Markthal Rotterdam| Food heaven or food hell?
4:35 PM
Hello everyone!
How are you doing? I am doing pretty good! At the moment I am totally obsessed with Norah Jones (I am listening to her 'Featuring Norah Jones' album right now). Her voice is so captivating! Normally, I am not into Jazz, but after listening to her, I just fell in love with that genre of music. If you know any Jazz musicians I should listen to, please leave the name in the comments below. I will definitely check them out!
Okay, back to my blogpost introduction. A month ago, my summer vacation started and I wanted to do something fun. A friend and I decided to go to Markthal in Rotterdam. It is basically a giant food court. Food courts are a rare sight in The Netherlands so that's why I wanted to go. Before I went, I of course did my research. And people online, described Markthal as a 'place to be for foodies'. I was like I LOVE food and that's what makes you a foodie, right? Let me tell you that my hopes were very high, I expected delicious, mouthwatering and even pretty looking food. Basically #Foodporn material.
We arrived in Rotterdam at around 3 pm. It took us around ten minutes to find the giant building I didn't see. Normally I'd use my google maps, but that day I couldn't figure out that app. Thank god, my friend looked at her right and saw the building.
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| This is what Markthal looks like from the outside. |
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| Once you're inside Markthal and you look up to the ceiling, you will these gorgeous paintings! |
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| Weirdly shaped houses on the other side of the station. |
When we entered Markthal we were like kids in a candy store. We didn't know where to begin and we wanted to see everything. Thus, began our journey!
They had a baking store and I had to take a looksie around the store. The prices were just out of this world. Not in a good way, you guys. I was looking for baking beans and they sold a jar for 23,- euro's. And I was like 'Heck no'. I'll just go through life baking beanless.
Then we found a cannoli store and I was dying to try one. I am a huge fan of the tv- show 'My Kitchen Rules: Australia' and the amount of times they had that on their menu was out of this world. The people on the show described it so well that I wanted to try this delicacy for a long time....
The store had different kind of flavours. I went with pistachio flavour and my friend went with coffee flavour. The pistachio one didn't taste like pistachios at all. The filling was bland. Thank god, the wafer tasted good. I expected a pistachio ice cream flavour, but it didn't deliver. My friend told me that the coffee one tasted exactly like coffee.
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| They look gorgeous though. |
Because I am a vegetarian we had to look for a place with vegetarian options. And let me tell you, it wasn't easy. There were a lot of sushi stores (I don't eat fish either). And the other stores were a bit on the pricey side. Finally, we settled for a middle eastern restaurant named 'Le Souq'. Both of us ordered a salad with a side of fries. And I had a lemon almond drink. The drink was delicious. It reminded me of my moms homemade lemonade, but 'Le Souq' did their own twist on the drink. They put a bit of almond syrup in the lemonade. The drink was quit refreshing!
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| The lemon almond drink. |
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| Libyan salad with bread and a side of fries |
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| The Libyan bread was delicious. It was crispy and sweet at the same time. |
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| 'Normal doughnuts'. |
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| Yummm. |
When I arrived home I shared the doughnuts with my cousin and my mother. I had high expectations of the Boston cream filled doughnut but is was a let down. It tasted kind of chemical-ly and the chocolate didn't have any flavour. After that we tried the sugar glazed one and that one turned out to be the best. It was soft, but textured/ crunchy because of the powdered sugar and it was kind of juicy. After that we had the normal one. It looked pretty but it tasted bland. There was no taste whatsoever and still no chocolate taste. Same thing with the doughnut balls.
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| Left to right: Boston cream, normal doughnut and the sugar glazed doughnut. |
I hope you enjoyed this post and I will see you next time!
xo Laxmi
I took a lot of pictures so I will leave them down below!
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| Fancy chocolates. |
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| Dried fruits. |
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| Waffles. |
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| CHEESE. |
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| Look at these different kind of flavoured cheese. |
3 comments
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you live in the Netherlands? And you blog in English? That is so freaking cool! I'm from the Rotterdam area and I rarely meet other bloggers from NL who write in English.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the food is a bit of a let down. The Markthal is a great place for food pictures and it sure looks interesting on Instagram, but almost everything is so overpriced... I go there about once a month, usually because one of my friends likes to go grocery shopping there. She always ends up buying way too much food she doesn't need or like while I just take pictures :P
x Envy
Lost in Translation
Hey, there Envy!
DeleteYou are correct! I do live in The Netherlands, in The Hague to be exact. We live quit close to each other then! I haven't seen a lot of Dutch, writing English bloggers either. I do follow 'the twenties guide' she is also a Dutchie with an English blog!
You are right about Markthal. It is quit expensive for the quality they deliver. But you looked at the bright side! At least we/you were able to take beautiful pictures :)
I wanted to thank you for taking the time to comment on my post! So thank you and I hope you have had a wonderful sunny day :)
xo Laxmi
Hey girl!
ReplyDeleteI nominated you for the Liebster Award! I love reading your posts and I think you are an amazing blogger! You can see my post here where i nominated you- http://thoughtsbythea.blogspot.com/2016/09/liebster-award.html