Many people think Queen's Day is the birthday of the Dutch Queen, but it's actually her mother's birthday. Some Dutch people have a hard time grasping the national pride of Americans – the way we display our flag, for instance – and I always refer them to Queen's Day (or alternatively, a soccer match). On Koninginnedag, everyone dresses in orange (the color of Holland and the royal family) and it's a big day of celebration. Every year, the Queen and her royal entourage visit a different city in Holland. Of course, that city (along with Amsterdam) celebrates the biggest. But every town celebrates Koninginnedag with a free market and festivals. For the serious partiers, the festivities start the night before. The favorite royal is Princess Maxima from Argentinia married to crown prince Willem Alexander. For more on the royals, read here.
It's a little strange and kind of cool to live in a country with royalty. However, they only hold symbolic roles and the government is really run by a parliament, in much the same fashion as England.
The other great thing about Koninginnedag: the free market. Here's an odd fact about Netherlands – garage sales are not legal. I, the former garage sale Queen – no, actually M. in California and my mother share that title - was very disappointed to learn this sad fact, especially when faced with the closets full of accumulated 'bachelor' stuff when I first moved here. M. and I hosted a garage sale at least once a year, ior more often if one or the other of us was moving. How do Dutch people get rid of their crap? I guess they throw it away. They also have big white bins everywhere to donate unwanted goods. I think they want me to believe that they don't buy as much as Americans, but I'm not buying into that lie. Holland may be a few steps behind its American cousin of consumerism, but the stores are uncomfortably filled with buyers every time I go shopping. They also tell me they're all German, but I don't believe that either.
However, the garage sale ban is lifted, one day a year, on Koninginnedag and then anyone and everyone is allowed to sell whatever they want. You can rent a stand (I did this last year with a Dutch girlfriend, P. and his family) or you can just pick a spot, spread out a blanket and display your wares. We did really well last year - it was beautiful weather and we had a good spot. This year, with all the wedding planning, it was just too stressful to pull it together. But, we did visit downtown for a couple hours, just to participate in the fun and take some pictures.
Across these banners is the Dutch national anthem. It has 15 verses. 15! Most Dutch only know the words to two of them (verses 1 and 6).
This is a very yummy Dutch food you always see at festivals and fairs. They're called poffertjes. It's a big griddle with tiny indentations where they pour in pancake batter. You can see the guy flipping them over above. They usually serve them with powdered sugar. We also have a poffertjes pan at home - albeit much smaller.
Completely unrelated to Queen's day, we'd invited some friends that appreciate Japanese food over for dinner on Saturday evening. As P. points out every time we have a dinner party, my menu is always more expansive than necessary. The big draw was sushi, because I have recently learned how to make sushi rolls (with smoked fish, not raw). So, I set everything up and taught the girls how to make the rolls, which they had lots of fun with. What I didn't know, was that the wasabi P. had picked up from the Asian market was about 10 times stronger than the one I had used before from the normal grocery store. So, needless to say, the sushi was really, really hot.
I also tried several new recipes, all of which I liked. Here are a couple:
Soba noodles
Zucchini miso salad (this was a big hit)
Japanese style green beans (P. has already requested this again several times in the last few days)
Green tea cake (we didn't find green tea powder, but bought the real green tea leaves and I ground them into a powder in my mortar and pestle that P. bought as a gift about three years ago. He was very excited to see me using it for the first time ever. :o)
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