relatively easy.

For 2 people:

Ingredients

-          300 gram chicken filet

-          1 package with stir fry vegetables

-          1 small can with pineapple pieces

-          A handful cashew nuts

-          2 spoons of broth powder

-          3 spoons of curry powder

-          1 spoon maizena

-          oil

Preparation

Cook 1,5 liters of water and add the broth powder and 1 spoon of curry powder. Cook the vegetables in this for about 5 minutes. After that, take the vegetables out and let them leak. Next, cook the rice in the fluid that is still left.

In the meantime, cut the chicken filet in pieces. Heat up the stir fry pan and add one spoon of curry and 3 spoons of oil to it. Let this heat up and stir fry the chicken.

When the chicken is ready, add the vegetables and stir fry them as well for a short period of time.

Mix 1 spoon of curry powder, 1 spoon of maizena en 2 spoons of water in a cup. Add 100 ml water in the stir fry pan and add the maizena mix to the chicken and vegetables. Make it boil and it will turn into a sauce.

In the meantime, roast the cashew nuts shortly in a frying pan. Then add the cashews and the pieces of pineapple to the chicken curry and…. Enjoy!

One of the perks of living in Holland is that our government, although slow as a snare, is almost always willing to help us (or at least people like me: everything except ‘rich and famous’) out. So here I am, writing from my little-nut-really-mine-apartment, that I can pay thanks to the people from Den Haag (The Hague). This is called ‘huurtoeslag’ (subsidized renting). Let me explain what it is and if you are also one of those lucky ones who gets sympathy from our government.

The government  explains huurtoeslag like this:  “huurtoeslag is financial addition you can apply for if your rent is too high compared to your income. It doesn’t matter if you rent your house through a housing corporation or on the free market.”

Now don’t expect you can move into a penthouse and let the government pay for it. There are (we are still in Holland) some rules and relative poverty is required:

-          You have to live in Holland legally

-          Your rent must be lower than 647,53 euro’s a month. If you are younger than 23, rent must be lower than 357,37 euro’s.

-          You can’t make more than 21.450 euro’s a year when you are alone, and 29.125 euro’s is you live with someone. If you are older than 65, your salary has to have a limit of 20.200 euro’s when you are alone, and 27.575 euro’s when you live together.

-          You can’t have more than 20.661 euro’s in savings or investments

-          You have to rent an independent living space (meaning your own front door, room, kitchen and toilet)

How much you will receive from the government depends on different aspects, but usually it will be between the 100 and 300 euro’s. You can calculate your own situation here: http://www.toeslagen.nl/reken/toeslagen/

Good luck!

When you think about Holland, one of the last things that comes to mind are exotic animals. Sure, we have our cows and sheep, but they (usually) don’t make our hearts pomp with excitement and create “oooh”’s and “aah”’s. Still, once upon a time there were those kind of creatures. Hereby a list of some of the (some extinct) animals from the Netherlands:

-          Tarpan: also known as the Eurasian wild horse. The last one of this type of horse died in 1909 in Russia.

-          Gray Whale: this whale could grow to 16 meters long and weigh 15 ton. There are only about 2000 gray whales left, that can now still be seen along the coast of Oregon is the summer.

-          Eurasian Lynx: a forest cat of about 100 centimeters in length and 70 centimeters to the shoulder. He can be found in Asia and Europe. The Lynx is being reintroduced to the Western forest after disappearance.

-          Black-Crowned Night Heron: this bird can still be found on a lot of places around the world, although I haven’t seen him in the Netherlands lately. He is about 64 centimeters long and weighs around 800 grams. They got their name from the black feathers on the head.

-          Gray Wolf: also known as just ‘wolf’ is not extinct and not a worry on the minds of the people behind the Conversation of Nature, although its population decreased over the years. They can be found worldwide and are in some area’s protected and in others still hunting bait.

-          Great Auk: a bird that is related to the penguin. They still exist, but there are not many more left. The couple of Auks that do still stand strong left Holland and moved to the North Atlantic.

-          Brown Bear: this bear is one of the biggest of his kind and weighs between 300 to 780 kilograms. They can still be found in northern Eurasian and North America.

-          The Greater Horseshoe Bat: this type of bat has it all in his name with its horseshoe shaped nose leaf and its big size. He has a wingspan of about 350 to 400 millimeters and has soft and fluffy hair. He can still be found in Europe.