On Pause

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Well loyal readers, as you may have deduced from previous entries, the trip is on hold until things get straightened out with the family. However, one thing that I didn't really touch on much in previous entries that I usually get asked about is the food I encountered on my travels. I thought it would be a nice high point with with I could put the blog on hold, so here we go:

Ireland:

Most people think Irish food is bland, consisting of cabbage, potatoes and bacon. Well, that's partially true. There are many folks in Ireland who still think in terms of those three foods, and don't branch out much from there. However, one of the advantages of living and working on the farm with English folks is that there was a little more variety to it. Hilary & Chris were trying to broaden the horizons of their customers at the market, and so they would offer more than just cabbage and turnip plants. We would also have the benefit of the harvest on the farm, with many different fresh crops available for the picking and immediate eating. On the farm, they would also make, sell and consume their own pickles & preserves. The list included:

• Piccalilli - a mustard & vinegar pickled mixed-veg relish. Very tasty with fresh bread and cheese
  
• Plum Jam
  
• Apple Jelly
  
• Apple Chutney
  
• Green Tomato Chutney
  
• Apple & Ginger Jam
  
• Apricot & Almond Jam
  
• Four Fruit Marmalade
  

In the cities, cuisine was a bit more limited and expensive. Most people ate prepackaged sandwiches from convenience stores for lunch. I cooked a fair amount in the hostel kitchens, and even managed to sell a meal along the way. Most folks in hostels cook pasta or eat prepackaged foods, but there are many 5-ingredient meals that you can make in a hostel kitchen in under 30 minutes. They'll save you money and are generally more healthy and tasty than the prepackaged stuff. I can recommend the restaurant Gruel in Dublin for brunch, and Food for Thought in Galway. Both were very fresh, used organic ingredients and offered plenty of veggie options for those travelers who are tired of bacon.

Amsterdam:

Amsterdam food...oh, how I love thee. So much variety, so many flavors, so much less expensive than Ireland. The horrid hostel I stayed at in Amsterdam didn't have a kitchen, so there wasn't going to be much in the way of cooking while I was here. I did manage to get to some of my favorites in the city: Maoz Vegetarian and De Peper. Maoz is a falafel shack that is spreading to this side of the pond, and is fantastic. Under 5 euro for 4 freshly made falafel balls & pita bread, with all-you-can-eat salad toppings for the sandwich. Well worth it, and I really dug the pickled aubergine on the salad bar. De Peper is a squat restaurant that I visited back in 2006 on my first trip to Amsterdam. It has opened and closed a few times since then, but is open now and serving great dinners at 6 euro per person. That gets you the soup and plate of the day. It's all veggie, very healthy and very fresh. I did notice that the Dutch stereotype of people eating a big hunk of gouda cheese on bread for a meal is very true. Broodjes, or sandwiches, are commonly just bread and cheese, possibly with a little piece of ham.

Belgium

When you think of food in Belgium, what do you think of? Odds are one of 4 things come to mind: beer, chocolate, fries and waffles. All four are found in abundance there. I made it a mini-mission to try all the Trappist beers I could while there, and I hit one example from each of the six Belgian abbeys. My favorite was probably the Westmalle Tripel. Tasty stuff. On the farm, Luc was the cook of the house. He was very knowledgeable and interested in Thai cooking, having visited Thailand twice to take cooking and language classes. We ate mostly from the garden and things purchased at the Thursday farmer's market. A lot of very simple meals, lots of homemade marmalade for breakfast (there were lots of raspberries and gooseberries growing there, so jamming was at least a monthly thing). Very fresh and healthy meals, which is what you'd expect from a yoga retreat.

I'd like to take a few minutes to talk about Belgian frites. It's a common misconception that cut & fried potatoes are French, so much so that on this side of the pond we call them French Fries. However, this street food was indeed created in Belgium, where the trend spread north and south around the turn of the 20th century. American soldiers returning home from WWI spread news of the food across the States, they were mislabeled as French (probably due to the association of Paris and France being the main base for American soldiers during WWI), and caught on like wildfire. Over here, they often play second fiddle to a sandwich or are topped by a godawful orange cheese sauce. Frites, as they're known in Belgium, are a street food, and indeed with a tiny fork or skewer while sitting on a park bench and admiring the river.

Now, the secret to great fries really isn't too complex. Neither is finding a good frittur (fry shack). Here are some of the things to look for. First of all, look for a place with multiple fryers sitting out, and a stack of fried potatoes between them. This operation is held together by a two-step frying procedure, where the potatoes are fried once at 325 Fahrenheit to cook the inner potato to fluffy and tender goodness, the fry is taken out for a rest, then it's fried a second time (just before serving) in oil held at 375 to crisp up the outside of the fry. The second fry takes only a few seconds, so this is something that can be done on demand at all times. Second, look for a bag of frozen potatoes. If you see this sitting around, run. You want nothing to do with frozen potatoes, you can go to McDonalds if you want that crap. Third, look at the sauce list. There should be a list of around 10 sauces. And at the top of that list should be mayonnaise. I know, I know. You're thinking back to that scene in Pulp Fiction where Jules and Vincent are discussing mayo on fries, thinking of a big glob of Hellman's on top of fried potatoes and cringing. But give it a shot. First of all, the mayo there isn't this congealed mass that you think of in America. There it's closer in texture to aioli than US mayo. It's also chock full of flavor, and deadly delicious. Just don't think about all the fat in the mayo, or ask for the light mayo (most places have about 3 varieties of mayo on the menu).

I put some thought into why mayo and not ketchup really took off in the low country. Here's my theory. It could be entirely off base, as I'm not a culinary anthropologist. It all boils down to cost and availability. Tomatoes don't grow outdoors in these countries like they do in many parts of the US. You need a greenhouse or polytunnel to really grow a solid tasting tomato. That drives the cost of tomatoes up, and an expensive tomato can't be sacrificed for a sauce like ketchup. I tried the ketchup overseas, and it tastes like a sugar syrup that has had a tomato waved over it. On the other hand, mayo requires only eggs, oil & spices. You can make it out of just about any oil, use any acid to temper the flavor from lemon juice to vinegar, and can add whatever spices you have on hand. As a result, it's a great pantry-cleaner sauce, where you can use up some of the things that just need to go out of the pantry. That led to a lot of innovation in the spice and acid mix, which led to a really good tasting mayo over the years.

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