OK, so it’s actually pretty much most amazing dream castle I’ve ever stayed in, complete with it’s own chateau dog. Thank you economic crisis for helping us fund this wonderful night.

Next, we went on to what’s one of North America’s most premier cities for artists of all kinds, Montreal. Such a lively town, we managed to visit 3 festivals in the week we spent there. Not bad. Ever wonder what Coldplay at the annual Osheaga festival looks like in combination with the fireworks festival of neighbouring Parc Jean Drupeau?

Not bad at all either, eh?

Anyway, enough talk about culture again, on to the food. The one dish that the Qeubecois people claim as national dish is called poutine. As the blog’s title already hints, it’s a serious threat to any diet out there, so stop reading if you’re struggling to stay off snacks just now.

Poutine contains everything in the hearty section we love to have as a treat: thick cut fries, rich gravy (chicken or turkey) and fresh cheese curds, or mozzarella as alternative.
Sounds bad? Well, this is only the basic version! In Quebec, you can find variations containing the above and bolognese sauce, sausage or a whole host of other ‘extra toppings’. I can just feel the punds piling on by typing this up.
One seriously doesn’t need to have any more food on a day after having a plate of this, however we all know how fast food make us feel after a couple of hours – just damn hungry again. So poutine should not become a routine part of your diet. Sorry, just had to use the poutine/routine combination somewhere. I’ve no sense of humor, got it.

However, even though it’s bad and a little more bad on the side, I love this stuff. I’d be proud of inventing this dish as it’s definitely a high scoring comfort snack. In fact, I’ve grown to like poutine so much over the years that I just had to invent my own little alternative. Here’s a lighter option for you to try at home:

- oven fries
- light gravy (most large supermarkets should stock this, in this case beef gravy’s OK)
- light mozzarella

Just pour over the gravy, as much as you fancy. However don’t make your fries swim in it – in this dish you don’t want sloppy chips! Also, do not over-salt the oven fries until you’ve poured over the gravy. Usually your gravy will be salty enough. Once done, cut mozzarella into cubes and sprinkle over.
Ét voila! One portion of poutine you can run off a little quicker.

I’d been to baseball matches before, but never to a recent world champ (I’m a Blue Jays girl through the closer bond to Toronto, Canada).
We were lucky enough to get tickets for the Boston Red Sox vs. Baltimore Orioles at the legendary Fenway Park stadium, one of the oldest baseball venues in the States.

The Red Sox were unfortunately on a bit of a losing streak when we arrived to Boston. However the food entertainment on offer was a winner, as usually the case with American sports matches. So we weren’t too worried, we were pretty sure we’d be entertained whatever the outcome. You see, I just love the different hot dog and pizza stands and watching local kids running up and down all the rows of seats shouting out their offers of peanuts, cotton candy, water…you name it, they got it. And you don’t have to miss a thing. Something that we definitely miss over here in Europe. If we need to get something during play, chances are you’re going to miss that crucial goal while you’re queuing up.

Now in Boston, there’s all the above, but there’s an added bonus to visiting the ball game over here. One of the things that Boston’s famous for are lobsters. Originally served as prison food (you read that one right-got this from our Boston tour guide) a couple of centuries ago, it’s now a bit more expensive but still great value to have lobster in Boston. And they’re quite good at it!
One of the favourites are lobster rolls, quite literally a bread roll pretty stuffed with lobster, served with just a little lemon for extra flavour. I never thought I’d have delicious seafood at a sport match, so this was my highlight of the match. Oh and the Red Sox took the lead, which was nice.

As the match went on, we of course had to indulge in the all American hot dog. I’m a big fan, and it must be said that the only decent hot dogs are served on the America side of the Atlantic. We took a regular hot dog which was a little plain unfortunately, and an Italian Dog which was quite the works. Woof.

After washing down our snacks with a pint of beer, the Red Sox won. Did our presence lead them to the win? Probably. All the merrier was our walk back to the hotel.

Before heading off to enjoy the weekend, do you know the answer to this: why is it that one can only get unhealthy food/drinks at sports events? Should we be having salads and fruit juices or anything that’s closer to an athletic lifestyle?

