French cooking lesson 1

Last night, I finished my last class of French cooking courses at Le Cordon Bleu - La Cuisine Francaise. I'd been studying French cooking as well as, of course, eating French cuisine every Tuesday night for the past while.

It was truly a fun experience and it was great to meet all the other food loving students and lovely teachers. It was pretty much my only time to chat with people in Amsterdam, and I will miss it so much... even though I did suffer from an over consumption of cholesterol and eating so much that I was almost not able to sleep after the class.

Our class started from 7pm and we finished cooking around 10:30, then usually didn't finish eating until about midnight. For the first class, I got home way passed midnight, so stuffed and overwelmed with the magic of butter and cream!

I'd like to upload some photos from the class for my own record and to share with my classmates.

Lesson 1:

Preparation of basic stocks & vegetables. Preparing and filleting flat fish

Just like the kitchen in the movie 'Sabrina', rows of ovens

Szechwan pepper cured salmon

roasted tomato gazpacho and blini's

Jellied beetroot consomme with fennel cream (or could be just called a beetroot cappuchino)

Cream of celeriac and chestnut soup

Cream of jerusalem artichoke soup with scallops, and ginger and apple salsa

stuffed rolls of brill en papillote in banana leaves with scallops and tomato beurre blanc

Prune tart with armagnac, macadamia nuts and buttermilk ice cream, figs on top

Le Cordon Bleu - La Cuisine Française 

Herengracht 314 1016CD Amsterdam

tel: +31(0)20-627.87.25

www.lacuisinefrancaise.nl 

(website under construction)

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Happy Girl's day!

"Aaaarg, I'm sinking in quicksand... delicious, delicious cake flavoured quicksand."
- Rowan impersonating cake doll

March 3rd is girls' festival, 雛祭: Hinamatsuri in Japan. 

This is a festival to wish for girls' healthy growth and t a "happy marriage in the future". Parents with girls buy fancy Japanese doll sets (usually 7 shelves with over 12 dolls which cost a fortune) and set them up before March 3rd every year until they get married. They also eat lovely spring flower sweets like Cherry blossom mochi and drink sweetened sake. I remember singing a cute traditional song when I was a kid. Also, right after the celebration, you must put thebeautiful doll sets away, otherwise it is bad luck for the girls and they will be suffer the fate of a late marriage (which is considered a horrible thing in Japan in the past... may be still the same, haha).

I don't agree with this old fashioned idea (this ceremony started in 5th century!) that a happy marriage is the only happiness for girls and their parents, but I do miss the dolls, songs and sweets...My grand parents bought  me the dolls when I was born, but I haven't seen them for many years since I left my parents house.

This year, since Rowan's been sick and I'm also tired and lazy, I don't think I'm going to do anything special. 

I took these photos a few days ago..

These ridiculous (and pretty yucky looking) Barbie doll cakes reminded me of girls' day and the happy starting of spring...(?) and really wish I had one for myself today!!

We found them when we were walking in Haarlem. I couldn't help myself but take photos of them. They were cakes with a real barbie doll stuck in the middle (standing). A sign says,  you can bring your own Barbie and they will make a cake for it. Each cakes cost around 40 euro. Must be so much fun making these absurd (stupid?) cakes!

Oh... dear...

Those cakes also reminded me the best cake book ever, Cake Wrecks. They also have a website that can keep you entertained with amazing photos of horrible cakes.

   This is the book
      ↓

Mama Mimi from Javastraat

Where I live now is right next to a very immigrant neighborhood. Javastraat is the main shopping area with lots of Turkish, Moroccan and Suriname stores. Since I am also an immigrant (from Japan to Canada to the Netherlands), I feel very confortable in this kind of colourful neighborhood in any country. 


I really love Javastraat for grocery shopping. Here are the reason:

•  Most vegetables are cheaper than at dutch supermarkets
• My favorite dried fruits and nuts are always there
• you can find freshly baked Turkish/Moroccan bread
•  There's yummy Baclava shops and you can buy fresh pastry dough
• Good butchers where you can buy rabbit, goat meat and lambs
• you can buy many different kinds of pickles and olives
• You can find any kind of spices there
• You can practice Arabic

And of course it's the closest shopping street for me, but if you love food and cooking, I think Java straat is one of the top places to shop. You can experience Arabic culture in Amsterdam.


Oh, can you guess what's in this 'Mama Mimi' package?....

It's Arabic alphabet pasta! woo hoo!

Can you see each character? I first couldn't believe someone made pasta in the shape of arabic characters because they just look like broken pasta bits or worm shapes to me.

Arabic pasta in minestrone. Ummmm kind of looks like letters? Still more like worms, to me...

The street names in the Javastraat neighbourhood are all named after places in Indonesia (an ex-colony of the Netherlands) like Java, Sumatra, Bali, Madura etc..Blue mark on the map below is the Super market YAKHLAF where I bought Mama Mimi pasta. 
Here is the web site for this street →　Javastraat

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Haarlem

Cathedral of Saint Bavo 

I liked the size of the town and the big square in the center where it's completely car free.
It's feels great to walk around not worring about bikes or cars hitting you from behind 

17th century building at the church square

Inside of St.Bavo. world famous Christiaan Mülle pipe organ which was played by Händel in 1740 and Mozart in 1755 (when he was only 10 years old)

Gravestones make up the entire floor.. Spooky.. They have been there since the 14th century. We walked on them

Ship models donated by ship guild in 15th century

ceiling impressively adorned in wood panelling

buildings infront of the Frans Hals Museum
great architecture centre (for planning) at the end of the row of buildings