Kurger Bing

Pastéis de Nata

2012-02-09T12:15:00.000+01:00

How fitting would it be, to have a Portuguese pastry that is traditionally served in Portugal for Christmas (a.k.a., J.C.'s birthday), when you have just become parents of the greatest baby, while working for a Portuguese company?

Very fitting, I would say!

Pastéis de Nata are a type of pastry that consists of a base of flaky pastry (almost puff pastry like), with a very tasty, rich cream filling. It may be compared to the spanish crema catalana or french crème brûlée in consistency. It is usually served, sprinkled with cinnamon. In the Belém area of the city of Lisbon, Portugal, these pastries are called "Pastéis de Bélem". As with any traditional, famous type of food, people from this area claim to have invented the pastry. There is even a café which supposedly serves the original ones. The recipe is kept a secret. That kind of food.

During holidays in Lisbon last year, I got to sample a lot of these pastries. In fact, at the final day of our holidays, when each of us would do something they liked best, guess where Kurger Bing went?

That's right, straight to the Pastéis café, to try and get as many of these marvelous pastries to export them back home.

So, after relentlessly asking one of my colleagues to please-please-please bring some of these back from one of her flights to and from Portugal, she finally gave in after half a year. So, thank you, C!

On a different note, as mentioned before, N gave birth last week (January 30th) to our wonderful daughter, T! Welcome into this (quite chilly) world, T! Let's just hope this blog won't be too embarrassing for you when you've grown up. And let's also hope, you will inherit as much of your daddy's love of food :)

Da Carlo

2010-08-10T21:40:00.003+02:00

Eight o'clock. Eight o'clock. Eight o'clock. Eight o'clock.
Say it four times and all you will think about is that time (..... wait, what was that again? Oh, that's right: Eight o'clock).

That's what happened when A and me visited restaurant Da Carlo in the city centre of Groningen. Like its name might imply, an Italian restaurant, seemingly owned by genuine Italians (originally from Milan, judging by some 'MI' license plates? Milan being an Italian city, for all you Michiganians).
Anyhow, we got there on this rainy regular weekdays tuesday evening, expecting a dull and empty situation with perhaps a few people present in the restaurant. It couldn't be further from the truth. Never before had we seen a restaurant, so crowded on a regular weekday. Two-seater and four-seater tables, tightly set next to each other, with every table seating some guests. Apparently, we got there just in time; for the single remaining free table, a reservation had already made (at what time would that be again?), so if we could promise to have finished our meals by eight o'clock, we could be seated (being present there at ten to seven). Of course we would agree and so we were seated. Just in time, because the next two sets of people couldn't be seated anymore.

We scrummed our way in, pushing away the elbows and other bodily parts from other guests that were already seated. The eight o'clock time had been mentioned four times by that time, so we hasted to choose something from the menu. No appetizers (eight o'clock!), no desserts (eight o'clock!), just a main course (be sure to finish it before eight o'clock!). For myself, I ordered the tortellini alla panna, A ordered the fettucini gialle alla giotta. Then, when we had gotten our beers, we could (had to) wait for our food and observed the waiters. Two of them seemed to be the owners, or at least family of the owners, speaking with clearly Italian accents. Then there was a Dutch girl, who seemed to be hired. Funnily enough, it was the two Italian people who seemed to have no clue as to what they were doing, time and again serving plates to the wrong tables, only to realize later when everybody at the wrong table declined having ordered the served plates, that they just had to turn around 180 degrees to the other table. Also, since we were situated in a corner spot which was next to the bar, but unfortunately blocked from the bartender's view by an espresso machine, we were easily forgotten by the waiters (eight o'clock! eight o'clock!).
All negatives? No, there was a complimentary basket of breadlets, made of pizza dough, served with herbed butter. Very nice! Although it did have me wondering whether the basket was meant for other guests. No matter, we just hungrily ate it all.

Then, finally, at ten to eight (eight o'clock! eight o'clock!) we got served our main course. Or rather, should I say, the party of three at the table next to us, got served our two main courses. When they all said they hadn't ordered those particular dishes, the Italian waitress turned around two see the two of us who did order those particular plates. Yay, food!

My tortellini alla panna, stuffed with meat (apparently) and served with a lot of cream with mozzarella in it, and very finely sprinkled Parmesan cheese

So finally, I could satisfy my craving for stuffed pasta served in a creamy sauce, which wouldn't be too heavy, but which would also be more stuffing than the pasta I had for a main course at restaurant Jantje Zag Eens Pruimen Hangen about which I posted before. The verb 'satisfy' would become the understatement of the century. My gosh. Even though the first few - divinely delicious - mouthfuls of pasta seemed light and airy, not too heavy at all, both our opinions were changed a few minutes later when we had finished three quarters of our plate (eight o'clock! Keep on eating!). Continuing to chow away on delicious but mass-increasing pasta, we had finished the plates just around eight o'clock. Whoo, made it!

A's fettucini, with spinach, ricotta and also a cream sauce

Funnily enough, when we asked for the bill, it was served quickly.

In conclusion:
Positive
- great food
- fast bill
- low cost
- complimentary bread

Negative
- long waits
- shabby waiting
- very crowded

So, would I recommend this place to others? It would depend on whom it would be for. If you're in search for a nice place with decent food and low costs, this would be a good place to go. If you're searching for a place with impeccable serving, pick another place. All in all, I think there are more positive points than negative ones.

Oh, and be sure to get there before... eight o'clock. Or just make a reservation. At eight o'clock.

pictures courtesy of A's phone

The Remains of the Holiday

2010-08-08T22:02:00.001+02:00

Well, since I've got these previous posts written unusually fast this time, I guess there's time left to add another post with the aforementioned remains of the holiday. Some side-notes about fastfood and schnapps.

On our way back from the UK to the Netherlands, we stopped at a road-side restaurant, which housed a Wimpy burger restaurant. Initially, when entering the place, I didn't feel like having fastfood, but the other restaurants didn't seem to offer that much interesting alternatives. So in the end, I ended up having the fastfood any way.

I should note that the burgers I'm familiar with, are the ones that are sold at the Mac or the Burger King, since those two are the only fastfood burger joint chains we've got over here where we live.
At the Wimpy restaurant, I decided to order a cheeseburger. Because we were planning to get to our boat in time, I took the burger back with me to the car and while N drove, I took pictures of the burger and ate it.

The box seems like a very common fastfood burger box, perhaps with more of an 'eco' feel to it

Well, then, the burger itself. Since it seemed to have a whole-wheat bun, I was expecting a heavy chunk of fastfood-bun. However, I was pleasantly surprised by its lightness. I guess it can be compared to the lightness of a standard Mac or BK bun, but in turn it seemed to have much more flavor.

In addition to the bun and the cheese, there was also iceberg lettuce on the burger, adding a crisp and fresher taste compared to a typical Mac or BK cheeseburger, which would be offered without veggies (if we leave the pickles out of this comparison). Remembering the taste, a few weeks later now, I think there must have been some sort of sauce on it as well, though I can't tell for sure. The patty was a standard patty you'd get at other fastfood joints. All in all, it did leave a positive impression on me. That's what I remember.

While typing this review, I checked out the Wimpy menu on their website, as I usually do when I want to recall some of the things that were on the menu. Now, there doesn't seem to be a cheeseburger in particular; there does seem to be a quarterpounder with cheese however, which kind of like lives up to the memory I have in my mind of what I ate. So I guess, I didn't have a cheeseburger at all, but instead a quarterpounder with cheese. Which would explain the nice meaty memories I also have when thinking about this burger.
No matter, I can just say that, whenever you'd happen to be in the UK and would want a change from your regular BK and Mac burgers, I could happily recommend the Wimpy restaurant.
Additionally, they seem to have a whole range of other menu options, including interesting breakfast options. In case we ever happen to visit the UK again, I'll try to review this joint again. Just for the sole purpose of this blog of course. Ahem.

Now then, the final part in this remains-of-the-holiday post, should go about a dinner we had in Germany, when visiting the wedding of our friends B & F. However, no pictures were taken (just from the complimentary schnapps, more on that later). So instead, I'll let a description of the event suffice.
We were searching in the sleepy town of Datteln for a place to eat. No restaurants seemed to be present at all, but one, a local steak house. So, despite it not looking like the most modern of restaurants, we decided to try and get something to eat there. I can say that we had a very decent meal with schnitzel there, all for very decent costs. The funny part in this description will undoubtedly concern some alcohol again.
First, when we were seated, we got complimentary schnapps when we were handed the menus. Since N was driving, she gave me her schnapps as well. It was sweet alcoholic liquor of some sort. So, in addition to the traditional Warsteiner beers you're supposed to drink when you're eating at a German restaurant, this resulted in me getting in a happy mood :). Anyway, in the end when we asked for the bill, again we got complimentary schnapps. So, since N wasn't having any, again, I was having a third and then a fourth schnapps. *hips*.
Then, when we had paid, I guess our waiter was feeling sorry for N not having anything alcoholic to drink. So when we got up, he brought her a complimentary bottle of white wine, to take home with us! An amazing display of hospitality and a warm recommendation for anyone to visit this place. Be sure to visit Steakhaus International whenever you're in Datteln!

*hips*

First Salary Dinner Date

2010-08-08T18:28:00.001+02:00

Every once in a while, whenever one of us (me, N, L or L) get a new job, we celebrate by taking us out for dinner, traditionally when you've received your first salary. This time it was N's turn. It didn't matter that we had already eaten out earlier this week because of my birthday (see previous post) or that I had eaten out
with A after that (alas, no camera with me so no pictures).

The setting was restaurant 'Jantje zag eens pruimen hangen', which is situated in a lovely pavillion in a park near the city centre. It's a historical monument of itself, with its origins dating back to the thirties. It was built according to the "Amsterdam school" of architecture, a certain type of building style that was popular during that era.

First, bread was served with butter. We first couldn't identify the exact origins of the fruit in the bread (dates? figs?), but eventually we concluded it must have been prunes -- the name of the restaurant containing the word 'prunes' (a typical 'duh' moment, after just two alcoholic consumptions).

The first courses were served. N and me had bruschette al fragole, L & L a salad with blue goat's cheese and a combination of fish broth with a croquette of squid.

Blue cheese souffle (blue d'auvergne and fourme d'ambert) with hazelnut crust

Fish stock and squid croquette, served on a white bun

Bruschette with strawberries, pecorino, balsamic vinegar, rocket and olives. Unusual but interesting combination of ingredients, although I thought the balsamic combined better with the olives than the strawberries.

After the starters, the side dishes were served. L had Algerian kebab, the rest of us Marbre Normandi, a terrine of chicken and smoked mackerel.

Kebab served over tabouleh of what I thought was bulgur

Terrine of chicken and smoked mackerel, served over fresh sliced gherkins and preserved gooseberries

Next, after the starters, it was time for the main courses. L & N took lamb's rack, the other L had saltimbocca and for myself I chose the vegetarian *gasp* pasta dish of the day. Because it sounded so good when it was described! Yes, I might finally have come to realize I don't particularly long for meat when eating a main course. Just proteins in some kind of lightly packed way, such as cheese, fish or chicken; no particular need for something heavier like pork or beef.

