See you, Netherlands!

Period 2 has officially ended for me, and it's time for Christmas holiday! And this also means saying goodbye to life in Netherlands. At least until the time when I have to extend my residence permit again next summer. So, when people ask me, "What is your impression of the Netherlands?", here are my answers:

The Netherlands was the place where I feel like I'm a hobbit. In terms of Asian standard, my height (163cm) is around average. Here, I had to elevate my head to the angle of 60 degrees or above parallel to the ground. I don't think 15cm heels would help that much.

The Netherlands was the place where I first learned how to bike properly, crossing 2 towns to reach my school. In general I biked 8 km from my dorm to the furthest campus on the hill, and we always had classes there in the morning. It felt horrible when everyone on the road overtook me, but I just realized that I am just a baby trying to compete with professional bike racers on the road. The Dutch can bike with no hands, or while holding an umbrella, or dragging a roller bag behind, or drinking beer. If they didn't get gold for biking in the Olympics, that would be really weird.

The Netherlands was the first place where I ever feel that beers are delicious. My favorite is Leffe double and Mort Subite. However, my alcohol tolerance is low as always: 1 week of no alcohol, and I will get tipsy just from drinking 1 bottle of Desperados. I generally don't see myself as a weak person, but rather a very efficient drunkard. Save my money, save my liver. Double win.

The Netherlands was the first place where I had something as ridiculous as mixing peanut sauce with mayonaise and eat French fries with it. To be honest, I don't like the taste of patatje oorlog. I'd rather have French fries with mayonaise and ketchup.

The Netherlands was the first place where I saw a slim and fashionable Sinterklaas who came from Spain. The fat ho-ho man I've know since I was a toddler was a product of Coca-Cola's advertising campaign. All these years, I had been a faithful follower of Coca-Cola's fat ho-ho man.

The Netherlands was the first place I've been where shops are closed on Sundays by law. Simply unfathomable. Moreover, they open late (1 PM) on Monday.

And lastly, cheese, cheese, cheese and cheese. And legal marijuana.

See you again soon!

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Instant Noodle around the World 14 - Ajinomoto Oyakata Noodle

Dusseldorf, Germany, is well known for its Japan Center. When I went to Dusseldorf's Christmas Market early this December I decided to visit one of the Japanese supermarkets there called Shochiku. I went there to satisfy my sudden craving for nattou, but I didn't forget to check out the instant noodle aisle, and I found Ajinomoto Oyakata Ramen series. And I have to say that this was the most amazing instant noodle I've ever found. Reasons for it? Read till the end.

Oyakata （親方）means "master", so in a way this noodle is marketed as something made by a noodle master. I bought pork bone (tonkotsu) flavor and curry flavor. I haven't tried the pork bone one yet but let me tell you, this noodle is super amazing.

The contents of the package doesn't look unusual except for the fact that the seasonings are packaged in a very high quality film. Inside the small package is purely fats, and the bigger package is the dry seasonings.

The noodle is very thin, and when I picked some strings of noodles up with my chopsticks I was about to get disappointed, but the moment I put it in my mouth, I realized that the texture was superbly complex. It was thin and smooth, yet chewy and bulky. It's not the same kind of chewiness you'd normally get from Korean noodles like Shin Ramyun. It's hard to explain, but this texture was definitely unique and interesting.

And when you think of Japanese curry, you'd expected something not spicy. Actually, the soup is far from thick and starchy, and it is very flavorful and at the same time spicy. It's close to what you would call an Indian curry (although I'm aware that there are lots of different types of Indian curry), but far less oily. With so little oils/fats, I'm surprised that the flavor delivery was done very well.

What caught me by surprise was the energy content: 63 kcal per package (100g). That is extremely low for instant noodles of this portion size. Most instant noodles will give you 350~400 kcal per 70g, if you translate it to 100g, that's going to be about 550~600 kcal per 100 g of the instant noodle.

This instant noodle is almost 10 times lower in calories than normal instant noodle. Did this make me feel full? Yes.

This is simply brilliant. I'm just curious how much salt is in there. It's never mentioned in the packaging. But if eating 9 packages of this instant noodle still gives you less calories, than 1 package of other instant noodles, I don't see why this Oyakata Ramen is not awesome. I wonder what kind of technology/strategy they used to make this noodle.

