markemorse

There are some amazing tamarind-habanero sauces from Suriname that I've been digging on lately, i'll see if i can dig up a recipe.

Hi Eileen: A nightshop exists because traditionally most shops close at 6pm here, pretty much everything except grocery stores and some convenience store/tobacconist shops. Grocery stores close around 8pm for the most part, although that's changing...some stay open until 9 or 10 now. But, you can see how there might be a need for a shop that was open later for emergency needs like alcohol, grilled cheese fixins, and TP (toilet paper). That's what a night shop is. In the city center, they are usually quite expensive, maybe 50% more expensive than a grocery store. Sterk isn't that bad, but you'll notice a small mark-up. We are so fortunate to have the best night shop in town right next door (it's not really a nightshop, more of a late-opening independent grocery store), it's so good I shop there even when other grocery stores are open...mostly for the wine selection, the bread (they carry Paul Annee breads), the nuts (great, fresh roasted almonds and hazelnuts), and their imported products. Definitely the only place in town to pickup dried cepes, peppadew peppers, brie in calvados, and black beans at midnight! Only drawback for you is that it's just on the northwestern edge of the city center, probably a good brisk 15 minute walk if you knew where you were going. But, because someone will need it eventually: De Avondmarkt (website down this week) De Wittenkade 94-96 1051 AK Amsterdam Hours are something like 4pm-12am most days, longer hours on weekends. +++ Slightly OT: Don't know when you're coming in November, but I believe the 8th is Museum Night, when you can buy one ticket to 40 museums or so, and they're open late (some til 2am) and some have food and drinks available...it can be a fun night if the weather's nice, you just bike from museum to museum. Maybe not so OT: the Jewish Historical Museum had quite a party last year (maybe 2004) with lots of traditional dishes...I imagine the Tropenmuseum would do similar.... mark P.S. I too would be up for an eGullet meetup...maybe even combining that with Albert Cuyp since it's a great eating neighborhood.

The commercial dairy products over here in Holland taste so different from American commercial dairy products (especially the yoghurts) that I really should investigate the differences in "federal regulations" between the two someday....

I'm totally into eating desserty things, I just don't cook them at all...my wife is the pastry chef/ice cream maker. That gelato sounds amazing...in fact, most of their flavors look devastating. Are they as good as they sound? Regardless, the rosemary goatcheese gelato is going on the missus' "To Prepare" list* when she gets back.... thanks! mem * o, if there were acutally such a list....

thanks bigkoiguy! I don't think I've had any raw goat's milk yet, but as Chufi posted above, there's apparently a goat farm 10 minutes from my apt where it sounds like I might be able to taste this. What i'm drinking comes out of a 1-liter carton like any other milk you'd buy at the supermarket. One of it's great characteristics is a really fresh taste, it seems much more complex and "active" than cow's milk. All of your suggestions sound good, I haven't coooked much this week, so haven't done anything newly interesting with it. When my wife returns from holiday I imagine we'll get to some 'sperimentation with the goaty goodness. thx mark

Should reiterate that the romesco sauce is great and also completely unattached to shrimp recipe as far as cookbook goes (they're two completely separate recipes), and that Rochelle also thought the garlic shrimp were great. I'll try 'em again and see what happens. mark

Actually Pontormo: if you're serving sofrito with your tortilla based solely on Rochelle's stellar reputation...I should warn you that I think it was my serving suggestion.

I mentioned that my garlic shrimp with romesco were just OK. Afterwards I noticed that in the photo in the book (p.139) it really looks like there are a few pieces of shaved hard cheese (Manchego?) on the shrimp, but they're not specified in the recipe. Or am I crazy? If not, does anyone else have any idea what that might be....might've been just what they needed. mark

I'd Google/troll around looking for cooking clubs and suggest a group discount or brief demo: Cooking Light Community: Supper Club in Raleigh/Wake Forest At least they're interested in cooking.... mem

Sorry, chowchow23 mentioned that he already had an idea, he was just looking for ideas that were better than his. And so, in order to facilitate coming up with ideas that were better than his, I thought I'd try to find out what his idea was. mem

Right. So, dude, what was your idea that you were testing everybody else's against? Just out of curiosity. mark

hey Dave, I understand...I'm just thinking that we don't get any innovation without a little trial and error...some of this food will stand the test of time and some of it won't, but I do believe that as long as the results taste good and are enjoyable to eat, the refinements of some of these creative concepts will become part of the adventurous cook's standard repetoire moving forward. And what's happening here on eGullet is documentation, discussion, criticism, and in some cases, refinement....all necessary steps for sensible innovation to become integrated with tradition. mem EDIT: a grotesque pre-coffee post was excised by me.

