OUR SPICY 24 HOURS IN DEN HAAG 🥵 🇳🇱

OUR *SPICY* 24 HOURS IN DEN HAAG 🥵 🇳🇱

we’re back in Den Haag the third largest 
city in the Netherlands and I’m about to eat my first ball sandwich it’s not what you 
think it is well maybe it is i don’t know we filmed two videos in Den Haag before by the 
way it’s probably more well known as the Hague but when we asked y’all on Instagram 
for tips we were surprised to see so many amazing recommendations of things that we 
hadn’t done yet so we’re back for a third time quashing an ice cream rivalry visiting 
a secret garden and trying what might be the best Indonesian food that you can get in 
the Netherlands and that’s saying something if there’s one thing we love it’s actually I 
I don’t know what it would be let us know in the comments what you think it would be 
but if there’s two things that we love it’s that and saucijzenbroodje when we ask for 
recommendations on Instagram sometimes there is a suggestion that’s like yes we need 
to get that now and that’s exactly what happened here this is Boheemen Confectionary 
and they’ve been around since 1953 and we’re here for a spicy saucijzenbroodje that kind 
of sounds like a sex thing sounds good to me i’m so excited look at them they’re Did you 
see all the bossche bollen they had in there they were gigantic too it was It was quite a 
spread yes indeed it was speaking of spread yeah okay smells like a sauce it smells normal 
and I don’t really notice anything that Oh no no no there are lots of red flecks cheers is it spicy 
at all it’s not spicy at all but this is the best saucijzenbroodje I’ve ever had it is so flaky 
and like still kind of like tender too mhm and the sausage inside is really soft and flavorful 
but I’m not getting so much as like a bit of spice even from black pepper i’m getting a little bit 
of spice yeah okay mhm you are no maybe like a I’d say like for from from a spice perspective it’s a 
zero out of five but like from a from a pure taste perspective I’d say it’s five stroopwafels it’s 
five stroopwafels yeah it’s really really good it’s so good honestly it’s the best one I’ve ever 
had really uh-huh wow y’all probably know that we’re not big museum people but this next place 
actually sounded pretty interesting and pretty creepy we’re about to take one of those it takes 
a lot of bravery to eat a saucijzenbroodje the first thing in the morning when you’re filming a 
video why it gets all up in your teeth oh it does it gets stuck to your face i still have crumbs all 
over me but it’s also the best way to start your day yeah the the the juice is worth the squeeze 
you know sure the time is worth the crime do people say that no I don’t think people say that 
wait that’s actually a good transition to our next scene it is and you didn’t even intend for that 
yeah I did i meant to do that no you didn’t no I didn’t we’ve walked by this We walked by this 
place like 20 times and we had no idea what it was this is the prison gate museum which has been 
here since 1882 between 1420 and 1828 the building acted as the court of Holland the prison was 
reserved for those who committed serious crimes this is probably this prison’s most famous 
prisoner Cornelis de Witt was from Dordrecht but he is not the only Dordrecht connection 
to this prison let’s find the other one no not him so this is the block on your leg and basically 
they would attach this to prisoners so they couldn’t get very far it’s actually really really 
heavy oh my gosh these are the boards of shame so if you committed a crime that wasn’t as serious 
they would hang these in public places it has your name and it tells everyone exactly what you 
did that’s a pretty good deterrent it really is it’s so interesting because you go through this 
museum and then afterwards you have to like go back through the museum there’s all these like 
ways you can weave through like go to different parts of the prison it’s It’s interesting is 
this where they would put you and then they would stretch your limbs yeah is this something you’re 
into yeah i always kind of felt like there would be a point where it would feel good for a little 
while to just like stretch everything out all right Michelle get in i wish I could yeah I know 
you could get in there let’s try it out see if it still works i don’t know the blade doesn’t look 
very sharp anymore well there’s only one way to find out so when we were walking out Michelle was 
getting our bags and I looked at the plan for the day and I saw that she had ice cream next and in 
my head I’m like seriously we’re getting ice cream before lunch that sounds so good that’s such a 
Michelle thing to do but uh luckily the ice cream place isn’t open yet so I still get to eat lunch 
before ice cream like you’re supposed to hey there it is we could just open them up well they’re not 
open for another 25 minutes dang it also I feel like it’s important to mention I’m wearing my my 
Netherlands bagel shirt in support of Netherlands Bagels who we are not going to be seeing today but 
is an excellent place to get the the best bagels in the Netherlands the only place in my opinion 
that you should get bagels in the Netherlands and I say that knowing I just walked by bagels i 
was about to say those are like strong words wow they sell circular bread netherlands bagels sells 
bagels we have something to confess we’ve been in the Netherlands for almost 3 years and we’ve never 
had a broodjebal this is Slagerij Dungelmann it was founded in 1861 here you can pick up a big 
selection of meats to cook at home but they also sell sandwiches and we’re here for the broodjebal 
surprising I know i we we teased it when we walked in this is a spicy broodjebal which it looks like 
according to Michelle it’s a spicy meatball and it’s got a little bit of mayonnaise on it and it’s 
on a um the plainest bun I think you can probably get and unlike the saucijzenbroodje from this 
