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).

Living in a Hospital: The Food

The hospital in Cody, Wyoming had what you expect to get as hospital food: completely cooked-to-death veggies, blah mashed potatoes and bland, greasy meat. Pretty close to the high fat, zero fiber diet in hospitals in south Texas when we had the pleasure. They had a cafeteria in Cody, but it seemed to be closed most of the time. However, they did give any of us with B at mealtime a hospital meal as well, free of charge, which was really nice, because they didn’t have to do that.

The Netherlands in WWII : The Hunger Winter

This is the ninth post in a series about American high school students’ impressions on a presentation about the Netherlands in World War Two. Click here for the introduction to said presentation.

On June 6, 1944–D-Day–the allied troops landed in Normandy. The idea was to

Ten Dutch Foods I Will Never Eat (Again)

photo by Multiple Bleiben

I ate some terrible stuff in the Netherlands. Some of it tasty but super unhealthy, and some of it tasted terrible as well. The terrible tasting stuff was mostly food I had as a kid, when I had no choice. Ugh!

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.

Five American Foods I Wouldn’t Want to Be Without

 I miss lots of Dutch foods, but here are the top five American foods that make up for them.

Mustard Greens Stamppot

I promised a while ago that I would give some stamppot recipes. I know, I know, too many recipes and not enough acerbic social commentary. I’m sure you all really miss it, ha-ha!

Aah, Peanut Soup!

Considering you Yankees invented peanut butter and even had a peanut farmer for president, you really don’t use it much. Sure, you eat peanut butter sandwiches with jelly (jam for the Dutch), peanut butter cookies and Reese’s Pieces, but that’s pretty much it. 

Pumpkin Soup

Okay, before I piss everyone off irreparably, here’s something completely different: a nice recipe for pumpkin soup that I made up as I went along. 

Boterham ≠ Sandwich

When I still lived in Holland a Canadian friend came to visit and we went to see my parents, in part because they lived in Enkhuizen, a wonderful tourist destination. At lunchtime my mother set the table with all the different sandwich toppings she had. My parents looked on in horror as my friend first put jam on her sandwich, then chocolate sprinkles, and then pink sprinkles on top of that!

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).

Tea and Me

The Plinky writing prompt asks me “Coffee or Tea?” and my immediate response is “tea”. But that’s not actually all that true anymore.

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: