STUFF ON BREAD

When one first hears 'stuff on bread' you might conjure up images of tomatoes, cheese, marmite for us south Africans, or jam. For the Dutch, this image is slightly warped. Hagelslag and muisjes are such commonalities for a topping, it would be odd if someone didn't have it. Within the first month or so of being here I thought this tradition was a complete outrage. I just didn't get how smearing butter on bread and then sprinkling it not so generously was seen as tasty and nutritious.

 

What I found even stranger was that there were hundreds, if not thousands of varieties of the stuff.

 

Muisjes

Muisjes translates into 'mice'. Yes, mice, a strange thing to call a topping (strange is becoming the operative word in so many of my posts it seems). The story behind its name is in actual fact due each sugar coated aniseed having a small string, resembling the tail of a mouse. I never knew what these kernel type things tasted like before I came to Holland, but to all of you out there who don't know, its a crunchy liquorice flavour.

Gestampde Muisjes

This is pretty much the same as above, but its crushed into a powdery form. I don't have much of an opinion on it, excepts that the Dutch love it just as much as every other topping.

 

Anijs Muisjes

These look like white mouse droppings and also taste like liquorice. As far as I know, their ingredients consists of sugar, and sugar. Like I said a really 'nutritious' snack.

Chocolade Hageslag

This is probably one of my favourite toppings and I will disclose why. When I was a young girl my mom would always buy the chocolate sprinkles for cakes and keep them in our pantry. Having the sweet tooth I do, I naturally hunted them down and gobbled them up in one go (I'm shocked I wasn't obese as a child). I was scolded for this as they were meant for cake decorating and not for my enjoyment. You can just imagine how my inner child's sweet tooth went completely bonkers and self discipline out the window when I heard that they have this on their bread as a topping for general daytime meals. In the past month I have started to love the stuff and more often than none I find myself spreading chocopasta on a slice of bread and generously sprinkling chocolate hagelslag on top. I would say it has taken priority  on my list of guilty pleasures.