morning this one looks like it has the potential to be spicy okay well no I’m just kidding you know 
when Michelle and I were talking about this last night we were trying to decide what this was 
going to be like like if it was going to be like a meatball sub or if it was going to be more 
like a meatloaf sandwich it looks like a meatloaf sandwich it is 100% a meatloaf sandwich i love 
meatloaf sandwiches i know looks like someone took two big bites out of it already yeah you bit 
off the top you’re leaving me with all the bread nope all bread no ball we were supposed to record 
an intro uhoh i guess we’re going to have to get another one it’s a strong garlic flavor mhm mhm 
it’s so good yeah i wonder if they’re all like this this is really good mhm but is it spicy mm- 
It does have a strong paprika flavor though so there’s pepper there’s just not spicy pepper 
yeah there’s pepper there’s no spicy pepper though okay i’m very happy with this yeah it’s 
really good really putting those balls in your mouth you got to shove them in there that don’t 
that doesn’t sound very like what I was going for it sounds violent four and a half stroopwafels oh 
mhm thought you were going to make a joke no yeah actually I like it a lot i’m going to go with 
five stroopwafels i know i’m being kind of like generous today but it’s it’s pretty good sandwich 
that’s why I’m not super unhappy that we have to go get another one get another one because 
we forgot to film the intro we just wanted to eat it so bad you just need to get those balls in 
your mouth so quickly that you forget what you’re supposed to be doing yep so when we went back 
in to get one for the intro what did you get i got pindasaus one yay a Get those balls in your 
mouth five stroopwafels with the pindasaus oh my gosh really now if you’ve watched our channel for 
a while now you know that we love to get to the bottom of food debates here in the Netherlands 
well this time it’s about Did you You didn’t cut it did you this time it’s about ice cream and I 
think people in Den Haag are pretty passionate about Luciano’s being the best ice cream when I 
was looking at Reddit I saw that there is a very passionate fan base for ijskabinet so let’s get 
some ice cream well Alex is talking about how he didn’t really want any ice cream mhm but I’ve got 
my ice cream and I’m telling you I’m looking at two scoops of another ice cream in his hands right 
now so I got the stracciatella because she said it was one of the more popular like traditional 
flavors and look at all of the different chocolate chips all the stracciatellas mhm i’ve been 
licking it because it’s melting and it is very good chocolate flavor is delightful and hardly 
any of the chocolate chips are really big which just kind of like makes it all blend in your mouth 
really well i got bitterkoekjes and bokkenpootjes they had bokkenpootjes ice cream look at this 
that’s the bitterkoekjes I think no no no it smells almondy she said both of them had almond in 
it and that they would have like a bitter finish nuh-uh really it’s very almondy is it bitter 
it tastes like chocolate and almonds which is basically a bitterkoekjes i like the uh the 
curved look you’ve got going I’m holding camera i’m still trying to eat my ice cream it’s good 
but I’m I’m afraid that this bitterkoekjes ice cream is just going to be like a plain no 
chocolate version same ice cream cuz Yeah there’s no chocolate to jazz it up nope it’s got 
a little bit more of like a a sugary flavor to it it’s a little bit more creamy the ice cream 
base looks different yeah it is definitely a different ice cream base like it’s definitely 
more creamy it’s like a little more yellowy or beigey mhm i mean actually no look at that 
there’s pieces of cookie bitterkoekjes in it m they actually put the bitterkoekjes in the 
the bitterkoekjes ice cream this is pretty good this is not a very modest way to sit while 
eating ice cream fuck modesty wow that was not what I expected fair enough fair enough um 
okay so most of my ice cream’s gone all of the bitterkoekjes ice cream is gone though and that 
means it’s five stroopwafels that is honestly the bitterkoekjes ice cream is some of the best 
ice cream I’ve ever had and we’re from a city in the United States that’s known to have like 
one of the best ice cream places in the country really good ice cream so I feel like we know ice 
cream especially Alex is his passion or at least ice cream is my passion that’s true yeah and 
those five stroopwafels it’s so delicious even Yeah i mean you’re rating Let’s Let’s rate this 
once each on the highest thing that we tried to me the bitterkoekjes ice cream is 100% the way 
to go it’s delicious that is five stroopwafels and then the other two ice creams are still 
really good it doesn’t matter actually yeah i mean they are really good i think we should 
acknowledge that even if we’re not rating they’re both really really good bitterkoekjes 
five stroopwafels so we got Lucanos last year at the end of our Den Haag video but it’s been a 
while so I think we’re going to need to refresh our memories yeah and in the meantime we just ate 
a lot of food and I think we should go walk it off um okay so we’re at our first place um and uh 
we’re walking up to it and I’m like we went to this place in our first Den Haag video and 
Michelle was like did we it’s new to me no it’s not you were there if you haven’t seen our 
first video it’s new to you this is the Haagse Toren what is unique about this tower Alex it’s 
uh it was featured in the first Den Haag video from buncharted it’s hexagonal design oh that’s 
unique not every tower has that okay it’s 80 m tall and it’s one of the oldest buildings in Den 
Haag it’s over 600 years old i don’t think we said those things in our first video no yeah well maybe 
we did we’re way more educated now are we behind this gate is an alley and if you look at Google 
