spider0910

How very French indeed

2006-07-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

No better emigration to Switzerland than going through France (at night for crying out loud). Anyway, off we went, me and my dear friend Karim, after the last, somewhat painful, goodbyes.
We would stay over at his sisters’ place in Lyon, arriving in the middle of the night.
Saturday evening the match started between France and Brazil. We watched it having frog legs and France won. After that, straight into the center of Lyon. Party and police.......just how it should be.

You have to have to stomach for it

2006-06-06T05:30:00.000-07:00

To my surprise there is an excellent Chinese restaurant, right in the middle of Eindhoven. If you go there at lunch time (thanks Hong, I needed that), it is completely loaded with Chinese. On the menu is Dim Sum. A whole card full of Dim Sum. I never realised it is the equivalent of Tapas, although I saw both before.
The funny thing is that this was the first Chinese restaurant in Holland where you could find something a bit out of the ordinary.
A cow stomach. I am not sure which one of the 4 stomachs it was, but then, who cares………….

101 Dalmatians

2006-03-24T05:34:00.000-08:00

Fruit is an absolute necessity if temperatures are soaring on a daily basis. God knows this and therefore, in the tropics, you may expect fruit paradise.
Ni Ni told me it is called Dragon fruit and the surprise is inside. On the market it always looks great, these piles of fruit. Unlike here in Holland where you have to spend a fortune to buy an apple, in Bangkok it costs practically nothing.
OK I buy one and Ni Ni, as always, prepares it for me. She was right; the surprise is inside. It reminds me of Dalmatian dogs.
The taste however, is close to water. But with temperatures soaring into the high 30s, that can be a real blessing.

Straight from the heart

2006-03-24T05:17:00.000-08:00

These expressions like; “straight from the heart”, “with all my heart”, “let your heart speak”, “with heart and soul”……you name it, give the impression that we speak of the organ that is the dearest and most precious of all.
Strangely enough, for a lot of people this changes the very moment it appears on the menu.
Why?

Well, it’s no skin of my back

2006-03-23T04:35:00.000-08:00

If people are poor, waste is a sin. Well as far as food is concerned. In modern western society we also make use of most of the resources available. If we slaughter a cow of a pig, we have the luxury of processing the skin into leather, for jackets and kinky clothing, whips and what not. However, if food is scares and the weather is good, who needs a jacket?Pork and cow skin are there to be eaten. Just roast it and add some spicy sauce. Believe me, it is good. I recommend it.

Waiting for dinner

2006-03-20T04:05:00.000-08:00

Having dinner is a real joy, I should say. But waiting for dinner and anticipating the joys to come, is an experience almost as nice. One can just imagine all the nice food and the company of friends and the nice ambiance with it.
In Chinatown Bangkok, I came across this “guest of honour” of the dinner table. Somehow, I got the impression that he had nicer things to look out for in former days.
In his case, waiting for dinner was not such a joy, especially, since he was the guest of honour.
Maybe this is why mankind now faces the revenge of bird flu.

How sweet!

2006-03-20T03:56:00.000-08:00

From all the Asian people, the Thai must be the greatest artist as far as gastronomy is concerned. The Thai always amaze you with their cooking. Every day again. But sometimes, you do not get what you expect. This is particularly the case with deserts and sweets. If you see deserts and sweets in Thailand, you immediately get associations with kilo’s of sugar and intense sweetness. Now you are in for a disappointment. If you look at all the sweets above, you may rest assure that……yes they taste good, but their taste is mild, almost watery and they are as sweet as Tea, with too little sugar. And one may doubt if intense sweetness is something you want with 35 to 40 degrees Celsius.
Predominantly these sweets are made of jelly and soybeans. However, they are so beautiful that it is almost not done, to actually eat them.
How sweet? Not too…………..

Chicken leg soup

2006-03-20T03:53:00.000-08:00

As we in the modern west are used to eating almost all parts of the chicken, we really enjoy the legs. Nice for kids too, especially served with French fries. The funny thing is that we only eat the upper part of the leg. The lower part, including the foot, we discard.
Having visited one of the largest markets in Bangkok, Ni Ni and I decided to have something to eat. Chicken soup, at the centre of the market, where there are some Chinese having a food stand.
Surprise surprise, here is the soup, so spicy you can hardly imagine and………..chicken legs……….the lower part, including the feet. Enjoy…………

BÈÈÈÈÈÈÈ

2006-02-27T01:25:00.000-08:00

Visiting a Temple inside a cave in the mountains outside of Mandalay (Burma), I came across a food stand where one could buy dried meat. At first I thought I saw some sort of sausages, but looking closer I had no idea of what I saw. So I asked Ni Ni. “No, she said this is a……..you know animal and have a this on the head” and she put her fists on either side of her had and sticks out one finger of each head. “Horns” I think.
“You mean a deer?” I ask. “No not my dear” she replied. Ok this is leading nowhere. So I start making a sound. So I make a sound like “BÈÈÈÈÈÈÈ”, hoping it may be a goat. She makes an angry face. “What that?” She asks. “A goat” I say.
“Hm…ugly” she replies. Ok who cares, it’s a deer, a goat, or a sheep. When they slaughter the animal they cut the mussels from the legs and hang them to dry. “You want?” Ni Ni asks. Well of course I want it. They put the meat in a mortar and start to beat it until it becomes all fibrous. Then some vegetable oil is added and it is served in a bowl. No more, no less. We shared it, like we so often do. How does it taste? I still wonder.

Carnival!!!!

2006-02-23T02:06:00.000-08:00

I never join the celebration of this festival. Like a friend of mine once said, “I have a little bit of a problem with organised spontaneous behaviour”.
There is one charming element to this whole phenomenon though and that is the masks that people wear.
The thought came to my mind when I was on a market in China Town, Bangkok last summer. When passing through one of the narrow corridors I came past this butcher stand and there it was; the perfect mask!!. And the skull was already removed so you could slide in your head easily. I bet you would win the 1st price for “most creative dress”………….

Pig's a nice animal

2006-02-23T01:54:00.000-08:00

During one evening we went out to have look around in beautiful Rangoon city, when we came across a food stand full of pork. And not just your ordinary pork, no, all the pork you would find processed into dog food. Here you could sit down, pay a little money and eat all you want; ears, guts, hart, stomach, lounges, nose, gums, palate (roof of the mouth) and the meat of the head of the pork.It is served on sticks and just lying there is boiling broth. You take your pick, dip it in hot sauce and enjoy. Very nice and nutritious.

A big Burmese

2006-02-20T03:36:00.000-08:00

The most refreshing drink I had in Burma was sugar water. The recipe is somewhat unusual. You need a sugar cane, a glass of ice, lime, a plastic bag, a straw and a press. And to process it all; A BIG BURMESE……….
You take the big Burmese, he will press the sugar cane, and poor the water into the glass of ice. Then he squeezes a lime into it and puts the content of the glass in a plastic bag. He puts the straw inn and hands it over. Really good and tasty too.

OK no more eggs

2006-02-14T22:38:00.000-08:00

After the egg stage of life, follows the stage that is the most cute and vulnerable. When visiting the amazing city of Mandalay, Myanmar, I encountered this woman that sold these young chicks………deep fried. The procedure is simple. You rob a nest, deep fry the chicks and you sell them. I couldn’t resist. I bought one and put in in my carry bag.
The next day we took the train from Mandalay to Rangoon. A17 hour ride was anticipated, but eventually, it would take us 22 hours to reach our destination. After a few hours I was hungry. We took no food with us and there was no time for breakfast. I remembered the little plastic bag, with the bird inside and decided to eat it. As Ni Ni was hungry too, she claimed half. It didn’t really help. And taste…..well, hardly.
As the train pulled into a little village, it lowered speed. The doors opened and all kind of local merchants jumped on. They sold food, fresh food!
Ni Ni bought a folded banana leaf and opened it. The merchants left again, we had something to eat but no utensils…….
Ni Ni knew the situation. She would take small amounts in her little hands and put it in her mouth and because there was no need to have two dirty hands, she would feed me as well.
Babies have the privilege of breastfeeding, but to be quite honest, the best experience since the last time I was breastfed, was the tender touch of her hands as she gently fed me, on the hot, dirty and horrific train ride from Mandalay to Rangoon.
Thank God (or Buddha) for the lack of utensils………..

yet another egg (sorry Nicole)

2006-02-09T22:44:00.000-08:00

OK, back to Phnom Penh. During a Buddhist festival we came to the banks of the river where we found………….food………….again. This time there was a lady with a big pot of steaming eggs. We bought one. She cracks it and puts the content in a little plastic bag, together with some fresh basil and black pepper.
You can see the egg yolk, which is full of bright red stripes, as she quickly puts all in the plastic bag. Ni Ni takes the first bite. “AHHHH, inside have it all hair!” she screams. She turns to a tree, spits out what she put in her mouth and starts to scrape her throat. The lady and some people around are laughing, so am I. She turns around and looks at me. I immediately make a straight face. I don’t need trouble. “Are you alright dear?” I kindly ask. “I didn’t see that!” she said.
Now it is my turn. I look in the plastic bag and there I stare straight into an abortion. It’s a full-grown swan fetus. Great! I take the content of the bag and stuff it in my mouth. It doesn’t taste bad, but due to the feathers, it becomes one big ball inside my mouth. I swallow and notice the intestines tied around my tooth, causing the ball of meat to be stuck half way my throat and my Gullet (esophagus) loosing grip as it desperately attempts to force it down. I quickly release the intestine from my tooth and the sad premature loss of life goes to the final resting place. Ah well, it’s an experience.

Get the egg before it comes out

2006-02-08T00:25:00.000-08:00

If you visit any market in Bangkok, you may see a strange combination of chicken meat, or it also looks like skin and both small and big orange round shaped………”what is that?”
“You want that?” she asked. I had no idea. “Is good” she said.
So we buy it and take it home. “I cook for you, you will like it……is eggs.And so they were, these are eggs from before the hen is able to lay them. You kill the chicken, take out the eggs and the organs that produce them. Then you take it to the market, sell it to Ni Ni and she cooks a lovely meal from it. Ah yes……and spicy too.

Arachnophobia

2006-02-06T06:45:00.000-08:00

There are people that suffer from a severe form of fear of spiders, also known as Arachnophobia. Although there is no need to fear spiders, if one does suffer form this phobia, there are some ways to overcome this.
I used to suffer from it as well, but overcame it quite effectively by means of de-sensitivity training.
If you do not want to overcome your fear, you should be aware of one thing if you decide to travel through Asia and in particular, when traveling through Cambodia.
When you take the bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, you travel through an area where Tarantulas are considered a delicacy. The bus will make a stopover on one of the local markets, where this delicacy is offered. The tarantulas are deep-fried and taste a bit like chicken. However, the children of the merchants that sell these Tarantulas play with living spiders and approach you when you step out of the bus. Some have live Tarantulas in their hands and on their bodies. They will show them to you really up close saying “Spider Sir?”
The Tarantulas are defanged, so they cannot bite, however, if you suffer from Arachnophobia, you will be scared to death………..

2006-02-03T05:08:00.000-08:00

alright, here is the blog that will contain various topics, within the next few days.

topics will change from time to time, some may be repeated.