Guus Bosman

St. Maarten provided a wonderful mixtures of French food, tropical beaches and Dutch grocery shopping.

The island was not "as Dutch" as Curacao was -- the island felt more American, and more French obviously, but there was certainly plenty of Dutch influence and the grocery stores had a lot of Dutch brands and Indonesian condiments such as ketjap and seroendeng.

A wonderful shopping experience!

In Philipsburg we had Dutch snacks the day we arrived, including bitterballen and kip sate with Indonesian peanut sauce.

Later in the week, in Marigot on the French side, we bought some delicious French things for breakfast -- and a Volkskrant.

We went shopping for Dutch (and French) groceries a few times during our stay, and we came back with a suitcase full of goodies. One of the supermarkets even had freshly baked raisin rolls (krentenbollen). They weren't quite as delicious as true Dutch ones, but it was still nice. I'd like to see if I can bake them myself.