Strawberry Fanta

Today was the day for a little shopping spree. A and me agreed to go on a shop-emptying food-tour, to gather as much delicious things as possible. More specifically, we were going to the Amazing Oriental. A place which, as you might expect, offers oriental foods.

I won't delve into the details of the 50+ different noodle soups they offer on endless shelves of ramen goodness, of which we only managed to take only somewhat like 10 different ones (before running out of shopping basket space). Or the 2-for-the-prize-of-1 freezer goodies, like Endless Amounts of Spring Rolls (EASR) or risolles. Okay, EASR may come down to just 120 spring rolls -- but still, that's one nice way of having enough snacks in your freezer until 2011, their apparent expiry date (don't expect the rolls to make it to that date). I won't mention the five different types of crips and other bagged or canned snacks.

No, instead, I'll tell you about the Strawberry Fanta we came across.

It came all the way from Thailand. Afraid as those Thais may have been that such a long journey might decolorize this drink, or that it might lose flavour, they made sure to put in extra colorants, sugar and artificial strawberry flavouring.

This drink was more pink than the Amsterdam Gay Parade. It radiated pinkness to such an extent, that Barbie would start to paint over her doll house just to make sure that it hadn't turned white all of a sudden in comparison. In fact, it was that pink, that I suspect that the Thai economy is booming merely by the amount of money made by the pink food colorant producer.

Flavourwise: it tasted more like that pink chewing gum type, than like strawberries. It was chemical. It was artificial. It was sweeter than pure sugar itself. Yes, it was that sweet, that my dentist has already bought himself a third house over in France because of the money he'll make on my caries.

Delicious.

Seven-Course Dinner at 't Diekhuus

Yay! In celebration of my recent graduation, my parents and inlaws gave me a slip course as a gift. Afterwards, N took me for a full-featured seven-course dinner at our favourite restaurant 't Diekhuus in Terwolde, near Deventer.

Like I promised in a previous post, when picture taking would be allowed, I'd blog about this unique visit. It was allowed, so here it is!

The funny thing was, when we arrived at the restaurant, the entire parking lot was stuffed with cars, so we expected the restaurant to be very full. However, when we entered the restaurant, we appeared to be the only guests (and would keep on being the only guests). The other guests were a separate party who had a private room upstairs. This made for the extra luxurious experience of basically a private dining dinner. On top of that, we were exclusively waited by the chef / patron-cuisinier, the amicable mr. Jan Klercq himself! This promised to be a very exciting culinary event.

The restaurants' formula basically comes down to the guest stating ingredients he / she doesn't want to eat, and the staff will adapt their dishes to your liking. There's no menu, so there's nothing to choose from. Each course will be a surprise. N indicated that her food needed to be free of lactose, which posed no problem at all.

On top of that, the restaurant works with as much local and regional produce as possible, including fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs from their own garden, adjusting their menu to fit the season's produce. Each morning, the chef will pick fresh produce and base the day's courses on that.

To start with, we got the trademark homemade bread, from a flowerpot. It was served with three kinds of salt: from Hawaii (finely ground, spicy, red), from the Himalaya (flakes, somewhat pink) and from Ireland (flakes, white) and butter.

First amuse bouche: a jelly of green apple, on which there was a small mousse of red beets for me and a jelly of red beets for N, accompanied by some salted popcorn for N and a small pipette of horseradish dressing for me.

Second amuse bouche: a small soup of celeriac topped with a foam of lettuce for me, and a slightly thickened game bird stock with very finely chopped vegetables for N.

Then, our first course: fish. Mine consisted of a very light roll of salmon mousse, with two flakes of cured salmon, spinach salad and two goat's cheeses covered in black sesame seeds. N's consisted of a tartar of cured salmon, with a gherkin jelly and some violets (the flowers).

The second course, fish again: a roll of very finely sliced sole filet with a very delicate persillade crust and a sprig of julienne celeriac, served with a tomato compote, in a bath of warm gazpacho.


Then, course number three: redfish (some kind of perch) from the North Sea, served with a delicate witloof (chicory) top, tempura of cabbage and foam of goat's cheese for me and balsamic vinegar for N.

Goat cheese foam

Next up, a course in between: pearl barley with local mustard from Deventer, with some Jerusalem artichoke mousse. The caviar-like shaped mousse turned out to be prepared with an unusual molecular cooking technique. When I dared to ask, mr. Klercq told me they used a pond pump. Seriously! Apparently, when you mix your fluid with some lecithin and put the pump in it, the pump creates the little balls and the lecithin then holds them together, so they'll float to the top. Amazing. He confirmed that this was a molecular cooking technique. All the other foams we were served earlier turned out to be also created using the pump.


