Cooking at Home: Asian

Eating out is quite expensive in the Netherlands (just a wonton noodle soup can cost US$15), so I've made just about every meal since moving into my apartment. Luckily, there's a very good selection of Asian groceries here. In fact, I've come across four Asian markets around the center of Eindhoven! I've mainly been going to two: Sin Wah Supermarkt at Kleine Berg 65, and Amazing Oriental, part of a nationwide chain of supermarkets, behind the Philips Stadium at Langdonkenstraat 7. Amazing Oriental is a pretty big stand-alone store, as you can see below.














These stores not only have standards like Kikkoman soy sauce (which you can also find in the mainstream Albert Heijn supermarkets), but also spices for Indonesian food, different eggplants including the "pea eggplant" (which I learned about in my Chiang Mai cooking class here), even the wood bark for Laotian food. So I stocked up on staples, including Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, Sichuan peppercorns, this wonderfully fragrant ground chili (front, middle), and 梅干菜 (meigan cai, dried and pickled mustard leaves).














With these in my cupboard, I made red braised beef with potatoes and daikon (you need to go to one of the outdoor produce markets for daikon; the Asian markets and Albert Heijn don't carry it). And I also experimented with wontons, using a recipe from Epicurious/Gourmet magazine. I would never have thought of it on my own, but the chopped cilantro stems add great texture and flavor. Now, funny enough, I have yet to find ground pork anywhere, only a half-and-half combination of pork and beef. Sort of surprising for a country that loves to eat sausages and all kinds of pork deli meats.














I think the dish I am most proud of so far is the beef larb I made, with the recipe I learned in my Luang Prabang cooking class (review here). Since I have yet to procure a microwave, I've taken to making a lot of dishes that can be eaten cold. I couldn't find kaffir lime leaves, but shallots and lemongrass were easy to find in the Asian markets, and I was even able to find the very important roasted rice powder. I was only able to find already-seasoned rice powder which the instructions say you can just add straight to ground meat and get larb, but I still added all of the other fresh seasonings (this is where the cilantro leaves ended up, sans stems) minus additional chili powder. Boy did it still come out spicy! But eaten together with cool cucumber, this was a savory and refreshing meal.

***

Recipe: Beef Larb made in Europe

Adapted from a recipe from Tamnak Lao cooking class, adjusted to increase portion size (makes about 6 portions), to account for availability of ingredients (some added, some subtracted), and to simplify instructions

400g ground beef, lean

1/2 bouillon cube

Juice from 1 lime

6 tbsp hot water

2 spring onions

4 shallots

4 garlic cloves, sliced or diced

1 bunch of coriander, finely chopped

4 stalks lemongrass, thinly chopped (white part only)

1 packet of seasoned roasted rice powder

1/2 tsp fish sauce

1 cucumber and/or several lettuce leaves

1 bunch of mint

1. Put beef, bouillon cube, half of the lime juice, and water in a cold wok

2. Place over low heat and keep stirring until the meat is cooked through

3. While the beef is cooking, prepare the spring onion, shallots, garlic, coriander, and lemongrass, and put in one bowl.

4. When the beef is cooked, remove from heat and add the ingredients from the bowl in step #3.

5. Add the rice powder, fish sauce, and remaining lime juice. Stir.

6. Serve with sliced cucumber and/or lettuce leaves. Tear leaves of mint and sprinkle on top for garnish.

Good hot, room temperature, or cold.

Welcome to Eindhoven

So far, I've been pretty impressed by the governmental agencies in the Netherlands. At city hall and at the immigration office, you can just walk in and talk to a real live clerk with only a 5-10 minute wait, no appointment needed. At both offices too, I've had staff issue declarations and statements on the spot. So finally I was able to complete my registration at Eindhoven city hall. In addition to getting my all-important burgerservicenummer, the equivalent to a Social Security number, this registration triggered a bunch of mail. One of them was a letter "from the mayor of Eindhoven" welcoming me to the city and saying that if I brought that letter in to city hall, they'd give me a free welcome pack.

Excited about the prospect of getting a welcome pack from a city, I went to city hall with my letter and the receptionist (whom I'd seen several times already) promptly reached under her desk where there were a ton of these gift bags and gave me one of them. Inside there were a bunch of information pamphlets for things like the Van Abbemuseum and the casino, but also walking maps, a very thin yellow pages, and even a promotional DVD for the city. A bit of a random assortment, but I did get a nice warm and fuzzy feeling of being welcomed.