Simply. Brilliant.

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The Netherlands - My Original Stamppot

When you are in Rome, you do what the Romans do. When you are in the Netherlands, you do what the Dutch do, and that is to make stamppot. I had my first stampott during the orientation week AID in Wageningen, and my second one made by my awesome Dutch friends. 

Not a while ago I introduced this blog to my head of programme, and he said "I haven't seen any post with stampott". And yeah, actually, I couldn't figure out why I missed this critical component of living in the Netherlands! 

I did some research on stamppot recipe, and it seems like there are no fixed rules for making stampott. Basically, you need mashed potatoes and you figure out the rest of the content by yourself. Oh, and don't mash it too much; it has to be somewhat a little chunky. 

So here is the first stamppot that I've ever made! And being a little curious and rebellious in the kitchen, I made up my own recipe. Here goes stamppot with bacon, black truffle, spring onions and grated parmesan cheese!

Recipe for this? Hmm let me remember. For about this much of potatoes I used about 2 teaspoons of black truffle sauce, 1 slice of bacon, 1 stalk of spring onion (without the white parts because I can't stand the astringent flavor of the white parts), and 1 tablespoon of grated parmesan cheese. Ahh and since I ran out of butter I replaced it with margarine mixed with mayonaise. about 50-50, in total of 1 tablespoon. Mix them together and voila!

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The Netherlands - Christmas Market at Wageningen

Since this will be my last visit to the open market in Wageningen, I went out despite having too many things to study for the final exams. I needed to buy a roll of packing tape and some fruits and veggies for the next 5 days.

The moment I set my feet at the market I realized that it was more lively than usual. I saw crowds - mostly families and barely any students - gathering around the city centre, and heard Christmas songs on air. Oh yes, it's this mobile music box I saw on the day Sinterklaas came to the Netherlands almost a month ago!

The city centre is decorated with lights and there were shops along the main street of the city centre - these shops were usually not there!

As I walked further, I saw a signboard that says Kerst Markt (Christmas Market).

Compared to the Christmas markets at big cities like Dusseldorf (Germany) and Antwerp (Belgium), this Christmas market is relatively small and they don't sell as much variety as those mentioned earlier.

But of course, the vital component of Christmas market is not missing: the mulled wine (gluhwein)! Also, it serves erwtensoep, which is the famous Dutch pea soup that everyone drinks in winter (according to my Dutch friend). I didn't drink the mulled wine because I have to study! I don't want to get drunk that early (I'm EXTREMELY weak with alcohol; my alcohol tolerance way below the normal Asian standard).

At the center of the city centrum, next to the church, I saw this mini ice skating rink for kids. I had hoped that there would be one for adults, but considering the size of Wageningen's centrum, an ice skating rink for adults would take up almost half of the open market.

The festivities doesn't end here. There was also a group of Christmas Carol team that kept moving from one place to another, harmoniously livened up the market. They had beautiful voices!

Also these guys from SpecSaver (a glasses company) went out with some kind of goods (they were not giving out those stuffs yet as they walked through the crowd so I don't know what's in there), in such a flashy appearance.

And of course, I didn't forget my initial intention going to the market. I visited the mushroom specialty shop and decided that I had to buy something because this will be my last time visiting such a shop. I don't know when else I can get these exotic mushrooms for such a cheap price.

I also tried oliebollen (Dutch traditional deep-fried dough ball):

In concept it is similar to a doughnut but it is rubbery and chewy, yet at the same time very soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. It is served with confectionary sugar on the top. It is very sinful indeed, but as sinful as it can be, it is very delicious.

The poffertjes (Dutch mini fluffy pancakes) looked and smelled really good too, but my stomach was beyond the limit. I had a huge lunch before I went to the market, which was a really stupid decision I made earlier this morning. The way poffertjes are made is somehow similar to making Japanese takoyaki, but the pancake balls are then folded and topped with confectionary sugar. The Dutch surely love to add confectionary sugar to a lot of things!

If I don't have time to post on Christmas, I hope everyone will have an enjoyable Christmas! :)

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The Netherlands - School Life at Wageningen University

I'm almost getting used to life in the Netherlands, and I will have to leave this country in about a week (I don't plan to spend Christmas holiday here). Due to the nature of my masters program, I will have to travel to 4 different countries: The Netherlands, Ireland, France and Sweden. And God knows where my internship will be next year.

I have been living a somewhat nomadic life. I left home when I was 11 to Singapore because of the full scholarship I earned from the government of Singapore (thanks!), and then I pursued and completed my bachelor's degree in the United States (with partial scholarship) when I was 18, and due to the difference in the timing of new academic school year I spent 3 months in Japan to study language, culture and a little bit of culinary. And now I'm moving almost every 2 months from one country to another. I have spent more than half of my life abroad. Some people can't stand moving around too much, but I think I'm destined to sail the world.

Courses in Wageninen University are organized into Periods, and each Period is roughly about 2 months and sometimes less (I heard there is only one month in Period 3). It is, in a sense, very intensive because you have classes every day and each class is roughly 2 hours. If it's a lab, it could take as much as 4-5 hours, excluding the time you spend at home doing lab reports and doing tutorials. Or do some readings required (or optional) for the courses.

One of the busiest course was Food Ingredients and Functionality. I love that course, and I am not being sarcastic. There were so many new things to learn. It was tough, and the lab really required a lot of effort because basically we were provided with a sheet of paper indicating the tasks we needed to do but we had too many options to solve the problem. The mentors (or TA, in US universities) were helpful, but they were not supposed to spoon feed us and tell us every single thing we needed to do. Considering we had 7 people in a group, coming to an agreement was actually proven to be more difficult than dividing up the tasks.

We were given a lot of freedom in the lab. We could use whatever equipment available, and we could schedule our own experiment. Well, we HAD to schedule our own experiment. Otherwise, nothing would happen.

Even though things were tough, I had fun in the lab, especially thanks to my European Master friends. At that time we were playing secret friends (some people call it 'secret santa'), in which we secretly give presents to a particular person chosen randomly by lottery and at the same time give hints about who we are. I always looked forward to receiving presents, and my secret friend was so attentive. She remembered what I really liked, and I love all the presents she gave me.

(pssst... you're not supposed to bring food inside a lab. Well, I didn't eat them inside the lab; they were on my desk when I came back from analyzing our emulsion samples in the lab next door as a surprise for me!)

Aside from that, my group (which also consists of solely European Master fellows) was a really fun-loving one. We had a good balance of serious matters that often gave us headaches and fun moments in the lab.

Each of the classes I took in Wageningen University comprised of about 140-160 students, so sometimes the lecture hall could be a little crowded, and sitting behind a Dutch person is actually a really bad idea for an average-height Asian like me. Some lecture halls are not elevated, so if you sit behind a reeaaaally tall guy, then it's your tough luck.

I know I should be studying, but I need some stress relief. It's already 10:28 PM and cooking is not the best option. And this might be one of my last posts while in the Netherlands. I'm leaving the next morning after my last exam, so I have to rush with packing my belongings and buying souvenirs. Still thinking of what to buy... my family doesn't really like cheese. Hmmm...

Well, before I go back to studying, here's a short clip on the most interesting food lab I had attended in Wageningen University: crushing boterkoeken blokjes with a probe until a 90% deformation was reached for Advanced Food Physics.

Ah, yuck. So much fat in that cake. But that was fun.

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The Netherlands - McDonald Easy Order System

What to do when your tummy rumbles so badly but it's dinner time and there are at least 5 people waiting in every line in McDonalds? Cut the queue. Legally, of course. Life in the Netherlands without a debit card (they call it PIN here; there's a chip attached to the card, which is not very common for a debit card in the US or perhaps Asia) is almost like cashless, especially in my university. School cafetaria and even vending machines don't accept cash. My first week in the Netherlands was tough; we had to buy Chipknip, which acts like a cash card. However, you cannot top it up; you buy those cards in 5 euros, 10 euros or 20 euros, and if you can't finish the balance inside the card, you can't get it out. I have been very fortunate to spend every single cent on my 10 euros Chipknip card three times so I didn't waste any money. Well, now that I have my debit card, I can say goodbye to Chipknips.