Whew. Course number four: A leg and breast of quail on spinach, with black carrots (actually a very dark purple), apple quince and ever so sweet walnut caramel.

Main course, course number five: very, very delicately stewed beef. Now, if you remember the beef stew your grandmother used to make, with tender meat falling apart when you just looked at it -- this is in a different league altogether. The beef was oh so succulent, tender, tasty and exactly right, but not falling apart! Amazing again.

The beef was served with red cabbage (probably perfumed with cinnamon, amongst others), some tiny pumpkin slices, chanterelles and salsify. Exquisite.

Sixth course. The first dessert. For me, this was a apple strudel with Limburger cheese and whiskey jelly.

I'll be the first to say I don't like stinky cheeses, amongst which I tend to group Limburger. Smelling this dish indeed made me think of sweaty feet. No matter, when tasted, the combination was very good, especially combined with the whiskey jelly.


N got a millefeuille instead, made with thin strips of white bread and pear, also served with a whiskey jelly.

Then, the final, seventh course: For me, a delicate mousse of honey, with baked granola and a tuille-like, rolled up cookie.

For N, a cucumber granita and an orange granita, also with baked granola and cinnamon-basil.
The seventh course came with a refreshing, small glass of tonic-flavoured water.


Amazingly, after these ten dishes we still had room for coffee with sweets. There was nougat...

...a lolly with a very crunchy, airy egg-white foam (different from your typical meringue) with pistachio, covered in chocolate....

...another egg-white foam, covered in chocolate, and finally a very exquisite small piece of walnut-pie made of a sable pastry with a walnut-caramel filling.

The sweets were presented on some glass trays.

So, that then concludes this celebratory blog post. Thank you N, for this very fine dinner! Thank you, mr. Klercq and staff for this fine dining experience!

If you find yourself in the neighbourhood of Deventer, looking for a recommendable place to eat, be sure to visit 't Diekhuus!

McDonalds: Great Tastes of America burger no. 2

This blog post will serve as an excuse to my arteries. They are the main sufferers from the enduring eating-out experience, especially when eating out at the well-known fastfood restaurant chain, marked by two golden arches for its logo.

So there was this lunchtime, when I had not planned any eating-out event. Instead, N wanted to make something tasty for lunch so she made pancakes. Just as the first pancake got served, A asked when we'd be going to the Mac. I told him, if he'd been just a little earlier, I could have gone with him there and enjoy something there. However, N said she didn't mind -- all the more pancakes there would be for her. So A and me agreed to go to the Mac.

Of course I couldn't let her pancake making go unnoticed, so I had to try one. They were very tasty! Almost that tasty, that I was tempted to stay home instead. But alas, I had already made a Mac pact (Mact?) with A.

This time, during the "Great Tastes of America" week, a second burger was featured, the "Chicago Works" if I remember correctly.

Health-wise, I shouldn't have sampled another burger that quickly already, but of course I need to review these burgers for you, my faithful readers! Burger-duty so to speak.

Anyway, I felt it was a better burger than the previously sampled "Chicago Works", even though all three theme-burgers look exactly alike on official product-pictures, except for their buns. However, this one had discernible cheese, a better tasting white sauce, raw onion and an altogether better flavour.

Just to be clear on the onion rings however: I didn't order those, A did! After having been pressured into sampling those, by me of course. I mean, you can't miss out on great onion rings for a great price (1,-) -- and even non-vegetarian at that too! We agreed on finding McDonald's phone number, to ask why in heaven's name these onion rings are non-vegetarian. Haven't found that yet. Have you, A?

On a positive note: the onion rings seemed less burnt than the ones I had at this restaurant; also, they did come with chili dip! Can you tell us something about your onion ring experience, A?

However, the artery torturing didn't end there. In the evening, N and me had actually agreed to make some simple stew before heading over to her parents. Somehow we ended up again at a McDonald's, near the highway this time.

Since my arteries were already protesting, this time I had a simple side salad (better tasting without dressing than with), a Filet-o-Fish, a yoghurt and a small coke. Of course, a Filet-o-Fish contains deep fried fish, does come with (half) a slice of cheese and some sauce which probably won't be all that fat-free, the yoghurt is sweetened to such an extent that it's more of a sugary gooey substance and my coke wasn't a diet coke -- but in my defense, I didn't finish the coke (which I found out today when I saw there was a half empty cup of coke still in the car), I had a plain salad which was just lettuce, some corn kernels and some carrot, and there was fish instead of a meat patty.

