Chufi

yeah, and it's all really cheap, too! I have found some really great stuff over the years... I usually bring sandwiches and coffee for the early morning hunger pangs.. and then later in the day you start snacking on what people are selling.. and open the first 6-pack... and there's often a frites stand around somewhere

Let me tell you a bit about Queensday. I was talking to one of my c-workers today and we came to the conclusion that Queensday is the day half of the population of Amsterdam sits on the streets selling their junk and home-made burnt brownies, while the other half of the population gets drunk it is a bit like that, and yet it is not. For many people Queensday is beerday. They will start drinking the evneing before and continue to drink until the evening of the next day. When Queensday is over, the streets in the city center are littered with broken plastic beerglasses and it takes hours the sweep the city clean again.. It's also a big streetfestival, with many stages set up throughout the city, with music and live performances - everything free. And it's the biggest fleamarket / garage sale you can imagine, where everybody just puts their old stuff and homemade food on the street and tries to sell it. We are the last category - for years we have had a stall where we sell records, cd's, books and other stuff we want to get rid of. This year I have sorted out my coookbook collection and have 40 or so books I want to sell. We would get up very early tomorrow (around 5;30 or so), transport all the stuff to the street nearby where the selling happens, and claim a spot. But maybe this year things will be different. We have both been working really hard the past weeks, we have the party coming up on Sunday, and worst of all, the weather forecast for tomorrow is really bad. Good weather is really a necessity for the success of this day... But whatever we'll do, I'll try to report about the day as best I can - either as a customer of other people's stalls (I have bought some really nice kitchenware over the years on Queensday, this year I am on the lookout for plates and bowls) or as a seller of second hand cookbooks!

In restaurants, your pizza will arrive unsliced, with a knife and fork. When you have a pizza delivered, it will come ready sliced.

Thanks Wendy! If your rhubarb is nice and young and pink, I can highly recommend this: rhubarb compote with meringue, ginger and cream otherwise, with just a small amount, you could make a little crumble. You could mix in some strawberries for volume and have some hazelnuts in the crumble. I have some rhubarb icecream in the freezer right now.. but I always underestimate how long it takes to freeze up.. so dessert will have to wait till tomorrow I'm afraid. Tomorrow I'll be at the office and won't be able to post pics of my day until the evening. Not that there will be many interesting things happening, foodwise... Goodnight!

Dinner: In February, lots of kind eGulletters coached me through cooking a 4-course dinner for 24, for my husbands birthday. For that dinner, I planned cooking several very large seabass, stuffed with different shellfish (a Marcella Hazan recipe). I think I visited my very helpful and friendly fishmonger 4 times that week, discussing the possibilities of seabass, what he would do with it, etc., only to find on the day itself that there was no seabass available. I switched to cod, and it was great, but to the fishmonger I am now the bass for 24 lady . Today when I went to the market I was thinking of salmon, to go with the green asparagus I bought, but then at the fishstall these beautiful glisteningly fresh seabass were looking at me. So that's what I got. "Just one?" said the fish monger. Yes, please. So that's panfried fillet of seabass, with spinach and paksoi greens sauteed in olive oil with lots of garlic. Farfalle with tomatoes, green asparagus, basil and some pecorino shavings. Dessert is an experiment, firming up in the freezer, so more about that later.

Here's the second round of shopping: I could not face round 3 today. That will have to wait until tomorrow, after work.

I thought of doing that, and then decided against it, because I did not want to repeat myself I can tell you now though: Tuesday I listened to Patty Griffin, Flaming Red, and today I listened to Lori McKenna, The Kitchen Tapes - that one was a birthday present.

The Dutch really love their joghurt and their vla (custard), they are all pourable and come in liters and halfliter containers. There all kinds of flavors - fruit joghurts, chocolate custard, etc. This is a very common Dutch dessert: a bowl of joghurt or custard, maybe topped with some sugar or syrup.

this is how they do it: they spread the base with tomatosauce and sprinkle with the ham. Then they put a big scoop of mascarpone, mixed with trufflepaste, in the middle. They leave the scoop as it is while baking the pizza, and when it comes out of the oven, they smear the mascarpone over the entire pizza with the back of a spoon. Then top the whole thing with aragula and grated parmesan. I've watched them make it pretty closely, cause I am so afraid they will stop making it one day, and then I'll have to recreate it at home because life without Pizza YamYam would be unbearable!

