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We arrived to Amsterdam in the middle of Queen’s Day, a holiday where the Dutch dress in orange, trade yard-sale items (no buying allowed, only bargaining), and consume stupendous amounts of beer.  Dad and Ruthie and I made our way across town through the madness to our beautiful swap apartment (home-exchanging is awesome!) among all of the intoxicated tangerines.  After a few hours of exploring, we decided to take a walk over to Haarlemmerstraat, a little street with lots of restaurants and cute shops.  Pizzabakkers was an adorable haven, away from all of the drunk people, where we enjoyed some of the best pizza in the world.  We ordered both a Pizza Margherita and a Spinacchi (spinach, caramelized cipollini onions, pine nuts, and goat cheese), as well as a green salad with sundried tomatoes, cucumbers, and mushrooms.  The pizza had a perfectly thin crust, soft, but not so much that it drooped when you folded it in half.  The tomato sauce was sweet and tangy, and I found my hand reaching for the next slice before I could even finish the first one.  We ended up eating there three out of the four nights that we were in Amsterdam…

Pizza Margherita.

Spinacchi Pizza.

After almost a month on the road, backpacking through the land covered by volcanic ash (Europe), I am finally home!  I had a wonderful time eating my way through Amsterdam, Italy and France, and will post soon.  I am jet-lagged beyond belief (woke up at 3:45am this morning, and ended up cleaning out my bathroom in a half-asleep stupor until I finally fell back asleep at 6am).  Some highlights to look forward to:

-  Surprisingly, the best pizza that I’ve ever had (in my entire life) was in Amsterdam.

-  Trofie al Pesto – my new dish of choice.

-  Shellfish Overload (I overdid it a bit with the Clams and Mussels… hard to avoid in the Cinque Terre).

-  Basil Gelato?

And lots more!

Happy Eating!

Tilly.

A few weekends ago, the girls and I went to the Costa Brava to visit The Dali Theatre Museum in Figueres, the beautiful beach town of Cadaquez, and sleepy Perpignon, just a few miles past the French border.  The Dali Museum was incredible, and I highly recommend it to those who have an extra day to explore outside of Barcelona.  Just a few hours away from the big city, Figueres is where famous artist Salvador Dali was born.  After visiting the museum, we were starving, but weren’t allowed to have lunch yet, so we grabbed a snack at a little bakery down the street.  Bunyols are a very typical Catalan doughnut-type of pastry (every culture has it’s own version of fried dough…), that are rolled in sugar and have a little bit of anise flavoring, or sometimes even little anise seeds inside.  When done right, they are fluffy and sweet and melt in your mouth.  In Figueres, I encountered a type of Bunyol that I had never seen before… cream-filled.  Obviously, I had to try one.  My expectations were far exceeded.  Not only was the bunyol the perfect mix between chewy and fluffy, but the unsweetened, freshly-whipped cream in the middle tasted like a cloud plucked from heaven.

Happy Tilly.

Later that afternoon, we stopped in Cadaquez to visit Dali’s house and have some lunch.  We only had a few options in terms of restaurants, and after lots of pacing back and forth in front of the main drag of patios, we made the right choice.  We immediately ordered a pitcher of Sangria before our butts hit the chairs.  As it was a fairly nice day out (and the patio had plastic curtains protecting us from the wind), I ordered the gazpacho.  Never in my life had I seen gazpacho served like this was.  First of all, it was orange.  And secondly, it was served with a little plate of goodies to dump inside, which included hard boiled egg, fresh croutons, and finely diced onion and bell peppers.  I emptied my little plate into the bowl of cold orange soup (as the waitress motioned to me with her hands) and gave it a stir.  I have officially been spoiled for life.  The gazpacho was tangy and tasted like summer, with crunchy bits mixed in to keep things interesting.  I finished my bowl in no time, and was finally yanked out of my day-dream like state five minutes later, when my roommate refilled my glass of Sangria, knocking the miniature wooden spoon against the inside of the big glass pitcher.  Since that day, I have vowed to figure out that recipe and re-create it to the best of my ability.

Summer in a bowl.

Ever since I made Nadia’s Lentil Soup, I had been craving more hearty soup and decided to whip up a big pot of Minestrone Soup that I could eat for a  few days and then freeze the rest (to heat up when I’m feeling uber-lazy).  I looked up a few recipes online, and didn’t find any that I particularly liked, so I decided to combine a few of them and create my own recipe.  In my version of Minestrone, I included carrots, celery, onion, peas, white beans, potato, and spinach.  It was the perfect dinner for a chilly evening (the weather in Barcelona hasn’t turned full-on spring-y quite yet).  I sprinkled the top with a bit of parmesan cheese and watched Dexter for the rest of the night…

Minestrone Soup.

Today, I met up with my friend Christina and her roommate Trish for some Churros and Chocolate at La Pallaresa.  The suizo was delicious (although Jijonenca is still my fave), and the churros were the real deal.  Apparently this place has been around forever and has become an institution here in Barcelona.  The crowd ranged from locals to tourists, and everyone seemed to be enjoying their chocolatey treats.  I absolutely loved the mountain of whipped cream on top of my Chocolate Suizo.

Churros and Suizo at La Pallaresa.

