John von Pey

Yesterday I was in a liquerstore in Maastricht and saw a lot of Bacardibottles (as usual). But the regular white Bacardi-bottles had a piece of cardboard arount the bottleneck. If you fill in your adress on that label and send it (free) to a Dutch adress, you will receive a book titled "Bacardi's Utlimate Rum Book" for free. The owner of the store was so nice to give me a label without purchasing a bottle The label says (freely translated): "Read everything about the origin of the brand Bacardi, the rums and how to make the perfect cocktails and mixes." I'll keep you informed about this as soon as I get the book.

I know there is a very nice shop in Cologne (Germany) that has a marvellous collection of rums (Koelner Rum Kontor, but don't pin me on the writing). And in Hamburg (Germany) I have been to a shop with also a very nice collection. It is a "weinhaus" of which I have lost the name. But have you checked Peters rum page? You can find adresses and websites there.

Yes, I know that they are planning on launching a new Havana Club Anejo Especial. It is a slightly darker colour than the current version because it is made from a higher percentage of older rums (slightly more 5 year olds than 3 I suppose) which is what gives it it's slightly darker colour. I've managed to get a bottle of it already and it does clearly have a darker colour when placed alongside a current Anejo Especial bottle. I suspect the thinking behind this is to give it a more premium brand image. Hope this clears things up for you? ← I haven't been able to buy a bottle yet, but this information was usefull. Thanks.

Yesterday I was at a friends liquer store and he told me Havana club was changing the colour of their "golden" rum. It is going to be a bit darker. Does anyone have some more information on this?

I've once added dried cranberry's to a simple white rum. Besides being very sweet, I liked the taste.

Thanks for the information, Rene. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it there.

Thanks for all the information. This Christmas is going to be classic

Hello all, Normally I'm a more or less regular at the rum forum, and "just" reading the other forums. But now I need your help, so I crawled out of my shell. For Christmas we (a group of friends) are planning a traditional English Christmas Dinner. I have found loads of recipies, but not in a complete dinner setting. So can you help me out, of which compontents does a classic traditional English Christmas dinner excist? Two already booked ingredients are (ofcause) the turkey and the Christmas pudding (already in my basement riping )

Sorry, I've been busy, but I hope you can do something with these suggestions: - apple turnover (according to my dictionary): puff-pastry squares, some finely cut apples in the middle (you can add some raisins, cinnamon and/of lemon juice). Fold it into triangles, put some sugar and cinnamon on top, and bake. Instead of apples you can also use jam (cherry or strawberry are favourite): "jampunten" This is basicly the same as the "saucijzenbroodjes", only for them you use minced meat instead of apples. - eggsalad is also very popular. Cut some eggs, add mayonaise and kerry, some finely chopped parsley and ready. - I have also served filled cucumber. What? yes, filled cucumber. Cut the cucumber in pieces of about 4-5 cm. Scoop out the pieces, and fill them with whatever (try the eggsalad) - plain stuffed eggs (mix the yolks with kerrypowder, mayonaise and fill the eggs with the mixture) - For the "huzarensalade" you can use the recipy of Russian salad from a message above. - stuffed tomatoes (in this case, cherrytomatoes) Good luck!

The Dutch chain of liquerstores "Gall en Gall" have a online auction. Some wine, some spirits. But unfortunately (for you) the site is in Dutch only.

On this site is a nice recipy for Russian Salad "Dutch style": Russian salad. Ofcause the potatoes and carrots are cooked before used. I usually add a chopped sour apple too.

Okay, as promised, some more information about Dutch food. But I adress this message espe-cially to Abra, for the Dutch birthdayparty. And since this is going to be a large message, I prepared it in Word, so if there are strange things in the text, blame it on that or my dictionary :-) Birthdaypartys have a great variety in food offered. About the minimum is a cup of coffee and a cookie, and it goes up to a large BBQ or buffet. If the food is in buffet style (of “just” so-mething else hot) the evening starts around 19.00 – 20.00 with coffee and “vlaai” (fruitpie) or cookies. After one or two rounds of coffee, the soda’s and beer pop up. Around 22.00 – 23.00 some hot food is brought out (snacks) or the buffet is opened. After this, the first people start to leave. Others will stay till, well, uhm, till they go :-) A buffet mostly consists of Russian salad, hot meat (2 kinds), hot sauces (2 kinds, one of the popular sauces is mushroom/cream), fruitsalad, salads (coleslaw, carrot, you name it), bread (several varieties possible). This can be extended with a variety of cheeses, fish (if they like that on a buffet, mostly raw herring or eel), shrimps etc. The hot meat and sauces can also be switched for stew. Or a big piece of meat that is carved at the buffet. And fresh fruit is also a possibility. The hot items are presented in a chafingdish. A typical Dutch (winter) meal is “wortelstamppot”. This is mashed potatoes mixed with car-rots (before the mashing). A recipy for this can be found at this site. The stamppot can be served with gravy, but I like it more with “hachee” (savory beef and onion stew, recipy at this site) This serves as a complete meal. A variety of this is mashed potatoes with applesauce (called “hete bliksem”, hot thunder. Mix the applesauce with the mashed potatoes). This name explains itself, since the temperature of this recipy can be very high. The “hete bliksem” is served with black pudding. Mostly there is soup before and a desert afterwards. I assume you have enough soup-recipies, but stay away from the “snert” or the other pea-soups. That is a bad combination (too heavy, and too much unions :-)) But the vermicellisoup on the site of “hollandsepot” sounds usable. Desert: plain yoghurt, or with fruit. Desert 2: custard or chocolate custard pudding, rather thin and served cold. I hope this information is usable for you, but if you want to know more, let me know.

Just found this topic, and like it. The way you think about our kitchen As an addition to coffee, most people like the "Limburgse vlaai", as can be found on Dutch recipies. A personal favourite of mine is the "aple with flies variety" (small pieces of apple mixed with raisins) I'll check back on this topic this evening, for some more comments (and maybe tips). John p.s. o yeah, "erwtensoep" and "snert" are the same thing. And if you want to make "bitterballen", use the recipy for "kroket", but make balls of the stew instead of rolls.

I always start at the Ministry of Rum page. But the Culinary Institute is also bookmarked on my computer. And if I have some spare time, I wander around, looking for interesting topic-titles (and then, before I know it, a couple of hours have gone by...)

I never even heard of this combination (or thought of it, for that matter). But you gave me an interesting reason to check my rum collection next week. The only "problem" is that I buy my chocolate straight from a factory here in town, so I can't give you a brand name, but this is their website (sorry, Dutch only) Rousseau