Merlion, Singapore's half mermaid, half lion symbol

Recently I had the opportunity to include Singapore again on a trip to the far east, and yes I admit I jumped for joy at the mere thought of the wonderful dishes I’d be reunited with…

For those who aren’t familiar with Singapore, the population of just under 5 million is made up by Chinese, Malay, Indians and some of Arab and western descent (primarily English from the colonial period but also expats from all over the world). No wonder I feel so much at home there, everyone’s an immigrant Being just a small island state, this diverse mix of cultures (who all love to eat) inevitably led to a mixture of cuisines next to traditional Asian dishes. Whether it’s Cantonese dim sum, Malaysian satay or Indian tandoori, you only need to walk a couple of steps before finding a fine place for a great meal.

Yummy foods at a hawker centre. In the middle, my plate of chicken rice. YUMMY!

One Singaporean ‘institute’ must be the hawker centres, found all over the city. These traditionally outdoor food courts were once opened to battle unlicensed street hawkers who paid little attention to food hygiene. Nowadays, hawker centres are the best places to have a good value meal and everyone from working class to expats can be found there daily for their dinners. There are even awards for best hawker stalls, and people will go from one to another if they can prepare better laksa or chilli crab.
As a young child and every time I’ve been to Singapore since, I always make sure I visit a couple of hawker centres. Why? Because one of my favourite meals ever can be best enjoyed there – Hainanese chicken rice. This dish, in which chicken with ginger are at its best together with rice cooked in stock with soy sauce on the side, is one of the most famous examples of the mix that makes up Singaporean cuisine. I nagged my mum to make this all the time, and you can still wake me up for a plate – it’s the business! Best of all, it’s pretty healthy as well.

Is there anything else to do in Singapore besides eating? Yes, however this is a food blog so I won’t waste space here talking about why you should visit and sights you need to see; I can go on for hours if I’d start! If you want more information, typical recipes or that last little push before booking a ticket – the links above point to the official Singapore visitor’s site where you can find all the information you need.

OK, one tip: visit us at the Zoological gardens where we can roam pretty much freely along the treetops. Be sure to have breakfast with us too so you can learn about why it's so important to save our rainforests!

* as all photos unless stated across this website, all pictures unless stated are taken by myself. Use only after permission and acknoledgement

This week, I’d like to share with you my favourite songs with a food reference to feed your apetite. Some hilarious, some very serious indeed – but all yum to my ears. Missing anything or want to point my nose into a different sound? Well just let me know

10. Peeled Apples – Manic Street Preachers

A very recent song by the band whom I called my idols when I was a teenager. I’ve never really gone off them (however I no longer put on glitter and feather boas as they would too in the nineties *gulp*). Good to see they’ve also found the food route – if only in the title of a song.

9. Mexican Seafood – Nirvana

So it’s actually about a yeast infection (let’s not go there…). Nirvana were one of the rock greats so a song by them just has to be added to this chart. They’ve also got Big Cheese and Penny Royal Tea in their food/dinks collection if you fancy that more than seafood.

8. Eat It – Weird Al Yankovic

No list about food and music is complete without Weird Al Yankovic, the guy best (or only) known for his parodies of well known hits. And he loves food as a theme as well – it was pretty hard to choose between I’m Fat, Lasagna, Spam, The White Stuff and this one…the fact that it’s a ‘tribute’ to poor Wacko Jacko got Eat It onto the list. And because it has  pretty amazingly 80′s video to go with it

7. Vegetables – Beach Boys

The Beach Boys could be named as one of my favourite bands all time. Their genius have inspired many artists known today, and they love their vegetables too (and many other disputable substances in their time, oh well). Random trivia: the story goes that Paul McCartney can be heard munching celery in the background of this song, as he was in the studio at the time of recording…

6. Buttered Popcorn – The Supremes

I like my popcorn, and I like motown. Thank you Diana Ross and Supremes for this fine mix. More butter more butter more butter more!

5. Burrito - Seether

I won’t hide being proud of my roots, now the Chinese don’t have good English singers to add to this list, but the South Africans do. Seether may live in the US but are from SA. This rock band has all sorts of songs with well hard rocking titles, but also this lovely Mexican snack. Apparently they chose this title after watching an episode of The Osbournes in which Ozzy Osbourne fancied having a burrito…

4. Banana Pancakes – Jack Johnson

Lovely weekend music to lounge away on a sunny day, Jack Johnson is a safe bet. He likes banana pancakes, and so do I.

