Chufi

Mark, which cookbooks do you use? I really like Sri Owen's books: Indonesian Food and Cookery Indonesian Regional Food and Cookery Besides the recipes, these books have great background info and personal stories. I've done a bit of Indonesian cooking, but have never been completely satisfied with my results. That said, it was a couple of years ago I last tried, and I think I've become a better cook since.. So I would love to see tried and tested recipes here... and try again...

percy, chorizo, pototo and egg is one of my all-time favorite food combinations, great comfortfood! I ofte have it for dinner (sometimes, with the addition of chickpeas and sauteed eggplant)

Gowda "ow" as in "wow"! I have never heard of 10-year old Gouda. I have to ask my cheesemonger about this. I'm intrigued.

yes please, I'd love to try it!

Thanks for the info ohev'ochel! exactly. That's why I was so excited about it.. I love anything doughy , and I had never seen/used yufka before, and now I have discovered a new ingredient! your kubbeh sounds so good.. i made something like that once, i think from Claudia Rodens Book of Middle Eastern Food, only they were deep-fried instead of simmered in broth. Delicious, but a bit fiddly to make (but I like that)

Congratulations! I wish I could have tasted it, especially the icecream.. I still dream about a Gorgonzola icecream I had in Barcelona more than 10 years go, it was the best icecream I ever tasted. I went back the next day and had some more. That, with figs.. must have been heaven.

Ah, I wish! I need more multi-national culinary friends! Don't know anyone Moroccan

A nice place for a quick lunch is snackbar/lunchroom Dolores, it's on the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal opposite nr. 289 (between Dam and Spui). It looks like a doll's house from a fairy tale, but it actually used to be a public restroom, don't worry I'm sure they scrubbed it pretty well before opening the restaurant. Not that it smells of desinfectant, no it smells of wonderful food It's something between a snackbar and a lunchroom, which means they do have a lot of the deep-fried stuff Dutch people love so much, but also lots of (healthy) sandwiches, juice etc. My favorite used to be the tarragon chicken sandwich. inside is tiny, but when the weather is nice you can sit on one of the large tables outside. I think when you're shopping in the city centre this is one of the nicer places for a simple lunch, not touristy or fancy, just simple good food.

Barolo, thanks for the info. The old slow scenic route sounds just like what we prefer when on holiday! My file with tips and recommendations is getting very long and this sure is the best researched vacation I ever took!

Hi Shelora, I looked at the schedule of the Victoria Express and it arrives from PA in Victoria around 9:15. The last one back that day leaces from Victoria at 6:15 pm. I guess that means we won't have time for dinner in Victoria, so maybe we should have a big lunch! My interest is inndeed mostly food, not just eating it but also foodshops, kitchenware, (second)hand bookshops (for cookbooks). I love coffee and husband loves tea.. Husband likes bookshops and (used) cd shops. We both love to visit museums. We also love just to walk around or sit in some coffeehouse with a book. We're not really active sightsee-ers For me, just 'being' someplace else than home is much more important than running around and trying to fit in all the sights. If not visiting on a Sunday or Monday is that important, we will try to come to Victoria on either Saturday 16 or Tuesday 19 September, and keep the Sunday and Monday for hikes in Olympic Natl. park. Any tips on how to make the most of our 1 day in Victoria would be much appreciated!

I think the pastry used for brik is warka or ouarka, which is very thin. I have never seen or used it so I'm not sure. Yufka is a bit like filo, but a bit thicker and doughier, and less brittle when cooked. Maybe someone with more knowledge of Middle-eastern pastries can chime in?

Franci, those eggplants look delicious. So how do you make the stuffing.. fry the ground beef together with the eggplant insides, and then mix with breadcrumbs, egg, and pecorino?

well, lamb and eggplant are ofcourse a winning combination.. The roast eggplant made the filling really succulent and juicy, and the lamb gives great flavor. Also, the joghurt mix that's spread on the sheets of yufka and on top is crucial I think, it sort of melts away but it gives a lovely tangyness that cuts through the richness of the stuffing.

she told me it was made with milk, sugar, flour, almonds and cinnamon. Her mother would traditionally make it without the cinnamon and with water instead of milk. I think I need to get the exact recipe, it was really good and I couldn't eat much of it because I had stuffed myself with Borek!!

One of my co-workers is originally from Kurdistan, and I invited my self at her place for dinner, hoping she would make me something Kurdish and that I could learn something from her. And she did! we made Patlican Borek (Eggplant pastries). She had roasted 2 eggplants, wrapped in foil, in a hot oven until very soft. The skin is peeled off and the flesh is chopped up: The chopped up flesh is added to a mixture of onion and ground lamb, sauteed until soft but not browned. I think there was about 250 grams of meat and 2 onions. The mixture is sesaoned with salt and pepper. Yufkasheets. These are being smeared with a mixture of 5 tablespoons of joghurt, 3 tablespoons milk, 2 tablespoons of oil, and 1 egg white. The huge sheets ate quartered and each quarter is filled with the meat/eggplant pix and rolld into large pastries. These are placed in a baking dish. The remaining eggyolk is mixed with some more yoghurt and poured on top: Then baked in a medium oven until golden brown. While that was baking we had the first part of dinner. She made a golden bulgur pilav with peppers and tomatoes. And a simple beef stew, that I am sure had some sort of secret ingredient because it was so rich and flavorful, but she said it was just beef, tomatoes, onions and mushrooms. A herb salad of parsley, springonion, coriander and onion. And a cacik (joghurt, cucumber, garlic and dill) Borek when they came out of the oven: These were utterly delicious and I ate much more of them then was good for me What I found fascinating was how all the dishes were spiced with nothng but salt and pepper. There were fresh herbs, but they were on the table almost as a dish in their own right, instead of incorporated into the food. Had I been making the borek from a recipe, I would have been strongly tempted to add herbs or spices to the filling. But it was just perfect as it was, with nothing but meat, onions, eggplant in the filling. we were talking about Kurdish cuisine and she told me that Kurdistan has very different cuisines in different regions. The mountainous area where she's originally from, is known for it's simple food, with an emphasis on meat and salty flavors, whereas 100 miles down the road the food can suddenly turn extremely spicy. Dessert was a "nontraditional helvah" made by one of my co-workers friends, also Kurdish but born and raised in Belgium. It was a wonderful evening and I hope these girls will share some more of their recipes with me soon!

