All across the island of Aruba, there are constant changes to the shacks all across the land. The majority of small café shacks are beginning to turn into elegant, beautiful restaurant. As well as seeing continental dinners and restaurants opening up all the time, more Aruban cuisine restaurants are beginning to open up, providing tourists with the chance to try out some brilliant cuisine.
Lacking a local cuisine from generations ago, the Arubans are beginning to find a way to blend their culture and the cultures which are beginning to make up the islands food culture. With Dutch heritage long setting up Dutch-style foods, the importance of South American immigrants, and international businesses beginning to move over, there is a new clash beginning to create a unique, distinctive culture on Aruba/ If you are intending to visit, then check out these restaurants – they provide you with a wide variety of options, including the unique blend of Aruban local cuisine;
Flying Fishbone
With a very unique layout of the restaurant, placing even some tales in the water to allow you to have a water experience when enjoying your meal. Set in Savaneta, this Aruban restaurant offers some extremely different dishes, from shrimp casseroles to barracuda. While seafood is the main dish on offer, there are various types of steak and other great meals that are worth trying – overall, a fantastic and cheery restaurant which is very easy to enjoy, and well-priced.
Screaming Eagle
With a very different to your average restaurant, this luscious restaurant provides you with a fantastic red glow as you enjoy your meal. With food as outstanding as it looks and smells, the real style in the food here is the succulent tastes. Anything from duck liver crème and grilled lobster, to shiitake-and-pine sauces with a tenderloin steak, there is a massive amount of selection and quality at Screaming Eagle.
Yemanja-Woodfired
One of the biggest premiere restaurants in the whole of Aruba, opened in 2007, is by far and away one of the most popular restaurants and well-respected in the whole island. Named after a sea goddess, the huge cuts of meat provide you with a fantastic grilled taste, where value and quality trumps presentation. Yemanja is a no-nonsense restaurant, there is a fantastic array of selection on the menu, while making sure the restaurant is extremely fun and comfortable to sit in and enjoy.
Overall, Aruba offers a lot of restaurants, and the beauty is that lots of restaurants offer different styles of food. This means you can really get a lot of different styles of food from everywhere you enter – Aruba is certainly somewhere which has a very underrated food culture, and we highly recommend you check it out.
Crown Prince Willem-Alexander inaugurated as new Dutch King, Argentine Máxima became Queen Consort
Queen Beatrix Resigns
On Monday 28 January 2013 at 19:00, our Queen Beatrix announced that she will abdicate. She succeeded her mother Princess Juliana 33 years ago and now her eldest son, Prince Willem-Alexander, will succeed her as the new monarch of the Netherlands. The investiture will occur at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam on 30 April 2013.
Time for a new generation
Queen Beatrix was our queen for nearly 33 years, making her the longest reigning monarch after her grandmother Queen Wilhelmina (50 years) and King Willem III (41 years and 9 months). She abdicates not because she feels the work has become too strenuous but rather because she believes that the country should be led by a new generation.
King Willem-Alexander
Once Willem Alexander will be installed on 30 April, he will be the first male monarch in the Netherlands since 1890. Contrary to his predecessors, who called themselves Willem I, Willem II and Willem III, he will be called King Willem-Alexander. His spouse Maxima will be Queen Maxima and both will be addressed with the formal title ‘Majesty’.
We at In-Aruba.Com thanks our beloved Queen for the past 33 years. We wish her well deserved rest in excellent health. Now it's time for her majesty to spend precious time with her grandchildren. We also hope to speak for the Aruban community
Source: www.holland.com
Balashi: The Unspoken King Of Aruba
By Ryan, one of our loyal members. I am not a huge beer drinker, but when I find one I like, I really get excited about it. A year or so ago I tried a beer called Balashi and I have been a bit obsessed with it since then. I have had several beers that were more expensive, but they cannot come close to this one. Arubans like beer that is golden, clear, and smooth with a bit of an aftertaste, and Balashi fits the bill in every way.
The fact that this beer is the only beer brewed in Aruba and the brewery offers tours every weekday is more than enough reason for anyone to take a trip there. The brewery was founded in 1996, and the first batch of Balashi Beer was brewed in 1999. The beer is said to be special because it is made using only water from the island. The malt that is used to make this beer is from Scotland and the hops are sent straight from Germany.
Balashi holds a strong sense of pride for the people of Aruba. In fact, the citizens are the ones who named the beer. There was a contest held when the brewery was first introduced and this is the name that most of the public voted for. The name is a derivation of the terms "Balana" and "Bala Bala." The meaning of the name is "near the sea," which is great considering the fact that most people think of beautiful beaches and water when they think of Aruba.
I remember the first time that I tried Balashi. I was on my second trip to Aruba and I was enjoying the tropical feel of the country. I am from a much colder climate, so this was definitely a little slice of heaven. My friend and I were looking for something to do and the front desk clerk at out hotel suggested we go to the Balashi brewery for a tour. As I said before, I am not a huge beer drinker, so this idea did not immediately appeal to me. I only went because my friend insisted we should.
We went to the brewery with the full intent of having a tour, but we were told that we had missed it. That ruined our moods until we were told that we could go across the street and spend some time at the Balashi Beer Garden. This is a place where lots of tourists and locals come to get a bite to eat and enjoy some of this delicious beer. I wasn't going to have any, but once I tasted my friends I wanted one of my own. Not only was the beer tasty, but it complemented the food I ordered.
The following day we called the brewery to see if we could get a tour, but we were told that they had reached the limit of people they were taking on the tour. That was our last day in Aruba, so sadly we did not get a chance to go. We made a vow to one another that we would be back, not only because of the Balashi, but that was one of our reasons for wanting to return.
I am a little sad that I am not able to find Balashi beer in the US. Apparently it is not imported here, so the only way to get it is for me to go over there. In some ways this frustrates me, but when I think really hard about it, I am only more anxious to get back to Aruba to have more.
Link: Balashi