Mushrooms

Marcel got me addicted to Hugh Fearnley–Whittingstall's series, River Cottage. In this series, Hugh, a London cook, downsizes by buying a farm in Dorset. There he grows all his food and meat, supplemented with fish etc. from the ocean, wild picked edibles and game. In several episodes, he goes mushrooming with serious mushroom experts. One episode even involved hang gliding.

Inspired by Hugh, I took a trip to the Utrechtseheuvelrug with Effrosyni, Jasenko, Yulia and Jorn. Yulia turned out to be a mushroom expert, although she was very modest about her skills. The book we brought turned out to be totally useless, but we ended up picking out 3 types of mushrooms we thought were edible (thanks to Yulia). Mushroom hunting turned out to be a very exciting way to enjoy the outdoors.

Now they are molding in my fridge, before I got a chance to eat them...I will definitely go again.

In Bruges

This weekend I hitched a ride to Bruges with the boys from 1upToys. They were on their way to a newly opened Carrefour near the city to demonstrate their V-beat toys. I was dropped off at the edge of the city center around 10am, and for the next 7 or so hours I wandered around the fairytale city that is Bruges.

It was a bright but cold day when I arrived at the border of the city. I was psyched to try out my new camera a la tourist style. The city did not disappoint with its picture perfect canals and archetypal Flemish architecture. As I walked through the streets I must have passed by a million old churches, chocolatiers and lace shops. Influenced by my graduation project on revealing secret places in old cities, I kept trying to go down every small alleyway to see what kind of places laid in wait for me. I didn't find too many amazing secret locations, but I did squeeze myself through a couple charming alleyways. Learning to read Utrecht made me hyper-aware of all the symbols engraved and embedded around the city. One recurrent symbol was the crescent moon.

The film, In Bruges, was still pretty fresh in my memory, so I tried to compare the physical city with the scenes I remembered from the film. It was fun to stumble into the market square and think "oh! this is the belfry tower where *** fell". At points I did feel like I was in a sort of purgatory, especially near the end of the day when I was extremely tired and cold. The city was large enough that I always felt a bit lost and overwhelmed. My horrible sense of direction and refusal to read maps made my walk through the city strange and circular...always seeing new things while unintentionally revisiting the old things.

Before traveling to Bruges, Daniel made me a list of things to do in the city, including braadwurst on the square and a tour of a beer brewery. On arriving at the market square, I dutifully followed Daniel's instructions and ate an amazing broodje braadwurst with mustard. The flavors are indescribable, and my mouth is watering as I write this. One regret I have on visiting Bruges is that I did not climb the belfry tower.

Past the square, I ended up walking into several delightful courtyards, past boat tours (much more charming and enticing than those in Delft), and an antique flea market by the water. Around 1pm, I arrived at the beer brewery and bar/restaurant de Halve Man, recommended by Daniel. I took a tour around the facility and learned about the brewing process. One fact that stuck out was that Belgian specialty beers often use coriander as an ingredient for it's hangover preventative and aphrodisiac properties. This made me wonder if Michel (great hater of coriander in his food) would still like his Leffe if he knew...At the end of my tour I was given a complimentary Brugse Zot (brewed at the brewery) and was sent on my way back to the city.

For the rest, I just wandered through the city as it got colder and darker. I took a break and popped into Our Lady's Church, did some shopping, and went to drink coffee in an unmemorable bar by the city library while waiting for the boys to join me. In the evening I was joined by Ronald and Marcel for a nice dinner in a small Italian restaurant. Needless to say, I left the city with a belly full of good food and good feelings.

Pictures to come...

Recommended to do in Bruges:
Eat a broodje braadwurst on the market square
Climb the Belfry tower
Visit and take a tour of the Halve Man brewery
Take a boat tour (something like E6.50 for an hour)

Next travel destinations:
Paris (Nov 29)
Jamaica (Dec 8)
Raleigh, NC; Washington DC; New York, NY (Dec 17th)

Rotterdam Market and Mussels

Naomi visited me last week marking the, ashamedly, first time I have gone to the Rotterdam market since moving to the Netherlands. On market days (Tues, Thurs, Sat), the giant square at Rotterdam Blaak is filled with hundreds of stands. There we acquired fish and several second hand granny sweaters each.

Today, I went to the Rotterdam market again together with Inga, and some others. We bought some mussels for dinner.

A Mussel Recipe (from Inga's mom)
mussels for 3-4 persons (~2kg)
4-6 cloves finely chopped garlic
2 shallots finely chopped
2 sliced tomatoes

1 bunch chopped coriander
2 cups creme fraiche
1 chopped leek

1. Sautee shallots in olive oil with garlic
2. Add the mussels with ~1/2 liter of water (?)
3. Steam the mussels
4. Remove the mussels onto a serving plate
5. From the left over water, add the creme fraiche, leek and tomatoes
6. Heat and reduce
7. Add coriander and serve on top of mussels

Lasagna and other cooking adventures

This previous week has been the week of lasagnas. I went from a sometimes almost never eater of lasagna to the "chef" or "sous-chef" of three different lasagnas. In general I find oven dishes mysterious, maybe due to my stir-fry Chinese food background. Also, I never had the ambition to try to learn any oven dishes in particular, liking my relatively 1:1 ratio of action time to cook time. Lasagnas belonged in the realm of Lynn, who I associate with lasagnas.