Street View this clearly used to lead to a park called the Palace Garden but the door doesn’t open 
and hang on hang on okay and it’s become a bit of a mystery with both locals and tourists alike 
when you you kept saying and hang on like you were trying to read this and I was like it’s in English 
no no i couldn’t remember what I was supposed to say so we are actually told how to get into the 
park but we are sworn to secrecy welcome to the palace garden paleis noordeinde is an official 
working palace of the Dutch king located in the heart of the city this park used to be part of the 
palace grounds which is why the architecture near the gate that we looked at earlier is so different 
from the homes surrounding it that gate was once a part of the wall that encompassed the palace and 
the garden as you can see the the garden is not actually all that secret i mean there’s there’s 
a big gate right there from from the the busy street but the entrance that we went through 
was secret fun yeah it felt like we were doing something wrong you know you got that rush of 
adrenaline hey what you know what I’m looking at say it you know what it is that’s 
a thick ass tree it’s a call back to the Deventer video if you are 
uh not a typical buncharted video watcher so from what I’ve read this street hasn’t 
always been the nicest so a while back from what I’ve read and from what I can see the street 
hasn’t always been the nicest so a while back the city commissioned some artists to make some 
street art to perk things up a little bit and the street art is this massive mural of cats playing 
it goes from down there all the way around the corner like it is pretty intricate can you imagine 
living up there and just looking out your window to the side and seeing like a little cat hanging 
that bird hanging down it is pretty cool it’s very cool every time we come to the Hague I always see 
this giant staircase next to the Binnenhof and I always want to climb it and then I always forget 
about it but I think this wasn’t in the plan i don’t want to do it why cuz I’m afraid of heights 
and stairs we’re not climbing a tower today and that’s like a very typical buncharted thing 
to do in a video yeah but in a tower you are like confined to the tower so if you misstep 
you just roll down it that is like Yeah but the stairs are way like steeper in the tower and 
old this is new let’s go let’s go let’s go let’s go hey be careful it can be slippery let’s go 
i got a great view sun’s out bun’s out michelle way wait I thought you were going to do 
it uh I can’t i’m holding on we did it you going to be all right hold on there’s 
the the What was the name of the church it’s got like little wobble to it i know i 
hate it you like that it’s terrible i don’t like this this is bad what was the name of 
the church uh I don’t know it’s the Haagse Toren though and then over here we’ve got 
the uh the binnenhof which is the seat of government in the Netherlands it’s wobbly i 
guess that’s a good thing though right why um I think some it needs give or else it would 
snap in half of it if it was windy is that true do you see the bridge that they made 
for the construction equipment oh yeah look at that there’s the prison gate museum that we 
went to earlier you can see everything up here can we go down it’s the next day and uh 
the weather is much different it’s much worse but that’s okay what happened was uh 
yesterday we ended up eating two birch balls on accident and then I also ended up eating 
two scoops of ice cream on accident oops so we we we weren’t super hungry for the uh the 
next thing that we’re going to do but we wanted to enjoy it so we’re back today hopefully we don’t 
get rained on so we’ve talked about in past videos how Den Haag is the center of government the 
seat of government center of government in the Netherlands and we’ve also talked about how it 
is the home of the International Court of Justice but what we haven’t talked about is that it is 
apparently home to the best Indonesian food that you can get in the Netherlands at least according 
to some of the people that told us it was when we asked for y’all’s tips on places to go in Den Haag 
we’re at Waroeng Padang Lapek which specializes in a particular type of Sumatan cuisine called 
Padang michelle forgot to say it but thank you Maike for the recommendation when we were looking 
at the menu half of it was very familiar to us and half of it was a little unfamiliar but let’s start 
with what was familiar so I got the chicken saté and it smells delicious it smells a little smoky 
very peanuty i’m curious how uh you’re going to compare this to your experience trying goat saté 
now that we’ve had that which I think is the goat of sat if you will if you will this might be the 
best chicken saté I’ve ever had the chicken is marinated in like something that’s a little spicy 
it actually might be that like chili spice that’s inside of it and then I get like the sweetness 
from the saté sauce on the outside the chicken is extremely tender too it’s very very good 
not getting like much of a grill taste but the spiciness it’s perfect so I got the nasi padang 
which is a plate full of a lot of different things and I’m very excited to try all of them because 
some of them are things like Michelle mentioned that are very familiar to me but some of them are 
things I’ve never tried before and I’m a little scared i think it’s going to be spicy but I mean 
given how everything else has gone today maybe it won’t be so Michelle was telling me that like 
the staple items of padang cuisine are coconut milk and chili so I’m expecting to taste both 
of those things and all of the things I have in front of me let’s start with what I think is 
I think that’s the beef and I think so too it is spicy is it mhm wow next let’s try the spicy 
tempe wait this is the tempe this is not That’s the That’s the curry that’s the jackfruit curry 
