We were in Amsterdam yesterday and of course, we went to eat at our favorite restaurant New King on the Zeedijk. While Norbert asked for a table for two, I noticed a sketch on an A4 above the cashier desk on the 1st floor (top floor). I stared at it for a while, because I thought I recognized that sketch. And it was this exact sketch (above), which I posted on 04.03.2006. New King: I am honored that you hang my sketch in your restaurant!! Yesterday’s dinner was delicious, as always! Bedankt!
A little update on me and my study: Veterinary Medicine is a very intensive study. I have an exam around every 5 weeks. Within these weeks, I also have a team project that requires some attention too. Despite the energy that I have to put on the study, it is very exciting and interesting. It was unthinkable that I would exchange sketch paper and blue prints for milking cows, dissecting chicken, and stem cells research. However, I did not regret my decision at all. And those who thinks that I completely ditched architecture is wrong. I am still busy with architecture, only at another level. Previously, it was architecture in (centi)meters. Now, it is in micro and nanometers as in liverarchitecture or cytoarchitecture 
(see the teeth marks on left bottom corner?)
Ok, so I forgot to put away (or just did not) this card last night. And before I get a chance to send this to Jan M at SP, my cat already took a bite of the card. I assume he or she disagree with my idea to send it to the Socialisctische Partij. And I assume it is one cat out of six who did this and I think Salami or Bacardi did it….Hmmm… may be I should compare the marks with their teeth?
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A (note) card with graphite and color pencils. Such a difficult paper to work with. May be I should send this card to Jan M. at SP. After all their logo is a (flying) tomato.
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My answer to EDM Challenge #48 - something that represents my new year’s resolution. Enjoy the moment, enjoy life. A small plate of milner cheese and a cup of decaf Illy coffee for the evening….mmmmm…..
I was planning to use these apples to make apple chips following a recipe from Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres cookbook. However the baking including preparation time needed is about 3 hours. I got demotivated after only reading the recipe and they ended up modeling for me for this particular EDM Challenge (#91).
We celebrated xmas at the Okura hotel, Amsterdam, yesterday. We dined at their restaurant ‘Yamazato’ and the food was wonderfully delicious! They used origami birdies as part of the presentation, and we got them as souvenirs. We will surely go back for more fantastic food.
Hergo in Amsterdam is one of the best butcher I found so far (the other is Chateaubriand in Heemstede). They sell fresh very high quality meat, that most local butchers and all supermarkets cannot beat. So sometimes during lunch time, I buy meat at Hergo and carry it all the way back to Utrecht. Today, I bought two Irish ribeye steaks for dinner. And they were superb!
Fanta orange, one of my favorite drinks, and some rambling. I think I have come to a point where I need new inspirations of what subjects to draw. I know that there are still many and I can do them in other medium, etc. But they all do not seem to be really interesting…everything just seems ‘bland’. Hmm…(thinking).
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This is actually an another experiment, based on a book that I have. Usually I draw my subject first using pen and ink, then apply watercolor over it. For this one, it was the other way around. Something new that I had never tried before. It was fun and more spontaneous! My sketch does not look as neat as the example shown in the book, but I think it looks pretty good.
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I had to go to a workshop last Tuesday evening in Amsterdam. So after work, I had to stay and wander around the city for a little while, before the workshop. I went to get something to eat at my favorite chinese restaurant in the city: New King on Zeedijk. Their food is always delicious. Here is a selection of the dishes listed in their menu.
Note: my RSS feed problem is still not resolved. I apologize to those, who have trouble reading my blog via Bloglines or other rss readers. I can’t fix it (yet) and I prefer to spend my time drawing rather than twiddling with gibberish php stuff. So it can be a long time before it can be resolved. Sorry!
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My dinner on Thursday night (09.02). I had fried Calamari as starter and for the main course, I chose cod & chips. Found this place: ‘Rock & Sole Plaice’ Fish & Chips shop, near Covent Garden, London from a co-worker. Pretty good.
Last day of 2005, time for new resolutions?
Hmm…let’s review 2005. From the many promises I made to myself, I think I manage to achieve only one. My resolutions were: loose weight (typical), loosen up a bit (relax, not to take everything too seriously, be less perfectionist), draw more, cook more often, and make Nor become a coffee addict. Guess which one I manage to achieve, and it is so successful that it is beyond my expectation? Nor is now officially a coffee junkie!
