Vlaa

I was grocery shopping the other day and picked up a container of chocolate milk. I was totally surprised when I came home and tried to pour a cup of it and this thick, pasty stuff plopped out into the cup.

I checked the expiration date on the carton to see if the milk had spoiled and curdled and then I realized that the label said it was chocolate vlaa. The brand name was Campina, a company that also makes cartoned milk, so I hadn't realized that it was something else. so I smelled the cup of chocolate stuff and it smelled good! I tasted it and it was pudding! Vlaa is pudding! I was totally thrown off by the fact that this pudding was in a liter milk carton (for those of you who didn't go through that year in elementary school when the US decided to convert to the metric system, a liter is similar in size to a quart.)

When I really took a good taste of this stuff, I realized it was delicious! This is not the Bill Cosby J-E-L-L-O instant stuff (or the cooked stuff that always ends up with lumps) – this stuff is made with real cream and is yummy!

So I tried to hide the whole liter from the kids, but it was impossible. These darn European fridges are so small that you can barely fit things in it, let alone hide the good stuff! So the kids fell in love with the vlaa too. Since then we have tried the Ardeibel vlaa (strawberry pudding) and the Dubbel Vlaa (vanilla on one side of the carton and chocolate on the other).

I've seen the boxes of Kindersmak on the shelves in the store (kinder =children) near the few boxes of cereal on the shelves, but I didn't know what it was. I took a look at it today and after shaking the box I realized that they were a box of jimmies! You know – the sprinkle things that go on top of ice cream. They had them in all different flavors and colors and even in chocolate and white chocolate shavings. The pictures on the box show the kindersmak on top of vlaa. Pudding with jimmies on top! The box also showed the jimmies on top of a piece of bread...I though this was strange...the showed a jar of Nutella (the nut spread similar to peanut butter but made from hazlenuts), a piece of bread and the box of jimmies together. So I guess that is a common children's snack.

I have noticed that there are very few boxes of cereal in the stores. They do have a variety of granolas (called museli), but only a couple boxes of corn flake type cereals (unless you go to the US Foods Market on Reigulerderwarsstraat where they sell boxes of Lucky Charms and Captain Crunch for 6,50 Euros per box). They eat breads, cheese, and meat for breakfast and of course they have yoghurt.

These people love their yoghurt! Plain, vanilla and flavored yoghurts come in cardboard liter cartons (like the vlaa). You simply pour the yogurt into your bowl or cup. Yoghurt drinks are big too – I don't mean the little Dannon drinkable yogurts – here they have large cartons of drinkable yogurts in many different flavors. They also have Fristi – a mixture of yogurt and fruit juices that is really good! You can buy it in cartons or in small bottles or cans from vending machines and soda coolers. Frise is another brand name of mixed yogurt and juice and Dubble Frise has more than one fruit in it.

Active yogurt cultures and good bacterias are readily available here. They advertise Actimel for women – these are yogurts and yogurt drinks that are low fat and are loaded with extra bacterias that are good for your body. They also sell these tiny little bottles of live beneficial bacteria, called Yakult. They are in the dairy case near the yogurt and they come in a pack of 6. You can buy the regular version or the low fat ones. The kids love them! Jagger calls them “Skittle Juice”. The first time he tried one he said it tasted like Skittles candy. These good bacterias are supposed to be excellent for the digestive tract and they boost the immune system. It intrigues me that they sell so many products that combat candida (systemic yeast overgrowth), but so many American doctors deny that the illness even exsists.