Instead of tapas, they have “pintxos” in the Basque Country, which are essentially the same thing (most have toothpicks in them, so that bartenders can count how many you’ve eaten by how many toothpicks are left sitting on your plate).  In the afternoons, many people go for drinks and pintxos at multiple bars instead of sitting down and having a three course meal like they do in Barcelona.  This is known as the “pintxo crawl”, and I had to see what it was all about.  On Saturday afternoon, we were given free time to explore the city of Bilbao and have lunch, so we went to a few bars for pintxos and drinks.  I don’t recall the name of the first one, but we grabbed a big plate of pintxos and some wine, and they were delicious!  My favorite had grilled zucchini, topped with goat cheese and smoked salmon.

Round One!

The second place we went to was Victor Monte’s, and happens to be one of the most famous places in Bilbao for pintxos.  Between the awesome atmosphere and the INCREDIBLE pintxos, this was definitely my favorite place.  The inside almost reminded me of a See’s Candy store, with black and white tiles, and perfect trays of colorful pintxos.  I had one with some sort of sweet, smokey cod in a tangy orange sauce (on the right)… and of course a glass of Cava.

Round Two!

Round Three (Sangria… we were stuffed)!

After our second round of pintxos, we were too full for more food, but decided to stop in to the bar next door for a drink.  I saw a pitcher of Sangria sitting on the bar, pointed to it, and said “I want that.”  Other than Kelsey’s sangria (she adds peaches and nectarines, and skips the sugar), this may have been the best I’ve ever had.  It was the perfect mix between fruity and wine-y, and was ever-so-slightly effervescent.  We had to drag ourselves out of the bar before we ordered another pitcher.

The weekend before winter break, Colin and I went up to Rehoboth to visit his parents, get some puppy love (from Ruby), and study for finals.  The night we arrived, it was freeeeeezing cold out, and Nadia had made her famous Lentil Soup.  It was so hearty and comforting, and tasted even better the next day for lunch.  Ever since then, I’ve been craving something hearty like that, and felt like I needed a little reminder of home yesterday.  A few weeks ago, I finally asked Nadia for her recipe, and made it for dinner last night.  This lentil soup is different from every other that I’ve had.  It reminds me a bit of Italian Sausage (fennel) and Vegetarian Chili (cumin, lentils, onions).  My entire apartment smelled amazing, and my roommates couldn’t help but poke their heads in and ask for a taste.  The recipe comes from Nadia’s Aunt Ester from Norway, and has quickly become one of my favorite comfort foods.

Lentil Soup from Esther:

Serves 4.

2 cups lentils

2 large cans of diced or stewed tomatoes (28 oz x 2)

1 large onion, diced

2 bay leaves

At least 1 teaspoon each:  cumin, oregano, basil, thyme, dill, fennel — and whatever else you want to throw in (I added a clove of garlic)!

Water:  Use the empty tomato cans…fill each one with water and put in the pot with the lentils and diced tomatoes…and add more water if the soup gets too thick.

Put tomatoes and lentils in a large pot, fill the cans with water and empty them into the pot, chop and add the onion, bay leaves, all the herbs, and bring the soup to a boil.  Turn it to simmer/low after it boils, and cook for another hour or so.

I add salt to taste afterwards — the flavor comes from all the herbs!

You can also throw in baby carrots, or chopped potatoes for the last 30 minutes.

Mmmm…

I tossed a little baby potato in the microwave (poke a few holes in it and wrap it in a paper towel and 6 minutes later, baked potato!) and chopped it up to put on top.  I also love it with a bunch of shredded cheese on top (it makes it taste a little more like chili).  As tasty as my lentil soup was, I’ll never be able to make it like Nadia does.

Last weekend, I went to the Basque Country up in northern Spain, to visit Bilbao and San Sebastian.  It was incredible!  The Basque Country is known for having some of the best food in the world, and I wasn’t about to let the opportunity to taste some of it pass me by.  The day we arrived, we went to San Sebastian and visited a local culinary school to learn about Basque cuisine and sample some of their most popular dishes for lunch.  To begin with, we had a tasting of a few different “Pintxos“, followed by Vegetable Crepes.  For the main course, I was served Hake in Green Sauce with Baby Eels (Baby Eels are apparently very popular here, although I hadn’t seen them before this trip.  I couldn’t bring myself to eat them… they had eyes and mouths!).  I wasn’t quite sure what to expect and was unfortunately underwhelmed by most of my meal.  The presentation was beautiful, but the food was surprisingly bland.  The best part of the meal (no surprise here) was dessert.  The Tiramisu was delicate and fluffy, while the Mascarpone Ice Cream was rich and creamy.

Pintxo Tasting.

Vegetable Crepes.

Hake in Green Sauce with Baby Eels.

Tiramisu with Mascarpone Ice Cream.

Thoughts?

http://gothamist.com/2010/03/06/cheese.php

Kiwi has always been one of my favorite fruits, but only recently did I learn about its health benefits.  They are filled with dietary fiber, Vitamins C,A, and E, and have almost the same amount of Potassium/weight ratio as a Banana.  And since kiwi is so widely available here, I’ve enjoyed one almost every day.

Kiwi Kiwi Kiwi!

To enjoy my kiwi, I used to just cut it in half, scoop out the inside, and use the skin as a little bowl.  Now, however, I’ve started to use the following (much more efficient) method to peel them.  Please excuse the video, I know it’s silly, but you get the point.