Instead of loosing weight, I’ve gained weight a bit. I did draw and cook more, but not as much as I like. My work (sometimes it can be very unpredictably demanding) seemed to be always in the way. Same reason with loosening myself up a bit. I will have to work on that one much better in 2006. But I managed to encourage Nor drink coffee. Even more than I could ever imagine.
Nor was a tea drinker and often teased me about being a coffee junkie. I said, “Well, if I could make you drink coffee by the end of the year, that would be really something”. At the start of 2005 he refused to take a sip of my Cappuccino. In the summer he started to steal a sip or two from my cup. He began drinking coffee with milk/cream at his office about 2-3 cups a day by autumn. Now, he beats me as a coffee junkie. This morning he drank a mug of Cappuccino and 5 cups of coffee with milk/cream, while I only had a mug of Cappuccino and 1 cup of coffee. Talking about fulfilling a new year’s resolution. What an achievement! Nor is officially the coffee junkie of the house.
What are my new resolutions? Pretty much the same, except for the last one. That one about a coffee addict Nor can be off the list. However, I am so intrigued by a resolution that Elizabeth Perry of the EDM group made for 2006. She has drawn every day (365 days) in 2005 and will do it again in 2006! She will fill in 12 sketchbooks, one a month! This is really amazing, and I admire her for her ability to draw every day this year. Will I be able to do the same in 2006? This is a very ambitious resolution for me. I may not be able to stick to it (just like the rest of my resolutions), but what about if I just TRY and give it a go? Hmmm…
Yesterday was so bad… I ended up in Burger King twice!
And I am a supporter of gastronomy??? Knowing what I ate yesterday, I am slightly ashamed now. Yes, I visited BK 2x yesterday. Yes, I ordered almost the same thing. I ate at BK Amsterdam Centraal station for lunch, right after a site visit. Then my dinner was at BK Amsterdam Amstel station. The dinner was actually unexpected. I worked late, went home late, and guess what? A train broke down between Amsterdam and Utrecht and made the rail traffic irregular. What traffic? There was not a single train on sight for 1 hour. So I called Nor asked him to pick me up. I’d figure that it would still get me faster than any trains.
After that I went to wait for him at Burger King. I was starving and needed to eat. Other options were not that appetizing and all of them are fast food as well.
So now you see my sketches of what I consumed from de Kiosk, Smuller, and BK. All of them are fast food chain available at larger train stations. And you think: she claims that she loves gastronomy and cooking? Well… I still love gastronomy despite my consumption of fast food. I can only really cook in the weekend. I do think that train travel is not very healthy and it is making me fat right now …may be some money back from the NS (Dutch Railway) as a compensation?
…or “Pure Enjoyment’ it says on the coffee cup. Well, not in the situation I am in at this moment. Pure confusement is more like it. However, drawing this sketch calmed me and the hot chocolate warmed me up on the way home. The sketch shows a coffee cup, but it actually contained hot chocolate. I was afraid if I drank coffee I probably wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. And decaf coffee is no where to be found, except by special coffee bars. People don’t tend to drink decaf here. So just to be on the safe side, I chose hot chocolate.
I think the simple napkin fold can be considered as an entry for the Everyday Matters Challenge #40 ‘Draw something with folds’. It’s simple, but hey, it has folds!
Note: Click to enlarge.
I can’t believe that it has been a month since my wonderful holiday in Barcelona. And I am still not finished with my holiday story. I have been quite busy lately and haven’t been drawing as much as I’d like. But I think I just have to finish it a.s.ap. before my memory fails me. So here we go…
Day 6 - 07.10.05
This is my sketch of Bar Salvador. We went there to get some breakfast on that Friday morning. It was our last ‘full’ day and we would like to use it to explore the old center. Yes we had been sort of walking around the old center everyday, but we had not really looked. So we started the day by visiting this bar, which we found out from ‘The Rough Guide’. Eventhough it is called a bar, it opens actually only from morning to late afternoon. It is not a place for late night drinking. But not to worry, they do live up to their name. Inside they have enough supplies of alcohol to last for months. It was an amazing experience. However, don’t really expect to be able to get what you want to eat here. There is not really a menu. We noticed that they had only one tiny green board on the wall with a very limited list of (what we suspected) food/sandwiches. Everybody knew what they wanted to order without the help of any menu. Now, we didn’t know what to order; we couldn’t understand the list; we asked but staff do not speak english. I decided to order what I had two days earlier from Cafe Dakmar. I remembered some words, told the waiter, and then it was just wait and see what I was getting. Well, I apperently communicated my order well. I got pretty much the same yummy sandwich.