Looks like this is just a HD Europe thing for now, but I just tried Coconut Macaroon ice cream. Sadly I can't really recommend it...way too subtle. If I'm going to take the calorie hit, I need to be engulfed in toasted coconutty goodness, and....this was like looking at a coconut while eating a spoonful of vanilla ice cream. mark

I'd love to hear about your experience at El Gaucho....it's almost definitely part of the El Gaucho chain here in Holland, which is made up of tourist-targeted restaurants for the "palate that needs comforting" (my tagline, not theirs). For some reason Argentinian-style steakhouses are piled up in every single tourist area of town and nowhere else. Anyway, I'm curious because of all the recommendations on this thread....is this a souped-up El Gaucho for Arubans, or is it another tourist restaurant? thx mark

Well....... I'm new here, and I haven't stuck my nose in every dark corner of every forum yet, but I'd say there's plenty of simple, inspired, largely traditional cooking on some of the most popular threads (the Dinner thread springs to mind, as do the Cooking and Cuisine of Italy threads, and most of the foodblogs, largely featuring good cooks cooking at home under normal living constraints). But If you're talking about impassioned debate/detailed documentation, I'd agree that there's not a lot of it going on over "Good Western European + American cooking" (comparatively speaking). I'm inclined to attempt a (potentially wrongheaded) comparison between tastes in food and tastes in music...and the difference between someone with an insatiable (perhaps compulsive) appetite for newer/fresher sounds and tastes on one hand, and on the other hand someone who prefers to hear/taste better and better versions of old favorites, with or without slight twists and tweaks. How does that apply here? I think you've got both kinds of tasters here, but the edge-skaters are more likely to be posting about their discoveries/quests/obsessions, simply because most of the time it actually IS a quest of some sort, and as soon as there's new ground to cover, well then let's get to covering it! I probably fall into this latter category....nonetheless, I'd love a thread that focused on the classics, because they're pretty exotic to me. mark

Well, congratulations on your 25th and may be there be many more thereafter... I've heard good things about Seven Bridges but don't actually know anyone who's stayed there....I believe you're just a few doors down from FOAM (photography museum), one of Amsterdam's best (IMHO) museum-y type things to do. You're also lucky to be very close to a couple of pretty reliable food successes. 1 block to your west is the Vijzelgracht, which features a few neighborhood places: -Holtkamp, the excellent bakery which Klary wrote about here. -Le Delizie, an Italian deli/to-go place with a small but very good antipasto bar (tuna & white bean salad, roasted artichokes in EVOO, house-dried tomatoes, etc.) and also more dinner-y dishes that I've never tried). Only downside: it's a little more expensive than it could be, IMHO. -Caffe Nero is supposed to be a good Italianate breakfast spot, which as you probably know means coffee and a croissant or similar filled pastry. I've never made it there that early, but I can vouch for their espresso, one of the best in Amsterdam. Two blocks to your Northeast is the Blauwbrug, where you can cross the Amstel and enter the Waterlooplein/Stopera 'hood...the only reason you'd do this would be to either buy a bong/tie-dyed T-shirt combo at the Waterloomarkt, or to hit my Surinamese sandwich recommendations at De Tokoman and/or De Hapjeshoek. Or maybe the nightshop Sterk (open til 2am) for something essential like TP or grilled cheese fixins. Well, there's also a natural foods store over here on the Jodenbreestraat (De Weegschaal, Joedenbreestraat 20) if you have special nutritional requirements (they also carry the delicious Tofu-Curry broodje from Bakkerij Annee. You should probably have one of these...they're wonderful, and a wonderful example of tofu in pastry that is not the tiniest bit weird or gross. A word of warning: they sell a number of tofubroodjes there, only one of which is from Annee, and that's the only one you want. You want an "Annee tofu/kerrie broodje"). OK, so there are a couple reasons you might come over this way. Also, when you're at Waterlooplein and the Stopera, you're also close to Puccini Bomboni, one of the more respected chocolatiers in town, just walk north/west along the Amstel from the Blauwbrug to Staalstraat. One of the things I really missed when I lived on that side of town (the Old Side of the center) was quality Turkish/Moroccan baked goods (there's really nowhere to get them), which you guys definitely shouldn't miss while you're here. For you it probably makes sense to head down to the Albert Cuypmarkt area one day to sample that element of "Amsterdam Regional Cooking" (along with all the other goodness that is Albert Cuypmarkt). Unfortunately, I don't get down there as often as I used to so I don't have any specific recs for you other than Kismet. There are also two very popular Dutch breadbakers down there (lines out the door), whose names are eluding me at the moment. One is on the Ferdinand Bolstraat and one is on the 1e van der Helststraat maybe? I'm sure someone will fill in my blanks. OK, thanks for giving me something useful to do during morning coffee... mark EDIT: I forgot to mention that the Vijzelgracht is currently torn to pieces while they work on the North-South metro line. You can still get to the places mentioned above, but it may be difficult to see them as they're probably obscured by cranes, workmen, protective fencing, etc.

Hi all, LindsayAnn, I really think you'd love goat milk itself then...we have to find you some. When you taste it, it's immediately obvious that what you're drinking is what provides the major kind of tangy flavor component that you associate with goat cheeses. docsconz, cajeta's a great suggestion because i'm really not much of a dessert maker and cajeta seems like something i can handle. I'm all over the breakfast cereal idea, but since it's gotten cooler here I've switched to oatmeal at the moment and it's very nice with apples, cinnamon, and a little geitenmelk. and Chufi, I knew about the goat farm but I was imagining a "petting zoo" or something, I never considered that there was food involved. Anything specific you recommend? A good friend is an obsessive ice cream maker, I'll have to get her down there to help me research. Thanks! mark

May yo naise. No frietsaus, the real thang...homemade. mark

Hi Eileen! I'm glad you found this thread too...that's exactly what it's here for. November isn't usually too bad...at least it shouldn't be any worse than Philadelphia (I lived in Harleysville, PA for a few years as a teenager)! Chufi should have lots of bakery-oriented recommendations for you...hopefully you've checked out the Dutch Cooking thread as well, lots of beautiful photos of some (but not yet all) of the tastiest morsels in the book. The next time I indulge in some extended procrastination I'll collect the recommendations here on my external blog, since we don't really have anywhere to pin anything.... Holler if you have any specific questions! mark

I'm hoping that Adventures is the right place for this, my thinking was that it's not an ingredient that everyone has ready access to.... Goat milk is rather popular in Holland, you can get it at most grocery stores next to the cow's milk. I bought my first carton last month and haven't stopped using it since, mostly in my coffee and tea. My question is: does anyone have any other fantastic uses for it, cooking suggestions, etc.? The obvious ones are desserts (flan, pumpkin pie, and ice cream seem to be most common) and fresh cheeses/yogurts....but most of the recipes online seem to come from farms who sell goat milk, and not from chefs/cooks if you know what I mean. So, I guess this is a call for your goat milk success stories. thanks! mark

OK, I promise, this is my last post about the Route 11 tortilla. Made it twice yesterday and it came out perfect both times. Used 6 eggs instead of 7, and soaked the potato chips for 15 minutes or so. Served it with sofrito on the side, it disappeared so fast the first time I had to make another one. In case anyone's interested in the full menu (sorry no pictures, wife took camera to Shetland Isles on summer adventure): Big table laid out with: -Black Olive and Walnut breads from 't Vlaamsche Broodhuys -a young Manchego -a terrific Cabrales, I couldn't believe how much of this people ate. -a very potent sheep's milk cheese called San Sueña, cubed and preserved in EVOO. When I bought this from Hollandaluz, the girl behind the counter told me that "we say 'you can almost taste the farmer'" in this cheese. I halved the cubes after they came out of the jar, because they were just too sharp. -Membrillo -Mushrooms in Escabeche (p.65). Awesome. -Chorizo a la Sidra (pg.230). Very good and supersimple to make. -Arbequina olives Then: -Tortilla al estilo Route 11 (p.55) with Sofrito (p.37). Really good, now that the technical issues have been resolved. I finally used some olive oil potato chips as well this time, big difference. Lightly browned exterior, slightly runny center, pretty perfect-looking and tasting. I personally enlisted the sofrito for excitement, but I'm an raving egg/tomato sauce fiend. and, after a bit, plated: -Garlic Shrimp (pg.139) with Romesco sauce (pg.95). The tiniest bit boring for me, although everyone ate every last bit. The romesco was subtle, complex, great, but the shrimp themselves needed a bit of action. -Spinach, Catalan-style (pg.109). Great, lots of discussion about this, especially the apples. For dessert, chocolate bars from Dolfin in Belgium: dark chocolate with anise and milk chocolate with cinnamon. Wines (all under 6 euro): Heredad de Barros Tinto Crianza, Ribera del Guadiana 2001 Casa Solar Tempranillo 2003 Torres Sangre de Toro Garnacha/Cariñena 2004 Caño Cosecha Tempranillo/Garnacha 2004 (review here) and someone brought a Spanish white from which the empty bottle has mysteriously vanished, so I'm not sure what it was. This evening's food was a last-minute redesign for a non-meateater (eggs, cheese + shellfish OK though). Looking forward to doing one for unapologetic carnivores. mark EDIT: Figured out that my little brown olives were Arbequinas.

sorry, double post...

hey andrew, sorry i missed your question...i'll try to get a jerk tilapia recipe up this weekend. also....I did buy tilapia last week because my grocery store was out of my normal panga filets, and I was planning a Vietnamese "catfish" thing....anyway, sorry to report that the storied Tilapia Muddiness Factor was more obvious than I remembered. Could've been psychological since we've been talking about it, but in any event I wished i'd waited for panga (which I did buy this week, and if I had to compare muddiness on a 10 point scale, 10 being actual mud, tilapia gets a 6, while panga gets a 2. I can't remember American catfish well enough to grade). mark

Thanks Malawry. Just so we can get on with our lives (and on to the next recipe), I'm making it again tomorrow...I'll let you know what happens. Tonight I made the Mushrooms in Escabeche with ham (p.65), and it's perfect. Have to admit I only used 2 cups of EVOO instead of 3. It was painful even doing 2 cups, but I imagine the oil will still be useful when the shrooms are gone.

Hey Chef T, I'm used to tortillas de patatas that are pretty dense with potatoes, or where the egg and potato are at least on equal footing with each other. This was definitely more...(is there a synonym for eggy?) "full of egg" than tortillas I'm used to. It was difficult to detect a potato component while tasting. I'm kind of at a loss for how to elaborate. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a cooking time problem, because even my pre-skillet version looks quite different from Malawry's. mark