Another piece of mail was my stadspas, or city card. You can use it as a library card, and also as an access card for the ice skating rink and swimming pool and even the city dump. As an aside, if you're under the impression that the Netherlands is a totally socialist society where all of these services are free, you're sorely mistaken. At the library, adults pay at least 7.50 Euro per year for borrowing privileges, and that rate limits you to borrow 5 items PER YEAR. When I think of my borrowing habits in Cincinnati where I borrowed a ton of guidebooks, I would need the higher package of 37.50 Euro per year (unlimited number of materials but only 15 books checked out at any one time); rates top out at 48 Euro per year for the most premium services. Oh yeah, and regardless of how much you pay per year, CDs and DVDs cost 2 Euro each time you check one out (language CDs cost 3.50 Euro).

Ikea Food

I've been coming the Ikea a lot since I arrived in the Netherlands - four times in the last month to be exact. It can be a tiring experience, dealing with out of stock issues and customer service, but I have found eating in the cafeteria kind of fun.

The first time I went to Ikea I just had a bottled juice. Then I tried the famous Swedish meatballs, "regulaar" size, which comes with fries, gravy, and lingonberry sauce. They taste nice, but after about 2 meatballs I felt really gross inside. The unctuous greasiness of the meatballs combined with the gravy just felt so tiresome to eat. I usually don't like sweet things combined with salty, but the lingonberry sauce was the only thing that saved the dish from complete heaviness. The Swedish meatballs you can find in every Ikea, but I found it interesting that other menu items vary according to location. For example, you can find chicken sate on the menu here in the Netherlands, being a really popular dish nationwide (it's the middle right hand picture on the menu board below).

















This time I went and was actually going to try the meatballs again but in the small size (amazing how I sometimes crave gross things after the passage of time). But then I saw on the menu board that Ikea Family cardholders got €1 off of the "brochette van luxe vissoorten met bieslooksaus," or seafood skewer with chive sauce. Ikea Family is a Europe-only thing for now (I think), and it's like a free club card that gives you discounts on certain items in the store, like my "Special Edition for Ikea Family by Electrolux" vacuum cleaner, or free tea and coffee in the restaurant. Since I'm a sucker for deals and the seafood skewer looked nice and light with a side of vegetables, I went for it.













I got a choice of fries or buttered potato wedges, and a lemon slice, along with the shrimp, salmon, and bass (?) skewer covered in creamy sauce. Little of the creamy sauce adhered to the skewer, which was quite flavorful on its own. I also got my free tea. At this Ikea, the coffee comes from one of those automatic espresso/cappuccino machines which makes some pretty good drinks, and the tea is a choice of different tea bags including green tea, which I got.













I also really wanted to try this dessert, princesses cake (princessen gebak). Anything that's round and green is something that I would want to try. Turns out that it's a thin sheath of marzipan (I think - it was really sweet), covering a dome of whipped cream, jam, and cake. Really delicious, but so sweet you must alternate bites with sips of tea.

Corporate Identity as Furniture

As seen in the United Red Carpet Club at LAX.

It took me a while, but that silver counter is derived from the United logo. Look at the side of the counter, and imagine a fragment of the the United tulip logo here...

...and then projected outwards to form the counter.

I think it's clever and a subtle incorporation of corporate identity into environmental design, but ultimately not successful. While the United logo in 2-D has a nice, smooth, wrapping motion that implies caring, when the customer is standing in front of this counter, he's faced with a sharp razor edge pointing at his torso. All the while that the agent is barely visible behind the top. Not a friendly relationship.

Camp Food

As part of new student orientation for my program, the second year students put on a half-week camp. I learned that it's typical for Dutch schools to put on an intro week camp (and some have a reputation for being camps for sex and drinking), but ours was unique in that we stayed overnight at a camp site out of town, had sponsors from different shops in town, and had DJs every night. It was pretty elaborate, and well run.

Through my own experience eating at camp, as well as talking to my new classmates, I learned that a typical Dutch breakfast is quite simple - bread, cheese, cereal. And a typical Dutch lunch is quite similar to breakfast - bread, cheese, cold cuts. Not only that, people here don't seem to eat very much (at least young people). Whereas I would take around four slices of the Wonderbread-like bread which felt like air to me, the Dutch students would take one or two slices. And then point at me with my mound of bread.

Upon encouragement from another classmate who informed me that people here eat the chocolate sprinkles not just on buttered bread, but also on peanut butter and even cheese, I tried a peanut butter and chocolate sprinkle sandwich. Much more successful than my first attempt (which I wrote about here), both in terms of taste as well as sprinkle adhesion.

When it came to dinner, everyone pretty much told me how they ate "typical Dutch" food very infrequently, maybe once a month, much preferring cuisines of other cultures like Mexican, Greek, Italian. When I asked what is a typical Dutch dish, pretty much everyone would give "stomppot" as the prime example. Last year when I visited the Netherlands, I tried this dish at de Keuken van 1870 restaurant in Amsterdam. The two spheres on the left were potatoes mashed with endive, and the sphere on the right was a huge meatball. Everything was doused in a gravy with crunchy bacon cubes. I thought it was pretty good actually.













