Gemütlichkeit, the greatest word ever spoken

Some people melt into a puddle at the mention of Paris. The lights; the sights; sipping wine on the terraces with the Tour Eiffel twinkling against the night, which it only does the first five minutes of an hour on the hour, but for those who love The City of Lights it's part of the charm to wait for the sparkly spectacle (which is best seen from the outdoor terrace @ Café de l'homme with a coupe en main.

But me? Mijn hart behoort naar Amsterdam (My heart belongs to Amsterdam. If my Dutch is correct.) and every now and then I like to give my heart what she wants.

In part thanks to my bizarre good Craigslist karma I found an amazing appartment to rent. The couple, a Dutch lady and a Canadian gent were renting their place in the Jordaan in exchange for taking good care of their two cats. We exchanged emails, one way Skype'd because for some reason the camera on my laptop wasn't working until they found it too bizarre, and decided to give it a go.

Nearly a month and half later, after a frustrating wait, a stolen passport, and showing up for my bus on the wrong day - I arrived to Amsterdam, but not before making a few friends. I took Tania and Katia who were both visiting Amsterdam from Moscow and Gladys who is from Sao Paulo. I take them to the only place in Amsterdam that is open at 6:30 in the morning and we all drag our luggage and order pastries and coffees and teas. We talk about  Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Mushkin. Gladys is named after a character from a Pasternak novel.

The sun comes up and the streets start to slowly full up with bicycles. I walk through Leidseplein because I'm feeling nostalgic and I want to see the appartment I stayed in before off the Prinsengract. I get a text to go to the appartment. When I arrive I am happily surprised. It's gorgeous; the couple interesting and lovely; the cats almost too adorable.

I haven't been in Amsterdam for 6 hours and I already feel happier. I always feel happier in Amsterdam. I can't see how it's possible not to. Holland is the land whose people believe that gemütlichkeit or achieving gemütlichkeit is essential to life. Gemütlichkeit is essentially "cosiness". Not just in your surroundings. It connotes the notion that you belong, that you are accepted, of being cheerful, staying away from stress, and making sure you have the opportunity to have a good time.

Six hours and already I have achieved near optimum gemütlichkeit. So out I went out and followed the canals until I found the kind of trouble I was looking for - yummy Thai food and a good smoke. I spent the night wandering the Red Light district after stuffing myself with the best Thai in Amsterdam Thaise Snackbird and was happy to head back to my temporary home.

One of the bonuses of renting an appartment when you travel besides feeling like you're home even though you're not is that if the kitchen is well-stocked you can cook. Maybe cooking isn't your idea of how to spend a vacation but I love the challenge of cooking with unfamiliar ingredients coupled with my non-fluent grasp of Dutch. It's an adventure. Plus Dutch produce is, when bought at markets like the Noordermarkt, quite good.

While in Amsterdam I cooked,

-  a from scratch lasagna with fresh pastry and from scratch sauce with leftover grilled ratatouille and ground lamb and from scratch sausage with fresh basil and parsley,

- Poulet rôti stuffed with sausage, fennel, and wild rice with grilled ratatouille and Dutch tomatoes left to marinate in sweet balsamic vinegar, herbs, and honey.

- Fried chicken, potato salad, and grilled ratatouille with pine nuts and feta and then strawberry cheesecake for dessert.

I of course didn't cook all of that for myself. I invited friend to crash with me and couldn't resist cooking for them. Yes, I love cooking for people. No, I will not give you my address.

After two weeks in Amsterdam it was back to France to find that in my absence Spring had sprung. Everything was suddenly green. The barren trees of winter were all dressed up now and showin' off.

I finally bought the adapter for my camera's memory card and looking through the vacation photos gave me heartache. Thank god I'll be back in a few weeks!

Tweekie! She's big, she's beautiful, and she's a cuddle slut.

Ducks often car surf in Holland.

John!!! It's lasagna!!!

Classic New England Potato Salad that proves Star Wars geeks can cook.

My "famous" New York Style Cheesecake.

Monsieur Remus with whom I came to the agreement that if I did not rub any area of Monsieur Remus besides the top of his noble little head, he would not rip my face off. No thanks to delicious bribes Monsieur Remus and me became great friends most of the time and often sat around in the mornings conversing though I know not what we spoke of as I do not speak cat.

Speaking of cats...try to tell me this isn't the most f*cking

adorable thing you've ever seen and I won't believe you.

Dutch Graffiti and Bicycles.

Random construction site I somehow became obsessed

with trying to take good pictures of even though I know

I totally suck at taking pictures.