3. Honey Pie - The Beatles

So it was this or Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones, just to bring up the old rivalry. However, brown sugar is an ingredient and Honey Pie, when not used to refer to a certain female as in the song, is actual food, so the The Beatles win this round.

2. Too Much Food – Jason Mraz

He’s one of my favourite artists at the moment, singer, great entertainer and blogger (including a recent hilarious post on fun bananas, it should’ve been on this blog ). He sings about having too much food on his plate, this can happen from time to time and will leave you bloated if you don’t just stop eating. However I don’t often have too much of Jason’s music.

1. Peaches – The Presidents of the Unites States of America (1995)

One of the funniest and biggest hits about food in the nineties has to be Peaches. And how we can still crack a smile when we hear ‘millions of peaches, peaches for me/millions of peaches, peaches for free…LOOK OUT!’. The Presidents still perform, and I can say they’re still very well worth a visit if you’re in a for a laugh.

Eetcafés are quite literally what the name suggests: it looks like a pub/casual restaurant where one can have lunch and dinner, and some will, from around 11PM, remove tables so that it becomes only a bar. However more and more are popping up that are just proper restaurants – and with that, overall food quality goes up.

The food can be classified as Dutch fusion – often you’ll find dishes like Dutch style satay or steak with fries and salad alongside some pasta and/or fish. It’s always casual, never overpriced and one can always find a very diverse range of guests – young, old, rockers, business people, students…they’ll all visit an eetcafé once in a while. So, it’s quite a place to discover the Dutch!

Amsterdam of course has countless options for you to sample, so today I’ll help you making your choice a little easier by naming my current top – 5.

1. Kop van Jut
Leidsekruisstraat 24
website

It’s Dutch from head to toe in this little restaurant! Near Leidseplein, it’s our favourite to bring guests from abroad who need a crash course in Dutchness, or just with friends for a nice eetcafe meal. The restaurant is full of little Dutch decorations from the Royal family to footballers, the satay and fries are wonderful (so is the rest of their menu – simple yet very acceptable). Don’t forget to order a coffee ‘Kop van Jut’ after your meal, which comes with a typical Amsterdam liquer and stroopwafel (syrup waffle).

2. De Fles
Vijzelstraat 137
website

Look down! This restaurant is actually in the basement so no peeking in through the windows here. However, trust me – it’s worth a try. The decor has been taken from the inside from a ship, and they did a good job of making it pretty cosy. Food prices are just a little on the high end of what one can expect at an eetcafé (20 euros for a main) but it’s worth it. I especially enjoyed their tuna steak the last time, friends recommend the salads.

3. Restaurant Dubbel
Lijnbaansgracht 256
website

Another option which is just steps away from Leidseplein, unlike Kop van Jut, this is a place where I’d go to we’d have a group to entertain. Not the most exciting in terms of looks, but good service, all usual suspects can be found on their menu (and one of few who usually offer mussels, a Hungryhelen favourite meal), and all at a more than reasonable price.

4. Van Kerkwijk
Nes 41
no website, map and Dutch reviews here

Close to Dam Square, this place is quite often packed at weekends, which is not a surprise. Here, your waiter will join you at your table to go through the menu of the day, and the menu is great every time we’re there. It’s not possible to reserve a table here, so just walk in and have a drink or two until it’s your turn – I never mind having some pre-dinner conversations with fellow hungry guests.

5. Eetcafé Van Beeren
Koningsstraat 54
no website – map and Dutch reviews here

Just off Nieuwmarkt square this eetcafé can be found. Can’t remember how many times I’ve been here for whatever reason, but food is always good, atmosphere good, house wines are nice…all very relaxing. Their – daily -very cheap – special usually sells out before I can even try ordering it.

Sometimes, the answer is to visit this blog, as yes I do provide essential information concerning responsible snacking and professional eating behaviour observance. Or so I do wish.

Behind every good blog there’s always a nice dashboard from where one writes and edits their site, can find numbers of visits and also reveal search engine terms which have led people to this site (of course, I’ll *only* see the terms, not from where/who/vital statistics etc.).  I must say, THANK YOU for making my day. I never knew there were so many of you looking for airline meals info or such random things as wanting to turn milk tarts into drinks. To show my gratitude, I shall use this post to try and give you an accurate answer to the best search queries I’ve received so far, as of course you will have only found parts of your answer through the blogs.

1. Nana Mouskouri’s moussaka recipe
Well, as you know, Nana Mouskouri’s a very well known Greek singer. And moussaka’s one of the Greek god’s gifts to mankind. I’m sure she must’ve had plenty of moussaka, however she’s not published a recipe or written a song about just yet. I’d stick to other people’s recipes, like the one you can find on the recipe page here.

2. KLM smoked almonds
Smoked almonds are the signature starter snack KLM hands out on their long haul flights. However, my best guess is that this comes from an inflight caterer and not from an actual food brand that you can find in the shops over here. I’m sure it would do good though.

3. A milk tart in Afrikaans
Is called melktert

4. sea food wine
I’m into many things, but I think I’d pass if someone’d offer me wine made out of seafood. Or did you mean wine that goes well with seafood? In that case, I’d go for white wines, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay or chablis depending on the type of seafood you take. But remember, rule 1 of a good wine for you is always that you like the taste. Don’t bother too much downing a terrible drink in your opinion only because someone writes that it pairs well with your dish. The best lesson I ever learnt at a wine tasting session.

5. what meals do you get on british airways
This, depends on the destination you’re going to. My experience is a UK style sandwich on short haul flights (think prawn mayo, cheese and pickle etc.) and a selection of a western and regional style meals on long haul. Breakfasts are usually small versions of the good old British fry up.

6. milk tart drink
Interesting. I’ve never heard of someone turning a cake into a drink. In fact this is so intriguing, I might try this one myself. Best guess is to leave out flour and cornstarch. But how to add some crust flavour..?

7. instant noodles inflight menu/instant noodles on British Airways
I’ll answer two questions in one here as they show similarities. Instant noodles aren’t on any official inflight menus, but some larger airlines carry them as extra snack on long haul flights, usually given out at night to whoever’s not asleep. Most of the time I find they serve Nissin brand chicken cup noodles. If you liked your cup, you can find this brand at most large Chinese supermarkets around the world.

8. airlinemeals 2009 klm/ food served on klm
For summer 2009, I know that KLM is offering a selection of African themed meals and South African wines on their long haul flights to promote their African destinations. I love them.
For European flights, it will just be the sometimes interesting sandwich.

9. clip business have meal
What on Earth are you talking about?

10. effect of drinking tomato juice on face
The most amusing search query that ended up on this site. This triggered me to do a little research, and this is the result:
Some people say that a mixture containing tomato juice and other natural ingredients (depending on the desired effect) will help fight acne, whiten your skin if you’ve been tanned, or just to get a general glowing look. However, my advice is to not believe it and to go to the store, beautician or doctor to help you. All tomato juice will do is make you smell rather bad and leave your face bright red. If it’s a Bloody Mary you happened to have applied, you’ll also be crying your eyes out.

11. netherlands or dutch or holland dike or
So, it’s The Netherlands officially. Sometimes called Holland, which actually only refers to the provinces of North Holland and South Holland (Amsterdam/Rotterdam as main cities). People from other parts of the country could take offence if you mention they’re from Holland. Inhabitants are called Dutch, queen Beatrix has been on the throne since 1980, and the country depends heavily on its dykes. Yes, this spelling is usually used even though it may also refer to a lesbian. But then The Netherlands is (would like to be) an open minded country. If you’re interested, visit the Delta works in the Zeeland province – or google that instead.

12. baked milk tart recipe
Visit my recipe page for a nice milktart!

During a dinner last week, for some reason (after a couple of white wines) we got the idea to make a little trip up to Volendam, primarily to get dressed up in traditional Dutch costumes – in which especially yours truly looks hilarious, being quite obviously not of Dutch descent…

Volendam is a little town just north of Amsterdam, famous for its picturesque looking old Dutch houses on a dyke, the fact that all people seem to have just one of 10 different surnames (anyone said inbreed? Shhhhhhh ), many Dutch singers come from this place whose music is sometimes called ‘palingsound’(eelsound). This is because most importantly, Volendam is known for its fish.

Warning: extremely cheesy tune ahead

When we arrived, the first thing we did was getting our picture taken. Now as this is a public blog, I’m not going as far as revealing how incredibly ridiculous our group looks as old Dutch farmers. You’ll have to do with this lady, who kindly gave her permission to be shown here:

Once this was out of the way, we could go and do what everyone does in Volendam: eat fish. Loads of it.

The location we chose for our fish was a little shop on the dyke – long tourist and locals queueing up won us over.
As we just couldn’t choose (and this blog needs to be filled with all relevant dishes), we went for all the local favourites:

Broodje paling (smoked eel bun)
The absolute Volendam speciality, the poor things just don’t get a life here as tonnes of eel gets eaten around this place. And at high speed, as before I could get my camera out, it had vanished. Use this link instead.

Haring
The original Dutch sushi, herring is traditionally eaten raw with onions and optional pickle. Love it or loathe it – I must admit that I kind of like the buttery texture of this fish. However, be careful – this combination leaves you with a very foul breath. Unless you enjoy being turned down, have some mints at hand.

Kibbeling
This is a fried cod snack, very similar to the English style battered fish. The only real difference is that kibbeling used to be leftover fish which people would fry up, and to this day it’s always served as bite sized chunks.

The verdict: well worth a short stopover!

Annoyed by the quality of some restaurants, we decided to do some research to find the best places forra di pasta e pizza ina di towna. That’s just about the best Italian impression I can manage. Comments in Italian are welcome.

1. Incanto
Amstel 2
website

Situated on the second floor of a building overlooking the Muntplein/Flower Market area of the city, this gem is hardly noticable on the outside. Its relaxed modern interior, very pure offerings and extensive Italian wine list make it the spot for your special evening in Amsterdam. I particularly love their risotto as part of my meals there. Not suitable for those on a budget or only into casual dining, but worth every penny if you feel like splashing out a bit.

2. Mappa
Nes 59
website

Trendy eatery in the theatre street Nes close to Dam square. Very nice simple pasta dishes for a reasonable price. Great for winding down after a long day in town or just a nice casual dinner. I quite frequently take people out here, most recently including two Italian colleagues, who didn’t complain .Try their orange tiramisu as well (when available)!

3. Casa di David
Singel 426
website

Already a favourite amongst locals and tourists because of the good authentic tasting dishes on offer, Casa di David is a safe bet for a good Italian meal in the centre. One of the few real Italian restaurants that also do proper pizzas. However, food quality seems to have gone to the heads of staff a little as service can be dreadful. If you can stand being ignored from time to time or getting the ‘you should be glad to be here’ treatment when busy and concentrate on the food instead, you’ll have a good night out.

4. La Storia della Vita
Weteringschans 171
website

About 10 minutes walk from Leidseplein and just a few minutes away from the Heineken brewery is this family run restaurant, which is quite the experience (and wins the Hungryhelen award for prettiest name for a restaurant in town ). Listen to their Italian granddad sing and play the piano while having an a la carte or surprise meal (on weekends, they only offer a 3-6 course fish or meat menu from EUR 32,50). After a dinner with friends, mentioned granddad came up to our table with a cart full of after dinner drinks, and we all left with smiles. Also great for your date.

5. Gustavino
Gustav Mahlerplein 16
website

This one’s more for locals and business travelers, as Gustavino’s located in the Zuidas area of town just outside the Amsterdam Zuid train and subway station (the newly created business oriented district). Already well known amongst people working in the area, this is a nice place for business lunches and casual smart dinners. Following the typical Italian primi and secondi courses, they offer good quality pizzas, pastas and proper mains in a pretty trendy setting.

Ciao!

Saturday, 12 PM:
Arrive at the festival. Tent’s up, looking for lunch. Check food stalls on the way…hamburger type bun with stuff that staff would like to sell as gyros gets picked. Was lukewarm, tasted like anything but gyros, but no instant diarrhea. Bonus.

2:30 PM:
After much walking between car and tent, time to get ready for the main event. Fuel: German bratwurst. What a shame, this one lacked spices. Guess the guy of the stall figured that if 2/3 of his weekend clientele would be drunk anyway.