This was not the first time I saw the Easy Order machines in McDonalds. I had intended to order my burger the conventional way but the queues were too long and I was dying for a bite of juicy beef patty. Or fries. Anything. I was extremely hungry. So there were two options: wait in the line, or spend some time figuring out how the machine works.

Surprisingly, the machine was very easy to use. Insert a card, select a language (thank God it has English), select the menu from various categories (burgers, specials, drinks, etc.) and indicate how many of each item to order. Press the Pay button, enter your debit card PIN number, and get the receipt.

There is a special corner that says "EASY ORDER", and you just have to go there and pick up your order in less than 1-2 minutes (if the items you ordered are available). I'm not sure if they put top priority for EASY ORDER but I was satisfied with the service speed. And I think I saved about 15-20 minutes (I skipped about 3-4 people on the queue).

Oh, an the monitor above the EASY ORDER counter serves as a monitor for the waiting list, so you know when your turn to pick up the food is :)

This is definitely a really cool system. People might be reluctant to use it because there isn't any instructions nearby (because you really don't need written instructions; the machine is so easy to figure out). 

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Germany - Dusseldorf Christmas Market - Non-Food Aspects

While my main reason to go to the Christmas Market in Dusseldorf on the 1st of December was to eat as much yummy street food as possible, the city center of Dusseldorf offers amazing experience.

We arrived at the city center at around 11 AM, when the Christmas Market opens on Saturday. As I explained in the previous post, there are 6 different Christmas markets around the city center, and we explored 5 out of 6 of them. Each market has its own style. The first market at Marktplatz, for example, features red huts and little houses close to the City Hall in Dusseldorf Old Town (Altstadt). There was also a big Christmas tree. I don't know how tall it was, but it was my first time seeing a real Christmas tree. Back at home we have a synthetic Christmas tree made of plastic because pine trees normally grow in cool areas and the minimum temperature there is like 32 degrees C.

1st Christmas Market: Marktplatz

The City Hall in Dusseldorf Old Town

There were a lot of things going on, from something fun for children like the merry-go-round, craft shops for christmas decorations, ceramics, birdhouses, and woodcarving, to street foods like grilled bratwurst, mulled wine, nuts, crepes and nuts.

The city center was very lively with both locals and tourists. Most people speak English, but sometimes some stall handlers do not really speak English, so it might be quite difficult if you have questions about the products. But when it comes to purchasing goods, looking at the price signboards should do the job.

In some markets you can hear Christmas songs being played in the background. The atmosphere around the city center was filled with festivities. It made me feel that Christmas was just around the corner!

There were also places where you could rest for a drink, a meal, or a chitchat. Unfortunately, they were outdoors and if you are weak to cold temperatures (when we went there it was -4 degrees C), you'll have to find an indoor cafe.

If you want to warm yourself up a little bit, you can find Starbucks close by, or if you want something else, go over to the 5th market at Schadowplatz and there is a cafe called WOYTON.

The coffee was not too bad (although it's a little sour - not the type of coffee beans that I like), but I think they serve good bagels. And you could also see the entire 5th market from the second floor of the cafe.

The 5th Market, Schadowplatz from WOYTON

There are really a lot of things to explore in the market. You might think that the markets sell the same thing (indeed they do; you'll see multiple crepe shops, bratwurst shops, and of course bars that serve mulled wines), but each market has something different that you cannot find in other markets.

More bird houses

Christmas tree decoration! Kind of fancy, don't you think?

They call this the Christmas Tower :)

One of the interesting stalls I visited was the honey shop. You can try many different kinds of honey and honey products like honey wine, candies and cosmetics.

Eucalyptus honey... mmm... not for me haha!

Nordic Summer honey, Kesahunaja, was my favorite. It's very creamy and mild, not too sweet yet flavorful!

Oh, and there was also an ice-skating rink close to the 6th market!

For kids only: you can grab on to these "dwarves" (?) if you can't skate so you won't fall! :)

The ice skating rink is open from the 22th of November 2012 until 6th of January 2013, and you can rent the ice skates for 3 euros. We didn't ice skate there because we were limited by time and we haven't explored everything by 3 PM (and the bus back to the Netherlands would leave at 5 PM).