L's rare lamb's rack with a sauce of marsala, ahorn-syrup, laurel and orange parts. N had the same, but medium.

L's Saltimbocca (day special)

My vegetarian pasta, which were five ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta, with a cream sauce and fontina cheese cubes scattered all over it. Then there were some green asparagus tips too.


These were the three different kinds of wine that were served to go with the three different kinds of mains. Don't remember anymore which one I had or any other of us had. Might have something to do with the three other types of alcoholic beverages that had preceded these wines.

So, the fourth course of this dinner were the desserts. This one proved to be a challenge. There were so many things on the menu we actually wanted to sample. The main challenge was for L and me to choose between either a plate of cheeses, or our individual other wish of the Dolce al Lemone for L and the Tarte au Chocolat for me. Eventually we decided to just take our sweet desserts and possibly take an extra plate of cheese after that if we would still have some space available in our tummies. So on we went...

L's Dolce al Lemone, which were layers of ladyfingers soaked in limoncello, sandwiching a mousse made of mascarpone, lemon zest and thyme - covered with almond shavings.

The other L chose the cantucci with vin santo - biscuits with almonds, to be dipped in holy (santo) wine (vin). A well-known Italian classic.

Especially for N, outside of the menu, forest fruits with a sabayon - whisked by hand! We could see it being whisked in the open kitchen

My dessert, the tarte au chocolat with parfait of mint. It was nice, but I guess it was a little too set. It reminded me of the chocolate cake I used to make myself, only this one was a little less chocolat-y and a little drier unfortunately.

So in the end, my dessert was a little disappointing for myself although it was a good dessert if it were to be served in any other - lesser - restaurant. It didn't fill up all the space in my stomach, and apparently neither did L's dessert fill up his stomach. So when we had finished our dessert, we looked at each other, one of us said: "Cheese?" and the other replied "Duh! Of course!". So, we had an additional course of a plate of cheese. The waitress was so kind as to warn us that a plate for a single person would contain very small portions, so recommended we'd have a plate for two persons - and I'm glad she did, because in the end I guess we could have finished another round of the plate that was served. Unfortunately, by that time, the fifth or so type of wine that was served (a Pedro Ximenez sherry) with the cheese plate took its effect on me and my photograph-taking-will, so in the end I managed to only take a picture of a nearly finished cheese plate.

There was coffee and amaretti afterwards, which were of quality worth mentioning - almost like marzipan. But by that time the wines had had their effect and there are no more pictures of that. The evening was continued at Bar Bubbelsz where we had prosecco, mojitos, absolute prosperities and other such cocktails, to continue that alcoholic bliss....

Good thing there was a sunday morning afterwards to sleep in.

Birthday dinner party

2010-08-06T21:43:00.001+02:00

Alas. Another year has passed since my previous birthday. The first day at work, after ending our holiday. A day I had wished to be a quiet passing. No need to point attention to it whatsoever. Alas. N deemed it necessary to address it with ritual celebration, although she did manage to attend to my wish to keep it quiet nonetheless.

For starters, we got birthday cake, both for ourselves and my colleagues. Next, for breakfast, she made an array of breakfast pastry including croissants and pains-au-chocolat.

Then, for dinner, we originally hadn't planned anything special. I would just cook any of the regular meals I had already done shopping for during the weekend. But, as surprises go, she surprised me by saying she had made a reservation at restaurant De Buurvrouw, which is a little bistro near my workplace.
Since I have an inborn inability to neglect the luring prospect of eating at a restaurant, I gladly went there. On the way over to the restaurant (just across the street) I did notice a similar car to the one that her parents have. It also seemed to have a familiar license plate, but since I don't know it by heart it might just as well have been a coincidence.

So, when I walked in, N was already occupying our reserved table (room for four people). I do remember asking her what license plate her parents' car had, but she (truthfully) couldn't tell. So we concluded it must have been a coincidence and I ordered a drink for myself.

Then, just when the waiter had brought us our menus, N's parents did walk in. I was fooled all the way by N, of course it had all been set up beforehand! Already, the week before, she had set up the visit with her parents when we were at their place having a very nice BBQ (during which I had already gotten a subscription for cooking magazine Delicious from my own parents who also attended the BBQ). Then, when making the reservation, she had specifically asked the waiter to seat us at a table for four, and when I would get there, to present us with just two menus, making it seem like we would be the only ones who would sit at our table. Those sneaky little people!

Anyway, I got an array of very nice presents from H & R (N's parents): a DVD from the Hairy Bikers' Food Tour of Britain. Next there was another heavy package, containing not just one, but three of the Hairy Bikers' cookbooks! Yes, it was a great heap of presents.

Of course, next to all funnies and coziness, there was dinner as well. Exactly that which is what a food blog should be about of course! No blabbering about this and that, just food. So, in case any reader is still reading this, let's just post some of the pics we had for dinner.

For starters, we ordered two plates of antipasti, a meat version and a vegetarian version. Both plates came with a great variety of top-quality cuts of cold Italian meats, and such vegetables like marinated artichoke hearts, olives and marinated small little onions in a tomato-sauce. I must say, the Parma ham that came with the meat plate, was very tasty and just like the ham we had brought with us over from our stay in Rome earlier this year.

Meat antipasti: Carpaccio, spinata romana, coppa di Parma, prosciutto and mortadella

Vegetarian antipasti: marinated artichokes, courgette-carpaccio with goat's cheese, avocado-pesto bruschette, marinated olives and cipolline casseruola

Next, there was the main course. The ladies both took cuts of beef (I think; week's special, can't trace it back at the restaurant's online menu), us men both took fish.

R's steak with portabello mushroom and brie

N's lactose-intolerant version without the brie

Our menly sole filets with crispy baked coppa di Parma and a grapefruit sauce

Side dishes: fries with mayo (yes, we're Dutch), a salad and a chutney of apple and raspberry

I should mention that our sole filets where coated with what seemed like a very fine batter (it might have been just some flour coating). They were spiced up nicely with pepper and salt. Then there was the crispy coppa di Parma. I must say, the crispy saltiness of that ham combined very well with the delicate fish (which would be proven again by eating a same sort of thing later during the week when eating at another restaurant with A). Yes, very fine dishes.

Well, then there were the desserts. H & R shared the Grand Dessert (compilation of desserts), N had a specially prepared lactose-intolerant selection of fruits and for myself I had French toast (eggy bread) with lemon sorbet ice, summer fruits and a specially prepared fig (can't recall exactly how it was prepared since it was also the week's special so I can't trace it back from the menu online).

H&R's Grand Dessert. I was too preoccupied with my own dessert to notice what was even on it :)

N's fruits with cinnamon stick and an amaretto liquor.

My French toast with lemon sorbet ice and fruits.

So, everything turned out to be great! The dinner, the company and the setting, all very nice. What might even be best, is the present I got from N: a brand new digital (pocket)camera, even more compact than our previous one (whose flash was broken by the way; N was already pushing me to get a new one). So, the pictures that are shown in this post are taken with the new camera. Let's hope this new input will provide for an improved blog posting experience.

Holiday part 3

2010-08-03T21:36:00.000+02:00

So, there you have it. Holiday part 3, the third and final in this series (because our stay in England basically lasted for only three days if we leave out the days it took to get there). This meal would be our final real dinner in England, so it had to be good.
Our (N, S and me) quest on Google Maps led us to Chipping Norton, which supposedly had nine restaurants. We parked near the city centre, and on our way walking there, the first restaurant we came across, Wild Thyme, was situated right in between "The Arctic Fish Bar" and a real estate agent in what seemed like an unsightly little long narrow. However, the menu appealed to us, so we decided to blindly go for this restaurant -- contrary to my usual habits. Whenever I'm in a city on holiday searching for a restaurant, I take the same strategy N uses when shopping for new shoes: visit all shops there are, only to choose the very first one you visited. However, this time we just chose instead the first restaurant we came across without checking out the other eight places *gasp*. That's why, this time, I can't tell you, my dear reader(s), whether there are indeed more than one restaurants in Chipping Norton. It doesn't matter though, this one would prove to be a very good one.

For starters, we all had the watercress soup. No pics unfortunately, because (once again) we had whetted our appetites eating olives (including kalamata!) to such an extent, that I totally forgot about taking pics and instead just charged on the presented food. Nice side-touch to the olives where slices of freshly (self-baked?) bread. For myself I had a date-walnut variety or something like that. It was nice, but the next time I guess I'd choose another one. Anyway, the soup was very nice. No sharpness there whatsoever, what I was afraid of, since watercress can be quite tangy when eaten raw. Perhaps the added cream might have tempered things a bit, but it was nice. In it were poached quail's eggs, poached exactly right -- runny yolk and all.

Next, for mains, we have some pics:

S had the double baked goats cheese souffle, baby beetroot, red onion marmalade, toasted hazelnuts. She liked it, but wouldn't have chosen it a second time.

N had Plunkett's lamb; roasted best end, braised breast, new potatoes, rosemary, ratatouille, roasted baby aubergines, tomato & basil sauce, which according to her was very good. The only thing she didn't like in the dish were the baby aubergines, but well, I guess you can't have it all.

For myself, I had a craving for vegetables, since the past few days seemed to have been filled with proteins and carbohydrates only. So, without choosing a vegetarian dish (which by the way seemed to have less vegetables than the one I chose), I chose a light fish dish: Line caught seabass, steamed over samphire, summer vegetables, new potatoes, and basil butter. Indeed, there were many vegetables: peas, shelled broad beans, new potatoes, carrots, samphire (nice touch). Very vegetabl-y, very nice. The peas and broad beans gave it some earthy flavors, the samphire a marine touch and the carrots a sweet addition -- albeit all quite subtle in their flavoring.

Then, there was dessert. Because of N's lactose intolerance, she was presented a nice selection of raspberry and strawberry (multiple fruits were available to choose from), S had a variety of gooseberry preparations and for myself, again contrary to my usual picking of something sweet for dessert, I chose cheeses. I think it had something to do with the lightness of the many vegetables. Regarding the past few days, I had prepared my stomach for more proteins, so leaving out those proteins this time and instead choosing a lot of vegetables, it was yearning for something more savoury this time. Even though I don't like cheeses that much, I did choose them this time. And a lot of them were great! They had me stuffed when I tried to eat them all and finish the plate (alas, I failed, even with N and S's help). So, dessert pics:

N's raspberries and strawberries

S's gooseberry crumble, brulee and ice cream.

My plate of 8 different local (!) cheeses, offered with a variety of homemade biscuits and apple chutney. One of the soft goat's cheeses was produced by one of the former guitarist's of the band Blur, and was very nice. Even the blue cheeses, which I usually detest (why would someone in their right mind ever choose to eat molds) weren't that bad although they scared me a little bit. N, who ranks cheese among her most favorite foods, couldn't resist and just ate some despite her lactose intolerance, just ignoring the possible consequences.