I think that should fool my arteries enough to keep on sampling fast food!

For tomorrow, we will be enjoying a seven course dinner at the fancy 't Diekhuus restaurant in Terwolde, near Deventer. Let's see if I dare to take pictures or whether it'll even be allowed. If so, you may expect some fancy fine dining experience blog post soon!

Lunch at Silo Today

Lately, it seems like we haven't been eating at home anymore, but instead always eat out. No difference there today, when we were having lunch at Silo Today.

It's a small lunchroom, situated in - you guessed it - an old silo. It used to be called something like 'the Cereal Silo' and housed a restaurant. Apparently the restaurant wasn't doing great business. Nowadays, it houses several (startup?) companies and also this lunchroom.

N got there before me, and from listening to other people's conversations, she could extract that this was a lunch spot for employees from companies nearby. When I got there, I noticed the majority of the guests were female, somewhere between 30 and 50 years of age. The menu seemed to have been adapted to that crowd, mainly listing rolls and salads.

No matter, I ordered one tall glas of hot chocolate. Okay, it wasn't that hot, but it tasted good. Additionally, the glass had a print that said "per l'uomo" (for the man) and a big male sign underneath that. Apparently, men don't get here very often and special hot chocolate glasses are used to stress that fact. Or something like that. Whatever, I'm just blabbering.

N had a club sandwich (without the cheese, because of her lactose intolerance) and some freshly pressed orange juice. I got to sample a piece of the sandwich and it was good, it had some nice mayonaise on it. Nowhere near as much of a quantity as at Puur! (see previous post), but it sufficed.

For myself, I chose the sourdough bread with bacon and old goat's cheese. It was plain and simple, tasted well and only cost 3,95. Quantity-wise, it wasn't that much (again, I thought, adapted to a woman's appetite) but since I wasn't too hungry anyway I didn't care about that.

All in all I think it's a nice place to have lunch, not too big and not too crowded. Situated at the edge of the city's centre, I think it's good for the city to have gained an extra lunch spot.

Vegan Canape's

One week from today, I will throw my graduation / new job party. It will be held in the cafe that belongs to restaurant 't Koetshuys I blogged about earlier. As it happens, I'll be making my own canapes / snacks / bites. To cater for people who are following a somewhat vegan diet, I decided to practice today making vegan canapes. Because it was a rather impulsive idea, I just took some things from the cupboard.

I first cooked polenta for 40 minutes (with vegetable stock), then spread it out on an oven tray and let it bake for 30 minutes in the oven. It was still wet after 30 minutes, so I put it under the grill for an additional 7 minutes.

Next, I cooked some frozen shelled broad beans, and after they were cooked, I shelled them a second time. I mashed them with garlic, pepper and salt. I divided the polenta into three pieces and spread the bean paste on two pieces. Next, I stacked the three layers onto each other and cut them into square pieces, small enough to fit the paper cups.

To finish, I put a little dot of chili sauce on top, and presto, there you have it: vegan canapes!

I always thought vegan couldn't possibly be tasting good. So, I let N taste them, and, as she so kindly put it: "You've cooked better tasting things in the past!". It's true. Sorry to all you vegan people out there, but I just can't help it: to make things really appetizing, I think you will need some animal produce in the end. So, until next week, I'll try coming up with better tasting vegan recipes.

Angry Whopper

Hurray! Today was finally the day A and me both had time to sample the temporarily available Angry Whopper, at, what other place than, the Burger King! Yay!


It was a mighty fine burger. Like your regular Whopper, it had a patty, lettuce, tomato and sauces on it. The Angry Whopper though, apparently comes with an extra Pepper Jack cheese, jalapeños, spicy Angry Sauce and Angry Onion rings, which are meant to transform this into an extraordinarily mean burger.

Apparently.

Because the only zing I got was from the jalapeños. The onion rings sure were great, but I didn't get a kick out of them; neither from the supposedly spicy angry sauce or the supposedly spicy pepper jack cheese.

Anyway, it was a decent burger all in all, alas not enough to satisfy my appetite and not really that spicy, although I think N wouldn't like the spiciness of it. However, more people seem to agree with me on the lack of spiciness.

Dinner at 't Koetshuys

Last night, we had dinner at 't Koetshuys (the Coach House), with Fr&Fi. For appetizers, we had a little basket of bread with pesto and garlic butter.


I had the pleasure of sampling the weekly fish dish, which was butter-fish, served with a citrus-sauce and some vegetables.


N had lamb rumpsteak. Both dishes were very nice. Fr & Fi both had a tilapia fish dish.