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Dutch Pancakes with Crispy Bacon

Last year when I was in Amsterdam, passing yet another morning at Pancakes!Amsterdam, I decided I would recreate them chez moi for a fabulous brunch.





I absolutely love this little place. The pancakes are delicious and rather modestly priced. I also love the outdoor seating on one of my favorite streets in all of Amsterdam. Berenstraat is the name of the street between the Keizersgracht (east) and Prisengracht (west) canals. If you follow the Herengracht canal northward for example, you'll want to take a left at Wolvenstraat and will have to cross the Keizersgracht, where the street changes to Berenstraat.

Also located near Pancakes!Amsterdam along Wolvenstraat-Berenstraat are some of the best vintage and second-hand clothing shops in Amsterdam; Episode, Lady Day, and Second Line.






Dutch Pancakes
Serves 2  (8 pancakes using 1/4 cup of batter each)
Difficulty: Easy!!!

Equipment:

1 large mixing bowl
fork
dry measuring cups
measuring spoons
liquid measuring cup
spatula
soup ladle
non-stick crepe pan or frying pan


Ingredients: For people residing in Europe, I've included the metric conversions


1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour / 190 grams
3 1/2 tsp. baking powder / 10 grams
1 tsp. salt / 6 grams
1 tsp. sugar /  6 grams
1 1/4 cups milk / 295 milliliters*
1 egg
3 T. melted butter / 45 grams *
2 cups chopped bacon / 200 grams "lardons"

* Use liquid measuring cup regardless of which version of the recipe you are using.

1. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

If available use flour that guarantees no "lumps" or "grummeaux" in French. In France I use Francine brand for all my baking. I've tried the lesser priced Casino, Monoprix, and Franprix brands, but for the minimal savings the quality is not as good.

Baking powder can be extremely expensive in France. I buy mine for 1 euro at the Indian shops on rue Louis Blanc (Metro Line 2, Station La Chappelle).

2. Make a well in the dry mixture.

3. If using all-purpose flour, add half the milk and butter and mix until you get a thick batter that is smooth without signs of lumps. Then add the rest of the milk and butter.

If using a specialty baking flour, as mentioned in Step 1, you can simply add all the milk and butter and mix until smooth.

4. Add the egg, and using a fork tilted at an angle, beat the egg into the mixture making sure to "add air". Do not overmix. Overmixing will give you heavy pancakes.

5. You can slightly oil your crepe/frying pan/griddle, but I find it's usually not neccessary and can give the pancakes a non-uniform look.

6. Heat pan and test for temperature using a drop of batter.

7. For pancakes that are uniform in size, I find the best thing to use is a soup ladle or a measuring cup. Exactly measure the batter (about 1/4 cup or 59 ml) and pour on to hot pan in one steady pour to help keep the circular shape. If you mess up, don't worry just let the pancake cook and eat it while you perfect your technique!

8. Cook on one side until there are visible bubbles in the batter. After the first bubbles, you will notice the pancake will look smooth again but that the batter is still moist. Wait until a second series of bubbles form and carefully flip the pancake over. It may stick to the pan, so carefully lift it and don't be afraid to use your fingers - just make sure to check the temperature of the pancake first.

9. Once the pancake is flipped over, wait for it to "rise". Once the pancake has risen uniformly, the pancake is entirely cooked and no longer still "wet" in the middle. Move to pan and garnish with a few slabs of unmelted butter.

10. Continue until all the batter is used and stack four of the pancakes one on top of the other on 2 plates. Set plates into a warm oven (usually to keep the oven warm for this sort of thing I preheat it to about 200 degrees (C) / 400 degrees (F) and then turn the oven off and wait about 10-15 minutes to let everything shut off).

11. On the same pan, add 1 cup of chopped bacon (100 grams) and fry until crispy.  Set aside fried bacon in a bowl and fry the remaining half. Make sure to conserve any grease.

In France you can use "lardons", which are already chopped up bacon. For the same type of texture, in the US you would have to buy the bacon uncut in a chunk of 1/4 lbs. and then either slightly freeze it to making chopping it up easier, or slightly freeze it and chop it up in a food processor.

12. Divide the bacon mixture and the grease and pour over pancakes and on to the plate.  Add maple syrup for garnish.

Maple syrup can be attrociously expensive in France. The best for the price is either found at some Franprix's or found at Casino. The price is usually less than 5 euros for a bottle of 250ml. For better quality maple syrup you can try the various American/English epiceries, but it will be much more expensive (10-12 euros for 250ml) or the "Bio" stores, which is definitely more expensive with 500ml costing around 16-20 euros.

Serve this with chilled clementine or orange juice and with fresh red berries, yogurt, and cream for dessert.

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