Dutch Sausage Fest!
For my last weeks in the Netherlands, I decided to give some of its famous sausages a try.
Frikandel is a really popular one. I often see Dutch people of all ages, men and women alike, eating these as a snack or for lunch. They often come from the automat (the vending machines where you throw in a few coins and open a little windowed door to get your food). The supermarket C1000 often sells these wrapped in a flaky pastry for a sale price of 50 cents each. So I decided to try them. They are not bad, but really very spongy in texture. I had to eat them on a bed of lettuce and balsamic vinegar to cut down on the richness.
HEMA offers a lne of "Holland" shelf-stable sausages wrapped up in these Dutch-themed wrappers. Different regions of the Netherlands are famous for their own sausages. This one is the "Rotterdamer." Texture is firm with big fat pieces inside.
The Friese Metworst was a bit sweeter. I was going to try all 5 or 6 varieties, but I quickly got tired of this kind of firm sausage.
I ended with the famous HEMA rookworst, which I've had before in a bun, and cooked into jambalaya. I didn't specify "bread" when I ordered it this time, so to my surprise it was just the sausage handed to me in a bag. Eating it plain was too salty, but the sausage still had that great bite and juiciness to it. I can't say I would crave the rookworst at the moment; it's still too spongy for me. I'd much prefer a grilled met from Kroeger & Sons in Cincinnati.
