Sinterklaas came to the Tinbergen Institute a few weeks ago. You can find out more about him at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas . His Zwarte Piets helped him distribute gifts, which people only received after reading aloud the poem that Sinterklaas had written for them.




I asked for something with Queen Beatrix's face on it, and this I did receive!

For all of you who have an unhealthy interest in the minutiae of Dutch society, you should know that there was recently a debate about what language Sinterklaas should speak. Naturally he speaks official Dutch, and probably Spanish since he lives in Spain, but what about the different Dutch dialects: Mestreechs , Zeeuws, Tilburgs? And should he also speak Fries, for people in Friesland? But then is it unfair for children who live in the region but do not speak the dialect? It all remains to be seen.

This post is about food and drink, so the photos are large! I received a vegan cookbook for my last birthday from my friend Andrei, and I used it to make this pizza from scratch. I have to say it was very good. What looks like cheese is actually crumbled tofu, and while I must admit I did add a little real cheeze on top but it didn't add much to what were already delicious vegan toppings.


In late November, a group of us from TI went to visit Cologne for a weekend. We had a really nice time, including dinner in a brewery where the following pictures were taken. We enjoyed their beers, brought to the table in kegs. But the food ... well, I took the only vegetarian choice on the menu, lasagna, and topped it off with a large pretzel. No complaints here. But the meat eaters definitely had more choice - just take a look at the brewery's favourite dishes on the menu below.

Some people basically ordered meat for four, and the waitress actually tried to bring us four of the giant meat plates you see below. Welcome to Germany! After we talked to her she cut it to two, but we still thought that it was a lot of meat for just four people. Finally someone from the kitchen arrived, after we had started eating, to take one of the meat plates back! Apologies, he said, but it was in fact for another table. So we ended up with only one giant meat plate. Sheer madness.