All in all, this restaurant proved to be a great place. The interior was somewhat bistro-chique, like a place you'd expect in the French Provence, but in a more-or-less distinguished way. The only funny thing was, that us being their first (and only non-local) guests that evening, we were seated in the back part of the restaurant, which was separated from the front part by a bar and a door-opening, where the local guests (or at least, the native English speakers) were seated. I guess over here, one would be seated near the windows, to show to possible customers that there are more people eating there already and thus making it more inviting for those possible customers to walk in. Nevertheless, in the back part, we were situated next to patio doors swinging open outside to a little patio where an outside terrace was situated, which made for a nice spacious feeling in an otherwise little long narrow.
Also, N and S kept remarking about one of the waitresses skirts - that her skirt had a split in the back which would seem to run all the way to her knickers and thus exposing them (and they were the female part of our company). However, when I looked, it seemed to be a very decent skirt with no knickers showing whatsoever. :-( :-)

So, there you have it. The third and final holiday food part. There is some additional material, including a short fast-food sidenote and some schnapps in Germany. When I feel like it, I might post about it. However, instead I will have to post about my (great!) birthday dinner yesterday, so when I have prepared that, I might not feel like posting about some meager food experiences with kind of worthless pictures anymore. We'll see.

Holiday part 2

2010-07-30T16:48:00.000+02:00

In part 2 of the holiday series, I'd like to take you to to a wonderful little tea room in Shipston-on-Stour. Well, actually, I can't take you there literally, but you catch my drift. N and I took S there to have some tea and lunch (quite hungry at 14:00).

S had a cheese-scone with avocado, brie or camembert and cress

N had toast with scrambled eggs and bacon

For myself, I ordered a classic scone with strawberry jam and clotted cream

Note about the clotted cream: I had always wondered what it would be like, since it can't be bought here in the Netherlands. It turned out to be closer to butter than to whipped cream, which may alternatively be served in the Netherlands when having tea (for example, at the Theefabriek). It was rich. It was delicious. It was artery-clogging, heart-stoppingly good. Yum!
Also, I think this was the first time I had an actual, full-sized scone. Not the mini-versions we always sample at the Theefabriek, nor the selfmade attempts at scones that wouldn't rise and stay compact little bricks. No, this was a piece of pastry, the size of a tennisball, very fluffy yet satisfying.

To me, it made for a very nice English tea-drinking event.

Holiday part 1

2010-07-29T23:41:00.002+02:00

Instead of putting all pictures from this Summer holiday together in one long blog post, let's divide them into separate posts per events. That ought to save me some time and prevent me from postponing it until the next holiday.

We spent a few days in the nice rural counties in the South-East of England. While staying their, our friends S & O took us to one of their favourite Oxford restaurants: the Trout (map), situated in a lovely place near a water mill and a river. But of course we don't care about scenery at a food blog. We care about the food!

Let's state upfront that I didn't take any pictures of my own food. Why? Well, the food of the other three in our company was served first. So, while waiting for my course, I took pictures of the other three courses. When finally my food arrived, I was so hungry that I immediately dived in, without the slightest notion of taking a picture (the wait probably took only 1-2 minutes, but seeing the other food and having whetted our appetites with some bread and olives I guess I let myself go). For myself, I had ordered deepfried cod in Peroni beer batter with chips and pea puree and a tartare sauce, which in itself was good because it was prepared with fresh ingredients; the cod itself was a little tasteless unfortunately.

Now, for the pictures:

O had a burger with gherkin, mustard mayo, cheese, relish, extra bacon and chips.

S had a pasta dish, strozzapreti, with artichokes, olives, tomatoes, rocket and goats cheese

N had a ribeye steak, with balsamic roast onions, rocket, horseradish, parmesan and chips.

Sailing

2010-07-25T16:16:00.000+02:00

At our annual sailing trip, this time also including Big-L, along with S, E and J, we usually don't care too much about dinner, since the outdoors will always make you hungry. We started the trip at friday evening and ended sunday in the afternoon. The weather was beautiful (even hot) and it was very nice and all, etc. -- but of course you're interested in the food we ate during that trip!

Well, that friday we had some fries with mayo and croquettes. Because there were Endless Amounts of Fries, we had plenty leftover. During that dinner and also afterwards, Big-L had a very influential role in halving the beer supply for the weekend. Later that evening, probably when the effects of that role had kicked in, he specifically requested for the cold fries leftovers to be served for breakfast the next morning, on a sandwich, with peanutbutter. The rest of us, not having had such an influential role, promised to remind him of that the next morning.

So, here it is, the proudly presented Cold Fries Sandwich with Peanutbutter:

Unfortunately, I cannot describe the gustatory experience this culinary curiosity has led to, but I'm sure Big-L himself will want to comment on that. We might, however, draw some conclusions from the fact that he withdrew after just a single bite and made us promise to stop him from expressing silly wishes after having had a few beers.

Ah, the joy of beer-influenced decisions.

The next day, we had macaroni and cheese, with some ketchup and diced ham.

After boiling some macaroni, we added two bags of grated cheese and a tin of diced ham, along with a tin of tomatoes. Unfortunately, the pan was too small to add another tin of diced ham (which while waiting for the macaroni to boil, started to decolor -- and the cooking only took 7 minutes). Luckily, the two bags of grated cheese did fit in. However, because of the heat of those days, the cheese had already started to melt beforehand and had formed a large lump. Because of that, it wasn't easy to make it melt and mix it evenly throughout the pasta. Big-L and S, being the hard-working sailors, were offered portions containing the most of that lump. Strangely, they didn't quite enjoy it, just chowing away on yellowy unshapely somewhat cheesy lumps which they felt was directly clogging their arteries and making their stomach ache. They made us promise to never do this again too. Well, E, J and I did enjoy our portions (which might have had something to do with us missing out on that cheesy experience). E and I promised to eachother that when we would be making a boating trip ourselves someday without people complaining about our cooking, we would gladly eat this every day!

All in all, this trip turned out to be great, however, for our next trip, we will probably have to provide for a lock on the beer supply, a cooling device and other dinner options.

I can't wait for Big-L's comments on his culinary experience!

Two Belgians

2010-05-20T22:52:00.004+02:00

Here is a post about a recent visit again to local restaurant De Twee Belgen (The Two Belgians). We went there last Ascension Day. No lengthy stories about what we ate there, just pictures and short descriptions.

Amuse bouche was a small cup of tomatosoup with a cheese twister.

Every time I eat here, I just have to have the shrimp croquettes as a starter. I'm sure they have other items on the menu, but come one, who'd order something else when you can have shrimp croquettes? Especially when they're the best in town.

Okay, maybe N's lactose intolerance made her choose oxtail stock with ravioli, stuffed with duck foie gras. Apparently, very good. Not as good as shrimp croquettes of course.

Since the asparagus season was in full bloom, we both ordered the special of asparagus, served with a poached egg and fabulous ham of a special kind of pork I've already forgotten. Served on the side were the infamous Flemish fries (whole different league altogether than french fries), though a bit on the salty side. And apparently some salad.

Service was swift since we had mentioned we were on a tight schedule because we wanted to see The Fantastic Mr. Fox, so we were amply in time at the cinema. Afterwards we had a drink at a bar and after that we even went to the fair, where I won N a stuffed bee, we had cotton candy and sugar coated nuts and I even lost some bucks on a dexterity game where you had to try to win a prize by making a stick push through some tight holes (sorry, I can't think of a better explanation). All in all, it was a great day!

Rome

2010-05-20T21:23:00.007+02:00

Well then, here we are again. A lot of things have happened lately, not only foodwise. However, as usual I've been too damn lazy to update this blog. It's actually like putting together a photo album after a vacation. You know you should do it and it'll bring back nice memories while doing it, but somehow you can't make yourself do it. That's laziness for you! Well, for me then actually.

One of those things that have happened lately, is we've been taken to Rome for five days, by my parents to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary, all expenses covered. Yay! Thanx mom & dad!
Having been to Rome before and having seen a lot of cultural things that previous time, now I had a chance of getting involved more with the culinary experiences. And boy, did we have some!

We stayed at Hotel Embassy. When we arrived there in the evening, the front desk clerk, a funny 60-year-old man, made sure we would eat a good meal and made a reservation at a small restaurant nearby, at the Via Volturno.

That night we were for the first time exposed to Rome's fine, pure, honest food. Pictured above is some of my starter, ham and mozzarella. Bread and (uncooked, unshelled) broad beans were served just like that, alongside some bitter-sharp olives. The saltimbocca was great.

The next morning, we had breakfast for the first time at our hotel. To my surprise, the Italians didn't serve savoury things for breakfast. Instead, just sweet things, like this cornetto stuffed with chocolate cream. Mmm! Perfect for a sweet tooth like me. Less great if you're more into savoury things, like N or others of our company. And to be honest, the fourth day it started to get a little boring for me too.

That's why, on that fourth day, I went looking for tramezzini, which are crustless sandwiches, stuffed with great things. Pictured below is Pepy's Bar at the Piazza Barberini, which bore the very inspired name Bar Berini. Right.

Nonetheless, they had some nice sandwiches.

This one is actually from the gelato shop SquisitCook next door where they mainly served icecream, but if you don't tell anyone we can keep that a secret. It was filled with some kind of cheese and ham. Mmm!

Speaking of icecream, Italians are - of course - the very masters of said sweetness. All over Rome you'll stumble upon gelato shops. It is said each Roman has their own favourite shop. The one most famous however, according to our travel guide books, was Giolitti, at the Via degli Uffici del Vicario, in the vicinity of the Pantheon (and a little further away, the Trevi fountain). If your guide books won't guide you there, the lines of tourists waiting for their turn might guide you.

Again, the picture above isn't an icecream from that shop, but it's secretly from another place, also very much worth going to: Ciuri Ciuri, at the Via Leonina. The reason I went there (dragging N alongside with me) was that I wanted to have tasted cannoli at least once when having been in Rome. Reportedly, Ciuri Ciuri served the best ones in Rome.

A cannolo is a deep fried roll of some kind of sweet dough, in this case (the Siciliana Orientale variety, if I remember it correctly), stuffed with a ricotta cheese filling and dipped in chocolate chips.

My.

Gosh.

It was great! It was the size of a can of coke, stuffed entirely with its extremely rich, cream-cheese like ricotta stuffing. After that, I was stuffed.

Dino & Toni's

This little trattoria deserves special mentioning: Dino & Toni's, at the Via Leone IV. When we had visited St. Peter's basilica at Vatican city, we had lunch here, encouraged to do so by our copy of Lonely Planet's Rome guide. You're served by one of the two brothers who will make you feel like you're the family they haven't seen in years. There's no menu, but you're just served food, the way it's supposed to go in trattoria's.

Antipasti consisted of cold cuts of meat......deep fried potato croquettes, pizzadough stuffed with gorgonzola and chard, some funny little deep fried what seemed like custard, apparently some pizzadough with eggyolks and more pizza. It made for a very fine lunch at the last day in the city of Rome, where you get true value for your money.

All in all, like in the rest of Italy (as I've been told) food in Rome isn't just a necessity to keep you sustained, it's an experience that will undoubtedly enhance your holiday. Beware though, especially in the touristic parts of the city, for high food prices. Going the extra mile for spots like Dino & Toni's will pay. If you're going there, enjoy your stay!

