Amsterdam has a reputation as a pretty freewheeling city, between the cannabis and red-light district. Here’s another example, a poster we saw on our way to the train station.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/25/no-comment-necessary/
May 25
Amsterdam Impressions
We spent two days in Amsterdam, commuting by train from Kitty’s home in Zaandam. Amsterdam is very easy to get around, thanks to the transit system and the layout around the canals. There was a huge influx of visitors due to the Whitsuntide (Pentecost) holidays. Although many stores are closed on Sundays, a large number catering to tourists were wide open for business. Commerce triumphs over all.
On our first day we just wandered hither and yon through neighborhoods. By chance we found a number of used booksellers in a neighborhood called the Spui (pronounced Spwee). We also visited the Begijnhof (hard to spell phonetically), which used to be a home for pious Catholic women who opted not to take the vows of nuns. It’s still being used as a home for single middle-aged women, regardless of their religions. There are Protestant and Catholic chapels in the Begijnhof. We chatted with the docent of the Protestant church, a woman from Kentucky who immigrated here when she married a Dutch man.
On the second day we had specific missions. Our first stop was the Dutch Resistance Museum, across the street from the Zoo. The history of how the Dutch fought back against the Nazis was truly amazing. (By coincidence, the Washington Post ran a story on Memorial Day of a small town in southern Holland where families volunteer to care for the graves of American soldiers who died liberating the country. Descendents of the soldiers have formed bonds with volunteers and other members of the town.) Our next stop was the Jordaan, a picturesque residential neighborhood. Some of the old homes had been torn down for modern monstrosities until the city wised up and changed its zoning rules. The cafés and coffee shops were doing great business. (See my earlier post for a distinction between the two.) Julian took plenty of pictures of the local architecture.
At the end of the day Julian asked me if I might be interested in retiring in Holland. First, I’m too young to retire. Second, their housing prices are even more exorbitant than Seattle’s. Third, I’d have to learn to speak Dutch. Dealing with German was hard enough for me four years ago when we visited Berlin and Switzerland. Fortunately, English is the unofficial second language in the Netherlands. Even the panhandlers in Amsterdam speak impeccable English!
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/25/amsterdam-impressions/
May 25
First Stop – Netherlands
We visited the Amsterdam area for the first time in over 20 years. We stayed with Julian’s cousin, Kitty. She lives on a river in Zaandam, a suburb of Amsterdam. You can see a series of latter-day (electricity-generating) windmills from the windows of her condo. Not quite as picturesque as the original ones, but they serve similar purposes.
A quaint windmill over the harbor in Zaandam.
On our first day, we took a road trip to two of the older towns in the area. The first was Edam (home of the cheese). As with most Dutch towns, Edam is crisscrossed by canals. We visited a small 17th century Protestant church and walked around the downtown area. The second town was Enkhuizen. (Don’t ask me to pronounce this!) This town fronts the IJsselmeer (this is not a misspelling, and I won’t try to pronounce this), a large body of water created by a dam across the Zuider Zee. We had a late lunch in Enkhuizen. I watched the café’s corpulent canine chase bikes on the walk outside while we were eating. A very Dutch scene.
On Saturday we went to Delft for a 150th birthday party. The sum of Kitty’s daughter’s family’s ages is 150. It was quite a crowd in the basement of a tavern. Kitty’s youngest granddaughter, age 10, was helping to tend bar. (In the States, Child Protective Services would take the children away if they were notified of a similar situation.) She did a fantastic job. The best part of the party was meeting some of Julian’s relatives that he’d never met. As most of his US relatives are no longer living, it’s good to know he has family somewhere.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/25/first-stop-netherlands/
May 25
The Bike Cult in Holland
Seattle’s bike culture has nothing on the Netherlands. Bikes are a main transportation option, and not just for the Spandex warriors. Most of the bikes resemble 1960’s-vintage Schwinns–single speed, covered chains, heavy frames, upright handlebars, fenders, and kickstands.
Hey, you have to park somewhere.
Many are customized to carry cargo and/or kids. Most of the bikes are step-through, and it’s not considered girly for a man to ride one of these bikes. Riders, even children, rarely wear helmets. The main plazas of Amsterdam are packed with bikes and bike racks. In addition, there are bike parking lots on barges around the city. This is a bike-parking garage adjacent to the Central Train Station.
