Sarees and Indian clothing and other Rotterdam, Netherlands Shopping Tips

Name of Shop: R&R Collections

The West-Kruiskade continues onto the 1e Middelandstraat where you will find a number of Indian clothing shops. They are all extremely colourful and glittering with handsewn beads and decoration.

What To Buy: Beautiful colourful sarees, evening gowns, childrens festive clothes, shoes, Indian jewelry, scarfs...

I bought 2 beautiful fabrics in the end-of-sale. A very large green scarf with lovely dark red knotted fringing, and a beautiful saree purple and green. Both were € 10 a piece. I think I will use the saree as a table cloth, as it is slightly damaged and not really fit to wear it as a saree. But beautiful nonetheless.

What To Pay: A saree or evening dress is from about € 65 to € 250. You can also buy fabric and have it sewn into a ready made saree for € 30 extra.

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Theme: Women's Clothes
Phone: 010 4365254
Address: 1e Middellandstraat 30A, 3014 BE Rotterdam
Directions: 10 minute walk from Central Station.

Name of Shop: Kruiskade area

It's not a shop but a stand, only on Saturdays on the West-Kruiskade. The stand sells fresh Surinamese black pudding, hot sausage, and tripes (gut). All hot and sold as a snack with 'sambal', a very VERY spicy chili paste.

This stand seems very popular but they are only on the street on Saturday. The sign stated black pudding and meat sausage (in Dutch) and two Surinamese words Fladder (intestines or stomach) and Berι (pig gut). I asked to taste the gut (photo 2), which has a soft, fatty consistency and tasted nice coming out of the stock with a faint tripe flavour.

The fladder I did not taste, it is a darker 'meat' attached to the gut.

What To Buy: I must say the black pudding was delicious. I have eaten it often in UK and France and of course in my own country. This Surinamese version has different spices.

What To Pay: I paid € 3,50 for a small portion of black pudding.

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Theme: Food and Drink
Phone: --
Address: Westkruiskade
Website: --
Other Contact: --

Name of Shop: Anny's

I always enjoy a visit to this Chinese bakery. Spacious, clean and with a big variety of savoury and sweet pastries.
Unfortunately I have never made a photo of all the delightful products from this shop. Remind me for next time!

What To Buy: My favourite snack is the white bun Cha Sieuw. The white bread is quite sweet (but not sugary) and slightly sticky with a brown crust, filled with savoury/sweet pork. Very satisfying.
I also enjoy the pastries filled with red beans (very sweet) and the featherlight, quite artificially coloured 'angel cake' like cakes.

What To Pay: You pay € 1 for each pastry, or € 10 for 12 (whatever you choose).

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Theme: Food and Drink
Address: Westkruiskade 42, Rotterdam

Name of Shop: Donner Bookstore

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The largest bookstore in The Netherlands, 2500 square metres of books, multimedia, CD's (classical and modern) sheet music, exclusive games and toys...
A coffee shop and a lunch/dining restaurant. Exclusive stationary and pens.

You can easily spend a day here.
But I spent 11 years here as I worked in this shop, at the Erasmus University branch and at the bookstore on the Lijnbaan.

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What To Pay:

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Dutch-language books have a fixed price in The Netherlands. So book prices are the same in every bookstore.

Foreign language books (for instance English books for study or professionals) can differ in price depending on the moment of import. There's a special currency list for these books which is updated montly (if I remember correctly). It also depens on the amount that is imported by the bookstore. So these can differ in price but the basic calculation is the same in any bookstore.

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Theme: Books
Phone: +31 (0)10 4132070
Address: Lijnbaan 150, 3012 ER Rotterdam
Directions: City center
Website: www.donner.nl

Name of Shop: De Klok

If you need anything at all that has to do with camping, tents, caravans, barbecues, in short, the summer outdoors, then you need to come here!