I'm off for another round of shopping. Dinner tonight will feature green asparagus and rhubarb, but I don't know in what way yet.. Also, I am now quite convinced that that last beer yesterday, was NOT a good idea

Abra that would be great! I'm making brownies on Monday, to take to work on Tuesday as my birthday treat, and it would be really nice if I could present some even-sized pieces for a change!

Breakfast: a navelorange, cut up, with granola and joghurt. And one of yesterdays presents! The first round of shopping.. sigh. Everything on the bike.. and then carried to the 5th floor, no elevator I think I have 2 more rounds to go today.. But a little lunch and relaxation first: omelet with ham, tomatoes, and cheese

Agreed - I did a double-take (double-read?) when I saw that. It must be especially difficult if the waffle is hot off the iron and still a little bendy. ← I wonder about that. Perhaps the waffel is more like a pita, with a hard surface and edge, and soft inside? Then it would just be a matter of slicing the perimeter so that the soft interior would split. Klary, do you know? If you don't know, maybe you can go back and visit that cute guy again and ask him. ← I went to see him today.. he was just setting up his stall so I did not actually see him do the slicing. But he told me that he takes the waffle from the iron when it's slighly undercooked and still soft. It continues cooking after removing from the heat. So he has to be very quick about and slice it while it's still soft. When it cools, it firms up and becomes deliciously crisp (as you can see in the picture I took). He did say it was difficult though and takes a lot of practice (ofcourse he would say that ) But he also said that the even harder part of making the stroopwafel, is smearing on the stroop. Because the waffle half is so thin, it breaks easily, and you have to smear the syrup over the entire surface. Everything you always wanted to know about stroopwafels...

It's a meat ragout (veal or beef, in a stiff bechamel made with beefstock instead of milk), chilled, shaped, rolled in breadcrumbs and deepfried.

Because of eGullet and my reading so many English cookbooks, I tend to think and write about food in a mixture of Dutch and English. It gets confusing sometimes. Which reminds me, I want to show you all my cookbooks later.. I feel okay, just a tiny bit wobbly. I had a couple of glasses of orangejuice mixed with sparkling water. I can use the rehydration..

last night, we started with drinks at our sunny balcony. Then we went to trattoria YamYam. this is an old picture, but I forgot to take a picture of the interior yesterday They have these cool lamps made from strainers, which gives a beautiful pattern on the walls. This place has been a favorite of ours for years.. they serve pizza, pasta and some basic meat and fish dishes.. I think we've been coming here for 8 years now, and we always order the same. Well, not always, but on the occasions where we tried to be adventurous and have something different, we always regretted it. First some appetizers: pecorino, fennel salami, grilled aubergine, sauteed spinach: I think it speaks for itself that all 4 of us ordered the same thing: Pizza YamYam Pizza with smoked ham, mascarpone trufflesauce, rucola and parmesan This is really really good and very addictive. I can get a craving for this at very odd moments sometimes Dessert is also, always, the same: coffee granita with cream. Their granita is very good, not too sweet, like a really good frozen espresso. Dennis doesn't drink coffee, but this he'll eat The 5th dinnerguest was asleep under the table through the entire evening.. Like I said last night.. we had rose, some more rose, then grappa and sambucca. All that drinking gets you thirsty so to end it all, we went to a bar near the Vondelpark and had a cold beer It was mild enough to sit outside, or at least we thought so. I had a truly wonderful birthday, and all your birthday wishes played a huge part in that! Thank you all so much. And the best thing is... it's not over yet... I'm going out now to do some serious shopping. I have no clue yet what to make for dinner tonight...

Hi all I'm just home from my birthdaydinner with my 3 favorite men. Boy, is it hard to type right when you're a bit... ehm.. drunk! we had wine , pizza, grappa, sambucca, some more grappa, some more sambucca, and some beer to end it all. It was a great evening. Pictures will follow tomorrow. Excuse me, but I have to go and get some sleep now....

I like it best shaved thin, then piled on a thickly buttered, crusty fresh slice of bread. With a glass of milk!

Yes, I should have mentioned that they have more sophisticated offerings than kroketten Thanks for translating!

Pontormo, Thank you so very much for this.. it's a beautiful birthdaypresent I am honored...