Bike parking garage in Paris.
The problem is the lack of enforcement of traffic laws for bicyclists. In theory, they are supposed to follow the same rules of the road as cars; in practice, it’s pedestrian beware. We were nearly clipped or run down more than once by bikers. It was nearly as bad as the Burke-Gilman Trail in Seattle during prime training season for the Seattle-to-Portland bike race. Who knew these old-school schleppers could move so fast?
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/25/the-bike-cult-in-holland/
May 25
The Amsterdam Coffee Shop Culture
I know what some of you are thinking: “Dude, you visited Amsterdam…” Yes, we did. (I’ve had more traffic from that one post on the Seattle pot shop than anything else. What does this say about web surfers these days?) Here is a product we saw at the Flower Market. Imagine the US Customs officer finding this in your suitcase.
Kids, don’t try this at home.
Amsterdammers call cannabis outlets “coffee shops”, whereas cafés are stores where you consume only food, coffee, or tea. Sometimes coffee shops and cafés are next door to each other, which undoubtedly magnifies the confusion for elderly tourists from Sheboygan or Saskatoon.
I’ll answer your next question before you ask it: No, we didn’t go into a coffee shop. Truth be known, it’s not necessary to enter a coffee shop and purchase product to get a buzz. All you have to do is stand on the sidewalk outside the entrance and inhale. We saw plenty of twentysomethings from Sheboygan, Saskatoon, Strasbourg, and Siena going in them, however. One tour group, which seemed to be focused on Amsterdam’s “alternative cultures”, parked itself prominently in front of a coffee shop. The guide told the tourists they could go inside if they wished. Was the coffee shop giving the tour guide a commission??? Did he do the same in the Red Light District???
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/25/the-amsterdam-coffee-shop-culture/
May 17
Edible Thoughts Goes on the Road
Lafayette, here we come!
Later this week Julian and I leave for Europe for a long-overdue vacation. We first land in Amsterdam to visit his cousins. We then take a train to Paris for a week in a rented apartment. Our friend Roger will be joining us, which means much silliness will ensue. We’ll rent a car and hightail it to the southwestern part of France, so we can visit tiny medieval towns en route to our final two days in Lyon.
Preparations for this trip were only slightly less complicated than the D-Day invasion. We (rather, Julian) booked our plane and train tickets and reserved hotel rooms months in advance. We have two catsitters lined up, as one will be out of town Memorial Day weekend.We had a scare last week when we hadn’t heard from the apartment owner to arrange the key handoff. Luckily, that got reconciled. One of the last loose ends was getting transportation to the airport. Our current home is off the beaten path for most taxis and shuttles. We finally found a driver who will take us to and from the airport for less than the usual limo service.
Expect periodic posts from us, with photos and commentary on food, current events, and general hilarity.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/17/edible-thoughts-goes-on-the-road/
May 16
Bike to Work Day
Taking five from the trail.
May 15 was Bike to Work Day in the Seattle area. The weather was ideal–cool in the morning, with a high in the mid 60’s. I rode to a nearby park and ride, caught the bus to the main hospital, and then rode to the satellite hospital where I work. Assorted organizations set up rest and swag stations around town. My officemate, who rode to work from West Seattle, stopped at so many stations his pack was getting heavy from all the goodies he picked up. The station at my hospital offered free bike tune-ups. I took the opportunity to get my front derailleur degrunged and adjusted.
I did, however, ride all the way home. It’s a 16-mile trip, but a good portion of it is downhill. An early highlight is Interlaken Park, an old-growth forest surrounded by a residential area. The road switchbacks down a steep hill. Fortunately, the traffic is pretty low on that road even during rush hours. Over half the ride is on the Burke-Gilman Trail. This former railroad right of way runs through the University of Washington campus and ends about a block from our home. It offers stellar views of Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains to the east. Although the trail is heavily traveled, it’s rarely gridlocked–unless you have people riding two or three abreast.
