Lard Balls

My friend and former Ph.D. adviser, Geoffrey, lent me My Dam Life, an autobiographical book written by an Australian humorist who detailed his three years living in Amsterdam. I vaguely recalled him describing something called "oliebol," a winter holiday desert which he described as a heart attack waiting to happen, when I saw strange stands popping up all over town last weekend.

Apparently, in the last week of October or first week of November, little vendors start selling deserts on the streets. Some of these are, indeed, oliebol. I decided to order one last week, and I can safely report that they're the most ridiculously sweet and rich dough-based food product I've ever had. It was like the unholy offspring of Indian Fry Bread, a doughnut, and a croissant. I only had mine smothered in powdered sugar; there were other options, including ones stuffed with raisins and currants, and ones filled with vanilla cream.

And, if one is curious of the official account, here is the Wikipedia entry:

An oliebol (plural oliebollen ( pronunciation (help·info)) is a traditional Dutch food. Oliebollen (literallyoil balls) are traditionally eaten on New Year's Eve and at funfairs. They are also called smoutebollen(literally lard balls) in Belgium.

Oliebollen are a variety of dumpling made by using two spoons to scoop a certain amount of dough and dropping the dough into a deep fryer filled with hot oil. In this way, a sphere-shaped oliebol emerges.

The dough is made from flour, eggs, yeast, some salt, milk, baking powder and usually sultanas,currants, raisins and sometimes apple pieces and zest or succade. The dough needs time to rise for at least an hour. Oliebollen are usually served with powdered sugar, or brown sugar.

They are said to have been first eaten by Germanic tribes in the Netherlands during the Yule, the period between December 26 and January 6. The Germanic goddess Perchta, together with evil spirits, would fly through the mid-winter sky. To appease these spirits, food was offered, much of which containeddeep-fried dough. It was said Perchta would try to cut open the bellies of all she came across, but because of the fat in the oliebollen, her sword would slide off the body of whoever ate them.^[1]

A very similar type of doughnut can be found in Belgium and France. Croustillons are deep fried dough balls served hot and liberally sprinkled with powdered sugar. They are usually served in a paper cone with a little plastic fork to eat them with. They are typically found at fairgrounds in Belgium and in Lille, France.

The autumn here has been very nice so far. The contrast between the weather here (a high of 52 and low of 50 tomorrow) and Albuquerque (a high of 51 and a low of 30 tomorrow) is striking. It was mildly foggy all day today, and the mists rising up from the canals and rivers through the fallen golden leaves and still green grasses were quite enchanting.