{"id":69,"date":"2009-10-25T16:21:55","date_gmt":"2009-10-25T12:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisabrounstein.com\/blog\/?p=69"},"modified":"2009-10-25T16:21:55","modified_gmt":"2009-10-25T12:51:55","slug":"mama-cass-goes-to-the-saturday-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/?p=69","title":{"rendered":"Mama Cass Goes to the Saturday Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"market\"As many of you who know me know, I am a picky eater. \u00a0 Don’t get me wrong, if I am eating something I like, I am not shy about eating. However, if I can’t readily identify the food I won’t eat it. \u00a0 The same goes for if I can identify it too well, then, I have a difficult time eating it. \u00a0 I was a vegetarian for many, many years. \u00a0 John and I laugh about my saying that I am “only one bad piece of bacon away from being a vegetarian” again. \u00a0 John doesn’t think there is such a thing as a bad piece of bacon. \u00a0 I mostly agree. \u00a0 But wow, there are some other things that could make me run screaming towards being a fruitarian. \u00a0 After today, it is a miracle I haven’t become an oxygenarian.<\/p>\n

We had a lazy Saturday morning. \u00a0 It was a cold and rainy day. \u00a0 We walked over to the Saturday outdoor market a couple of blocks away. \u00a0 Sima had been telling me I had to have one of the sausages from one of the vendors. \u00a0 I wasn’t that keen on the idea. \u00a0 \"sausageThere is a whole lot wrong about that for me. \u00a0 Besides the sausage which is filled with, thankfully, unidentifable parts, there is also the issue of “street vendor.” \u00a0 But we got there and I figured I had to at least try. \u00a0 There were two guys behind the stand. \u00a0 They had a giant skillet on the fire. \u00a0 It reminded me a bit of a paella pan but 5 times the size. \u00a0 On it they had sausages browning…big whitish sausages and sliced meat pork and sauerkraut. \u00a0 They take a nice hard-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside roll that is warm. \u00a0 They slice it down the middle and put some hot sauerkraut on it. \u00a0 Then they take a large sausage and put it on top. \u00a0 They have mayo and mustard to put on them. \u00a0 Ben ordered and then Sima ordered. \u00a0 When it was my turn to tell him what I wanted one of the guys looked at me and said, “Mama Cass!” Then they both broke into song, “All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray…California Dreaming…” Yeah, it was a moment. \u00a0 And, it wasn’t like they were trying to be offensive or rude in anyway. \u00a0 I could have said, “I played Mama Cass in a movie called My Dinner with Jimi. \u00a0 But the moment was fast and then it was gone. \u00a0 Mostly. \u00a0 \"simThey kept singing while we sat there eating on a bench. I pointed to the sausage I wanted…the one that seemed the most “well done.” \u00a0 He said, “that’s a small one.” \u00a0 I was glad I got a small one. \u00a0 It was tasty but after I was around 2\/3 of the way through I just couldn’t eat any more. \u00a0 The parts of it that made me not want to eat it are probably the exact reasons why people eat them. \u00a0 The hard snap of the casing, the smell of the meat, the richness. \u00a0 I couldn’t take another bite. \u00a0 I am very glad I had the experience. \u00a0 I wouldn’t be sad if I didn’t eat one again.<\/p>\n

The fruit and vegetable stands were beautiful. \u00a0\"cheese\" The cheese stands are filled with all kinds of goat cheeses and Goudas. \u00a0 The smell accosts you as you approach. \u00a0 The fish stands are also a site to see. \u00a0 Being on the Atlantic there are a lot of flat fish unlike fish we see on the Pacific. \u00a0 The meat stands are also fascinating with parts I haven’t seen since I was in phsyiology class.<\/p>\n