The festivities continued for many on the commute home. There is a brewpub and beer garden in Kenmore across from the park and ride where I caught the bus, which is just off the Burke-Gilman. They had a serious party going on as I rode past, complete with a band. The tables in the beer garden were packed with Spandexed and helmeted revelers. Their bikes were locked up on any available fencing. I didn’t stop, since I was only a mile from home at that point. (It was also my night to cook, and it was nearly 6 pm.)
I’ll be commuting by bike more as the summer goes on; however, Edible Thoughts will be posting from Europe for the next couple of weeks. More to come.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/16/bike-to-work-day/
May 11
Words to Live By
Never work anywhere that doesn’t have good potlucks. I don’t mean Doritos, Skittles, and diet soda in the break room. I’m also not talking about the boss ordering pizza to be consumed at a team meeting. This move is at best a bribe, and at worst a way to circumvent wage-hour laws by imposing on hourly workers’ lunch breaks. I mean real food prepared (or at least purchased by) coworkers and shared in a break room or other venue without a work-related meeting attached. The occasion can be a birthday, holiday, or any random Tuesday.
Why are potlucks good for the workplace? Sharing food encourages conversation and boosts morale. That “awesome culture” that most online job postings boast is just a bogus buzzword unless there are spontaneous human interactions to get acquainted and spark creativity. You learn about your coworkers’ backgrounds and cultures through their food contributions. My current department has numerous immigrants and first-generation Americans, along with some who can trace their ancestries in North America back before the Declaration of Independence was signed. You also learn who the good cooks and bakers are in the group. One coworker is from the South and makes a mean sweet potato pie. Conversely, you learn those who lean on other purveyors for their excellent offerings. A former colleague of mine in North Carolina specialized in bringing Boston cream pie from the neighborhood Harris Teeter. A current coworker has a source for killer lumpia (Filipino egg rolls). Those coworkers who wouldn’t know real food if it bit them back can always bring plates, cups, cutlery, and drinks.
Holidays are always a good excuse for a potluck. In the old days, our floor at the medical center where I worked had a legendary holiday party. One of the gastroenterologists would concoct a punch from Austrian wine, fruit juice, soda, and Everclear. The rest of us brought food of various kinds in a vain attempt to sop up the alcohol. My first year we entertained the masses with “Rudolph the Rachitic (vitamin D-deficient for you non-nutrition folk) Reindeer”, accompanied by my friend Karen on the accordion. We also wrote “Another One Passed a Stone” for the occasion, but didn’t perform that number.
The most memorable potluck from those days was a birthday party for one of my coworkers. At the time, I was in the hospital next door recovering from a serious auto accident. It had been a rocky two weeks, most of which I can’t recall (fortunately). That morning a box of Froot Loops appeared on my breakfast tray. Hospital cuisine is not known for being highbrow, but that was a new low. My coworkers, including the aforementioned Karen, dressed me up and smuggled me out of the hospital for the potluck. Although my appetite wasn’t very good, I do remember enjoying a decent-sized plate of food at that party. The company of my coworkers (including my boss, who rarely attended our potlucks) went a long way toward improving my resolve to get back on my feet.
If you truly want to promote interactions between your coworkers, consider regular potlucks. They can nourish the bodies and souls of the group. Bon appétit!
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/11/words-to-live-by/
May 03
The Cookbook Cull
Guess what? That’s not all of them!
From time to time even the most pack-ratty among us has to trim a collection. There’s only so much rearranging one can do to accommodate more books; thus, some must go. My most recent major cookbook cull was at the end of 2012, when we moved into a townhouse that didn’t have built-in bookcases as our house in Seattle did. Previous culls coincided with cross-country moves, as when we moved to Seattle from North Carolina in 2003.
Culled cookbooks come in several categories:
- Obsolete. The recipes may have been fine in 1979, but don’t match the way I cook or eat now. In the case of ethnic cookbooks, the authors may have substituted or eliminated ingredients that were hard to find back in the day. I got rid of an early edition of Charmaine Solomon’s Complete Book of Asian Cooking because it didn’t have lemongrass or other ingredients we now take for granted in Southeast Asian cuisine. (Years later, I bought a more recent edition of the book because it’s such a great reference.) I also had a small paperback Asian cookbook by the 1960’s author Myra Waldo that I culled back in the 1990’s. She eliminated fish sauce from the Vietnamese and Thai recipes because of its “distressingly fishy” smell. Vietnamese food without fish sauce is like white chocolate–the key ingredient is lacking, so why bother eating it?
