A Week in Foodz

Just being back from cold Japan in freezing Germany, meant a craving for good hearty food.



So this week started with Spätzle, Brussel sprouts and hutspot.



Of course we also had our chicken livers...



... and some Chinese food: fish with rice vinegar.



And after shopping in France, we had these amazing boudins.

Home cooked foodz are not a punishment.

Happy New Year!

Bear with me as I am getting ready to sort out the pictures of our short holiday in Lithuania with Ellen and Christiaan.

Hutspot and Klapstuk

It has been cold...

... so it is time for hutspot.

Endive, not endive

Good old Dutch fare: vegetables mashed with potatoes. We were looking for raapsteeltjes, but ended up with andijvie. Google translates this as "endive", which can mean either andijvie or witlof.

Chicory with Ham and Cheese

We made it back home safely, in case the picture above did not give this away already.

Happy New Year!

We did not have cheese fondue today, which seems to be the German tradition. Instead we still celebrate New Year Dutch style: with oliebollen.



Secret ingredient: preserved lemon.

Netherlands, Dutch Food and More

The day after the wedding, we went to "In den Bockenreyder" to get some real Dutch food. Pictured above is a "Ferme Ötsmijter". It's great to be in the Netherlands and finally be able to eat eggs and bacon again.



One of the other things that we hadn't had for many years: real Dutch Chinese food. Finally we could enjoy babi pangang with bami, tjap tjoy, koe low yok and nasi. Of course, we had "sambal 'bij".



This is not cake, this is vlaai. And it is not Dutch, it is from Limburg.



After eating vlaai, we went for a very nice hike through the rolling green hills of Limburg. Highly recommended!



Look at the muscles of this beautiful animal!



We ended our day in Limburg in Maastricht, where we finally settled for this Indonesian restaurant. Rijsttafel!

So Last Year!

Here are some more pictures from yesterday. We started the day off with our usual hot water troubles, and while waiting for the repair guy, F made some oliebollen.



We then went to work. We got on email from our landlady that she called the management of our building again, and was yelled at. She was told that this is not a hotel. It is hard to argue against well established facts. Our landlady is really everything anyone could ever wish for and then some: she happily keeps helping us complain, does not mind being yelled at, and now even offered to install water heating equipment in the apartment! We love her.

Next up was the New Year's party of our great and beloved institute. It was actually not even bad, so I'm afraid that fans of A's chronicles of toe curling events will be disappointed to hear that I do not expect that she will even post about this. Not even about the fact that we got headphones on our heads, and had to sing along with the Chinese song that we were hearing. Or the game of relay charades...

We decided we would end the year with some good wine, so we went to Enoteca at The Place. It turned out that this was a particularly good choice, as all of Beijing seemed to be congregating right there.



Also, there were many cameras, police men, and these mysterious looking things with "Eternal Starworld" printed on them:



We had great expectations of the spectacle that would be unleashed before our eyes when the clock would strike midnight. We had visions of artificial snow and fireworks...



... but the machines just turned out to be confetti canons.

Anyhow, we finished our Champagne (ok, actually Prosecco) and headed home. I think this picture gives a good summary of the whole of 2009:



Happy New Year!

Compare & Contrast

Very sorry for lating again, but I feel we must juxtapose our culinary adventures on Christmas Day with the culinary feast at the home of Poppamomma.

This was our starter course:



Our main course:



And what is Christmas without dessert:



One could only wish it were Christmas 365 days a year!

Sinterklaas!

But first some delicious Dutch food: hutspot with klapstuk!



Look at how A serves the hutspot with so much love (sadly I cannot come up with a translation for "hoe A het eten op het bord kwakt"):



And then finally the moment was there: Sint had arrived in Beijing, and he is here to stay!

Hutspot

Another episode of emulating the Ellen:

Hutspot! Look how wonderfully well the colors of our food go with our polka dotted plate! (This is one of those moments that people can rejoice in being colorblind.)

Also note the garnish: a wonderfully plump and juicy sausage. The taste was a bit different than what we hoped for, however.

Dutch fare

In honor of the Dutch visitor to our department from our alma mater, we made Dutch food today. We did not invite the visitor though...

Freedom Fries War

A Dutch treat: Patatje Oorlog (literal translation: "Fries War"). It is the traditional food I eat when Anke is gone: meatz, friez and green leavez. The latter was spinach this time, sauteed very shortly in butter, and then steamed in its own (and the butter's) steam --- really tasty. The meatz was, of course, opossum steak.

Raapsteeltjes

This is a classic recipe from the Van Zuylen (Timmer?) family. It was Ellen's favorite food when she was growing up.

The recipe says that we should feed the roots of the turnip greens to the rabbits, but we didn't as we have had some bad experiences lately with leaving our garbage outside and are trying to discourage ugly wildlife (what kind of animal is grey-ish, as big as a big cat, round, and has a white triangle on its face?) to come close to our home.

Boerenkool

Hutspot

We are preparing ourselves to go to the Netherlands.

Hutspot

It's winter, time for hutspot.