The dinners at our camp were quite the opposite of stamppot. First of all, it was all vegetarian, and it was all an interpretation of, yes, Mexican, Greek, Italian. There was a chef who cooked for us, and he always came up with awesome variety, e.g. in the dish below I had potato salad with olives, couscous, cucumber salad, hummus, a red pepper stew, and sprouts. What I loved the most about dinner service was that the second year students would line up and each would put something on our plates, and always it would be just one person's job to carefully place two sprigs of chives at a right angle on top, or one bibb lettuce leaf on the bottom of the plate. In this case, one person sprinkled the parsley and another put the two lime slices in opposing fashion. Very gourmet.

A bit too gourmet was our dessert on the final night. Hot chilies in the fruit. But it was quite the luxury that we didn't have to clean our plates from dinner for dessert as they provided disposable plates. This being the Netherlands, where everyone apparently loves camping and the outdoors, sleeping bags, air mattresses, and your own plate, utensils, and cups were things that we were expected to bring ourselves!

Trip Report: VLC-MUC-AMS

I was looking forward to try a new airline, Spanair, but at the same time I'd read a bunch of negative reviews of it online (old planes, need to pay for food). I was also a bit nervous because I needed to check my bag in, but my connection time in Munich (MUC) was only 50 minutes, and I absolutely needed to get to Amsterdam (AMS) on time so I could get to Eindhoven for an important meeting.

In Valencia (VLC), there wasn't a Star Alliance lounge, but I was excited to see that I'd be flying on a plane with the Star Alliance livery! Nerdy, I know, but I'd never been on such a plane before. The inside of the MD-83 was quite old though.














I had taken on board takeout from Cerveceria 100 Montaditos (earlier post here) since Spanair's website said that there would only be food for sale on board. So I was quite surprised to get handed a package with one cheese sandwich and one ham sandwich! Plus I could get tea or coffee, and juice as well. The sandwiches did not taste that great, and I could read on the package that they had preservatives. But still, it was nice to get something free.














I'd read before that MUC was a nice airport to connect through, since it's one terminal building only, but I have to say that it's one terminal building in name only. That's because it seemed like more than half of all flights are parked away from the terminal and you have to catch a bus to/from the main terminal! To add insult to injury, I could have walked from my first flight to my second in less time for me to take the bus to the terminal, run to the other side of the terminal, only to get on another bus back to where I came from. It was a mad dash (my connection time ended up being only 40 minutes), but I did stop by the news/coffee stand for a free paper on my rush to the second bus.














I was seated in the first row of economy on the CRJ900 (it was a Lufthansa Regional flight, operated by CityLine). But since business class is basically the same as economy, only with a curtain partition separating the two, I got underseat storage.

I was surprised on this 1 hr 30 min regional flight to be served fresh food! I had water with lemon, and a choice of cheese or "chicken" sandwich. "Chicken" turned out to be some type of salami; I guess Germans can turn any meat into a pink sausage. It was served on a grain bread with a Bounty candy bar (chocolate covered coconut shreds).














Upon arrival in AMS, I was pleasantly surprised that my bag did make the connection!

Overall, my flights on Swiss (earlier trip report here), Spanair, and Lufthansa were quite satisfactory with food service on every segment. But I would have expected some aspects of the itinerary to be smoother, more integrated. I booked the flights on lufthansa.com, and Lufthansa owns Swiss and my Spanair flight was booked with the LH code. But when I called Swiss to get seat assignments, the agent was not ony rude, she condescendingly told me that booking on lufthansa.com was booking through a travel agent, so I didn't have all of the benefits of booking directly with the airline. Plus I wasn't able to check in online for my Spanair flight on either the Spanair website (since I didn't book through them), or the Lufthansa website (since the flight wasn't operated by them).

Fast Casual, Spanish Style

On our second and last day in Valencia, we went to an eatery that our boutique hotel had recommended, Cerveceria 100 Montaditos. Thinking that this was going to be a cute little tapas restaurant, I later checked and found out that it's a chain of about 130 restaurants around Spain. You write down what you want on a list of choices (like at a sushi restaurant), hand it over at a counter then wait for your name to be called on the loudspeaker (like at Panera Bread). Since I love snack-y foods and little sandwiches, 100 Montaditos ("little sandwiches") was a really fun place for me. Plus we went on a day where every montadito and drink was 1 Euro (regular price is either 1, 1.2, or 1.5 Euro). So it was quite a cost effective place to eat.