- Duplicates. Sometimes I’ll receive gifts of cookbooks I already have from family and friends. Or I’ll buy what I think is a revised edition of a cookbook, only to find that it’s the same edition with a different cover–and a higher price.
- Purchase in haste… Impulse buys can sometimes be real treasures; other times, they’re wanton wastes of trees. Some restaurant or celebrity cookbooks fit in this category. Sometimes restaurant recipes don’t translate well to a home kitchen. In addition, some suffer from sloppy editing. Where’s Judith Jones when we need her?
- Diet books. I never had many of these, mostly because I never succumbed to the low-carb/Paleo/gluten-free fads. I have bought a few over the years, sometimes for legitimate reasons and often for comic relief. Most diet books fall into the aforementioned wanton waste of trees category.
So how does one cull a collection of cookbooks? Here are a few of my guidelines:
- Get the book out of the bookcase. Is it dusty? Not a good sign.
- Crack it open and thumb through a few recipes. Does anything jump out at you as something you’d want to make in the next week? Can you get all of the ingredients at a nearby store? Not everyone has a Wegman’s or Uwajimaya handy.
- Go ahead and try the selected recipe(s). Were the proportions off? Did the timing not make sense? The recipe may have been tested on a macho restaurant-style gas range where high heat = incendiary; unfortunately, you’re stuck with an aging electric range with iffy temperature control. Most importantly, did it taste good? Would you make this recipe again?
If the answers to these questions are no, it may be time to donate the book to a good home or the local library–or sell it to a used bookstore. And then go out and buy another cookbook that may work better for you.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/03/the-cookbook-cull/
May 02
Opening Day of Boating Season
The first Saturday of May is Opening Day of Boating Season in Seattle. Folks boat here year-round, but Opening Day is another excuse for a party. The University of Washington (UW) crew team hosted a series of races with everyone from local boating clubs to world-class teams. This year’s Windemere Cup featured the UW, Columbia, and the world champion New Zealand men’s teams. New Zealand won, but the UW placed a respectable second. Crowds lined both shores of the Montlake Cut (a passage between Lake Washington and Lake Union that serves as the southern boundary of the UW campus) to cheer, see, and be seen.
After the Windemere Cup race, the crews rowed back to the Boat House; thereafter, the boat parade began. Local law enforcement craft led the way, including a fireboat dispensing water to cool off the spectators–whether they need it or not. (Opening Day has a reputation for foul weather, but today was sunny and in the low 60’s at noon.) The UW Marching Band followed on three boats, playing the school’s unofficial fight song–“Tequila.” Then we had various yachts from local clubs. The members of these clubs stood at attention on the bows, dressed in their Thurston Howell III finery, as they passed the reviewing stand. This meant that their backs were to the crowds on the north bank of the Cut. After the Yacht Clubs go past, it was a mix of old steamboats, Chris Crafts, sailboats, and decorated yachts. These were two of our favorites, “Godzilla vs. the Statue of Liberty” and “Attack of the Giant Squid”.![IMG_1179[1]](http://ediblethoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_11791-e1430628265648.jpg)
![IMG_1173[1]](http://ediblethoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_11731.jpg)
In previous years we’ve seen amphibious cars in the parade, but none this year. Several Canadian boats made the trip down, including the Navy training ship Oriole. This picture is from 2013, but this was the first sailboat through the cut today.![IMG_0886[1]](http://ediblethoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_08861-e1430628602254.jpg)
The best part of the festivities is chatting up other spectators. We were invited to the UW Yacht Club wienie roast our first year here. It was a good thing the event was held indoors because the weather was miserable that day. Today I met a woman from Chicago who was in town for a wedding and was told about the crew races, but not the boat parade. She stayed for the parade and had a great time. Two years ago Julian and I were talking to a fellow photographer who told us about a book regarding the 1936 UW crew team’s trip to the Berlin Olympics. This story is “The Boys in the Boat,” which has become a best-seller and will be made into a film within the next year. The book will explain why rowing has such a hold on Seattle and how that heritage has led to the celebration of Opening Day.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/02/opening-day-of-boating-season/
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