Other than falafels, I did eat a few other things. Here are some snapshots along the way:
Vegetarian Moussaka with rice.. mmmm.. eggplants
Falafels (ha, ha of course)
A really sticky and sweet pastry that I could not get enough of. Anyone know the name of it?
Random flavours of chips
Turkish coffee, my latest obsession. Can you read Turkish coffee cups? What do you see inside?
Filed under: Food on February 24th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
What did I do in Egypt you might ask? Other than crawling around tombs and visiting temples – I ate falafels just about every day on the trip. Ok, let’s be honest – just about every chance that I could get. I was on a Quest to find the best falafel on the planet.
Sadly, I did not find the most mind-blowing falafel in existence – but I did have a few great ones, a couple of OK ones, and a downright terrible one.
And the winner is… Felfella in Cairo. Perfectly crispy on the outside – we orderded another batch once we horfed down the first plate.
The next one was the Falafels from Chez Omar in Luxor. Sure, they were served cold (why?) – but they had an interesting twist of fennel or anise.
Eating falafels in Luxor right by the market. Also a nice one.
A falafel served with fried eggplant – yum! At another cairo café. The babaganoush was really good here too.
And, yucky run-of-the-mill generic falafels served with breakfast at a hotel in Cairo. I guess they all can’t be great.
I did wind up buying some falafel mix from a grocery store in Egypt. I will try those soon and compare them with the fresh ones that I had along my trip.
Filed under: Food on February 24th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/inisus/ / CC BY-NC 2.0
On a quest for a healthy, vegetarian restaurant with a bit of atmosphere, Johan and I found ourselves at Bolhoed, a vegetarian/vegan place in the center of Amsterdam.
We both ordered the vegan dish of the day, which was a plate piled high with vegan yummieness. Good, honest food for €15,- a plate.
Yes, it was delish – and they use organic produce wherever possible – however, as we chowed down on the daily delight, one thing that we both agreed, was that the menu seemed a bit dated and the food served up seemed like 1970’s veganism.
Would I go back? Yes, definitely. However, I am still on a quest to find a great vegetarian restaurant that has a more of an up-to-date menu, something a bit more fun, modern, like Fresh in Toronto, or De Naam in Vancouver.
Any tips on great vegetarian / vegan places to eat in Amsterdam? Drop a comment.
Bolhoed
Prinsengracht 60-62
1015 DX Amsterdam
tel: 020-626 18 03
Filed under: Places to Eat on January 16th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Emma brought back some gorgeous spices from India – and to celebrate, I was determined to make a fresh batch of delicious Onion Bahjis.
Well, let’s just say they looked better than they tasted.
One thing that I learned very quickly, is that you cannot replace chickpea flour for regular wheat flour. What happens you might ask? You wind up with chewy little dough balls that kind of resemble the taste between an onion ring and last night’s curry.
So my question is: Where in Amsterdam do you find a great toko that carries a wide variety of spices, grains, beans and flours? My cupboard is dying of boredom, and refuses to be stocked with the same old uninspiring assortment offered by the big Dutch grocery stores.
Filed under: Food on January 16th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
So, I just booked a crazy trip to Egypt, where I will no doubt spend most of my days stuffing myself with delicious street food. To get a head start, last night I made Kushari — a popular vegetarian/vegan dish that can apparently be found all over the streets of Cairo. Delicious! It was definitely worth the effort.
Watch the video above to see how to make it. Video found from monkeysee.com
Filed under: Food on December 30th, 2009 | No Comments »
This tasty no-cheese pizza is really quick to assemble. To speed things up, I use a pre-made pizza dough that comes with a jar of pizza sauce. Simply roll out the dough, slother on the sauce and pile on the toppings.
Make a dressing from 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon of thyme, plus a dash of salt and pepper.
Chop and place in a large bowl: onions, mushrooms, green and yellow pepper. Drizzle the dressing over the vegetables and mix well.
Arrange the vegetables over the pizza dough with tomato sauce. Bake for 25 minutes at 200 C.
Filed under: Food on December 27th, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Bill’s scrumptious cookies are easy to prepare and what I love about them is that they are not too sweet. Perfect to enjoy with a friend and a warm cup of tea.
The key to this recipe is to use an old pumpkin that has been kicking around since Halloween and then leave the dough in the fridge long enough to (almost) fester 
400 gr. flour
150 gr. butter
150 gr. brown sugar
100 gr. cooked, mashed pumpkin
1 egg
dash of salt
nutmeg and cinnamon to taste
Knead everything together until you have a nice thick mass. Then simply toss the dough in the back of your fridge and forget about it for a week to allow the flavours to incorporate. After a week, if you see anything green in the dough — you may have waited too long. Place spoonfuls of dough on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 200 degrees.
Filed under: Food on January 26th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
There is almost nothing better in life, then to get together with 10 friends to cook yummy vegan and vegetarian food together, enjoy conversation and drink wine.
We all picked a dish to make, brought our ingredients and cooked like mad and ate until we were popping out from all sides. Surprisingly, there were very little leftovers.
I will post more pictures, recipes and stories from the event, but enjoy the small sampling below of the mouth watering food that we made.
Shown above, Esther, Alejandra, Elena and Jim preparing stuff for the feast.
Filed under: Food on December 6th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Jim treated us to a delicious Seitan Pot-Pie, recipe from Vegan Chicks Rock. It reminded us of the frozen meat pies we used to eat as kids. I wish I had more room in my belly to have eaten more of this.
We made homemade seitan for this, using the recipe from Veganomicon.
Filed under: Food on December 6th, 2008 | No Comments »
Iggie whipped this up and it was simply divine. I’m going to bug him for the recipe and post it on here later 
Loaded with chickpeas and plenty of spice, there was very little left over!
Filed under: Food on December 6th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
