Food Shopping in Eindhoven

You WILL shop (frequently) at your nearest grocery store, so choose your home location wisely.  Typically, but not always, the produce is fresher at your local vegetable stand, found in the same center with the grocery store. Bring your pin card with you when you go grocery shopping; credit cards are not always accepted in the Netherlands, with restaurants being the one place where you most consistently can use a credit card (but not always).  Each town center around Eindhoven, such as Valkenswaard, Nuenen, Aalst, Veldhoven, has a day (markt dag) when mobile food vendors show up and sell their wares.  At these, you can sometimes find ingredients you might not otherwise have found so easily, such as dried banana chips or chocolate cookies.

The nearest thing Eindhoven has to a state-side grocery store is the Albert Heijn on the ring at the intersection of Hastelweg and Limburglaan.  There are extensive sections (by U.S. standards) for different Asian, Italian and ethnic foods, but you will probably need to go to an ethnic store to pick up specific ingredients.  There is an Italian ethnic store on the Grote Berg straat; there is an Asian market on the Kleine Berg straat. Also, in this same, downtown Eindhoven area, on Kleine Berg straat, is an advanced cooking store, which sells springform pans in many different sizes, along with interesting serving dishes.  There is an Indonesian store, Toko Murah on both Genneperweg 22/A and Elckerlyclaan 89, where local Dutch residents swear you can get banana leaves. There is an Oil and Vinegar store on Hooghuisstraat, which sells grilled eggplant and peppers in jars, scented olive oils, exotic herbs, etc. at high prices (but worth it if you’ve been eating standard fair for months on end).

If you can, you should try to get a membership card at Sligro (Hurksestraat 5), which supplies the restaurants.  This is the Eindhoven equivalent to the Price Club, except the food is much more upscale and targeted toward restaurants; non-restaurants pay retail prices.  Everything comes in bulk, but there is also a greater supply of unusual, interesting ingredients, and the produce can be much fresher, or at least refrigerated, than what you get elsewhere and may last longer at home.  You get a Sligro card through work connections; friends who have cards can also take you in.

Some critical ingredients can be found from time to time at a health food store such as the Eindhovens Reformhuis, on the corner of Anna Bijsweg and the Aalsterweg.  Look there for maple syrup and for dried beans like kidney beans.

Lastly, and this is really important if you have children, at the Woensel strip mall in the Woensel section of Eindhoven (intersection of Winstonchurchilllaan and Montgomerylaan), the Konmar store carries a selection of U.S. packaged cake mixes and other American items.  This is definitely worth investigating, but don’t count on finding chocolate cake when you want vanilla or vice versa.  How Konmar selects these particular items and brands is a mystery.