I ordered mousse de pato con cebolla crujiente (pate with crunchy onions), anchoas en aceite (anchovies in oil), chorizo a la sidra con tortilla (chorizo cooked in hard apple cider with potato tortilla), gambas con salsa brava (shrimp with red sauce), and finally, chocolate con leche y almendras (milk chocolate with almonds). I got a couple with whole wheat bread, with the rest in regular white bread. My favorite were definitely the pate (very standard, with the crunchy onion pieces being a nice textural contrast), chorizo plus tortilla (I love the sharpness of chorizo and potatoes are great with everything including bread), and the milk chocolate with almonds (the chocolate melts with the warmth of the bread). I also ordered orange juice, thinking that if I'm in Valencia, surely I should try Valencian orange juice. Well it turned out to be Minute Maid in a bottle, not surprising given my later finding that this is a 130-strong franchise!


















Since I didn't think that I would get fed on my Spanair and Lufthansa flights tomorrow, and would need to wake up really early to catch my 8am flight, I got some takeout just in case for dinner/breakfast/lunch. I was so pleased to see that takeout comes in a carrying case, with each sandwich having a little parking space with dividers!

I got my three favorites from lunch, along with some new things that I had never heard about (and had to Google later to find out what I ate). Aside from the potato chips which you see at top, here are the montaditos from top right: morcilla iberica (Spanish blood sausage, usually made with pig's blood, rice, onion, and spices), sobrasada iberica (a red sausage made from pork and seasoned with paprika - the texture is less of a sausage than of a paste), chocolate with almond, pate with crunchy onions, lomo al ajillo (pork loin cooked with garlic), and the chorizo with potato tortilla. It was fun trying the new stuff, but my favorites were the same three from before. I wish I could eat them more often!

Tale of Two Cities: Barcelona and Valencia architecture

In both Valencia and Barcelona, I had the same reaction: how did these buildings get built? Barcelona has an all of its Gaudi gaudiness, and Valencia has a totally new neighborhood of Calavatra buildings.

I visited La Pedrera apartment building in Barcelona (get the Articket at a less popular location like the CCCB to skip the 30min-1hr long line). I'd seen Gaudi's works in my art history books, but what I didn't expect from just looking at pictures is that it's not just the facade that's all wavy, it's the inside and top of the buildings as well! Here's a view from the rooftop terrace, looking down into one of the central courtyards.


















La Sagrada Familia was a different story though. This one was a bit too grotesque for me, like the sea creatures of Pirates of the Caribbean overgrown with barnacles.


















In Valencia, Santiago Calavatra created the whole new neighborhood of the City of Arts and Sciences full of performing arts centers and exhibition halls. It's located in a part of the former river bed, which has turned into a much-used green belt cutting through Valencia. Here's a picture of the Science Museum.














Here's the Palau de les Arts. They are beautiful buildings, but as a group look rather deserted when there aren't performances going on, or the museums are closed. Even when museums are open, things can feel a bit lonely. Still, thumbs up to both Barcelona and Valencia for constructing so many daring buildings.

Wall Art: Barcelona

Lots of different styles here. Check out the photorealism in the third picture!

What's Showing in Art: Barcelona

The best exhibit I've seen in a while, anywhere, was at the Centre de Cultura Contemporanea de Barcelona. I happened upon this museum not really by design, but more so to maximize the value of the combination "Articket" I bought earlier in the day at Fundacio Joan Miro. The Museu Picasso turned out to be free Sunday afternoons, so I needed another venue to go to in order to feel like I was getting my money's worth.

Well CCCB turned out to be free today as well! But what luck to come across it. The venue hosts films and musical performances, but what I saw were two excellent exhibits. The first, "The Jazz Century," started out looking like a history of Jazz exhibit, but ended up involving all forms of art like painting and graphic design that intersected with Jazz. (On view through October 18) The second exhibit, "Quinquis, Gangs of the 80s" was a knockout. It also started out like it was going to be a review of a genre of Spanish films of the 80s that depicted the life of juvenile delinquents, but turned out to be an investigation into the causes of this generation of delinquents (relocation of slums to communities of modern high rises, which turned out to lack education, transportation, and sanitary systems), and also an exploration into youth culture in general in the 80s. Part film history, part pop culture review, part sociology, this was a thoroughly satisfying show (On view through September 6)














Earlier in the day, I paid a visit to Fundacio Joan Miro. For some reason I underestimated the popularity of Miro (he is one of my favorite artists but I didn't think he was for many others), so I was surprised when the wait to get in was like half an hour. It's undergoing renovations so the permanent collection was just about the only thing on view. I love Miro but the museum fell short in terms of tracing the artist's development and putting it in context.














Across from Museu Picasso (the best part was seeing all of the studies Picasso did for Las Meninas), there was Disseny Hub Barcelona, a design museum. I was pretty excited to see it, especially because its exhibition was about souvenirs. But I felt like it included too many objects separated into too many themes that it eventually included everything under the sun. The same critique I have of Paola Antonelli-curated exhibits at MoMA. Maybe it's a challenge for design curators everywhere, but I hope some will be able to rise to the challenge of curating. (On view through December 13)