Spent part of the day walking the streets of Amsterdam around my sister’s beautiful neighborhood. We sat at a cafe and drank latte’s and people watched. I am astounded that so many of the intersections have no signs or instruction. You will find bicycles whizzing through intersections just missing someone in a small car who has just swerved to not hit a delivery van and none of them look out for pedestrians. I guess it is how they keep the gene pool clean. I have been warned to look both ways and to be really sure I will be able to make it across the street because no one is going to stop.
We sat at a lovely cafe called Tazinna. We sat outside and had coffee drinks. I love that when I asked for sweetener that wasn’t sugar they brought me this tiny packet with 2 tiny pills in it. They reminded me of when I was younger and that saccharin came as either liquid or as little tablets in little TicTac like container. We also split a sandwich. I was surprised at how small the sandwich was. What came as a whole sandwich would have been a half sandwich in the US. All the flavors were so sharp. In comparing the sandwich to something comparable in the US I would think the bread wouldn’t be as good and there would be a lot of filling. This sandwich the bread was dark and left flour on my lips. The filling was a couple of thin slices of salami, fresh arugula (unlike what I have gotten at home…the leaves were more like parsley but had that lovely earthy flavor), a thin slice of sharp parmesean cheese and thin sliced tomato. Then the sandwich was heated so all the flavors married.
We then went to the Kaas-Brood store. The Bread and Cheese store. WOW! The bread smells were fantastic. There was the smell of yeast and the smells of freshly made cheese sticks. Light and flaky bread sticks twisted with cheese. They were hot when we bought them. We both had to have a bite as we walked down the street.
I am not sure if I wrote about the fact that I lost a prescription on my journey. I think I did. Well, we went to a pharmacy and told them what happened. At first they were adamant about me needing a prescription. Then one woman told us I needed to see a Dutch doctor. Then they changed their mind and were considering just giving me the meds. I called my husband and he scanned an old bottle from the same prescription and emailed me. My BIL printed it for me and we brought it back to the pharmacy. Within minutes I had a prescription. It’s a much different world.
After the pharmacy we noticed a small Farmer’s Market in one of the squares. We sauntered over and looked at the stands. There was an olive stand that had a beautiful selection of olives. There were a couple of vegetable stands. What comes to mind were squashes that looked more like a cross between a gourd and a pumpkin but weren’t either. There were gorgeous fresh leeks and huge deep purple beets. Stunning.
We found ourselves at a fresh pork stand. Some of his selection was a bit difficult for me. I am not a fan of being easily able to identify my food as a living creature. I never understand chicken places that have chickens selling their food. “I taste great so, slaughter and eat me!” isn’t marketing that works for me. This guy was great. He had pictures of his livestock and talked about the great life they have. I suppose it’s like Free Range chicken etc. (Of course, if the chicken’s could argue they would say they aren’t really “free”.) At any rate, he had salami that was Truffle Salami. We had to ask about it and we had to have a sample and then we had to buy some. I have never in my life tasted anything like it. It was wickedly tasty. His web site is in Dutch. His name is Frank Bunnik and his company is http://berkshirebutcher.com.
Okay, I must end this now. We are going to be eating dinner in a few minutes and then I must lie down and sleep for a long time! Please forgive typing errors and grammatical mistakes. I am not completely in my right mind.