Yes, there was a question about that upthread I think. My apologies if I don't respond to all questions right away, I hope to get to all of them eventually. I feel the Dutch don't have a very strong connection with seasonal cooking (anymore). But there still are a few things that announce spring: the first rosy pink rhubarb.. ah, how I've enjoyed that for a couple of weeks. it's over now, the only rhubarb I've seen this week is thick and green. Turniptop greens, as shown upthread. Peas and broad beans (favas) are at the market now, but unless you can find a very reliable supplier, it's no use buying them. Mostly dried up and wrinkled when they arrive at the market.. The one thing that is universally acknowledged as the best seasonal thing, I think, is asparagus. White asparagus is grown in the south part of the Netherlands.. it's known as Het Witte Goud (white gold) Again, a lot of the Dutch asparagus in the shops is old and woody - but if you know where to go, and you can get the good stuff, there is no early summer dinner nicer than a plate full of white asparagus, hardboiled eggs, slices of boiled and smoked ham, new potatoes, and lots (LOTS) of melted butter. The season is early May- early June.. but I think it might be a bit later this year, because it has been so cold for so long. But that's a dinner I am really looking forward to!

Kroketten. if you've seen bitterballen on the Dutch cooking thread, kroketten are a sausage shaped version of those. See also here for a report about the best kroketten in Amsterdam: Van Dobben kroketten

Hi Erin.. Yes, the Albert Cuyp market is open year round. It does get cold in winter, although never really bad.. we haven't had ice good enough to skate on for years. Biking is very much the way to transport yourself and all your stuff.. We do have a car, but rarely use it in the city. Only to go out of the city! Stroopwafels normally only come as the ones I've shown, the factory made ones are also only made with stroop. But see my post above for the patisserie in Amsterdam that makes them with other flavors! (not with chocolate though. Hm.. good idea..)

I think 3 weeks of birthday celebrations is too much even for me Thanks prasantrin and ghostrider for the tea info. I'm passing it on to Dennis (let's hope he's reading this ) I've had a truly wonderful day sofar. Even the weather was cooperative: it started out grey and looking like rain, and right now it's beautifully sunny and warm. I started the day at the Theehuis again, I won't bother you with another picture of that coffee. But, as rachel requested, here's my notebook: as you can see, my handwriting has nothing of the expected European elegance. in fact, nobody can read my handwriting but me.. I'm always getting complaints about it. On to de Koffiesalon, in the Utrechtsestraat, for coffee and cake with my friend Hannah. They opened recently and one of the nice things about this place is that they serve pastries from patisserie Lanskroon. They are famous for their wafels, an upscale version of the stroopwafels we saw yesterday: some are filled with honey, others with coffeesyrup, and the best one is filled with a figpaste other good things: what we had: chocolate cream pastry and raspberry almond cake After that I went to the city centre. I know lots of nice things have been said about Amsterdam on this thread.. but it's not all good here you know.. so for balance's sake, I just have to show you what I feel is the ugliest street in the city: Damrak It's lined with snackbars, cheap steakhouses and pizzeria's, lots of ugly advertising boards, and the worst looking streetlights I've ever seen. You can see Central Station in the background. It's just terrible that strangers arriving in the city have this as their entrance to Amsterdam! Right in front of Central Station is the lovely old building of Smits koffiehuis, see their website for a much better view of the place (and it comes with an oldfashioned folksong, for those of you with serious Amsterdam yearnings..). It's a great place to get some refreshments after arriving in the city, or to while away the time before your train leaves, much nicer than the restaurant in the trainstation. Too bad it's now almost completely enclosed in the building site of the North-South subway line. Ok I'm going off-topic here.. but there is something very funny about the billboard with the rendering of the subwaystation they are building here. I was not aware of this myself until I passed it this afternoon, and it's such a funny coincedence that I have to share it with you.. See the circled portion on the billboard.. I blew it up.. Guess what, that's me there in the black sleeveless dress! ( in a previous life I worked for the architectural firm, Benthem Crouwel, that's designing the subwaystations. The guys from graphics were always taking pics of people to use in their renderings. I knew I was on another billboard, but did not know about this one until today..) Okay back to food.. When you pass through Central Station, and go out the back, it's like you enter a different world. I love it here, it's like the bustle of the city is very far away, the air feels cleaner. See the little square building beneath the arrow? that's where I'm going for lunch. I'm taking the ferry, it's only 5 minutes: cafe restaurant Wilhelmina dok Lunch: Kroketten!

I knew the Queen of Dessert (now that would make a nice movie, Ling, Queen of the dessert asssuming you've seen Priscilla, queen of the desert... ) would come to the the rescue! I think meringue nests and choux buns it is! Michele, Weesper moppen would be great.. but my market doesn't sell the almond paste anymore now that winter is over.. and I'm too lazy to make it myself.. edited to add: see, there I go complicating things again. Why should I make both meringues and puffs? I think I'll just make lots of puffs. Maybe with different fillings though...