Lunch at Doppio

2010-04-11T12:34:00.007+02:00

My colleague M and me got together for lunch this saturday (or actually, for breakfast). Both being from Indonesia, we originally planned to go to Indonesian restaurant Pakarena, but unfortunately it was closed (even though their website states they should be opened on saturdays, the sign on the door seemed to exclude saturday as an opening day - strange, considering the fact that most people would eat out on saturdays, I'd think).

So, as for an alternative, we went to coffee place Doppio.

I had the "Lunch Complete", which consisted of some freshly squeezed orange juice, capuccino and a three-layered grilled-cheese sandwich with mozzarella, italian ham (serrano), tomatoes, salsa and pecorino, served with a fresh lime-yoghurt dressing.

In Holland, we like to call a grilled cheese sandwich, a "tosti", just like the french like to call it a "croque-monsieur". Molten mozzarella was ooooo-zing out of the tosti, with nice flavours from the ham and tomato combining very well. The lime-yoghurt dressing cut wonderfully through the richness of the mozzarella. My only complaint would be, that it's too small.

M had a roll with turkey breast and a honey-mustard dressing, alongside a separately ordered OJ and capuccino. A very smart choice, considering her plan to stick to her diet.

All was well!

Even though Doppio officially doesn't qualify as a lunchroom (coffee being their main specialty, despite the fact that the place exists for a mere three years, it had already won a national coffee-test in 2008), they serve some good quality food to go with your coffee. I'd say they easily meet the quality of a place like Silo Today, which I posted on previously. They're situated near the edge of the city centre, so it's easy to see why it's always relatively crowded.

Nevertheless, N and S always prefer to go to Coffee United, because they think their coffee tastes better, so I guess this would have been one of my few visits to another coffee place for now.

Burger King Mountain Burgers

2010-04-02T20:31:00.005+02:00

At long last! After some Blogspot problems, I'm finally able to post a small review on the Burger King Mountain Burgers. They're the temporarily available trio of burgers at the BK over here. According to the commercials shown on TV, they're supposed to celebrate some kind of rugged outdoor life. You know, for those occasions when you're at the office and feel like making a campfire, or feel like canoe'ing down that flight of stairs because it resembles a river.

A and me went to sample two of the three varieties. A had the Blue Cheese variety, and for myself, I chose the Rocky Cheese. The third burger that completes the trio would be the Smoky Barbecue.

As so often is the case, the real deal is a far cry from the grand version pictured in the ads. In this case, the disappointment was not in the flavour, but in the size. The ads and also the pics shown on the menu displayed in the restaurant, made it look like the burgers would be Whopper-sized. Not so. Their diameter was that of a regular burger.

This one, shown above, is the Blue Cheese variety. It didn't have actual blue cheese on it, but instead came with a blue-cheese-sauce. A will post his thoughts on this one in the comments below.

The one shown here, is the Rocky Cheese. Flavourwise, it was A-okay! Each Mountain Burger comes with two patties. Then, on mine, there's a slice of fried cheese on top. That is topped with some kind of barbecue sauce, a slice of tomato and some lettuce. It makes for a very fine burger. The cheese is of a very lightly flavoured kind and provides more of an extra protein-boost than an additional flavour. It combines well though, with the overall experience. The bbq-sauce is very thin, it ran off the sandwich. It has a slight pinch of heat to it, which in turn helps spice up the overall burger-experience.

All in all, despite the fact that the burger comes smaller than expected, it's a nice one. I wouldn't mind ordering it again. One last note, both positive and negative, on the fries. Negative: I ordered Twister Fries, but I got regular ones. I didn't feel like going back to the counter to ask for the ones I ordered but instead just ate the regular ones. Positive: even the regular fries are so much better than the McDonald's variety (I won't even mention the soggy KFC ones). The crust is very thin and seems extra crispy. Twister Fries are even better than that, as they not only come twisted, but also with some additional flavour-enhancing spices. One might beg to differ (N does), but in my opinion these are the best fries.

Turbo Go Go

2010-03-26T22:30:00.003+01:00

Last wednesday, A and me sampled half the menu of asian restaurant Turbo Go Go. Despite my intention to take my camera with me, I forgot. So, I only had my phone cam to take some pictures. And they turned out to be overexposed, out of focus... etc.

So, this friday, I decided to sample some of their sushi, of which we only managed to have a few because of all of the other things we had to try.

For 15 bucks, they give you a selection of 24 pieces of sushi. These include simple ones with cucumber and some pickle, salmon, shrimp...

...omelette, and that tofu-like stuff they use to envelope a piece of rice. All very nice.

However, I wasn't that fond of the tobiko-variety, with surimi, avocado and crab eggs on the outside. It was less tasty than expected.

And on that bombshell, I guess, I'll end this crappy blog post, but what more is there to say about sushi? I guess the only sushi worth writing about extensively, would be sushi of bad quality. But then, who would sell crappy sushi? Well, perhaps if it'll become more ubiquitous than it is now, lesser gods may step up to the scene.

Graduation

2010-03-13T11:49:00.003+01:00

Yay! N got her post-academic degree yesterday. After the official part, during which each of the seventeen of her classmates got a personal speech and their certificates, our families and us first went for lunch to Bar Pepper. There we had soup and bread:

Fresh tomato-soup. Slightly tangy. Nice touch of spring-onions.

Selection of exquisite slices of bread, topped with combinations like great pesto, fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and beetroot-shoots; creamed cheese, cucumber, marinated chicken and garden cress shoots; and salmon, lettuce and a sweet-sour-dressing.

In the evening, we went for dinner to our new great-restaurant-discovery: "Brasserie Moeke". Hidden in a small village, it offered a great selection of dishes. Seldomly had we been so much in doubt about what to choose, from just so little options.

Deer steak.

Sides of salad and potatoes au gratin.

Selection of fruits for the lactose-intolerant N.

Preiselbeeren-bavarois.

Apricot(?)-beignet

Cream of hazelnut

Selection of cheeses with bread of figs, and a raisin-celery-chutney.

Creme brulee, coffee-scented. (Espresso-ice-cream! Whow!)

Great red wine! La Linda, Argentinian, from 2008.

Less great: little cake-cubes served with the coffee, slightly dry and not so full of flavour.

All in all, this was a great restaurant-experience. If you ever happen to be in the neighbourhood of the village of Diepenveen (near Deventer), be sure to visit this restaurant.

Hotel Stay at Bitter and Sweet

2010-02-28T16:46:00.009+01:00

Wow! For almost four years, N and I have managed to stay together. Who would have thought that? To reward ourselves for having been able to deal with that fact, we went to a hotel in the lovely village of Veenhuizen. So lovely, in fact, that it has three prisons. Three. And a prison museum as well. Apparently, the prisons house 1000 inmates, on a population of 250. The whole village seems to have been set up just to facilitate this penitentiary apparatus.
Each house in the village had some virtue printed on it. The general idea was, that as prisoners passed by on their way to prison duty work, they would repeatedly read those words and keep them imprinted in their memories. Thus, they might learn about the good values in life. Yeah, inmate re-education has come a long way since.

Anyhow, on the houses formerly used as a prison hospital, amongst others the words 'Bitter and Sweet' were printed (in this case, the pharmacist's office). A hotel was created from these separate houses, by linking them together, creating halls suitable for reception, dining room and lounge. In doing so, a nice combination of old (original hospital houses) and new (halls) was made. Hotel/B&B-facilities that were created by combining old and new architectural structures, are called Heritage Lodges ('Erfgoed Logies'). Their setup usually is more luxurious.

No exception to the Bitter and Sweet hotel. Spacious rooms, high-quality beds, use of luxurious materials in the dining hall. Included in our arrangement was a dinner, of which I did not take any pictures, due to the presence of lots of other guests and the all-too-well-known unwillingness to draw unwanted attention by using flash. The dinner wasn't a la carte unfortunately. It included gravad lax, peppercorn steak and coconut bavarois/chocolate parfait for dessert. All was well.

So, what remains to be reviewed, food-wise, are the coffee and apple-pie in the afternoon and the breakfast. Even though the hotel makes its own bread (a whole range of regular breads, sugar-bread, and breakfast rolls), each day served fresh at breakfast, it was hard to tell whether the pie was made by themselves too. It was obviously served cold, and so, if homemade, at least stored for some time in the refrigerator, so I couldn't tell whether it was made fresh (probably was). Tasted like any other regular apple pie, but still good.

Breakfast ranged from the aforementioned range of breads, croissants, pains au chocolats to cuts of cold meat, boiled eggs, yoghurt and cereals. Served with that were freshly squeezed orange juice, coffee and tea. All types of bread tasted like they were made fresh. Whole breads instead of being pre-sliced, could be sliced by the guests themselves, using a special kind of knife that moved in between guides fixed to the slicing board, to achieve perfectly straight cuts. Also worth mentioning was one of the two types of cheese, also self-sliceable. It was of a young kind, but included herbs and garlic! Very nice and soft.

Before going home, we took some freshly baked bread from the inhouse bread counter.

If N hadn't woken up in the middle of the night, with cough, wheezing, dyspnea, chills and sweating, leading me to believe she might have caught a pneumonia, causing us to contact the doctor's office, going back home to get medication and waiting until we could visit the office at 8 am, we would have had a very relaxing night (fortunately, no pneumonia - possibly some asthmatic reaction to whatever may have been in that hotel room). Now, at least we had had some nice food.

And isn't that all that matters on a food blog?

FruitLoops Bar

2010-02-14T13:07:00.004+01:00

In service of you, my dear readers, I've reviewed the FruitLoops Bar, a typically American product, so you don't have to!

FruitLoops are a type of American cereal, specifically branded to reach 6-year-olds. Apparently, among this age-group, they're a huge favorite. Remember chocolate covered sugar bombs? Well, this should be the equivalent, sans the chocolate.

At one point in time, some marketing genius thought of sticking these together to form a bar. Basically, a good idea, so you don't have to carry around a bowl, spoon, milk and separate cereals with you, when you're on the move.

A box of these contains 6 pieces.

Each one individually wrapped.

Now, judging by the picture on the box, you'd expect one crunchy, supersweet son-of-a-bar. Alas. It's just a little sweet. No crunch, more like chewy. It's got lots of colors though. I think kids will like them anyway.

All in all, it's a little waste of money (even though it cost just 1,95, making it about 30 ct each). My advice: don't buy it.

Valentine's Breakfast

2010-02-14T12:07:00.004+01:00

As a little surprise for Valentine's Day, I made breakfast served in bed.

The main was a little roll, cut in halves, put sliced pork roast meat on top with a poached egg and a slice of (canned) pineapple. On top of that satay sauce. Yummy! I got the idea for it from a lunchroom in the village of Vaassen, where I had a bigger version of this for lunch.

Served on the side were a grapefruit half, freshly squeezed orange juice and a cappuccino.

Of course, it being a Valentine's breakfast, I gave N some flowers. Pinkish tulips.