6:00 PM:
In need of refueling after the hilarious performance of the all star punk rock (cover)band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Watch it here, from 10″50 – if you like the genre, that is .
Decide to head left of the main stage for dinner. Hamburgers, chips, shoarma, spring rolls…fresh oysters? In the 10+ years I’ve been visiting festivals, I’ve never come across something like a festival oyster bar. Which also made me think – this cannot be right, surely this is to guarantee having to do things you don’t want to do in a portable toilet? Skipped and had a selection of canteen quality pasta and vegetables. Cost 12 euros, but probably the healthiest meal I’ve ever had at an event.

7:30 PM:
We don’t drink an awful lot like some of the (not necessarily younger) festival crowd. However, being outside all day and having the odd beverage makes you hungry, so we decided to tuck into a typical Dutch snack – poffertjes (pov-er-chus). Best described as mini pancakes with a soft center, they’re enjoyed with loads of powdered sugar and butter. That’s because otherwise there’s no taste to it whatsoever. Finished our portion just on time for Bruce Springsteen.

12:30 AM:
Back in tent, once again craving for snacks. Took a mini snack salami, then sleep.

                                   Sunday, 10:00 AM:
Wake up to find someone left some ladies’ underwear next to our tent. OK. Time to eat…wow, there’s so much grease on offer at the campsite stalls that it’s hard to choose. The only healthy options are yoghurt bowls and fruit juice, both costing around 6 euros a go. Now we’re not prepared to pay high class prices for low quality versions of fruit breakfasts, so we had some dodgy looking savoury pancakes - filled with bacon and enough cheese to hide the actual pancake flavour.

 
1:00 PM:
Old ska heroes Madness are up later in the afternoon, this means we need a hearty lunch: braadworst. The Dutch version of bratwurst, served in a bun with onion, mayonaise and ketchup. Yes, sausage again. Pinkpop seems to have sausage vendors scattered around all over the place. Not that I mind, and as an added bonus, this was the first snack that exceeded our expectations. Bravo!

7:00 PM:
Wandering around the festival grounds we find many empty plates of everything from pizza slices to fried chicken. However, we’re feeling exotic and opt for a fusion ‘Indian stir fry’ with Turkish bread and enough garlic sauce to ensure a completely non-Indian taste. What it did taste like? Pre-seasoned frozen vegetables mixed with chicken and bamboo shoots. With sauce. For 8 euros. If this is the level required for serving food at events, I will stock up and start my own food cart next year.

7:20 PM:
Not only was this meal dissappointing in taste, it was also a remarkably small amount we got served. Need some more food. We agreed to have some mini Vietnamese spring rolls. Spring rolls are so popular in The Netherlands one may almost call it a Dutch snack. We were pleasantly surprised that it was actually quite nice – bite sized, nice slightly tangy sauce, no need to squeeze out frying oil before consuming. Amazing, a second OK snack on one day! After the bands, went on to celecrate with friends at the campsite after party.

Monday, 10:00 AM:
Avoid pancakes. Spotted fried eggs on bread with bacon and cheese, had this. Good enough to give us energy until we get our first drinks of the day.

1 PM:
We couldn’t find any short queues for getting food/drink tickets, so needed something cheap for lunch. We hadn’t had any french fries yet this weekend, so here goes! Splash on a truckload of mayo, sit down on the grass to enjoy whilst listening to a Belgian singer called Novastar and watch people voluntarily getting themselves sunburnt.

3 PM:
It’s really a wonderful sunny day today, and on sunny days we all need to have ice creams. We took ours to the crowd to enjoy during the set of a Canadian punk band. Felt quite rebellious standing there innocently eating up the cone.

7 PM:
Have overpriced but slightly healthy dinner again at the oyster bar. Same selection of veggies, meat  and some lasagna. However, clouds break seconds after I took the picture, and I can tell you that it takes a lot better food to be able to hold its taste when coming in contact with rain.

10:30 PM:
Last act of the festival on stage, but stomach not satisfied. With one food ticket left, I treated myself to the Dutchiest of all snacks, the kroket. This gooey meat snack with breaded crust is a favourite amongst the Dutch and many tourists, and always works as a quick comfort fix. As I finish my kroket, the festival comes to an end. Time to pack up and go back to proper food world!

To leave you with a little bit of that festival feeling, here’s a clip of the Madness performance: