A Note from India

3 days ago we left this:



And now we are here:



India is many things. It is busy, chaotic and sometimes very depressing. But it is also fascinating, mesmerizing and very beautiful. Our trip was kind of stressful - first, because we were afraid we wouldn't be flying at all because of the snow, and then, because we were delayed anyway for 2 hours and almost missed our second flight from Istanbul to Mumbai. But, in the end, we made all 3 (!!!) of our flights and one (very bumpy) pre-paid taxi ride later (note to self: take car sickness medicine next time) and 30 hours after we first set out, we finally made it to our hotel. Our hotel is very much an Indian hotel, but very nice (fluorescent lights exluded) and situated in a beautiful green area with lots of palm trees, bright flowers and a comfortable garden, which also serves as a dining area. The people are sometimes pushy but always nice. If you can look beyond the filth, slums and stray animals, you can actually imagine yourself being in paradise. Coming from such a cold country right before Christmas, Jochem and I are very much in a state of disbelief. We often find ourselves looking around, then looking at each other, and asking: "Is this for real?"

We haven't done much yet (the trip in itself was exhausting enough). Yesterday, after arrival and a much-needed shower (which was hot, by the way, and we have only seen one power cut so far), we had dinner at the hotel before crashing at 9 PM. Today we woke up at noon, had breakfast at the hotel, spent the entire afternoon at the beach, had a beer at a beach bar during sunset, went back to the hotel, took showers again, went back to the beach, had dinner under the full moon, and now we are sitting in this internet cafe. I am having a blast reading a book about an Australian woman traveling through India and living in New Delhi, but I think Jochem is already starting to get a bit bored (beach holidays are not his thing), so I think tomorrow he wants to rent a scooter and scout the area. I am hoping to visit a temple close by.

As for my "What I Cooked Today" blog posts, I may find it impossible to keep track of those, since we are not only not cooking at all, but are having so much and so many different kind of food, since it's so ridiculously cheap and delicious, and we feel like kings here. But here's a short summary:
- On Saturday (day 236) we had dinner at the hotel near Schiphol, which was, as expected, a bit disappointing, but tolerable.
- On Sunday (day 237) we had as assortment of meals at the many airports and in the many air planes that we were in. Conclusion: Turkish Airways arguably has the best food in aviation history (I haven't had such good kofte since actually having been in Istanbul). Kingfisher, our lovely owned-by-an-Indian-beer-company airline, however, not so much.
- On Monday (day 238) we had dinner at the hotel. We fed on avocado salad and calamari, followed by the tourist version of vindaloo curry for Jochem (which he says was NOT spicy enough for him - crazy man) and prawn curry for me. Very delicous.
- Today we had breakfast at the hotel, lunch at a beach bar and dinner at another beach bar and it was all delicous. Highlights were our fish curry, our spicy fish bites with coriander dip, my tandoori-grilled red snapper and our bebinca (a Goan dessert specialty which is basically layered coconut pudding with shaved coconut on top).
And the best news is that we haven't been sick yet!

Happy holidays and talk to you soon! Love from Palolem, Goa, INDIA!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 236

Okay, fine! One more blog post before I leave for India! I feel a little bit better now that it has finally stopped snowing and the planes are flying again, but I will probably not be completely destressed until we are actually in the air (and then there are a million other things to worry about - all related to funny little plane noises that remind me that I am seconds away from plummeting to my death). In a little while we'll be leaving for our Schiphol hotel and I will use any and all of the yoga, sauna, swimming pool and jacuzzi help lines at my disposal in order to RELAX (damn it!). It's a hard job, but someone has to do it. Since we'll probably have dinner at the hotel, I won't be making dinner tonight, but I did not want to leave before showing you the French toast that Jochem and I made today for breakfast. Enjoy and have a tasty holiday season this year!

Source: A Homemade Life: Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg

"What I Cooked Today" Day 235

Ugh. What a day! You know what? I don't even want to talk about it.

We were supposed to have dinner with friends in Amersfoort, but the snow and my fowl mood got in the way. We made fajitas. From a package. The kind we used to love before, but hate now. Not worth taking a picture of, but then again, we couldn't if we had wanted to, because our camera is still dead and my dad took his camera back to Almelo (along with our cats, whom I already miss terribly in this cold and empty house).

And by the way: tomorrow Jochem and I will go to a hotel near Schiphol and on Sunday we fly to India (if all bodes well), so you might not be hearing from me for a while. Maybe not until 2011. So Happy Holidays everybody! Talk to you soon!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 234

On days like today I am thankful for only working 4 days a week. Today was my day off and I used it to do something that is usually a very stressful task: packing. When you are as obsessively compulsive as I am, you don't just throw some stuff into a suitcase and call it a day. Instead, each and every item you belong is critically analyzed: "Do I need this in India or not? What possible scenario could argue in favor of bringing this with me?" and so on and so forth. Let me tell you, it is an exhaustive way to spend one's time. Which is why I took the time to balance the packing with a healthy dose of sleeping in, watching Dawson's Creek and painting my toe nails a pinkish red (which, I might add, is not an easy feat when your two cats confuse your nail polish for a tasty treat and you are sitting on a white leather sofa). On top of all of that as well as my other daily duties, Jochem and I also did a lot of cooking. First, we made banana bread with chocolate and crystallized ginger, inspired by my new best friend.