I was going to make a stew so I bought wonderful things. \u00a0 All farm fresh ingredients: mushrooms, potatoes, fresh thyme, carrots with the greens and onions. \u00a0 We bought a big heavy light pumpernickel bread. \u00a0 I am sure I will dream about that bread for the rest of my life. \u00a0 It was the end of the day at the market and I hadn’t seen any beef I was interested in purchasing. \u00a0 Ben and Sima knew of a butcher so walked a couple of blocks. \u00a0 Unfortunately, the butcher shop had just closed. \u00a0 I understand that when a store is closed it is inappropriate to approach the doors. \u00a0 Just walk away and cut your losses. However, the owner, a big, impressive older blond man, saw me look in and opened up the side door and ushered us in. \u00a0 As soon as we crossed the threshold a woman shoved a plate of big slices of liverwurst at us offering us a sample. \u00a0 I politely declined. The shop was quite lovely…for a butcher shop. \u00a0 All glass with marble counter tops for them to cut the meats. \u00a0 The floors were tiled. \u00a0 And, it was CLEAN. \u00a0 Very nice! \u00a0 He asked what I wanted and I told him beef for stew. \u00a0 Over the counter where he was cutting meat were logs of different kinds of salami\/sausagy things. \u00a0 He had just cut a small piece of meat he had on the counter for me when he reached up and pulled down a hung of what appeared to be a hard salami. \u00a0 He cut the thing down the middle and handed a large piece to me and then a large piece to Sima. \u00a0 \"winterOn closer inspection it looked like a hard salami that was never cooked. \u00a0 The outside was firm but the inside was like raw hamburger. \u00a0 I am sure I had eyes the size of saucers as I looked at him like, “you don’t think I am going to eat this do you?!” He smiled and said, “EAT! \u00a0 It’s beef.” \u00a0 So, I took a deep breath and took a bite. \u00a0 Yup, it was beef. \u00a0 Raw beef. \u00a0 It actually tasted a bit like summer sausage that wasn’t cooked. \u00a0 I looked at Sima, who like me, has some issues with identifiable food. \u00a0 I said quietly to her, “Don’t make a face…just keep smiling and take a bite.” \u00a0 The butcher had gone to the back and then returned with a large piece of what I assume was chuck with the bones in and cut stew pieces for me. \u00a0 Then he reaches up and grabbed another meat log of some kind and sliced off a couple of hunks of something else for us to try. \u00a0 So, now I have a bag of beef for stew, a huge piece of raw summer sausage and now he is handing me this new piece of something. \u00a0 It was like a cross between bologna and ham. \u00a0 It was warm and had the appearance as if it had been browned in a pan. \u00a0 It was actually okay. \u00a0 But really I felt like I had had my share of meat products to last a lifetime at that point. \u00a0 The experience of it was extraordinary. \u00a0 The kindness and generosity is a great memory.<\/p>\n

It rained a lot yesterday so on the way back from the market we decided to stop at a little cafe and sit outside under the awning and watch as they took down the market and cleaned the streets. \u00a0 Ben walked back to boat to drop off our groceries. Sima and I spent time talking to a lovely woman who was visiting here from England with her niece and sister. \u00a0 After two coffees I switched to beer. \u00a0 They had the beer from the Brouwerg IJ which made it especially nice and memorable.<\/p>\n

\"stairs\"After a dinner of stew we decided to go to a party. \u00a0 Some of Sima and Ben’s friends were going to be there. \u00a0 We walked and then took a tram. \u00a0 It was nice to see a different neighborhood. \u00a0 The flat where the out of town friends were staying was fabulous. \u00a0 It was a diverse group of people. Again, I got to experience Dutch stairs. \u00a0 Ohh, and the smallest bathroom outside of an airplane I have ever been in. \u00a0 I didn’t take a picture of the bathroom. \u00a0 I should have. \u00a0 I did catch a picture of the stairs. \u00a0 I don’t think the pictures do justice to the intensity of the stairs. \u00a0 You don’t get the full sense of the steepness or the curve or the shallow footing.<\/p>\n

Today, Sunday, it is quite cold outside with patches of sun peaking through the clouds. \u00a0 We had thought about going to the zoo but I think we are going to wander some neighborhoods and go back down to The Dam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As many of you who know me know, I am a picky eater. \u00a0 Don’t get me wrong, if I am eating something I like, I am not shy about eating. However, if I can’t readily identify the food I won’t eat it. \u00a0 The same goes for if I can identify it too well,… Continue reading Mama Cass Goes to the Saturday Market<\/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-69","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\/69","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=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}