This afternoon I was wallowing in that wonderful treat the Dutch call muizestrontjes, or “little mouse turds.” (Actually, per recent official Dutch spelling changes, I guess it should be muizenstrontjes.)

That’s the not-such-a-stretch term for chocolate jimmies, or sprinkles, which the Dutch, in all their ingeniousness, sprinkle on warm buttered toast, so they get a little melty. The larger category of jimmies is called hagelslag, which means something about hail, which I now forget. But I just picture a little hailstorm on my buttered toast and get all warm inside.

Stupidly, I have never incorporated muize(n)strontjes into the Amsterdam Diet. I guess because I knew I was eating so badly in all other arenas that I couldn’t bring myself to eat chocolate-covered toast for breakfast on top of it all.

But then Rod gave me a box of hagelslag for Queen’s Day (did he buy it second-hand? I hope not), which is a variety pack of dark chocolate, milk chocolate and fruit-flavored jimmies. One little pack of jimmies is good for two pieces of toast, even if you’re sprinkling very liberally.

The classy thing is that this is very good chocolate. It’s not the crap you get on your sundae at the Mr. Softee truck. But now I’ve eaten all the dark chocolate packets, and I’m not so excited about the milk and fruit flavors. Next trip, I’m stocking up on all dark, all the time.