When you walk into Dutch Delicious, you’re hit with the wonderful smell of freshly baked bread and a wall of clogs behind the cash registers to your right. There are a couple of grocery aisles dedicated to chocolate, because that’s a fantastic idea.
I’m no expert on Dutch culture, save for soccer. Ask me to name a Dutch master, and I’ll blurt out “Dennis Bergkamp” and start talking about his wonder goal that knocked Argentina out of the 1998 World Cup. So, I went to the bakery counter looking for a wide variety of things to bring back to the office — a Dutch sampler. This was a very good decision on my part.
The bakery produces both soft pretzels and pretzel buns, and there’s house-made beer cheese for spreading. The pretzels had just enough of a crust and salt to make for a savoury overtone on the palate; but the beer cheese (use a lot, really) offers a mellowing counterpunch. The varieties on offer from Dutch Delicious aren’t as tough to bite into as pretzels you might be used to — but they were delicious and satisfying.
Also on the menu were cinnamon rings; these were like flattened out croissants that held their flaky texture, except with a bit of crunch. It’s part pastry, park cookie.
The boterkoek translates to “butter cake,” and, well, that’s exactly what it was. It was moist, and dense — think of how buttery a shortbread cookie is. Now, double it, and you’ve got an idea about the richness of this Dutch cake.
Finally, the speculaas cheesecake; speculaas is like a marriage of shortbread and ginger, in a flat, soft cookie. It’s common in the Benelux region. Here, the biscuits are used as the base for mini cheesecakes, and they offer a level of spice (think ginger and nutmeg tones) that you won’t have from a graham-cracker crust.
This was quite the education for me; as you can see, I truly, truly had to go the extra mile.
13232 118 Ave NW | 780-455-2323 |
