Getting settled
Yesterday I arrived in Meppel....again. I have lived here so many times I almost lost count and for now I will probably live here again for a few years at least. To start off with I will be staying in my mum's holiday home, which sounds small and pokey but it's actually a very comfortable house right in the city centre. As she lives in Ireland and spends a lot of time in The Netherlands a few years ago she decided to buy a house in Meppel which is close to a lot of family and friends. She bought a new one recently which is quite large and suitable for dual occupation with the exception of a second kitchen. So for now she is letting me stay there until I find my own place to live with my two daughters.
Today my friend Ragna came to visit. I hadn't seen her in a while and it was good to catch up. We walked through the city centre and sat down on a sunny terrace outside "De Beurs", a cafe restaurant. We both had a nice salad and enjoyed the sun and a good chat.
Tonight my sister and her family came around for dinner, I cooked some fried rice and sateh. Even though I didn't really want to come back as it felt like I was "giving in", it is good to be back in familiar surroundings amongst family and friends...
Not long after we sat down, probably five minutes at most, the waiter came out to ask if we had made a choice. I thought this was quite fast, I hadn't even looked at the menu yet. My friend and I both asked for fresh milk, we specifically said fresh, not long life milk, but were served with long life milk anyway. Once the milk was brought out the waiter left again and after about fifteen minutes I went inside to give him our order as he had not come back or even looked at us again, even though we had made it clear we wanted to have lunch.
We ordered two salads, which we shared. There was a Caesar Salad and a Goat's Cheese Salad. They were both nice but I do have a few comments:
In my opinion a Caesar Salad should be served with Roman Lettuce, or Kos Lettuce as it is also called. This one had a mixture of different types of lettuce. It had chicken strips and bacon, croutons and Gorgonzola cheese. This was specified on the menu so even though it's not traditional we knew about it. There were no anchovies, and the dressing did not resemble anything like a creamy Caesar dressing at all.
The Goat's cheese salad was much better. There was also a lettuce mixture with a good sized piece of goat's cheese which was grilled first with some honey. This was served with hazelnuts, apple and a portwine dressing. Yum! I would definitely recommend the latter. Price was €8,50 each.
This bar is at number 31 in the bar top 100 for The Netherlands.
The menu is a combination of pancakes (which in The Netherlands have the size similar to that of a pizza in most countries) and meat and fish dishes served with fries and salad mostly. The children's pancakes are the same size in diameter as the adult one's, but they are thinner. If you don't like the exact toppings you can change them. The pancakes start at around €5,- and the other dishes at just under €13,-. They are very large servings and should fill you up no problem.
If you don't want to pay for water don't ask for it, as water from the tap is not possible here.
The service is quite fast, as soon as you sit down menu's will be handed out, drinks orders taken and the kids get a colouring in picture which they can enter into a competition. Meals are usually brought out fast too. On departure you get to draw a ball out of a barrel and the number on the ball represents a percentage discount for your next visit. Let's say you spent €50,- and you draw out the number 10, that gives you €5,- discount for next time! For the kids there's a big treasure chest with some small toys which they are allowed to take one out of on departure.
So, if you're looking for an affordable quick and simple meal without the kids getting too bored, this is the place to go in Meppel!
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