tasty morsels

My work has taken me to some pretty interesting places in the past few years. One thing I always try to do in each place I visit is to immerse myself a little in the every-day world I'm visiting. Usually the short nature of my visits don't allow for as much exploration as I'd like. However, one way to really get to know a place is through the food. Every time I visit a new country or city I always ask my hosts to show me some local flavours.... whether it's the seafood and meat dishes of Portugal, a braai in South Africa, the wine and pasta from Italy or a table full of tapas in Spain, I'm there.

People who know me know I LOVE my food... which is why this little giftie from G really made me smile.

I love to cook, and have recently been getting a little more adventurous with my meal creations (it helps to have a willing test subject who enjoys these attempts and who is game to try anything...). And I have to admit I love the inspirations of Mr. Oliver. He has great ideas and flavour combinations, and his recipes are flexible enough to allow the novice chef to add their own twist. This new book combines so much of what I love about food - fresh, natural ingredients, and now the ingredients and combinations are taken from some of his travels around Europe. How perfect! I'm so excited to dig into some of these recipes.. starting tonight!

Appie Sunday

Well I feel I need to talk about the Sunday afternoon grocery shop as it always makes me chuckle.

But first, a little background.... Shops in Utrecht are closed on Sunday. Oh, I mean, except for the first Sunday of every month of course, because that is "koopzondag" which means "Sunday Shopping". But for the rest of the Sundays in the month the shops are closed.

fig. 1 My place in line - I still had to cross all the vegetables and an aisle.

All the shops are closed... all except for the grocery store by my house. That lucky store is open every Sunday from  4 - 10pm (though I should note that it is open 9am - 10pm on the special Shopping Sundays so this story really does not apply to those days). But for those three weeks out of every month, at precisely 3:59pm on Sunday (and I'm being exact here because the Dutch in general are very prompt & on time), all the people who live within a 5 kilometer (estimation here based on the sheer volume of people that are in the store and the fact that I believe there are other such shops that have this special arrangement are open, so it's not ALL of Utrecht that shops here) radius descend on the "Appie" (that's what us locals call the Albert Heijn store). It's really incredible!! The line ups for the till wrap around the entire store (fig 1) and don't even get me started on the parking! It's an absolute nightmare (fig 2)!

fig. 2 Parking lot. Can you see my bike? No, seriously!? Can you?

fig. 3 Chicken, Romaine lettuce & bread

So why do we do it? Why do I follow the hordes and enter the store at the same time? I mean, I just came back from a half hour shop when all I needed was 3 items (fig 3) (I'm thinking Chicken Ceasar and toast for the morning). I mean, I don't plan to eat for another few hours, and yet I stubbornly face the masses and wait in line. I know for a fact that the store is relatively empty at 6pm... so why don't I wait? Why don't I think ahead and buy food for Sunday on Saturday? It would be so much easier! Hmm... I have no answers to these questions. All I can say is thank goodness that my local Appie is open and that is gives us the chance to get those Sunday groceries that we didn't pick up on Saturday. And heck, Sunday afternoon is all about taking it easy, so why not take it easy with all your neighbours, in line at the store?

Bon appetit!

where to start...

I'm new at this. I'm not even sure what this will evolve into... but my hope is that it becomes a place where I can share some thoughts & perhaps some random bits that I find interesting & think that you might too. I want to document adventures & observations, & to share what's happening on this side of the pond with my close ones on the other side (and of course with anyone else who is interested). So, let's go exploring...

xo