Traditional Cuisine: Kale Mash

2010-02-07T18:57:00.003+01:00

Ask any Dutch person what kind of dish they'd choose to be the national dish - chances are, they'll mention Boerenkool (Farmer's Cabbage). It consists of nothing more than kale and potatoes, boiled in a pan.
Common sides include rookworst (smoked sausage), fried bacon rinds, a small pond of gravy and also pickles.

It's typical winter fare. It's also typically Dutch: simple, no hassles, hardly any discerning flavours.

That about sums it up. Tonight, we ate this. I thought I'd post something no matter what, since the lack of posts lately. Now if I only had some writer's talent to put all this together to form a coherent piece of copy, or at least could think of a nice finishing line...

Alas, I'm not such a talented writer.

Happy New Year

2010-01-02T22:51:00.003+01:00

As a first blog post in 2010, there's nothing that special on the menu: a plate of "Mixed fish" at storehouse V&D today. It consisted of a piece of salmon, a piece of tuna, a shrimp, some "sauce of the day" (herbs? garlic?), some large-leaf spinach or chard and a nice piece of well-flavoured potato-gratin, which seemed to be made of grated potato. The fish was a little too dry, but all in all the meal was doable for the ten bucks it cost.

Since my Blackberry takes meager pictures not worthy of publishing, I tried taking a picture with N's iPhone; alas, lighting conditions were that low, that it didn't turn out too well either. Anyhow, nothing that a little Photoshopping can't fix.

Snow

2009-12-20T18:45:00.004+01:00

26,5 cm of snow. That equals 10.4 inches of snow. It's been snowing ever since last thursday, and today it was apparently causing so much troubles, our national weather forecasting institute issued a Weather Alarm. Oooh, spooky!

Inspired by the whiteness of the snow, today we ate some white food: A poached egg and fried cod on a bed of crushed creamed cauliflower. Granted, the potato parts on the side were more yellow than white. Anyhow, it tasted well.

Dinners at Restaurants Weekend

2009-11-29T17:30:00.010+01:00

So. Here another blog post. Like I've said before, ordinary life has kicked in. In my case, that means being on the job from 08:00 - 19:00. Or until 21:00. Anyway, too short a time left for my spare time to also actively foodblog.

So, when I would have had more time, I could have told you about our visit with L&L to local japanese restaurant Fujiyama, to celebrate I got my first salary (which has already been entirely spent *sob*). Even though I did take my photo camera there, I felt somewhat embarrased to start taking pictures, seated in plain sight around the teppanyaki hot plates. I didn't take any. So, I can just say that it was a very nice dinner, with a lot of food and a lot of juggling from the show-off teppanyaki chef.

The next day, we went to Bistro Taste! in Makkinga, in the province of Friesland (a province situated next to the province of Groningen), a gift from S&O for my graduation. I could have told you about that, if it weren't for the lack of lighting in the restaurant which made for very blurry pictures (I didn't want to draw unwanted attention by using a flash).

Now, something I did manage to take pictures of the canapes I made for N's birthday, which she celebrated today (even though it's still four days until her birthday) at . So, here it is:

From back to front:

Meatballs, with a mayo/mustard dressing and pickled gherkins
Deviled eggs
Canapes with sweet pepper cream cheese
Rolled anchovies with pickled gherkins and pickled capers

After the party, we went to eat again at 't Koetshuys across the street, but again, due to lack of decent lighting and my unwillingness to use a flash, I got very blurry pictures not worthy of publishing.

So, I guess there's nothing else left for me than to just eat at daylight at restaurants, in order to take some decent pictures.

Hamburgers

2009-11-16T20:02:00.004+01:00

Fear not, beloved readers. Kurger Bing is still alive.

However, since the Rest of my Life has just kicked in two weeks ago, and I was more busy with starting up at my new job, food-blogging got a little subdued.

No matter, today I've returned with an appropiate post:

Hamburgers!

I chose to create them McDonald's' style: A very thinly patted patty (hm, would that be why it's called 'patty'?), some mustard and ketchup, a few slices of pickles and some raw onion.

However, since I saw the Keuringsdienst van Waarde TV-show episode on hamburgers, I had always wanted to make them once the way they were made in the show:

Putting sliced onions on top while frying the patty, so the onions get partly steamed by the juices released from the patty - and when flipped over, they get an additional frying.

On the plus side, when the onions create a little space between the patty and the pan, they prevent the patty from being cooked too much, so it's easier to get a rare patty.

The buns were roasted.

Well, it was nice. And easy to make.

Pumpkin soup (2)

2009-11-08T19:41:00.004+01:00

Today I (N.) made pumpkin soup. And as Kurgerbing mentioned before, I am the queen of pumpkin soup (wow, that sounds horrible). I used 2 little pumpkins (I made a jack-o'-lantern out of one of them, because it will be the 11th of november this week. In Holland we celebrate Sint Martin's day, on which children will come by the houses to ask for candy. On this day lots of the houses are illuminated and ours will be by the jack-o'-lantern).

Besides the 2 pumpkins I used 2 pieces of garlic, 5 potatoes, a vegetable bouillon cube and 1 litre of water. And - a friend of mine told me that this is the piece of resistance (translated by wikipedia :-)) - above that all I added two shallots. This friend (B.) told me she once read that masterchefs use them all the time. I think they smell bad, but taste quite good.

Of course the soup tasted great and looked wonderfully yellow.

Strawberry Fanta

2009-10-24T22:08:00.002+02:00

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

2009-10-23T11:14:00.014+02:00

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

2009-10-21T22:26:00.006+02:00

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

2009-10-19T16:07:00.005+02:00

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

2009-10-18T21:07:00.003+02:00

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

2009-10-18T15:23:00.003+02:00

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

2009-10-16T22:34:00.006+02:00

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!

2009-10-16T15:20:00.005+02:00

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

2009-10-16T14:26:00.006+02:00

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

2009-10-16T14:09:00.006+02:00

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.

Rolls

2009-10-13T12:40:00.004+02:00

One nice thing about the V&D department store is, that they sell all kinds of self-made rolls for relatively low prices. So, for breakfast for tomorrow I bought one cinnamon roll (some kind of puff pastry), a chocolate croissant (yes that's right -- a croissant not only stuffed to the max with chocolate, but also smothered in it; and on top of that, white chocolate shavings).

For lunch, I bought a mini focaccia with sundried tomato. I put some mozzarella on top of it, Tiroler schinken (dried ham from Tirol, Austria), and some roasted pinenuts. Toasted in the oven for 7 minutes made for a very nice lunch.

Family Day

2009-10-12T09:37:00.005+02:00

Every year, N's mother's family celebrates their family day. Each year, one of the families gets to organize an activity and everybody gathers at their city. Also, N's grandmother (her mother's mother) celebrates her birthday (her 91st this year -- and still going strong). This year both activities were combined.

This year's activity was organized by N's parents, and they organized a chocolate workshop: grouped by three, everyone had to make some type of chocolates. More on that in a later post, I'm supposed to get some pictures from that from C.

Grandmother's birthday traditionally takes place in the same conservatory of a typical country-restaurant, where we're traditionally served a nice buffet and we're traditionally served by the same waiter. There's a regular scheme there, that's repeated each and every year: First, two cups of coffee with some pastry (choux or those squared cake things pictured above), then either vegetable or tomato soup and then the buffet itself.

Since every year, it's (supposed to be) exactly the same, we make fun of meeting the same waiter again, being subjected to the same scheme again, introducing new family members to the scheme and making remarks about things that did change ('The waiter is not wearing his glasses anymore' or 'Last year, there was another table arrangement').

I won't bore you with other family peculiarities, but instead show you some pictures of the buffet instead.

A typical Dutch cold/hot buffet, served by a restaurant like this, consists of:
- cold meat/potato salad
- cold salmon/potato salad
- smoked salmon
- smoked eel
- Dutch shrimps (smaller than more familiar ones, but I like them better, they've got more flavour)
- cold cuts of meat
- melon with prosciutto
- brined raw herring (Dutch traditional), served with raw onion
- sliced baguette
- sauces (garlic, cocktail etc)
- satay
- beef
- ham with peppercorn sauce
- pork in champignon/cream sauce
- rice
- potato sides (potato croquettes, deep fried potato parts)

...and probably some other things which I have already forgotten.

You can go as many times as you like, and each time you go you can get a new plate.

That's basically it. Dessert is a buffet again: it includes several types of icecream, tiramisu, a chocolate fountain, puddings etc. but I'm not that much of a dessert type of person.

So, anyway, I enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to next year's traditional visit again :)

Waking Up

2009-10-09T10:06:00.005+02:00

Now, I could start this blog post by stating this is another milestone: this is a live blog post! That's right, I'm typing this while I'm still at the spot I'm writing about. Long live WiFi at the Coffee United!

But let's not. Otherwise, you, my fine readers, might get the impression I lead a pretty worthless life, when I consider live blogging a milestone. Then again, maybe you already did have such an impression. Ah well, whatever.

N & S regularly meet at this place, and I got to go along. Now N has gone off to her day of lectures and stuff and S is working at our table, also with her laptop.

I had a small latte mocha java (supposedly a foamed up chocolate milk, but I didn't taste any actually) with a chocolate cookie, the one pictured in front. Now, if only I had brought my laptop adapter so I could sit here the whole day...

KFC Bucket Design Contest

2009-10-07T17:40:00.003+02:00

For whatever reason, KFC in the Netherlands has set up a bucket design contest. What a unique chance to combine two of my favorites: Kentucky Fried Chicken and designing! I didn't make something special, but in my perception something better than the crap that has already been submitted :-)

On more technical design details: the design template was a mere .png at just 200 pixels/inch (199,974 pixels/inch to be precise). Downloadable logo imagery was also offered just as .png. All in all, it doesn't quite reek of professionalism. I hope a 200 px/" image will scale up adequately, if it's to be printed in real-life size on the buckets (which is part of the first prize -- your design printed on buckets). Perhaps you'll just need a lower resolution for these kind of things.

Check out the full design at http://www.eetteam.org/images/KFC-bucket.jpg.

Test-Taste Groningen

2009-10-07T08:52:00.008+02:00

Hurray!

This blog post marks another milestone in my blogging career. With this post, I've finally caught up on all the culinary events I had to write about. Would this mean I'll keep this blog updated in the future, no matter on how an irregular basis? We'll see.

As I promised a few blog posts ago, I'd tell you something about the culinary weekend of Test-Taste in Groningen ("Proeven in Groningen", or Tasting in Groningen).

Like its big sister in Enschede, this culinary event took place in the weekend of 4-6 september. This year was its second edition. Since we already had to go to Enschede on the 5th, we went to Groningen on the 6th. Yup, that's a busy life when you have to be culinarily curious.

Apart from it being a far younger event, its also scaled down as compared to the one in Enschede. In Groningen, it's situated on two small squares, with a lot less visitors. There are 18 restaurants, both from the city and the surrounding region. You do also pay with special coins, which cost 1,50, so a little more expensive.

Whereas the Test-Taste in Enschede is visited by the general public, this event seems to be visited more by a somewhat upper class public. The little dishes also seem to be more exclusive.