Between sketching (with pen & ink only, watercolored later), sipping my cappuccino, and eating my sandwich, I did notice the whole space. We were the only obvious foreigners. We were drinking coffee/cappuccino, while the rest were having wine, cava, or even whisky with their breakfast at 10:30 a.m! Just fascinating. My only question was: would they be more productive and creative at work after breakfast with some alcohol?
NOTE: Click on the images for larger views
Cafe Dakmar on Travessera de Dalt, 77 Barcelona serves yummy sandwiches. The visit to Parc Guell left us hungry. Getting lunch inside the was not really an option. The cafes in the park served limited choice of sandwiches that didn’t look very good. So we opted for going downhill back to the busy Travessera de Dalt and we found Cafe Dakmar. The owner was very friendly and it seems like a family business. They served our sandwiches pretty quick and they were incredibly yummy. It was very satisfying. I told myself that I should try to make the same sandwich at home. It didn’t look very difficult to make. But I realized that I would not be able to find the same kind of delicious sausage at home.
After lunch, we just went back to town.
I am not finished with my BCN stories yet. I haven’t even finished scanning all the BCN sketches. Gosh, scanning CAN take a lot of time….But right now, I am interrupting the BCN flashback with something more important. A blind contour! Here is my entry for the Blind Contour Friday.
I know it’s a day late, but I actually drew this on Thursday night in the metro on the way home. It’s a cup and a saucer (can you recognize it?) from the Riviera Maison winter catalog. On the far left, I drew a BC of one of their armchair. In case you are wondering, the color is not applied blind. I applied the color today, just before scanning.
I decided to join the BCF cult after reading Karen Winter’s post on ‘Conquering the Inner Gorgon’. I have done some BC drawings but never posted them. I/my inner critic considered them as ugly. However, I want to get rid of my perfectionism and I am on my way there. So hopefully, doing BC exercises will get me there faster. I will most likely post my BC drawings later than Fridays, since I usually don’t have enough time to post drawings on the day I make them.
Our next stop was the Boqueria market. The market is said to be a popular tourist attraction and I wondered why. We couldn’t see that from the outside, but once we stepped inside between the narrow aisles…The market was very cool! The most interesting one I’d been to till that moment. We could find fresh produce, fresh meat, varieties of sea food, even some insects. To me, some products which were being sold, were very ‘unique’, e.g. heads of an animal (young cow/goat/sheep?), some organs that I couldn’t name. I wondered what they do with those heads. For soup? I saw the biggest fish head (the body was missing), masks/faces (used to belong to cows/goats/sheeps?), other types of seafood that were new to me. Everything was fresh, some of the sea produce were still alive, e.g. clams, mussels, snails, etc. Rabbits, ducks, chickens, were skinned/cleaned but being sold whole. It was such a different market than what I am used to here. And the prices…we can’t get those produce at such low prices here. The fishes offered here are so dissapointingly small compared to what I saw at Boqueria. I wished I could move the whole market here…well, may be leave the heads, feet, some organs, the preserved scorpions, and insects behind .
NOTE: Click to enlarge.
I realize that I can’t possibly keep up with doing a journal page everyday. If only I had 2 bodies with one soul (kind of scary, isn’t it) that could do all I need/want to do in one day. One would be at the office doing my dayjob….the other one could run around, see, observe, analyse, and draw much much more interesting things…Or if one day could be 48 hours instead of 24? May be that’s not such a good idea either…since that might mean that I have to work longer too… Hmmm. Whatever. I will just have to try to manage/balance my day as good as possible. Or make a better time management.
So here is a journal page of 16.08 on the late side, since today is 21.08. Most of the next pages that I will post will also be “late”. They are not going to be posted on the day they are made.
