I can think of no better way to kick-off my first foray into the blogging world than with a post about the most important thing on this trip: The. Food. Now, I hate watching cooking shows because you never get the satisfaction of actually tasting the amazing things you are looking at. And when you read articles about food, the pictures just never do the food justice as food always, always, always looks better in real life. Nonetheless, I think it is important to share with you that which I am most excited about on this trip, so I hope you can settle for the less-than-satisfying experience of eating this food vicariously (even though I couldn’t…)
Culinarily speaking, Amsterdam did not strike me as the most exciting place for us to begin our trip–mainly because I am not really sure what type of food is uniquely Dutch. Probably some type of meat. Ugh. However, we did get a good suggestion from my cousin Darlene for something that although not historically Dutch, is now a big part of their culture: rijsttafel. Now, up until the writing of this post, I was not 100% sure what rijsttafel was except for knowing it was some type of Indonesian rice dish. Given that colonization was an important part of Dutch history, and the Dutch colonized Indonesia, this seemed as authentically Dutch as we could get. Plus, neither me nor Brian has ever had Indonesian food, not to mention that there are Indonesian restaurants EVERYWHERE in Amsterdam. Ok, so Indonesian food, and rijsttafel in particular, was our official food mission for the first leg of our trip.
Now, while I was prepared to write this post about the amazing Indonesian, albeit NOT rijsttafel, meal we had in Amsterdam, I am happily surprised to report that we did in fact have rijsttafel! Let me explain. It turns out that rijsttafel is not a dish per se, but a type of meal. According to Wikipedia, rijsttafel, which literally translates to “rice table”, consists of a large number of side dishes served in small portions and accompanied with rice. Even though the food itself is Indonesian, the concept of serving these dishes like this is actually uniquely Dutch! We had the pleasure of finding an Indonesian restaurant which serves an all vegetarian rijsttafel, although it did not refer to it as such. Hence why we did not realize we were eating rijsttafel. Perhaps I should have done my research beforehand…
At any rate, despite not realizing we were eating the famously Dutch rijsttafel, the meal was incredible for us, especially since we poor vegetarians are often not offered the same variety in restaurants. Let me show you what I mean:
The meal consisted of the following: coconut curry green beans, tofu satay with peanut sauce, curried tempeh, chili curried eggs, fried corn cutlets and bamboo shoots cooked with tofu. I was also pleased that one of our dishes was jackfruit, something I have never tasted before but have heard is an excellent meat substitution. This is because of it’s somewhat meaty flavor and texture. It is the purplish item at the bottom of both pictures. This meal makes me hope we make it to Indonesia while we are in Southeast Asia so I can compare the food there to its Dutch version.
One last, very important thing that I discovered exists in Amsterdam: HAZELNUT YOGURT. Now, if this does not sound amazing just by that description, I do not blame you. I completely bought this on a whim because I thought, “I like hazelnuts, I like yogurt. Perhaps I will enjoy them mixed together”. And boy oh boy did I. So much so that I have eaten it for breakfast every day since (granted that’s only been two days, but still…) Hazelnut yogurt has both a hazelnut flavor, and also little bits of hazelnuts chopped in it. And it is amazing. I will be sorely disappointed to return to the US and not find it stocked in my local grocery. *sigh* I will leave you with this very poor substitution for actually tasting hazelnut yogurt yourself.
Until we eat again!