On the picture shown above, there's a skinned cherry tomato filled with mackerel, served on some chopped pepper and with a scoop of tomato and pepper sorbet ice, with a basil leaf (dried or deep fried?).

Here we have several preparations of beef: some roast beef with wakame, an oxtail stock and beef rillettes with a cranberry compote.

Tapas which we didn't sample

Croquettes which we also didn't sample

Then, there had been a contest for 'Culinary Talent of the Year': every contestant had to make some terrine or pate. Mirko Karim from Holland Casino's restaurant won it this year: his entry are the three terrines shown on the first picture. Below are the other entries:

Below wasn't an entry, it was one of my bites: a salmon fish cookie on some aubergine puree, served with a cheese croquant. Very yummy!

All in all, it was nice, but not as nice as the one in Enschede. I think that in order for it to become a better event, it should be situated on a bigger square, have its coin prices lowered and its dishes be a little more common.

Burger King Deal

2009-10-06T23:28:00.003+02:00

This just in! Today I sampled BK's King Deal. A deal fit for a king. Or actually, fit for a pauper. Since it costs so little. It's great! Here's the deal: A cheeseburger with mini fries and mini drink for only 1,95, with a double cheeseburger version setting you back at 2,95.

I know I should post something on the Groningen test-taste event first, but since my name seems intrically linked with the BK, I just had to put this on first. Also, someone stated the infamous words "pics or it didn't happen". To which I had to oblige of course.

Now, for a little review: I must say I have actually never had a cheeseburger from the BK before. That's right, I never had a BK cheeseburger before. Because, why choose anything smaller than a Whopper? So, today was my first time.
Going by the rules of Pendleton, let's first mention the good things: I realized once again how much more I prefer the BK fries over the McD fries. They've got a crunchier crust, tastier insides... it's just perfect! I accidentally happened to have gotten one curly fry in the bag of fries also, which allowed for a comparison: curly fries have been seasoned additionally and are even better tasting. Another good point: regular Coca-Cola. No Pepsi like at KFC's.
Now for some negative points (things that can be improved): I actually didn't like the cheeseburger that much. It was kind of sticky. It didn't seem to have some onions. That, however, basically pretty much sums up the negative points.

All in all, this sure isn't a bad deal. Let's finish with a little story on why I went to the BK:
I actually had in mind to go to the McDonald's, to get a hamburger (1,-) and a yoghurt (1,-). Since I wanted to take the car for a little drive, I went to the McD's at the other side of town. However, they had blocked their own McDrive for whatever (unintelligible) reason. So, I went back home. On the way back, I passed the railway station, the only site that has a BK. I thought: for 2,- (for a Mc hamburger and yoghurt) I could also get a whole meal, going for a King Deal! Of course, once inside the restaurant, I couldn't resist going for a double cheeseburger, adding an extra euro to the final price. Also, they didn't have the King Deals displayed on any of the menu boards anymore -- no matter, I just stepped up like the pauper that I am and asked whether they were still available. And they were! How great did this day turn out to be.

And that's why I'm still a happy Kurger.

Test-Taste Enschede

2009-10-05T09:57:00.006+02:00

Having been home for a month, the culinary weekend that sported snack-sized morsels, bites and culinary delights took off on friday the 4th of september. In that weekend both in Enschede, the city I grew up, as well as in Groningen, the city I now live, culinary taste-events took place.

The one in Enschede is the oldest, called 'Proefeet' (test-taste). It brings back fond memories of my childhood. I guess my love for snack-sized food was encouraged by this yearly event. More on the one in Groningen in a next blog post.

The Proefeet is staged in the city center, around one of the old churches. 25+ restaurants present themselves, letting you sample some of their food for a few coins (one coin = one euro). This way the general public can get in touch with restaurants they might otherwise not have considered going to.

My first sample consisted of something with smoked salmon, from restaurant 'Amis'. Yummy! Apparently, they won first prize in the 'newcomers' section.

Tapas

N sampled some deconstructed vitello tonnato, a combination of raw yellowfin tuna and slowly cooked veal ribeye with some garlic dressing. It was from restaurant 'Mangu', which participated in the Dutch TV-series 'Mijn tent is top' (My place is the best), where four restaurant startups competed to be the best and win their investments back. Mangu didn't win, but obviously each restaurant got a lot of publicity in return.

I had their mini-croquette of confit de canard and foie gras with a compote of caramelized apple. Very nice!

Having recently read about potato twisters at Seriouseats.com, I was surprised to find them here in Holland as well. There were very long lines of people waiting to be able to sample some. They were nice. Obviously, it was just fried potato with some nice spices sprinkled over them, but the way they were presented (one long spiral) made for a different eating experience.

Cook of restaurant 'De Tropen'.

Grilled pineapple

Some kind of fish with sweet red beet-chutney and red beet chips and some salad. Very nice!

There were more things we sampled, but sometimes we were too busy eating or meeting family to take pictures. All in all a very nice event. Thanks mom and dad for taking us there!

Danish roll

2009-10-05T09:31:00.004+02:00

Obviously, Danish pastries are well-known. On our first stay in Herfølge we had these great rolls from the local bakery. They were buttermilk rolls, filled with very sweet stuffings. When leaving on our way back home, of course we had to get them again. They came in several varieties:

white glazing - honey-flavoured stuffing
green glazing - apple-flavoured stuffing
red glazing - strawberry-flavoured stuffing (marmelade)

Just thinking about it makes me drool.

Nachos in Denmark

2009-10-05T09:21:00.005+02:00

The next day, we went to stay in Denmark for one more night before heading home, in the same B&B in Herfølge. We had a drink in a small cafe in the nearby town of Køge. We ordered some great nachos with them, which came with cheese on top, jalapeños, creme fraiche, guacamole and red sauce. Yum!

Munch Museum

2009-09-14T19:05:00.002+02:00

On my birthday, the 2nd of august, we went back to Sweden through Oslo, Norway. We stopped there to visit the Munch Museum. No, that's not a museum purely meant for munching away delicious foods like the salmon sandwich above or the ham and pesto salad below. It's the museum for Edvard Munch's art, painter of the famous "The scream". Anyhow, the food was good.

Sushi in Göteborg

2009-09-14T00:29:00.002+02:00

For a couple of days now, I've been meaning to update the blog. After all, holiday has past for a long time. I've tinkered with the thought of skipping the rest of the holiday and just posting things from the period after, but I managed to get into the mood of editing a few little food-pics and decided to post them up here.

The second day we visited Göteborg, hometown of Volvo, we went on a little boating trip through the canals and part of the harbour. Afterwards, we had sushi for lunch at a little sushi shop, apparently named 'Sushi yama' when I look at what's printed on the plate.

Well, what's to say about it? I'm not a sushi expert, I just like sushi but I can't separate the good from the bad. All I can say is I liked it, it came with a nice dollop of wasabi and a generous amount of pickled ginger and even some wakame. Mmm!

So if you'll be in Göteborg, I can at least recommend http://www.sushiyama.se.

Plum Tarte Tatin

2009-08-15T21:42:00.012+02:00

Today we went to M. en A. to fix their computer. They have a big plum tree and because they had about 4 kilos of plums and A. doesn't like plums at all, we took 2 kilos home with us. And because we had 2 kilos of plums I desided to try and make a lactose free plum tarte tatin.

First I cut the plums in half and removed the stones.

I made a bit of karamel, which didn't work out at all at first. Somehow, the butter (made of soy) and sugar turned into a thick paste. So I started over and the second time it did turn out quite good. I baked the plums in the karamel and after a few minutes they turned into some kind of marmelade :) (not quite sure if it is supposed to look like this :))

I poored this "soup" in a mould and I made a dough to cover it with. It had been in the oven for 30 minutes at 200 degrees Celcius.

After this it turned out to be soup after all... But I hope it will taste good anyway...

Ubuntu cola

2009-08-04T22:46:00.004+02:00

Back again from Norway, with a stop in Sweden and a stop in Danmark, so time to pick up where I left off. By the way, G&A are married and it was a beautiful wedding! Also a great stay in Norway.

Wednesday the 29th we were in Sweden still, and we decided to make a trip to two nearby islands offshore, Tjörn and Orust, though they were both connected by bridges to the mainland. Like our travel guide mentioned, they didn't have anything special to visit, they were just nice places to drive or rest.

Now, the gas station where we refueled had these 0,5 L coke-bottles, which were named Ubuntu cola! Isn't that great? For those of you who don't know the other Ubuntu, it's quite a popular Linux distribution (computer operating system) and I guess the most renowned. It's free software. From their website:

Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'Humanity to others', or 'I am what I am because of who we all are'

Unfortunately, the coke wasn't for free. However, it tasted like it should have been :). Which is to say, it didn't actually taste like coke (no, not even like Pepsi). I guess it was part of some sort of charity project, so I guess it's good for your karma at least.

At the local bakery at one of the villages on Orust, I got this funny little bread, which wasn't really anything special. Like the picture shows, it had some lettuce, hard-boiled egg slices, tomato and cucumber. On top of it was some pieces of pickled herring. All over Scandinavia they have these kinds of pickled herring. Where the Dutch pickled herring is either very salt or very sour, the Scandinavian type is subtly sweet with a hint of sour. I like it! It went well with the other ingredients on the bread and made for a nice snack.

Gränna

2009-07-26T01:36:00.003+02:00

We asked the next-door neighbour, what would be a nice place to spend another road trip. He advised us to go to Gränna, the place where candy canes were supposedly invented by a poor widow, named Amalia Eriksson. It was a real cosy village with a main street with some nice touristic shops and bakeries and lots of those candy canes shops. At one of those bakeries, we enjoyed teatime with some kind of pastry I had never seen before (two oblong sugar-coated cookies with some cream in between).

N had a really huge meringue. It was about the size of her head. Of course, it was really sticky. She didn't finish it. I wouldn't either, having experienced the meringue-induced stickiness before on one of the holiday trips in France.

Mmmm, bakery-goodness.

Toast Skagen

2009-07-26T01:15:00.004+02:00

The first two days of our stay in Sweden being quite rainy, we spent them indoors. Friday we went for a nice drive around the country and stopped in Ljungskile, somewhere on the south-west-coast of Sweden.

It had some kind of small vessel harbor, on the banks of a fjord. Next to it was a restaurant where we had lunch. N took the fish and chips, I took the Toast Skagen. My first real Scandinavian dish this holiday! Hurray.

I knew it from TV, when some Dutch chef (Rudolf) went to Stockholm to take on a Swedish chef (no, not from the Muppets) in a Toast Skagen contest. He even managed to win that by public vote. It is a shrimp salad on toast. The shrimp salad consists of shrimps (yeah really), red onion, dill, sour cream and mayonaise and is served with some red caviar. I knew I liked it, because after having seen the TV show I had made it myself and I liked it. I did find that the flavour enhances when it's left to stay for a day, so the onion gives off more flavour. However, in a restaurant where everything is prepared fresh, they can't do that naturally, so it had a less intense flavour but was still great.

N's fish was on the other hand quite tasteless. Luckily there was some yellowy sauce accompanying it which gave it some flavour.