yeah what’s it called uh gulai so gulai is one of the hallmarks of Padang cuisine and it’s made 
with coconut milk Indonesian aromatic spices and you basically put it on everything from vegetarian 
items to fish to beef to jack fruit to jackfruit that’s a vegetarian item okay so the jackfruit 
curry was actually the gulai nangka i’m about to try the gulai tunjang kikil which is beef 
trotter and sauce which I believe is the foot of a cow looks exactly like I would have expected 
it’s very gelatinous it’s very um very fatty like uh Yeah it’s fatty and gelatinous it it the the 
stuff that it’s marinated in which I think is actually similar to the rendang is actually very 
very good it’s just a very interesting texture and finally let’s try some of these marinated 
cassava leaves you think these are going to be spicy i think so they look like collard greens 
yeah they do look a lot like smells really really good the sauce is a little fishy and coconut milk 
will you try the rest of the trotters yeah first time trying beef trotters the name really throws 
me the whole like beef trotters thing it’s like you’re really getting exactly what what it implies 
the flavor is excellent like it’s it’s very well spiced it’s just Yeah the texture is a little 
hard i’m not sure I would have been able to eat as big of a bite as you did sometimes you just 
got to go for it yeah yeah i appreciate that i respect that it’s very good though this is the 
spiciest thing I’ve eaten in the Netherlands in a long time but I didn’t even ask for it to be 
spicy it’s just the way it’s default presented she warned you though i know she did warn me i do 
respect that though this is delicious it’s not too spicy it’s definitely the spiciest thing I’ve had 
in this video mhm yeah the weather got a lot worse um it’s been off and on pouring uh it it it it 
rained real good while we were in the restaurant but thankfully we were happily eating our spicy 
Indonesian lunch while while that that rain was happening not going to rate it because I don’t 
feel like it’s fair to rate an entire plate of individual items but overall everything was medium 
spicyish i mean my mouth is still burning when we left but I’m I’m okay now but uh everything was 
really really really good highly recommend that place i was not planning on getting anything at 
the place that we’re going to next but now I feel like I have to you got to cool down a little 
my melt down so when we were in there Michelle was like “What flavor should I get?” And I was 
like “You should get the stracciatella so that we can do an a comparison like a true comparison 
between the two ice creams that we’re trying.” But what happened absolutely not i saw that they had 
spekkoek ice cream and I was just immediately like “That’s the one that I want.” But we haven’t even 
said where we are we’re finally back at Luciano’s and like we mentioned earlier this is considered 
to be the best ice cream in Den Haag and we’ve had it before and I remember it being you know pretty 
good but the question today is is it better than ice cabinet probably not it seemed a little hard 
when she was scooping it do I just That’s what she said wait do I just go for it there’s the 
classic Michelle do I just go for it does it taste like spekkoek she said there’s a little bit 
of alcohol in it which is a little confusing like what’s Sure okay yeah it tastes a lot like 
spekkoek yeah it tastes like pandan mhm i’m pleased with it okay do you want to try yours yeah 
i got the uh Key West lime pie is that what it’s called is it because it’s not actually key lime 
you can’t really tell both of our ice creams look exactly the same they do isn’t that interesting 
i thought mine was going to be kind of green or something mine would be green oh both of them 
would be green oh it’s very limey and it’s got crust in it vanilla flavored cookie crust you turn 
the camera over here there you go i mean it’s not bad but it’s not I I was expecting key lime even 
though I realized now they’re tricking you with the name the name is a little misleading but it’s 
got Well is it better how many stroke waffles four stroke waffles i’ll give mine three and a half 
it’s pretty good so so I think it goes without saying that ice ice cabinet’s better sorry Luciano 
mhm if you’re in the neighborhood my apologies to Luciano personally yeah if he’s watching we’re 
so sorry but it’s still delicious yeah it’s still really good ice cream we looked at that apartment 
when we moved here yeah we did we did not get it it was very cute we applied for it and they said 
no but I don’t know maybe that’s Then we ended up in Rotterdam what was your favorite thing about 
Den Haag today Michelle i think my favorite thing Well getting ice cream twice i forgot how much 
I loved ice cream i think the ice cream in this has renewed my love of ice cream i’ve never been 
a big ice cream girl and after these two they’re very good so I would probably say it was the ice 
cream oh really what about climbing the that tower thing no that was the worst part yeah i think my 
favorite thing other than the the bitter cookies ice cream which was delicious was uh the uh the 
the the birch ball i’ve never had one before and it was actually not what I expected at all and 
I I I really enjoyed it and I’m going to start getting that way more often and it’s probably 
going to disappoint me a little bit because I think that one was actually exceptionally good 
yeah so like we mentioned before Den Haag is the third largest city in the Netherlands so we 
have just barely scratched the surface with our visit here so if you want to see us come back 
for a fourth time and maybe do something a little beachy you can because you can do that here too 
you can do everything here you can climb a tower you can get ice cream you can go to the beach you 
can join the the cabinet you can join the twede kamer yeah or the eerste kamer thanks so much 
for watching and uh we’ll see you all next week