Source: A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg



We made this as a snack to bring with us on our horrid flight to India, but I doubt it'll last as long. For dinner, then, we made homemade fries with a pea purée and spicy chicken wings to celebrate Jochem's last official day as a student. Lucky us. I am full and content.

Source: Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson

"What I Cooked Today" Day 233

Today's dinner was a simple pasta dish with a homemade tomato sauce and fresh goat's cheese. We also used garlic, shalots and dried chilis. I liked it a lot, but: I'm still hungry! I can eat so much and I can always eat more. Maybe I have some kind of problem? Is there an emptiness that I am constantly trying to fill? Oh well. Who cares when there is such good food around and polka-dot-bathing suits to cover up any post-food regrets?

"What I Cooked Today" Day 232

Today I did all of the cooking by myself because we had tofu tandoori again. Every now and again I get a craving for this dish and then I buy a huge block of tofu downtown and make it twice in one week. So, that's as far as my thought process went today. This dish, however, is one of the very few dishes that is truly mine, since I never use a recipe and have tweaked it beyond recognition from its original recipe. I should start working on that should I ever want to be taken seriously as a foodie enthusiast. Foodie enthusiasts should have their own recipes. Anyway, after dinner we had chocolate milk and oreo cookies, which was quite the chocolate overload, but enjoyable nonetheless.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 231

It is Monday night. I come home to a dinner of Greek potatoes and lamb chops (Source: Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson) and cumin carrots (Source: The Return of the Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver). For dessert I have chocolate, tea and Grey's Anatomy in bed. Now off to do yoga and then back to bed.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 230

Today was a wonderful day. It was one of those rare Sundays that you don't plan for and that suddenly end up wonderfully. I woke up at 9 AM but stayed in bed till 10.30 AM to finish the book that Anna had given me for my birthday: A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg. It is a great book - a life story interspersed with recipes and life lessons in short and manageable chapters. Starting the day in a warm bed, with the sunshine coming in, with a beatiful man sleeping besides you, one cat between your neck and shoulder and another at your feet, while reading about a chocolate wedding cake, is about as close to bliss as my Sunday mornings get. After a quick shower and some breakfast with Jochem, I headed downtown to the Bakkerswinkel with my old friends Marije and Marjolein, where I had a pot of autumn blend black tea and a piece of carrot cake. We stayed there for quite a while, discussing men, marriage, children, housing, jobs, holidays, and much more. Afterwards we had a short walk downtown before heading inside the Winkel van Sinkel for a glass of white wine. When they left to catch a train back home, I had a quick hamburger before doing my last load of laundry of the week. When that's done, I am going to Bic's place where Mag and Mar will already be to have some dinner and drinks. I'll just bring a bottle of rosé, so I won't be cooking anything today. But sometimes those days are such a blessing.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 229

Today did not exactly turn out the way that I had planned. Originally, I was going to make spicy chicken wings, pea purée and homemade fries for some very good old friends before heading off for an alumni pub quiz at our old campus. However, our plans kind of fell through and I ended up having tofu tandoori with Jochem. It's funny - although I don't make it as often as I used to a couple of years ago, I can still enjoy a big bowl of tofu tandoori. I don't know why. Ever since I started becoming interested in food and cooking, a lot of things that I used to enjoy before (pre-packaged bapaos, take-out pizzas, McDonald's hamburgers, coffee house pastries) I am now unable to eat with real satisfaction. Tofu tandoori, however, which does not in any way resemble the real thing and comes from a package, I still like very much. Perhaps because it holds some good memories of a life long since left behind? After dinner Jochem and I used some leftover ingredients to make another batch of baked egg custard, but that went awfully awry and we had to throw the mixture away. Jochem then made a wonderful improvisation when he coated some stroopwafels in hot dark chocolate. It wasn't such a bad Saturday night after all, I guess.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 228

After all my bragging in yesterday's blog post, I can imagine that it must be quite a disappointment to see nothing but an almost empty pan. Unfortunately, I always have to work the late shift on Fridays and by the time I was finally home, my nine guests started to come in. Meanwhile, I still had a salad to prepare, a main dish to heat and a dessert to be made from scratch. Luckily Jochem helped me out a lot. In the end we made an oriental cucumber salad (Source: Happy Days with the Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver) to accompany the Sloppy Joe's recipe, which, as I have found out, is a kind of ragù sauce inside a white bread roll (Source: Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson). For dessert we made baked egg custard (Source: Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson). I do apologize for not being able to show you any of this.