Sad enough, we had to leave around 5 PM. It was getting dark and the scenery was getting illuminated with beautiful lights, but we had to miss it. I'd love to go back to the Christmas market during night time if possible. I bet it will be very beautiful (despite the cold weather!).

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Germany - Christmas Market at Dusseldorf Food Excursion

15 euros for a round trip to Dusseldorf Christmas Market from the Netherlands? Sure, why not! We got the bus tickets from betuwe-express.nl, and by the help of Google Chrome's auto translation service, I managed to book tickets with no problems. There was a 3.50 euro service fee per reservation, so if you book at least 4 tickets per reservation (of course you can book more tickets per reservation), the service fee is almost negligible.

I've heard that the best Christmas Market in Germany is not in Dusseldorf, but my friends decided to go there so I don't mind at all. We visited 5 out of 6 Christmas Markets (we missed the 4th one):

1) Marktplatz

2) Flinger Strasse / Makrtstrasse

3) Heinrich-Heine-Platz

4) Stadtbruckchen

5) Schadowplatz

6) Gustaf-Grundgens-Platz / Schadowstrasse

We obtained a guidebook in Dutch and German from the bus, but later on we found an information center at the market (you can find it easily by following the signs) and obtained the English version of the guidebook. A little late, but it helps me write about it now.

It was -4 degrees C outside. Although it was sunny, it was definitely cold. At first I couldn't stand the cold, but then I bought a glass of mulled wine, Gluhwein, from one of the stalls in Marktplatz:

It wasn't really the best decision ever because I had a light breakfast at 6 AM and I haven't had anything until 11 AM, and the first thing I had in my stomach was alcohol. It tasted like warmed up grape juice with alcohol and earthy spices. After I drank half a glass of it I felt really warm and I didn't need to wear gloves for about half an hour (even though it's -4C outside). Then I started to get a little tipsy. Yes, I am very weak with alcohol.

If you buy a glass of mulled wine, or perhaps hot chocolate (kakao) with a splash of liquor like amaretto (almond liquor) or Bailey's (Irish cream) and Sahne (whipped cream), or egg nogg (eierlikoer), you have to pay for a deposit (2-3 euros, depending on the stall). If you return the glass, you can get the deposit back, but you cannot use a glass from a stall in another different stall. I got myself this cute snowman mug:

More than anything else, me and my other three friends decided to grab foods and drinks instead of shopping at fashion shops located at the city center. To me, this was the best decision because those fashion shops are accessible everywhere in many countries, but these street foods won't be the same even if there is an imitation of German Christmas Market somewhere else in the world.

We had pretzels (brezel):

1/2 metre bratwurst (pork sausage):

Super delicious!!!

Curry bratwurst:

Roasted chestnuts (maronen):

Spiessbraten (grilled pork loin):

Champignon mushroom in krauterrahmsauce (herb cream sauce):

Roasted nuts covered in sugar and liquor:

Kinderchocolade soft crepe:

Spatzle mit Wildrahmsauce + Preiselbeeren (German egg noodle with game sauce + cranberry sauce):

The sauce tasted like IKEA Swedish meatball sauce!

Möhrengemüse bürgerlich mit Mettwurst (carrots, potatoes, butter and herbs with pork sausage of another type):

Garlic soup:

Ofenfrisches Raclettebaguette mit Kräuter - oder knoblauchöl (fresh from the oven baguette with Raclette cheese with herbs or garlic oil): 

Flammlachs (fire-roasted salmon with dill cream):

Kartoffel-Puffer (German potato pancakes)

Eaten with applesauce (!), ketchup or mayonaise.

There were also foods that we'd love to try but we didn't have enough room in our stomach.

Peruvian croquette

Spitzkuchen

More spatzle, but cooked in herbs

Flammkuchen

I have to say German food is awesome!

I will talk about Christmas market in general in the next post because I think I posted too much pictures here. I'm trying to utilize Photobucket to upload pictures, but attaching pictures one by one is pretty annoying. I'm so used to using Picasa's Instant Upload. Maybe I should just pay for the extra 25 GB storage :(

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