Danmark

2009-07-26T01:08:00.002+02:00

Our first place to spend the night was in Danmark, Herfølge (just for one night) in a Bed and Breakfast (without the Breakfast; I really think these places shouldn't be called B&B if they don't provide for breakfast, but N says I shouldn't whine about that). We went to the pizzeria and got ourselves a pizza and lasagna.

Since there wasn't any breakfast, we got our own the next morning, at the local bakery shop where we got three really great croissant-like rolls: one filled with nougat-creme, one with raspberry filling and white glazing and one with apple filling and green glazing.

Each one was extremely sweet (ooh, how I love that!), especially the one with the raspberry stuffing which I got.

Yes, a great way to start the second day on holiday!

Germany

2009-07-26T00:59:00.005+02:00

On our way to G&A's wedding in Norway, we're taking a break and spending the two weeks leading to the wedding in various parts of Scandinavia. That's why I haven't posted anything for a while now.

I'm typing this while we're in Sweden (Alingsås), staying at the home of two Dutch friends who kindly let us stay here while they're in Holland for a while. Tomorrow we'll be heading for another place in Sweden where we probably won't have any internet available, so I'll post a lot of articles now at once.

Our first stop was in Germany, where we had a great lunch at a highway restaurant: Jaegerschnitzel I believe it was. For sides we could choose from fries or baked potatoes with bacon. N chose the fries and I chose the baked potatoes.

As I love schnitzel, especially with the Jaeger-sauce (Hunter's sauce) to accompany it, I was a very satisfied Kurger after the meal. N couldn't finish her own (it was too much) by herself, so I had the pleasure of finishing it together with her. Even more satisfied!

That was a great lunch to start a holiday with.

Burger King Transformers Sixpack

2009-07-17T13:19:00.005+02:00

Today was that most glorious of days. Apparently, there's a new Transformer's movie out there. In honour of that event, the Dutch Burger King restaurants serve a limited period only special Transformers burger. Or, should I say, six burgers?

A sixpack is offered for 4,25 (a meal setting you back at 5,95). They're six mini-burgers, all joined together by their buns. Half of them are covered in cheese, an onion ring and some red sauce; the other half are covered in one or two jalapeno slices and more of that red sauce.

The fastfood-connaisseurs we pretend ourselves to be, A and me agreed to sample some today. Because of time constraints, we had agreed to meet at 11:45 AM. I only woke up at 11:00, so I skipped breakfast and had these things for breakfast.

First, I ordered the sixpack and a separate coke to go with it. Turned out, at 6,20 that cost more than a meal. So I changed my order to a meal.

Having these for breakfast turned out to be a bad idea. I now know I shouldn't have fastfood for breakfast, or anything with jalapenos in it, for that matter.

The pack measures 17x11,5 cm or 6,5"x4,5". The buns aren't separated, but can be easily broken off.

However, it turned out, a single patty covered two buns. One of them the onion ring part, the other the jalapeno part.

Even though we are usually capable of stowing away EAM (Endless Amounts of Meat), we humiliatingly had to admit being quite stuffed after eating just two. Just two! Like, we're only worthy of a Happy Meal nowadays.

So, while A still pondered on whether to eat another set of burgers, I decided to play tough and just eat more. Bad idea. Having finished the third burger, my stomach was protesting already. But I just had to finish the fourth one. For those of you who have seen the Monty Python move "The Meaning of Life" and recognize that scene where a very fat man eats everything that's available from the menu, and eventually explodes - well, that's what I was afraid of, would happen. And they were just a measly four little burgers!

Of course, A couldn't stay behind. In the end, we both took the remaining two little burgers and fries with us home. The placemat covering the tray had a picture of a cutout-crown on it, which, the printing said, was meant for the Whopper. But, because the sixpack had beaten us, I crowned it.

We are not worthy, I guess.

Now, while typing this, I get a craving for the remains of the burger and the fries. Let's see whether I can still explode...

Barbecue

2009-07-16T20:49:00.005+02:00

I know what you're thinking. "What, spareribs? Again?!". As usual, there was some sort of celebratory event, that justifies eating this.

M, one of N's friends, came over all the way from Brabant. We wondered what we would have for dinner, and a BBQ seemed like a nice idea, even though we'll be having another BBQ tomorrow at J&L's.

The spareribs were bought pre-marinated and pre-grilled, so they only had to be heated basically. Tasted quite nice.

These were some curry-marinated chicken breast strip skewers. Quite okay, but a little dry. Went well with BBQ-sauce.

These were some cubes of old cheese, wrapped in baconstrips. Simple and nice!

To go with the meats, I had prepared some couscous salad, welded in vegetable stock, mixed with orange and grapefruit parts. Also, I had made grilled pepper strips, marinated in garlic. Then, I made cucumber pickle and tzatziki, using soy yoghurt (not gross at all) and tzatziki mix my parents brought with them from their holiday in Greece. Finally, I made some satay sauce, using soy milk, peanut butter, chili sauce and soy sauce. Traditionally, in Holland, we have sliced baguette with it and a variety of other sauces. I picked Heinz's barbecue-sauce and herbed butter for the baguette.

Now, this gun-shaped device is so cool! It's not 007's latest gadget, or the newest G.I. Joe toy gun. Well, the writing gives it away of course. It's a BBQ fan! You squeeze the red trigger-like thing and the fan starts blowing through its metal nozzle. Pointing it at the charcoal, you direct a jet of oxygen straight into the hot spot. It works great. Saves you waving a piece of paper to supply an undirected amount of oxygen in the charcoal's direction.

There were a lot of leftovers, mainly sides. We'll take them with us to the BBQ @ J&L's.

Dinner at E's

2009-07-15T23:12:00.003+02:00

I wouldn't want this to become a new blogging-habit, but this post will be another one without a picture. Again, because I didn't take one.

I had dinner at E's. He prepared a nice spinach quiche for L and me. It was great, (because) it had a lot of garlic in it too. He feared my food-criticism wouldn't make his quiche stand my tastebud-test, and that I would comment about it on this blog. I assured him that I don't blog about bad food usually (well, except for that quinoa).

Not blogging about it would make it seem like I didn't like the quiche however. So, I wrote a post about it. That's also the reason there aren't any pictures. You see? It all makes sense once I start explaining things.

So, thank you, E, for the nice quiche!

Spareribs

2009-07-13T00:08:00.005+02:00

After having been trying to arrange a dinner for half a year with the guys from our student's tenement, we finally got together last saturday. And it was great! A&K came over from Amsterdam especially.

We had dinner at Mr. Mofongo's. Because we were a large party (10), we couldn't dine a la carte. We had to choose (all 10 of us) from either menu 'Giraffe' or menu 'Zebra', which in the end only seemed to differ in the main courses. We had agreed to take the Giraffe menu.

With spareribs being our favorite already when still living in our flats, six of us took the spareribs. And they were great! The meat had been slightly marinated and was oh so tender. It came with two different dipping sauces and great fries. Apparently, there was some side salad as well. Needless to say, that salad went by unnoticed - why waste precious stomach space with greens when you can have spareribs?

They even were that great, that N & V both had their spare ribs doggybagged.
Being priced at 16,75, they were slightly more expensive than our two other favorite spareribs-restaurants, but with both quality and quantity being very sufficient I think that price was more than justified.

Pancakes without milk

2009-07-11T12:14:00.002+02:00

About a few weeks ago I discovered I might be intolerant for lactose. This is a big problem, because I LOVE cheese and dairy products. Fortunately Kurger loves cooking and he is always trying to make new things, so this no-usage-of -milk-thing was just another challenge.

Yesterday I really wanted to eat pancakes. But since they are made of flour, eggs and lots of milk, I had to think of something else to make it with. Kurger told me to add soy milk instead of cow milk. Since soy milk has the tendency to fall apart when heated, I thought that it wouldn't work at all. But because I had no other option, I tried it.

And what happened? It worked! The pancakes turned out a bit sweeter than normal, but they were great anyway. Loved them! (and Kurger as well, which is a surprise, because he usually doesn't like my cooking at all).

First BBQ of the year

2009-07-05T12:20:00.002+02:00

OMGWTFBBQ!

Yes, yesterday's BBQ was Kurger Bing's First Barbecue Of The Year and, no, I didn't take any pictures. Because, I forgot. It was nice though; we got some self-caught salmon/trout from brother T and put it on the BBQ. Put some potatoes, french baguette, herbed butter and cucumber salad with it.

From the remains, N made a nice salmon salad with just some mayonaise and pickles.

Soy Lasagna

2009-07-01T23:38:00.012+02:00

Because of her throat infection, N had difficulty swallowing food. So for today, she wanted lasagna, because that would be easy to swallow. Having done groceries shopping with a different menu plan in mind last saturday, I actually hadn't ingredients at hand to make my traditional lasagna. So, I came up with the improvised stuff I'll describe below.

No store-bought pasta sheets in the cupboard. Darn. That would mean that I had to make my own pasta. The agony :'(. So, to start with, I took 200 grams of pasta flour (tipo 00), two eggs and some salt. Clutched the eggs in the pile of flour and gradually stirred in more and more of the flour to form some dough.

Well, that doesn't look too bad for someone who doesn't like making dough. The kneading wasn't actually that hard, because the dough basically wasn't too sticky. I let it rest for over an hour in a plastic bag in the fridge, while making the tomato sauce.

I fried some onion, carrot and zucchini along with a laurel leaf. My traditional recipe requires leeks and leaves out zucchini and carrot.

Added a tin of tomato chunks and half a liter of tomato passata. Then some fresh basil leaves and freshly ground salt and pepper, and three teaspoons of sugar. In hindsight, I might have left the sugar out because of the bechamel sauce.

Instead of browning the ground meat first in a skillet, I crumbled it straight into the boiling sauce. Normally, there should be a tin of corned beef included also. I let it cook for an hour.

Rolled out the pastry and cut it in half.

Mangled it through the pasta machine to get some nice long sheets of pasta.

Cut it into pieces which I thought would fit the tiny oven dish, cooked it for two minutes and let it drain off on a teacloth.

Cooking some pasta sheets in water with an added beef stock cube.

Next, I set out to make my very first bechamel sauce using soy milk instead of regular milk, because of N's trying out to avoid dairy products, while waiting for her lactose tolerance test. I was afraid it might winnow, but it behaved very well, just like regular milk. Consistency turned out to be the same.

There you have it. The first layer of tomato sauce and bechamel sauce.

Stuffed the dish to its max and sprinkled some grated parmesan cheese on top (hard cheeses apparently lack lactose, so this should be safe).

And there you have it! My very first improvised lasagna with soy, made from scratch.

I didn't like it that much. The soy milk was too sweet compared to regular milk, and the bolognese sauce didn't come near my regular bolognese sauce. N liked it though, so she was happy. Today, she took the leftovers with her for lunch while trying to work for a few hours despite being sick.

Quinoa

2009-06-30T19:02:00.002+02:00

Now there's a first time for everything. Today was my first time to sample some quinoa. N is still sick, so I decided to make some just for myself. I used beef stock to cook it in, and added some red bell pepper and feta cheese to spice it up. On the side a lamb burger to go with it.