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Theme: Sporting Goods
Phone: 010 4190200
Address: Colloseumweg 470, 3075 LZ Rotterdam

Name of Shop: Kazaguruma

A tiny shop filled with canned, boxed, cooled and frozen Japanese foods. I've been here different times. Not all of the people that work there speak Dutch well, so sometimes it's a bit of a struggle.

What To Buy: Japanese pepper mix € 1,95
Dried seaweed salad € 3,50
Dried seaweed € 2,50
Green tea ice cream powder € 2,95


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Theme: Food and Drink
Phone: 010 4330769
Address: Pannekoekstraat 99A, Rotterdam

Name of Shop: Slagerij Munnikhuis

I'll keep this tip for historical reasons. Unfortunately the butcher does not exist anymore. So sad to see really good knowledgeable shops go!

This butcher has been here for over 90 years. Because of the many customers being working people, this butcher has many ready made and half prepared products which he all makes himself. You'll often smell wonderful cooking smells here: hearty soups, grilled hams, sausage rolls, stewed beef, vegs and mash, lasagna.....
One day I came in and he said: here, taste this... and he scooped some soup from the pan in a chipped flowered cup.
This butcher is 35 km. from my hometown but I often popped in after work or during lunch time to take home some goodies.

First written Oct. 4, 2002

What To Buy: I love the mushroom soup (home made from the freezer), the butcher can always tell you about the meat, what you need to do and where it comes from.
I bought some beef stew the other day which was very good.
It's just enjoyable to meet an experienced, knowledgeable butcher who goes along with modern times without losing the old-fashioned sense of quality and craftmanship.


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Theme: Food and Drink
Address: Witte de With straat, Rotterdam

Name of Shop: Lusthofstraat

The rather posh quarter Kralingen has a nice shopping street called Lusthofstraat. It's really important that small shops stay in existence. That not everything is taken over by chains and megastores.

What To Buy: Good quality shops like a bakery, good butcher and also an organic butcher, deli/cheeseshop, Turkish shop, various fashion boutiques, bookstore, toys, etc. Everything you need really in just one small street.

My eye fell on a beautiful purple leather shoulderbag in one of the boutiques (Altanzza) and my fate was sealed when I entered. Waaay too expensive. I'm no good at brands, but by seeing the quality I knew I had to do with serious quality brands for shoes, bags and other accessories.

In the end I found a bargain in the end of wintersale pile.

What To Pay: I fell for a pair of gloves at the end of wintersale.
The gloves were half-price (which was still a considerable amount, haha!).

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Theme: Other
Phone: +31 104113300
Address: Lusthofstraat 31, Rotterdam
Directions: use www.viamichelin.com and put in the address

Name of Shop: De witte tanden winkel

The White Teeth Shop offers everything for your teeth. I didn't know there were sooo many more toothpastes than in a regular drugstore!

What To Buy: Tooth powder to whiten your teeth, electric tooth brushes, tongue cleaners, you name it!

What To Pay: Prices differ per product. I spent € 30,90 on 3 pots of tooth powder, a soft tooth brush and 2 brushes for my electric tooth brush.

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Theme: Bath and Beauty
Phone: 010 4360860
Address: Nieuwe Binnenweg 62, 3015 BB Rotterdam
Directions: From the city center, westwards, on the left side, +/- 50 metres before the crossing with Mathenesserlaan. http://www.viamichelin.fr/viamichelin/gbr/dyn/controller/Cartes-plans?mapId=-towc8gl65vf9cp&initialMap=mapid&dx=259&dy=297&empriseW=694&empriseH=400
Website: www.wittetandenwinkel.nl

Name of Shop: Galerie Ecce

A nice spacious shop in the lively, renovated Witte de Withstraat.

What To Buy: Apart from designer furniture you can browse lots and lots of fun little design gifts.

What To Pay: I bought two little gift items for € 12,45 total

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Theme: Home Furnishing
Phone: 010-4139770
Address: Witte de Withstraat 17A, 3012 BL Rotterdam
Website: www.galerie-ecce.nl
Other Contact: info@galerie-ecce.nl