In this episode, Michelle and Alex return to Den Haag (aka The Hague), the third largest city in the Netherlands, and this time, explore the spicier side (at least, from a food tour perspective).

Episode 177 · Filmed on June 4 and 5, 2025 · Den Haag (The Hague), The Netherlands

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0:00 Introduction
0:33 Givin’ her the ol’ spicy saucijzenbroodje
2:16 We’ve got a tough job…
2:49 Prison Gate Museum
4:44 The best bagels in the Netherlands
5:09 Now, it’s time for our first broodje bal
7:08 When one bal just isn’t enough
7:18 An ice cream rivalry in Den Haag!
8:17 Bokkepootje and bitterkoekje ice cream?!
9:40 This is going to be challenging
10:38 De Haagse Toren
11:24 Palace Gardens
12:49 Kattensteeg
13:32 Uitzichtpunt Binnenhof
15:31 It’s the next day. Oops.
16:23 The best Indonesian food in Den Haag?
17:15 Nasi Padang (and beef trotters!)
18:58 Now, it’s Michelle’s turn…
19:46 Was it actually spicy?
20:21 OK, let’s quash this ice cream beef
22:06 Our thoughts on Den Haag
22:54 Wrap up

#netherlands #expatlife #denhaag #thehague

—
WHO IS BUNCHARTED?

We’re Michelle and Alex, two American expats living abroad in the Netherlands. 🇳🇱

In 2020, we quit our jobs to travel the world, and… well, that didn’t happen. So in 2022, we decided to make an even BIGGER change: to pack up our lives (and our cats 🐈) and move to the Netherlands from Austin, Texas (in the United States). Subscribe for new videos like this every week!