The first lasagna happened because Floris felt like eating "healthy." We made an oven full of lasagna out of ground beef, carrots, onions, and spinach. The result was simple but delicious. We cleared off the whole lasagna amongst the four of us and packed down some dessert as well. I felt inspired to make lasagna again in the future. It was much easier than I had anticipated or imagined.

The second lasagna was made for 11 people at JVB 15 on a Sunday. I needed to feed my sister who was visiting with her friend Emily, so I volunteered to cook with Joost for all the hungry Sunday bums. We made veggie lasagna out of tons of vegetables. I didn't like the result that much as it was less a lasagna than a oven fantasie (don't ask) with lasagna leafs and béchamel on top.

The third and final lasagna came about when Vaniek, who was present for the first lasagna, wanted to eat another one when I happened to be making dinner for a friend and had no idea what to make. I think that this is by far the most successful of my creations so far and I will post it here. This is a recipe I modified from an Epicurious recipe for Wild Mushroom Lasagna, by substituting porcini mushrooms for portabella mushrooms and adding spinach. From this recipe I also learned how to make béchamel sauce from scratch (which is surprisingly easy!)

Lasagna Recipe (for 4)
béchamel sauce from scratch or from a box

mushroom tomato sauce
2 cups chopped portabella mushrooms
1 cup chopped onion (1 medium)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 (14- to 15-oz) cans diced tomatoes in juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 clove of garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt

lasagna noodles
parmesan cheese, grated

Instructions
1. Make the mushroom sauce by cooking the onions first in oil, and then adding the mushrooms. Add the tomato sauce plus the basil and garlic after awhile. Simmer.
2. Boil the lasagna noodles for 3min until soft and run under cold water.
3. Preheat oven
4. Spread 1 cup béchamel over buttered/greased lasagna dish saving some for the top layer. Arrange lasagna noodles over first layer. Spread mushroom tomato sauce layer and sprinkle with cheese. Repeat layering and on the last layer spread the remaining béchamel on top and sprinkle cheese.

In the future I will not be so hesitant to make oven dishes, but this is definitely the first of many small steps. I will still always think of Lynn when I eat/make lasagna, which is definitely a good thing.

Other cooking related things:
I made a successful chocolate mousse for meisje's avond last week after one failed attempt. My wrists still remember stiffening countless egg whites. Daniel and Jorn both thought I would fail, but helped me tons :D

I bought some Dutch cookbooks in the second hand shop today including: Wijn Etiquette (no translation needed), Fish, Crustaceans, and Shellfish from the French Kitchen, Soup as a Meal, and My First Cookbook for less than 3 euros! Now I can learn and practice the most important parts of Dutch...

Now I am happily looking forward to Christmas dinner at JVB 15 and Easter morning with Naomi who is visiting starting Friday!

Nuremberg, Part 2: Spielwarenmesse

Today is day 2 of hanging out at the spielwarenmesse in Nuremberg. There is an overwhelming amount of exhibitors from every land (12 gigantic Costco size halls, housing 100+ booths each). I can easily lose myself (and have) wandering about. Just browsing, I feel a bit jaded because most toys fail to catch my attention for very long, or I find myself criticizing poor design. However, there are many cool toys and gadgets. Being here and seeing everything is very inspiring and a little bit daunting. It is really interesting to me to see all sorts of toys that would appeal to non-European/American markets. This includes Japanese baby dolls that really creep me out in a different way than Western baby dolls do. Also in the Silverlit space, there are some MP3 connectable electronic animals that are in very non-Western colors that I could imagine are successful in the Asian market.




I am working for Silverlit, a Canton based electronic toy company, who are currently producing the Air Drums and Air Guitar an invention of 1up-Toys. Together with Jorn and Robert, I have demonstrating the products to toy buyers. This mostly means playing Wild Thing and Seven Nation Army. We are getting better and better, and I am definitely developing my drum skills. What is very surprising to me is that none of the buyers ask to try the product...

Incidentally, I can't read or understand German at all anymore so naturally I accidentally ordered some sort of tongue on our first night out in the city. I don't mind though.. yummy. I also tried some of these little sausages that Nuremberg is famous for.

Yesterday evening we ate tapas, something I definitely can order with more ease. Good thing I am not a vegetarian. Ronald (our boss and former TU Delft student) has been eating soup exclusively for the past few days.


more pictures on Flickr...