There were also some fries and a little salad with it.

Fi was a little pressed for time, and unfortunately the kitchen was giving in to the pressure of a full restaurant, so our food got served a little late (like, after an hour or so). We got the staff's apologies and even some discount coupons for a next visit.

Lunch at Puur!

So, there it is: the third and final post, needed to catch up. This time, it's about lunch today. N took me for lunch to Puur!.

It's a rather trendy place which only uses biological things or so, I don't know exactly.

We had a tall, cool glass of OJ.

N had the salmon club sandwich, pictured above. I had the regular club sandwich, which had chicken breast filet, bacon, egg and tomato. Very nice.

The place didn't only have MacBook-yuppies, trendily listening to their iPods, but also some funny art by Zeptonn:

Digital prints on canvas. Also, there were wall paintings and stickers. Very nice! It made me want to recreate such art.

Onion rings

Second post for catching up: Onion Rings.

McDonald's onion rings to be exact. Now, I don't want to digress on my lack of flavour or good taste for going to the Mac, but I just had to post these because they're great!

Okay, I'll digress just a little, just to state the reason for going there.

You see, yesterday I was working at a spot which was a two-hour-drive away from home, so when I had finished working at about 17:45, I couldn't help but notice those well-known yellow arches that seemed to point at a solution for my growling stomach and the prospect of still being two hours away from home.

I was rather starving, so anything would have tasted great at that moment, I think. I opted for the temporarily available Union Rings (the non-vegetarian (?!) onion rings) with chili sauce, a simple hamburger and a medium coke.

I first tried the onion rings, and they were the best onion rings I ever tasted. I thought they even tasted better than those of the BK... Also, they came with two cups of chili sauce. I saved one.

The first sip of coke I took tasted like it was the best drink I ever had. Likewise, the first bite of my hamburger tasted like... you get it, the best hamburger ever.

All in all, I think I must have been really hungry.

Anyway, when I got back in Groningen, I was still a little hungry, so I stopped again at the local McDonald's.

This time, I took two portions of the Union Rings, hoping to recreate the first taste-sensation, and the temporarily available 'California Classic' burger which went with the 'Great American Tastes' themed weeks.

The onion rings were a little disappointing. Obiously, not being entirely starved anymore, they didn't have that first-time taste-sensation. Also, they had been deep-fried a little too long, so they there were some burnt pieces. They were soggier, and also there were no chili sauce cups included. Good thing I had saved one of the other cups.

The burger then: it was good. An oblong shaped bun with a large patty, two types of sauces, some lettuce and bacon rashers. At least, that's what I could discern. There was some spiciness in either of the ingredients, couldn't quite figure out what exactly. I like to think it was a decent burger.

All in all, I guess the lesson learnt here is: when you're really starving, anything from the McDonald's will taste great. If you're just having a little appetite, just some things will taste good from the McDonald's.

Pumpkin

With a few days gone by and taking food pictures each of these days, it was easy to get behind on the blogging schedule. So, here's to catching up.

First up: Pumpkin!

Two weekends ago, during our stay at Schiermonnikoog with S&O, the conversation turned somehow to pumpkin soup and we invited them to come over and sample our pumpkin soup. Last wednesday, they came over. Since I was at home the whole day, I felt it was my duty to make the soup.

There are few things I hate more than making pumpkin soup. Because, you see, we always think that our pumpkin has to be carved out also to make a jack-o-lantern. That means that we can't just cut the pumpkin up and peel it, but instead have to hollow it out. That is one seriously annoying job.

Because there would be four eaters, I got an extra large pumpkin at the market (pear set next to it for size comparison).
I cut off the top, making sure to cut at an angle, to make sure the top wouldn't fall in when it would be put back. I took out the seeds and the attached strings. That's one half of the irritation: I can never get out all those strings. They're too slippery to get a good hold of and they don't easily get scooped out with a spoon.

It took a painstaking two hours to cut, carve and scoop out most of the flesh. That would be the other half of the irritation. Those two halves are the second reason I always let N cook the pumpkin soup. The first reason would be, I tend to think her soups tend to taste better than mine.

I roasted the seeds in the oven. If their skins wouldn't be so hard to remove, they would make for a nice snack. Now, it just takes an awful lot of time to get just one seed peeled.

In the end, the soup was rather okay. I served it with (soy) cream, some buns and smoked sausage. I forgot to take pictures of it. Instead I'll finish this post with a picture of the jack-o-lantern, which doesn't even look like the 'devilish cat' it was supposed to become, but whatever. What a pain. I'm glad it's all over now.