Dutch Delight: Ontbijtkoek
Periodically, EM reviews typical Dutch food products together with EUR international students. This edition, Mayra Gonzalez from Tampico, Mexico tastes and reviews Ontbijtkoek. Mayra is master student Maritime and Transport Law at ESL. The Review
“Cinnamon!” is the first thing Mayra says enthusiastically upon smelling the aroma of the piece of Ontbijtkoek. This happens to be the first time Mayra encounters a piece of Ontbijtkoek, and from the outset, she appears quite curious to find out what the product is like. Upon further inspecting the product, Mayra concludes that the cinnamon reminds her of a sweet type of bread from her country of origin, Mexico: pan de dulce. However, as Mayra emphasizes rightly after: the Ontbijtkoek itself is rather different from bread, as the texture is much softer than bread.
Mayra’s first impressions right after biting off a small nubble cannot be described anything other than utterly positive: “The Ontbijtkoek is not too juicy and not too dry”. Rather it appears to be in between either one of the two. Other than this, the actual cinnamon taste is not very strong: “Usually the taste of cinnamon can become quite dominant in a dessert for example, but in Ontbijtkoek the cinnamon taste is rather balanced, which is great!”, Mayra concludes.
Thus far, not a single point of critique has been heard from Mayra, which is reflected in the highest score ever recorded in the history of Dutch Delight: she grants Ontbijtkoek 5 out of 5 stars. Mayra: “I would definitely consider buying it next time. I think it would be perfect with coffee.”
Score according to Mayra: 5
1= I flushed it down the toilet
2= If you bought it anyway, eat it, why not?
3= Quite nice actually
4= Really good food
5= Best food I’ve ever tasted
The product
The literal translation of Ontbijtkoek to English would be ‘Breakfast cake’, which in itself would be somewhat misleading as to at what occasion to consume the product: virtually every occasion is a good one – whether it is during lunch or coffee break, or as a midnight snack. Ontbijtkoek is often promoted as a healthy product, which can only partly said to be true. Indeed, it contains a lot of rye, which is nutritious, but next to this also a lot of sugar. LJa