By the way, I have included a delicious but very strong Cranberry Punch recipe in the drawing. We made it yesterday, and boy, it really helped me forget a nasty week
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Many people may disagree with me, but I love Starbucks. I think it is very unfortunate that they only have a warehouse in Holland and not a few coffee bars. (Note: I can’t call Starbucks as a ‘coffee shop’ here, it might just be mistaken as a place where you can buy and smoke pot. So I’d better call Starbucks as a coffee ‘bar’). Yes it may be bad for the local economy (or something like that I heard)…but man, where else can you order a Venti Decaf Fat Free Cappuccino with Whipped Cream??? (OK I am over exaggerating my order here…and OK, in the US you might get this at other places, e.g. Pete’s Coffee in SF/Berkeley) Or a Frappuccino? And something that makes me even more jealous…got an e-mail from a colleague who works in San Francisco….They have Frappuccino ICE CREAM!!!! I drooled all over my desk when I read his e-mail. Even Bali has several Starbucks…why not here?! The closest Starbucks is in London Heathrow. Can they just open a very small kiosk outside their warehouse in Amsterdam’s harbour???
Oh well… while I am still waiting for future Starbucks to open in Holland…I found a place that I frequent most weekends to sooth my annoyance: Mockamore in Utrecht. They do not have Venti Decaf Cappucino or a Fat Free version but they do serve ice cold Frappiato with Bountys chocolate! A good enough substitute for me at the moment.
After the museum visit, I did a little bit of window shopping. This turned out to be a very good decision! I finally found a great art supply store right in the middle of Amsterdam. How could I have missed that before??? Vlieger sinds 1869 on Amstel 34 in Amsterdam. Lovely store, 2 floors of art gadgets and necessities. The 1st floor is dedicated exclusively for papers. Beautiful papers. They made my hands itch to make something.
And then I ended up feeling hungry at Lanskroon. A tearoom that looks very cozy from outside. I ordered a piece of strawberry pie and a cup of coffee. The coffee was great, but the crust of the pie was just a bit too hard. I couldn’t finish the pie, but then I had enough. And it gave me a chance to draw the leftover.
I finished the drawing, paid for my coffee and pie, and went to catch a tram to go to the train station. It was still raining.
Well, I thought of submitting this drawing for the Everyday Matters Challenge #25, but it turned out that it is not exactly what the assignment says. I should have read the assignment more carefully. I drew this because I thought any object made of ‘glass’ would do. But I realized just now that it is supposed to be a ‘drinking’ glass. So I will need to search another ‘model’. This might take time. I am not sure.
Let’s talk about about food and drink then.
Ice cold beer is of course ‘delicious’ on hot summer days. And we think that it is also the best drink to go with most Asian food. It is the slightly bitter taste sometimes with just a tad of sweetness that makes beer sort of a ‘neutral’ partner to the heftily spiced asian food. Wine, on the other hand, does not always go well with ethnic food. I have read some articles about how to chose wine to go with Asian food. So it is possible to do that, and lots of Dutch do that too. However, I personally think that it is quite a tricky business, if you are not really a wine ‘expert’ (which we aren’t). The dutch drink wine to go with asian food, because it is sort of become a habit, which is learned from the French…’wine with (any) dinner’.
Chinese and Japanese food are both more neutral than South/S. East Asian food and pair better with wines. If you pick the wrong wine to go with your chinese cooking, it will probably be still ‘ok’. However, the safest choice of drink to go with any asian food, in my opinion, will be 1. water (of course!), 2. cold beer.
I find that beer and food from the same country of origin sort of complement one another. Chinese food and TsingTao, Japanese with Asahi/Sapporo, etc. But this kind of beers can sometimes be very expensive. Generally (standard) Heineken, Amstel, Dommelsch, Grolsch, Palm, Bavaria, and Hoegaarden go well with any Asian food, especially with BBQ, e.g. Sate Ayam Ponorogo (see previous post).
… or Chicken Satay or Kipsate…the best one there is.
Everyday Matters Challenge #12
A couple of weeks ago, when the weather was really great, we ate chicken satay almost everyday for dinner. It is quite easy to make and once you get the meat on the sticks, you can keep them in the fridge for a few days. With or without marinade. Right after we got home from work, we only had to start the grill (gas bbq), took some of the satay sticks out of the fridge (kept the rest there for the next day), grilled it, and voila! They were ready within 5-10 minutes. So easy and relaxing for weekdays cooking. However, I did have to assemble the meat and the sticks in the weekend. It can be time consuming! Here is the recipe if you’d like to try:
Ingredients
- Chicken breast/filet. Cut up into small cubes or long thin slices. (For cubes: the key words here are small and/or thin. This will make it cook faster and tastier than big cubes. Put a maximum of 5 small cubes on 1 bamboo stick. For slices: 1 slice per stick. Slices could be less time consuming than cubes when it comes to the assembling the satay).
- Bamboo sticks for satay, amount as needed
Grill dip saus
- 2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon peanut/corn/sunflower oil
Roll or dip each satay stick in this dip sauce right before grilling. This sauce can also be used as a marinade. When use as a marinade, multiply the amount as needed.
Sauce/condiment
- fresh small chillies as many as how hot you want it to be, cut up in pieces
- shallots, in slices
- a few tablespoons of sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
- 1 teaspoon peanut/corn/sunflower oil
Mix all ingredients together in a small plate. If the condiment is still a bit thick, add a few drops of water to thin it out a bit.
Serve the satay with cooked (jasmine) rice. Add a few drops of the condiment onto the rice, mix it a bit, dip your satay also in the condiment….and Yummmmm!!!! Start eating!!! The shallots and chilli slices are also meant to be eaten, but of course, only if you dare  . Shallots are probably OK for most people.
Note: The recipe is based on real Indonesian kitchen, authentic Indonesian cuisine. Even we can’t find a restaurant in the Netherlands that serves satay as good as this one. At least not in our opinion.
My goodness, we were late for M & I’s wedding yesterday! We missed the ceremony at the Old City Hall in the Hague and went straight to the reception. I’m actually quite dissapointed that we missed the ceremony. I’d love to see the interior of the Old City Hall! Now I missed my one only chance to see it. Ugh!
We did arrive on time for the reception, which was hold at an estate ‘Landgoed Te Werve’. It’s a nice area for the wedding. But one does have to ignore the ‘modern’ apartment building peaking on top of some trees.
It was quite a long evening. After the reception, came the 4-courses dinner. We thought that the food came too slow or we were just starving. The main course was a tenderloin steak served on a bed of risotto with an eggroll on top. I thought the steak was served too cold. I didn’t like it much, so I let Nor ate my steak (he was way too hungry, I think). We felt so tired after dancing, so we decided to skip the rest of the party. We still had to drive back home.
During the hours long event, I managed to do a few sketches in my small sketchbook that fits in my handbag. It was quite embarrasing when M’s mother approached me, while I was sketching the hors d’ouvre. She asked me how I was doing….well…I was a bit bored, but of course I did not tell her that.
The hors d’ouvre (I ate some of it already).
This small ‘castle’ is located in same estate as the manor. This building has clearly a different style than the manor. The mini castle has brick walls, while the walls of the manor are plastered and painted white. I find it quite a unique building, because of the style and the size.
Drinking moment at the bar in the manor….the Beer Tap.
And no, I was not being rude to sketch during the wedding. I just made sure that I have another sort of images to look back at later in the future. A different kind than what the couple will have in a few weeks from the photographer.
Everytime I commute with public transportation, I (almost) always have these as breakfast: a cappuccino croissant and a medium size cappuccino. I buy them at Cafe T at the train station. Then I wait til my train comes, jump in it and fight for a seat. I sit down and read the newspaper people leave in the train. Cafe T’s coffee is served at a good enough temperature for me that I can finish it before I get off the train. The train travel is so fast that sometimes I have to gulp down my hot coffee. Quite dangerous for my throat. But may be I am just a slow coffee drinker.
By the way, I do eat the cow (beef) but not the bike or the stop button. They are just what I see everyday…
Deeeelllliiiiiccciiiooouuuuussss!!!
Ok, the presentation was not great. The chicken fell apart a bit because it was so tender and I don’t know how to carve a chicken. But the taste, it was very yummy.
The cranberry sauce of Nigella/Feast tasted great. However the consistency was not what I expected. It was too watery, while the cookbook promised that after it cooled down, it would solidify a bit. May be today it would be different. So next time, make cranberry sauce one day earlier or in the morning. Or… buy IKEA’s cranberry sauce. The bread sauce from Uit De Oven tasted great too. But again the consistency was a bit weird.
All in all it was great. Now to the next meal… New Year’s day…
What we are eating tonight…
Stuffed Roast Chicken
Brussels Sprouts with Walnuts in Butter
Pan-Fried Mini Sausages
Rosemary Roast Potatoes
Cranberry Sauce
Bread Sauce
Ricotta Crepe Blinis
Wines
Merry Christmas!
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