Yesterday I went to my favorite lunch place around work, a daily called Tivoli. They have a large variety of meats and cheese, and most importantly they always have great fresh bread.
When I walked back from lunch I passed a newspaper stand with a pile of Washington Posts. On the frontpage a picture of Mr. Balkenende with President Bush. The latter was a day in Holland to commemorate the end of World War II.
The local beer on Puerto Rico is Medallah, a pretty good beer with a nice refreshing taste.
"El Presidente Cerveza", from the Dominican Republic, is a popular import beer too, as well as Corona and some American brands.
However, the most popular non-local beer around here in my opinion -- and I am writing this with some pride -- is Heineken from Amsterdam. Even though it's not the best beer that Holland is offering the world, it is nice to be able to drink a familiar taste everywhere you go.
ING Bank is a Dutch bank that started an intensive marketing campaign in D.C. for their internet savings account a few months ago.
It's nice to see a familiar name in the metro: I did a project for ING bank at my previous employer. In December they sponsored the commuters in the metro by paying for everybody's ticket in the morning.
Their product is called the Orange Savings Account -- the color of their logo here, probably not related to the fact that the Dutch national color is orange.
"The Smitsonian" is the name of the foundation that pays for the national museums in Washington D.C.
The book Girl with the pearl earring is a bestseller here. This is a picture of the window of a bookstore close to my work.
September last year Sasha and I went to see the original painting in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, after seeing the movie with Steven in the Toneelschuur.
It's nice to see the old 'skyline' of Delft in a bookstore's window.
The ingredients and food of the American kitchen are not that different of those you'll find in Holland, so most things I'm used to cook with are available. You can even get boerenkool (kale) in some supermarkets.
The other day we found a specialty store with a lot of imported things from Europe. Truffels and vinegar from Italy, special wines, things like that. They also had a few Dutch items, such as drop and Droste chocolate. We bought a package of caramel wafers: stroopwafels!
It's easy to find Dutch beer and cheese, although they're expensive. There's also quite a collection of Belgium beers available here, but I haven't found my personal favorite Grimbergen triple yet.
The only thing that I really miss so far is real Dutch bread: a freshly baked volkorenbrood would be very nice. The bread in Wholefoods comes close, but is not quite the same.
Drop, imported from Holland, next to English licorice. Of course, you can also order drop online.
In today's Washington Post there are two large articles about the Netherlands. The first one, on the frontpage, is a background story on the murderer of Theo van Gogh. It describes how this guy radicalized over time into a fanatic terrorist. At first I didn't recognize the name of the murderer, Mohammed Bouyeri, because in most Dutch newspapers his names is depicted as "Mohammed B.".
The other article deals with an experiment by the Dutch government to distribute cannabis through pharmacies for people with certain (terminal) illnesses. The experiment is not as succesful as was expected, mainly because the price of cannabis in the pharmacies is almost double the price in "coffee shops", where cannabis is sold for recreational use.
The Washington Post newspaper is published every day of the week. Just like the Dutch newspaper's Saturday editions, the Post's Sunday edition is extra large. Actually, we bought today's (Sunday's) edition yesterday, on Saturday -- there is an "early Sunday edition" available that obviously does not contain the news up to Sunday, but does come with the extra parts that are pre-produced anyway. It's great to have such a huge paper in the weekend.
Yesterday I went to my favorite lunch place around work, a daily called Tivoli. They have a large variety of meats and cheese, and most importantly they always have great fresh bread.
The local beer on Puerto Rico is Medallah, a pretty good beer with a nice refreshing taste. 
ING Bank is a Dutch bank that started an intensive marketing campaign in D.C. for their internet savings account a few months ago.
The book Girl with the pearl earring is a bestseller here. This is a picture of the window of a bookstore close to my work.
Two Dutch brands that you'll find a lot in the U.S. are Douwe Egberts and Philips.
Douwe Egberts coffee at Burger King, the third-largest hamburger chain in the United States. 
The ingredients and food of the American kitchen are not that different of those you'll find in Holland, so most things I'm used to cook with are available. You can even get boerenkool (kale) in some supermarkets.
