Food bloggers tour: The Hague

Yesterday I went on a food bloggers tour in The Hague, the 3rd biggest city in The Netherlands. I already knew some nice food spots in The Hague but I discovered many new ones yesterday! The food blogger tour was organised by Anne Marie from My Happy Kitchen and she did a great job showing us what The Hague (or Den Haag as we call it) has to offer!

Happy Tosti

We started the day at Happy Tosti, a lunchroom selling all kinds of grilled cheese sandwiches. You can also find Happy Tosti in Leiden and Hoofddorp. They have two vegetarian ‘tosti’s’, a savory one with Swiss cheese and leek and a sweet one with chocolate and banana. They also have a vegetarian panini with pesto and sundried tomatoes. Besides the big grilled cheese sandwiches there’s another reason to go Happy Tosti: they have indoor swings! If you like sitting on a swing whilst eating food you can also go to Hearth in Amsterdam.

Glorious Bastards

At Happy Tosti we got introduced to two small business owners in the food branche. One was Glorious Bastards, they make tomato ketchup and juice made from tomatoes that would normally be thrown away. Rogier, the owner, told us why he started with Glorious bastards after he had been unemployed for a while and how he wants to help others to get a job too.

Cheeky Pie

Another social foodie is Elise from Cheeky Pie. She makes, as she calls it, the most social cake. I just call them delicious cakes, but I guess she’s also right because the cakes are made by people with poor job prospects. All her cakes are sugar free and vegan. You can make your own sugar free and vegan cakes with the recipes on this page. Or check out Cheeky Pie for these buckwheat brownies and strawberry coconut cakes.

Delicious Swetness

We went for some more sweets at Delicious Sweetness, a French patisserie and bakery. At Delicious Sweetness they sell all French classics like croissants and pain du chocolat. But what’s more impressive is that they make their own macarons, eclairs and French cakes. Pictured you see mini versions of their lemon meringue pie and passionfruit coconut cakes. They also make beautiful wedding cakes by the way!

Hug the Tea

Do you recognize this green color? It’s matcha! Hug the Tea sells organic teas from Japan and their specialty is matcha. They have several matcha teas. Did you know that matcha is very healthy? It’s high in vitamin c and antioxidants. You can drink it as a tea but you can also use it as an ingredient! I’ve made some recipes with matcha and you can find more inspiration on my Matcha Recipes Pinterest board.

Instock

It was time for something savory at Instock. They started in Amsterdam, their second restaurant opened in The Hague and they also have a third restaurant in Utrecht. At Instock they rescue food that would be wasted otherwise. They get their products from Dutch supermarkets. They also make their own beer from wasted potatoes and their own granola with waste from the beer. So really nothing is wasted! We had cheese and mustard croquettes with leek dip. The dip reminded me of the vegan leek walnut spread I once made.

Hop & Stork

And more sweets! We went to Hop & Stork where they sell delicious chocolates and everything that has to do with chocolate like pastries and a lunch menu with a chocolate twist. It’s a combination of shop and restaurant, so you can buy chocolates there to enjoy at home or meet up with a friend for a cup of coffee with something sweet. They have their own cheesecake recipe, a dark chocolate mousse with coffee whipped cream, and a vanilla mousse cake with passion mango cream. They also have a shop in Utrecht.

Amazing Oriental The Hague

Amazing Oriental is a huge Asian supermarket in the city center of the Hague. They sell items from all countries in Asia. It was great to stroll around and see all the magnificent things they have to offer. Since I just came back from our trip to Japan I recognized many products. It also gave me inspiration for new dishes because I saw vegan shrimps for example and all kinds of vegetables that were new to me.

Van Kleef

Our last stop of the tour was Van Kleef, where they sell Dutch Jenever (gin). With all kinds of flavors like raspberries and apple pie this shop is a real experience. It double functions as a museum as the distillery also used to be at the premises.

Now that I’ve written it all down I start to realise how much we did in just one day! Thank you Anne Marie for organising!

Click here for my review of Little Anna in La Paulowna hotel in the Hague.