Hi Klary! I have heard about the book but I have never seen it. Just recently I read an article about it in one of Moscow’s English language expat magazines, and I thought it was interesting. My impression was though that the recipes are not easy to follow and use the ingredients that no longer exist. The author’s opinion was that nobody heard of the book during the Soviet times because it could remind the population of the times past when there was no shortage of anything. I now want to at least look through the book, I’m sure it can be found in any bookstore. ← the Dutch translation doesn't have any weird ingredients, but it's not an integral translation. It does have some directions though that I don't see myself doing in my city apartment.... like "feed your chicken some vinegar and kill it one hour later" ...

Thank you Pookie and Randi for blogging! I especially liked the pictures of the shops and markets.. and Randi's picnic on the beach... and Ribfest! Pookie, that bacon looks so good. Never seen anything like it. Seems that Randi is having a terrific time at the gathering! thanks girls!

Hi Alina! I am so excited about this blog. Is it a coincedence that yesterday I bought the Dutch translation of the 1861 Russian cookbook by Elena Molokhovets - A gift to young housewives? Do you know it? I hope to see some Russian cooking this week, and maybe some of your gorgeous baking. But anything you do will be great! Have fun blogging!

I posted these in the Dinner thread and then I realized.. they're kebabs! They belong here! this is chickenbreast, marinated in buttermilk mixed with turmeric, freshly grated ginger, garlic and chillies and coriander. They were really good, juicy and full of flavor. Cooked on the stove on my grill pan.

I love semolina! Lumas your dessert looks delicious. Pille, I had to read the recipe 3 times before I understood that the white stuff in the picture is actually the milk, and not the semolina mousse Guess I need more coffee ...What an intriguing idea to cook the semolina in fruit juice!

I really like monkfish wrapped in smoked bacon and panfried (or roasted at high heat). And last week I had a great monkfish dish in a restaurant. It was a piece of monkfish, roasted , the flesh firm but still moist. It rested on a creamy mixture of savoy cabbage and crispy bits of chorizo, the combination was really good.

Hi Grace, that location is perfect. Well, it's good! It's right in the middle of the historic center, on one of the canals. Which means it's pretty, but can also be a bit busy with tourists. We used to live on one of the canals and loved it most of the time, but eventually moved to a quieter part of the city. But, it's a great location for immersing yourself in Amsterdam atmosphere! And yes, I would say that's a very safe area. No need to worry about that. Amsterdam is really a small city. Get yourself a bike and most of the restaurants and markets mentioned in the other thread, The foodlovers guide to Amsterdam, are within easy reach. You won't be far from the weekly farmer's market at Noordermarkt (featured in my first eG blog, see link in my signature). You are also near the 9 straatjes, a shopping area of 9 little connecting streets, full of boutiques, cafe's, lunchrooms, deli's etc. And right at your doorstep is a very nice bar, cafe Het Molenpad, a typical laid-back Amsterdam cafe. I sometimes go there for coffee and to read the paper, and it has a very nice terrace on the waterfron (again, if your apartment is right above that, you would have some noise from the terrace in the summertime. Best way to solve that would be to sit on the cafe terrace yourself ) Let me know if your plans become definite, and feel free to PM me about anything not foodrelated that you'd like advice about.

Wishlist: Classics: Bordewijk Yamazoto Ron Blaauw (in Ouderkerk a/d Amstel, just outside Amsterdam) Beddington's (recently re-opened but still a classic) Marius Mario in Neck (category 'beyond', but still close enough to Amsterdam) Visaandeschelde (I had dinner there once a couple of years ago and wasn't overwhelmed, but I have heard great things about them recently from people I trust) new additions: Greetje In De Keuken The French Cafe I know there are more but I can't think of them right now which is probably a good thing or I would feel pretty sorry for myself...

hey! New King is my favorite as well! Here are their oysters paulbrussel, unfortunately my budget doesn't allow me to eat at high-end places very often. But I do feel that Amsterdam has something to offer in the what you call middle class or upper middlleclass department. I hear good things about consistent good quality at Bordewijk, Van Vlaanderen, Segugio (Italian) and Le Garage... and many new places are popping up.. although ofcourse those may not be passed the initial hype yet. I often feel that it is the "lower middleclass" restaurants, where you still pay what I consider quite a lot, where you will be disapppointed. For instance I had dinner at Klokspijs recently.. they had good reviews everywhere.. I think we paid about 90 euro for 2.. I though the food was pretty awful, pretentious, etc. I was wishing we had gone to a nice Indonesian or Turkish or Greek place instead of that so-called inventive and creative blabla.. okay done ranting now...

Oh and one more thing.. I love all the traffic on this thread lately (it's interfering with my work-day though )