Saturday, January 28, 2012

Amsterdam: On New Directions, the New Year, and Nostalgia




A year ago today, I was heading to Food Blog Camp and starting a course in Genetics at the alma mater. I went back to school for six months, spent the summer applying, spent the fall freaking out, went to Paris, and now 2011 is over.

The most telling sign that I have no idea about what happened to 2011 is when my day job had some recent major breakdowns. It involved a lot of backtracking and reviewing data. In a discussion, I remarked that one of our molecules was made recently, in June.

Everyone stared at me. Turns out it was June 2010. Wow.

So, this is a new year. I'm hoping it will be a big year. Much is out of my hands, but I have been thinking a lot about this blog. I want this blog to be a chronicle about good food, but it's become somewhat unfocused. When people ask what the blog is about, I hem and haw through the answer. It's always been a little of everything, but I want it to have a little more focus this year.

What it's not:

A regularly updated site with fresh and easy recipes for those short on time. Hell, I'm too short on time, why would I be any good to another busy person?

Focused on recipe development. My day job is essentially recipe development. I love to cook for a lot of the same reasons I love chemistry. However, developing, recording, and repeating methods for reproducible results is not why this blog exists.

About shortcuts. There are many good ones, but I'm not here to talk about making cooking easier.

What it is:

A repository for my inane wit. If you're a regular reader of Meandering Eats, you know I'm sarcastic and silly. I prefer that you are, too.

A place for inspiring photos. Gone are the days of posting ugly photos taken in dim restaurants. If a photo is ugly, I won't post it, even if the subject is ah-may-zing. The photos should tell the stories, not me.

A chronicle of my culinary explorations, whether it's travel, in town, or in my kitchen. The goal is to make Meandering Eats much more of a travel-focused food blog. It will either feature eats found on the road, eats found in San Diego (which is one great place to travel to, y'all), and "traveling" vicariously through dishes I whip up in the kitchen.

I wish I was traveling all of the time, but I do a lot of traveling in my kitchen, instead. Like a recent weekend, with scones and udon. No, not at the same time. And not as a tribute to England.


Scones remind me of Amsterdam. While they're certainly not Dutch, our first meal during our recent stop in Amsterdam was at GreenWoods, an English tea room. The food was simple and delicious, which was perfect for the gloomy days we had in Amsterdam. Plain scones, clotted cream, jam, and a pot of Earl Grey. I'd been thinking of those scones since I returned.


When I saw a simple scone recipe in Saveur's 2012 Top 100 issue, I had to make it. We had everything on hand, but went out looking for clotted cream. Here in my part of San Diego, jarred clotted cream was available in the cheese section of Whole Foods.

The original recipe is here and I made a few changes:
  • I halved the recipe exactly, but replaced the milk with 1/2 cup buttermilk and 1/2 cup skim milk.
  • Used a pastry cutter instead of my fingers to cut the butter into the dry ingredients.
  • The dough was patted into an 8-inch round disk and cut into 8 wedges.
  • With the changes, the scones were ready in about 18-20 minutes. Start checking at 15 and take out of the oven when a rich golden brown.


In Amsterdam, we didn't just stick to scones at the English tearoom. We had traditional raw herring from a canalside stand. A chocolate-banana tart from one of Amsterdam's best bakeries, Patisserie Kuyt, and siphon-brewed Yirgacheffe from Two for Joy.


We spent most of our trip in Paris, but traveled to Amsterdam in style via Thalys. Our timing in Amsterdam was a little off because we arrived the weekend of a transit strike, but that turned out to be fortuitous because we rented bikes and rode around town without worrying about dying in a collision with a street car. Still, it had been a while since I'd been on a bike and it doesn't help that I'm in this bright yellow tourist bike. Yet, it was an incredible way to see the city and I don't think I'd even bother with a transit pass next time.

20 bites:

Marie said...

Thank you, Jun and Stanford!! Hopefully I'll have good things to report back with!

Marie said...

Really? That must have been an incredible experience. I have very few regrets about college, but one is studying abroad. So wish I had!

Marie said...

Thank you! The trip was incredible... other than nearly killing people with my bike, it was a perfect trip. ;)

Marie said...

Thanks so much, Darlene! Yes, go overseas! :)

Marie said...

Hahahaha, and I'm so glad you stopped by! Actually, I think you stopped by on my Chinese New Year post last year... it's how we "met" b/c you were my inspiration for the photography in that post. ;) Has it really been a year? We'll have to meet one of these days!

Marie said...

It is gorgeous! We ate our way through the city and it was often too dark for good photos, but we're actually trying to make a couple of dishes at home, so hopefully they'll turn into a post!

Maggie said...

I don't comment frequently (ever?), and I don't cook at all, but I do enjoy reading your blog!

Marie said...

Thank you, thank you, Maggie! You've made my day!

Jenny said...

Mmmm scones! I have actually made clotted cream too, it's just a case of boiling it down a bit! Here's to your 2012 being better than 2011!

Marie said...

Good to know! I debated making it, but found it before deciding to proceed. Love the stuff! Thanks for the kind words, Jenny! Here's to a great 2012 for the both of us!

Kim said...

wow! I just made the exact same trip earlier in May of 2011, Paris and Amsterdam (also via the Thalys)  this post just brought back all the awesome memories from the trip. Thanks for sharing on your wonderful blog :-)

kellypea said...

Here, here to all of what this isn't! I think it's amazing that you are as busy as you are and actually have Meandering Eats. I'd never have been able to pull that off when I had a real job :). Your trip sounds fun -- yellow bikes and all! Maybe not the pickled herring, though. Haha!

Marie said...

Thanks, Kim! The weather must have been so much better when you were there... Amsterdam was lovely, but very foggy and cold. The biking was a lot of fun, but damp.

Marie said...

Awwww, thanks, Kelly! I think most days I don't pull it off, hence why the posting's so infrequent. At the same time, I like to think that when things go up, it's always the best I can do. The yellow bikes were hilarious... Amsterdam's not the place to take up biking to work on my rusty bike skills, but it was a lot of fun!

Ann P. said...

It sounds like you had an amazing trip!! I"ve got to make it out to Amsterdam in the future; it looks beautiful and the food sounds delicious! :)

Melissa said...

This is ridiculous but after all our chit chat on twitter, I think this is the first time I've stopped by to comment!  You do have some lovely photos :)  I think with a name like "meandering" you are allowed some lee-way on what you write about.  I will be back more often now! (added you to my reader...with a memory like mine I need regular prompting! :))

Darlene Horn said...

I've been missing your posts but have been keeping up with all your great work in San Diego City Beat. After reading this post, I need to plan an overseas trip STAT!

Tracy said...

Those scones look fabulous! It sounds like you had a lovely trip!

Sarah said...

Sigh. I love Amsterdam (studied abroad in the Netherlands back in college) and I love scones. This post was right up my alley.

Jun Belen said...

Best of luck to you on your med school applications, Marie!  Fingers crossed here. And Stanford's paws crossed, too!

20 bites