It was a disappointment.

I read about it being compared to couscous or rice. I don't even like rice, but I know I'd pick rice over quinoa now. Maybe I didn't get the cooking method right, but the quinoa was still too tough. I also made the mistake of using one cube of beef stock (originally intended to be used with 1/2 L of water) on 200 mL of water to cook the quinoa in, resulting in way too salty stuff. I let it simmer for a quarter, with the lid on the pan just like I ought to.

The lamb burger was nice though.

KFC

2009-06-28T22:00:00.005+02:00

Great was the day when the Colonel's descendants in all their wisdom bestowed upon us humble Groningers (inhabitants of Groningen, The Netherlands) our very own KFC restaurant. It truly made us wipe away a tear from our eye, we were touched in our hearts by the mere thought of being able to enjoy deep fried chicken goodness.
Well, A and me anyway. Nobody else around us seems to either care or even like it at all. N hates the fries (I guess she has a point, they tend to be more soggy). K doesn't know what's so special about it. Another K and H, whom I once took in the car back on our way home after a long day, found out several important pieces were missing from their order (like, 6 pieces of chicken or something like that). They only found out after I dropped them at the railway station. Of course we didn't ask for a receipt so there was no way of pointing out missing stuff to the KFC employees. H tried mailing the Dutch KFC headquarters, but apparently never got any response.

Well, all the more chicken for A and me! And great chicken it is. Because, let's face it, it's not the sides you're going to the KFC for. Fries? Nah. Drinks? Pepsi, no Coke. Okay, corn on the cob is a great side. But in the end, the chicken is the reason.

Today, N got home sick. I guess she has an ear infection. I made her some ramen with edamame, but then I was left with the question of what to have for dinner myself. Or, should I say, which fastfood joint I'd go to? There are two options if you're by car: McDonald's or the KFC. Since I went to the Mac the last time (see previous post) I decided to go to the KFC this time.
There are some advantages to taking your meal home, over eating at the restaurant itself: you can have your own sauces with your meal! That means, yes, having chili sauce with your chicken, and, no, not paying extra for mayonaise to go with the fries (Yes, we do that in Holland. Get over it). And, in case someone left the napkins out, you can just clean your hands (and face) anyway.

Amazingly, everything was in order this time when I ordered the Variety meal (somewhat different from the Variety box meal in the USA). It even included some napkins (which lately seem to be left out more and more). The Variety box included three hotwings, two strips and one smallish wing-thigh part thingy. There was a small pack of fries, some coleslaw and a 0.4L drink. I ate it all. It made me a happy Kurger.

Wasabi peas

2009-06-28T14:23:00.006+02:00

If you're into wasabi, like me, you should really give these little green guys pictured above a try. I first learned about them on the Delicious Days blog. How great my joy was when I learned I could purchase them over here, too.
They're everything you're expecting wasabi covered snacks to be. Don't be tempted to gobble up more then one or two at a time, or eating a handful in rapid succession - unless you'd want your nasal passages to clear up, just like when using the regular green paste.

These peas are perfect proof that you don't need sushi to enjoy your favorite self-torturing pleasure. They come in a tall resealable 280 g can and cost me € 2,75 (found here). Peas out!

Unlimited Spareribs

2009-06-27T14:15:00.002+02:00

Last night we celebrated G's bachelor's party. We had a great day! Toured the canals on a boat with (loads of) beer. Loads of beer obviously needed accompaniment of Endless Amounts of Meat (EAM). One of the restaurants in our city luckily happens to provide for something like that: Unlimited spareribs eating for just € 14,10. Alas, I was too hungry (and too drunk I guess) to remember taking a picture of the first plate of ribs I started with. So, to have proof of having eaten EAM, I decided to take a picture of the bucket filled with the remains of multiple plates of ribs. Even though I was wise enough to skip on the sides, I just couldn't eat more than one plate and an additional half piece. Well, nevertheless it provided sufficient foundation for a subsequent night of partying.

For today, I'll just try recovering from my hangover…

Nachos Todos deconstructed

2009-06-23T21:01:00.004+02:00

Nachos todos are great! Even though making them requires little effort, it’s even simpler to make some deconstructed nachos todos. Chop up an onion, fry with 150 grams of ground meat, half a tin of corn and some jalapeño peppers (plus salt and pepper). Serve with nachos, some diced tomato and cilantro, sour cream and taco sauce. Easy peasy, done in under ten minutes! Serves one (Me! Yaay, yum!)

Asparagus

2009-06-23T15:18:00.005+02:00

The Dutch pride themselves on their white asparagus. All over the world people seem to enjoy the green type (or sometimes even the purple type), but in Holland there’s an entire cultus-like tradition surrounding the white asparagus. Somewhere in May or June, the asparagus is ready to be harvested.

The harvesting is a meticulously timed process. The asparagus gets its white colour from growing underground. As soon as it will shoot out from the ground, it will start to go green, thus losing its delicate flavour. Harvesting the asparagus has to be done just before this shooting out. That’s usually a matter of hours. A lot of seasonal workers, commonly from Poland, are involved in getting all the asparagus out in time.

Because of its delicate flavour and the fact that the white asparagus will only be available for 2-3 months (the asparagus season), the Dutch have nicknamed it the Queen of Vegetables. Traditionally, it is served with cooked ham, boiled potatoes, hard-boiled eggs and hollandaise sauce (how appropriate). Whenever the season comes around, N prepares this seasonal meal a few times. Or, should I say, it’s one of those few times per year I let her cook :). She makes an excellent hollandaise. Usually, we save some of the asparagus stem parts for soup.

When you’re in Holland during the asparagus season, be sure to sample some! Most restaurants will serve special seasonal menus involving asparagus.

Corn Cookies

2009-06-23T01:22:00.013+02:00

Having more than half a can of tinned corn kernels left, I decided to make some corn cookies. They're originally from Indonesia, where they are supposedly called frikandel. They ought to be made with corn, eggs, flour, a chili pepper, celery and some leeks. I didn't have all those ingredients at hand (and also N doesn't like hot food) so I left out the chili and replaced the celery by some basil leaves and the leeks by a diced onion.

For the batter, I drained off the corn. Then I mixed one egg with the corn, added two tablespoons of flour, added the diced onion and shredded basil leaves and some freshly ground salt and pepper. The batter didn't turn out to bind its constituents that well, so I added another egg which in turn made things a little too soggy - so I added some more tablespoons of flour until the batter was somewhat sticky.

I heated up a generous amount of oil (the cookies basically need to be deep fried). I scooped in three spoonfuls of batter and let them bake on both sides for three minutes each.

A first taste test revealed they were quite tasty. The batter gave 6 cookies, of which I put two in the freezer for later use and the rest in the fridge to be eaten at lunch or whenever I feel like snacking. Downside of it all was that there were these heavy, deep-fry fumes. But who cares, if you get to have these great snacks :)

Sunday Dinner

2009-06-22T21:27:00.011+02:00

Sunday dinners usually allow me to spend a little more time on preparing the meal. This sunday, I made the dish above (or below, but it doesn't really matter of course, because they're different photos from the same dish).

I preheated the oven to 50^oC (122^oF) and put a steak in, and let it there for about half an hour. Meat apparently tends to cook at 50-60^oC (122-140^oF), but cooking at too high a temperature supposedly makes the collagen contract and thus squeezes out all the meat's juices, giving you a tough piece of meat. Therefore, cooking at a low temperature maintains the tenderness. However, it will take longer for the heat to reach the core of the meat, so you'll need to cook your meat longer. After cooking in the oven I fried the meat for exactly one minute on each side and let it rest five minutes, wrapped in tin foil.

I cut the meat to 2 mm slices and served them on top of a pile of fried mushrooms, which were put on top of a heap of napa cabbage (raw), mixed with some tinned corn kernels and a dressing of chili sauce and pickle juice (the acidity of the pickle juice cut nicely through the sugary richness of the chili sauce, and the heat of the chili saus gave it all an extra zest).

I drizzled two tablespoons of chimichurri on top, which I had made two hours in advance, using parsley, cilantro, two garlic cloves, balsamic vinegar and oregano perfumed olive oil. On top of that a nice hand of alfalfa.

Alongside it I scooped some leftover couscous salad, which was previously made with stock welded couscous, fried bacon rinds, garlic and herb olives, parsley, cilantro, deseeded, skinned and diced tomatoes and diced cucumber.

I must say, it was a nice experiment which turned out pretty okay. N. loved it and it looked quite good. Surprisingly, the flavours mixed quite well. The acidity and heat of the cabbage/corn contrasted the hearty flavour of the beef and mushrooms, which in turn were complemented by the freshness of the chimichurri and the alfalfa. A lot of raw vegetables made sure it was a healthy meal, together with the fact that we shared just one steak amongst the two of us - something which I never thought would do for a meatlover like myself :)

Pigs in the blanket

2009-06-22T20:51:00.003+02:00

Recently, I found out about Serious Eats, or more specifically their Photograzing section. It's a great way to spend your pastime with food related items.

One of these photo's linked to My Kitchen Snippets' Pig In The Blanket recipe. They looked great, so I wanted to make them too, having recently bought some frozen hotdogs at Ikea. Not wanting to spend that much time on making dough (I tend to hate making dough in general anyway) I decided to use some ready-made puff pastry from the freezer.

I thawed the hotdogs in the microwave, and let the puff pastry thaw by themselves (it usually takes a mere 5 minutes).

I put one hotdog diagonally on a square puff pastry sheet and cut off two of its angles. I attached these cutoffs to the diagonal sides.

Next, I made 5 cuts on each side.

Then, I braided them.

I brushed them with egg wash and baked them for 25 minutes in a preheated oven at 225^oC (473^oF). They came out not as nice as the ones from My Kitchen Snippets, but N liked them very much.

Ciabatta Grande Salsa

2009-06-22T20:15:00.001+02:00

What better way to start a blog which is anagrammically named after a well-known hamburger fast food chain, than with a review of one such burger?

Today, I tried the Ciabatta Grande Salsa - a McDonald's special burger, temporarily available in McDonald's restaurants in Holland. Like its name implies, there's a special ciabatta-like bun, encasing a nice big (grande) patty of meat, topped with a slice of cheddar cheese, tomato slices, lettuce diced onions and two sauces: salsa (duh) and some white sauce which I couldn't quite figure out (...nooo... not that, you perverts).

The last two times I ordered something at McDonald's, I took the Big Mac. I was a little disappointed, because it had so much sweet stuff on it, you couldn't actually taste any meat anymore. So, now I felt like ordering a burger that had a little more meaty taste.

The Ciabatta Grande Salsa complied with that. The patty delivered a nice punch of meat and the rest was, well, bareable. I was a little afraid before ordering, that the ciabatta bun would have a hard crust. Fortunately, it didn't, making the burger easier to eat. Of course it was some kind of blasphemy to call it a genuine ciabatta bun, but at least it was shaped like it and its flavour hinted somewhat at what you'd expect a ciabatta bun to hint at. There was too much sauce in my opinion, but the addition of tomato made it all in all a nice burger with a recognizable McDonald's flavour to it.