The Invaders Are Here: Bon Appetit!

A blogging friend made me aware of this article in the New York Times about eating invasive species such as feral pigs. Feral pigs are a problem here in Texas and it makes perfect sense to eat them. They’re free-ranging, organic, with no added hormones or antibiotics. So eat them invaders, y’all!

A Dream Come True: The Tea Embassy in Austin

During and after library school, in the Netherlands, I had several dreams. Like working as a jillaroo on an Australian sheep station (which I dropped when I realized how much I’d be sweating).  And the one I had with my room mate, where we would move to London after graduation and share an apartment,  living off the money we would make being maids in hotels and such (so glad my parents talked me out of that one). Or the last one, when I had already been working as a librarian for several years, which was taking a group of Aussie and Kiwi guys up on their invitation to join them driving a jeep across Africa for a year (which I wouldn’t have dared by then, in fear of never getting a library job again if I was out of the market for that long).

Progress Cafe

We live on the very western edge of Austin, and our kids have after-school and summer-camp activities all over, including east Austin. So if they are there for a few hours, whichever one of us (T or I) takes them, often tries to hang out in the area and work until it’s pick-up time.

Ten American Foods I will Never Eat (Again)

1.  Chicken-fried steak with gravy: ground, fried beef that is kind of grayish, with gravy that is also grayish.

2. Donuts: fried cake rings.

3. Pork rinds: fried pork fat, eaten as chips.

My Own Restaurant

Today’s Plinky prompt: if you had your own restaurant, what would you name it? I have actually thought a lot about my own restaurant. So here’s a free entrepreneurial idea for any Dutch people in America or thinking about emigrating to America (although I would stay where you are if you’re still in Holland).

Holland, What Are You Doing?

A Flamingo in Utrecht  is a great blog because Alison, an American in Utrecht, the Netherlands, takes pictures all around Utrecht and it’s wonderful that I can see the familiar places and streets. Most of the time it’s also nice to see what’s new. The Nijntje (Miffy) statue is new, for instance. But then I see this picture

My Favorite Restaurant in My Hometown

photo: Tammy Green (Flickr)

My favorite restaurant in my hometown? Hmm, my hometown. That’s tricky. I was born in Utrecht, the Netherlands, lived in Amsterdam, them Australia for five years, then several towns in the Netherlands again before emigrating to America. So let me take as my hometown Amersfoort, the last town I lived in the Netherlands, and the town where I lived the longest. As an expat, the first place there that comes to mind is the pancake house.

If I Could Have Dinner Anywhere…

Klanten bij een haringkar / Eating herring in the traditional Dutch way

If I could go to dinner anywhere in the world tonight, where would I go?  And with whom and what would I eat? Well, since I’m in my Dutch expat blog mode, I think I’d beam myself up and over to Holland, to the Saturday market in Amersfoort or Utrecht or Amsterdam. Yeah, I know it’s only Thursday, but it’s Saturday there whenever I want it to be. If I can beam myself anywhere, it can also be any time.

Sing Along, Now, Girls and Boys!

 

Apparently having good company for your birthday is not enough when you go out to eat. In many restaurants the personnel sings a song for the celebrant. And everyone in the restaurant will know about it. The waiters meet near the kitchen and start clapping as they walk to the birthday person’s table. Often they sing and clap their very own house-birthday song: