{"id":30,"date":"2009-10-23T13:45:05","date_gmt":"2009-10-23T10:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisabrounstein.com\/blog\/?p=30"},"modified":"2009-10-23T13:45:05","modified_gmt":"2009-10-23T10:15:05","slug":"walking-eating-and-fitting-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/?p=30","title":{"rendered":"Walking, Eating and Fitting In"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cafe\"One of my concerns before my trip was about fitting in Amsterdam. \u00a0 Not fitting in figuratively but literally. \u00a0 Being a big woman I have to consider the space I take up in the world. \u00a0 I remember years ago my parents went on a trip to Paris. \u00a0 When they returned my mother told me that I would love it there but that I wouldn’t fit. \u00a0 I remember thinking, “Really!? I wouldn’t fit in the entire city of Paris?!” \u00a0 The imagery in my mind was that of my picture up a the customs desk with a big red circle around me with a diagonal line…kind of like a “No Fat Chicks” bumper sticker. \u00a0 The truth of it is that it is an honest concern. \u00a0 People here aren’t as large. \u00a0 The chairs at cafes are small and flimsy to our standards. \u00a0 There is also much less real estate for things. \u00a0 The buildings here are close together. \u00a0 The streets and sidewalks (if there sidewalks) are much more narrow. \u00a0 The cars are tiny. Everyone here rides bicycles or scooters or walks. \u00a0 The bustling sounds you hear aren’t that of a morning commute with cars and horns but of rickety bikes that are rusty and squeaky from the rain and bike bells and of people talking on their cell phones as they walk the streets to their destination.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, my sister and I walked to the center, The Dam. \u00a0 There was a carnival there. \u00a0 They had a HUGE Ferris Wheel. \u00a0 There isn’t a chance I would go on it but it was amazing to see. \u00a0 They also had food stands. \u00a0 There was a bratwurst stand, a frie stand, a fried dough stand that I would liken to a donut or fritter. \u00a0\"Mmm,<\/p>\n

I had been hearing about the fries here since my sister moved here. \u00a0 I couldn’t wait to try them. \u00a0 They are served in a big paper cone with mayonnaise. \u00a0 The mayo here is sweeter than ours and much thicker. \u00a0 Of course, I had to share some with my sister. \u00a0 What a great treat to have cold hands and eat piping hot, crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside fries with this tangy seasoning salt lightly dusted on them with this thick, almost gelatinous, squirt of mayo. Oh, and be sure to not call them “French” fries. \u00a0 Here they are frittes or fries or Belgian fries.<\/p>\n

\"pancakes\"Walking further we passed a stand where they were making waffles and these tiny pancakes called poffertjes. \u00a0 I have seen them called fritters but they really aren’t to me since they are not deep fried. \u00a0 We got a small order with butter and powdered sugar. \u00a0 WOW!!! is what my taste buds screamed as popped this little tender light brown pancake in my mouth. \u00a0 I have never tasted anything like it. \u00a0 We stood there with the crowds of people moving around us as if we were the only two people in the world. \u00a0 It was a great moment – two sisters, giggling, both of us covered in powdered sugar, eating these yummy treats. \u00a0 I took a picture of them on the pan. \u00a0 The cook reached over so I could hand him my camera. \u00a0 He took a picture of us looking through the glass while they cooked. \u00a0 It was a kind gesture and now we have this moment memorialized.<\/p>\n

We headed over to a large department store here to get some new coffee for the Nespresso machine. \u00a0 That is another blog in itself. \u00a0 Here you have to pay to use the restrooms. \u00a0 Ostensibly, it is paying to keep the bathroom clean after each use. \u00a0 The stall was small and it seemed to me the toilet was quite a bit smaller than our standard toilets at home. \u00a0 What has amazed me the most here is how solid the toilets have seemed. \u00a0 Watch, now I will use a toilet somewhere and it will come crashing off the wall when I sit on it. \u00a0 But so far they have seemed MUCH more solid than some of the toilets I have used in the states. \u00a0 I am sure even “averaged” sized people have heard or felt the telltale creak when they sit on a public toilet attached to a wall. \u00a0 Even if you don’t actually sit on them you can see they aren’t attached as well as one would like. \u00a0 Is this TMI?<\/p>\n

\"bitterballen\"A friend told me I had to try Indonesian food while I am here. \u00a0 We went to a little neighborhood restaurant last night for beer and snacks. \u00a0 They actually call them snacks which pleases me! \u00a0 I love snacks. \u00a0 I love the term snacks. \u00a0 It is evocative to me of something tasty and fun without the air of prentention that the hor’dourves or even appetizers has. \u00a0 Snacks are exactly that. \u00a0 They don’t can stand on their own. \u00a0 These did!! \u00a0 We had cheese snacks. \u00a0 They took chalk sized pieces of gouda cheese then wrapped them in filo and fried them. \u00a0 Those cheese snacks have now taken their rightful place on the list of my favorite foods of all time. \u00a0 They had these little croquettes of a beef ragu that are also fried called bitterballen. \u00a0 Imagine the tastiest stew you can imagine with a hint of Indonesian spice then fried like an arancini (an Italian rice ball). \u00a0 So, you end up with this crispy on the outside, hot and steamy and soft on the inside. \u00a0 They are served with this spicy smoothe mustard. \u00a0 We had other snacks too. \u00a0 All great but not nearly as memorable to me as the cheese snacks. \u00a0 And, did I mention beer? \u00a0 We had many ice cold beers to go with our snacks. \u00a0 Then it was a quick walk back over the bridge to the boat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my concerns before my trip was about fitting in Amsterdam. \u00a0 Not fitting in figuratively but literally. \u00a0 Being a big woman I have to consider the space I take up in the world. \u00a0 I remember years ago my parents went on a trip to Paris. \u00a0 When they returned my mother… Continue reading Walking, Eating and Fitting In<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trip-to-amsterdam","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}