Street food Bistro Hard & Ziel

Yesterday, Nicky and I went on a road trip to the southern coast of the Netherlands to do a bit of touristing in our own country. In the province of Zeeland, there's the Delta Works. As you may or may not know, The Netherlands lies at and even below sea level. The Delta Works' system of dikes was designed and built by clever Dutchies to stop the sea from taking back the lands we're living on. To get from Amsterdam to Zeeland, we had a 2 hour drive ahead of us. BLØF is a popular Dutch pop rock band from Zeeland. So to get in the mood, we wanted to listen to some of their songs. Nicky a bigger fan than me, but even I know plenty of their songs. I guess most Dutch people do. We turned the radio to a Dutch channel and started hoping the best. Not just hoping, more like asking for it. Joking about the manifesting power of our thoughts, calling out for it a few more times just to be sure. BLØF is popular, but no songs would come on. I suggested that instead, we could make it a mission to go to a pub and request them to play some BLØF music. Eventually we reached Zeeland and started driving across the massive Delta Works structures. We were getting hungry, and went on the hunt for typical Dutch herring. Unfortunately lots of places were closed due to it being Sunday, but one seafood restaurant was still open. No herring but plenty of other things from the sea, many of which I had never tried eating before. Pricey but definitely worth it. Thanks to Nicky for talking me through how to eat all this. With our stomach filled, we continued driving to the city of Middelburg - the capital city of the province of Zeeland. After we parked the car, we started a totally random walk into the city. Just taking turns left and right whenever it felt right, or when some interesting building drew our attention. The main shopping street was bigger than I had expected it to be. There also was a huge church tower that impressed me. We also walked through some back streets that had nothing interesting to offer, but we kept going nonetheless. Guided by our intuition. At some point we walked by a bar with a terrace on the canal side. It seemed like a nice place to sit in the sun and we were ready for our after-dinner coffee. It wasn't busy but due to the social distancing rules we couldn't sit anywhere. Luckily, a few ladies were getting ready to leave. They got up as soon as they noticed us, and wished us a good time. There was live music at the other side of the street that we could still hear from where we were sitting. Nothing too spectacular, just a lady with her guitar. As we sat down, a friendly girl took our order. While we enjoyed our coffee and the surprisingly beautiful weather, the lady who had been singing packed up and left by bike. Soon after, a much more convincing voice started echoing the water and across the street. Then we heard, the man was in fact singing a BLØF song: "Alles Is Liefde". It wasn't the song "Aan De Kust" Nicky was hoping for, but definitely still good enough. Nicky and I still shared a high five for a mission complete - finally! We tried to continue our conversation but this deep voice continued to claim our attention, even from the distance that we were sitting. Nicky said it sounded a lot like the real deal and suggested that it could actually be him - BLØF's lead singer. Even I could recognize his distinctive voice. Then Nicky said he also looked like him. To confirm, I took my phone out and Googled "BLØF" to look for a recent picture. Guess what. Not only was this guy indeed Paskal Jakobsen - BLØF's guitarist and singer; we were also sitting at HIS restaurant. Just by chance, brought there by a collection of random choices we had made by just being in the moment. Yeah, that definitely blew our minds and called for another massive high five. The universe pulling some massive prank on us, or so it seemed.

Great variety, with a lot of vegetarian options, and very affordable. Service was quick and the staff really friendly. The place is nicely decorated and well kept. It's a good idea to ask about portion sizes; they're all generally slightly smaller than a usual main course. We got the vega taco's, couscous and spareribs with noodles.

Interesting food, street food but w a healthy veg spin. A bit small in portion but prices are fair for what you get. Beer limited. Overall rather spicy so problematic for some (like little people). Nice location. Great deserts!

Shepherds pie was great. Nice place, especially when they have live music

Awesome little resto with delicious food! Not expensive and very creative dishes. They change the menu often! Love to go there! Defenitely reccomend this place to every foodie!