Tiffany Goes Travelling

I have been in the Netherlands for just over 2 weeks now, 1 week of which was spent on my own. All of my meals thus far have consisted of either Nutella sandwiches or grilled fresh vegetables. As I mentioned earlier, the vegetables here are really cheap, and I have no problem cooking them. I do have one problem however, and her name is seasoning. So far, the only seasoning I have is salt and pepper, and a bunch of stuff that is in Dutch. I suspect that even if I did know what the English translations were for these mysterious dutch spices, they wouldn’t do me much good because I wouldn’t know what to do with them.

As I see it, I need either one of two things: 1) to investigate the use of spices, their tastes, their corresponding foods, etc or 2) cook from recipes. As doing research on anything sounds hard and lengthy, I think I will pursue the “cook from recipes” option. This is where you, my loving family and friends, come into play. If you can recommend any vegetarian recipes I would greatly appreciate it. You can submit the whole recipe on my “Contact” page (look up and to the right of “Home”) or leave a link in the comments to this page. To make things even more interesting, I promise to try every recipe suggested – unless I cannot get a certain ingredient – and to post my success here. So lets join the Feed-Tiffany-In-Theory movement and submit those recipes!

*UPDATE: No eggplant recipes please. I have had way to much of it, and I despise that stuff now. Eww…bleh*

I went grocery shopping this morning. Every Wed. and Sat. there is a ‘market’ here in Leiden. The market consists mainly of food, but there is also lots of cheap clothing, purses, belts and all that sort of stuff as well. After picking up a bit of produce at the market, I stopped by the Demarkt (it’s a grocery store) on my way home and picked up some supplies. Overall, I believe I spent about 26 Euro (41$ CND). This is what I got for 26euro:

Market

2 x small eggplants

2 x squashes

3 x red bell peppers

8 x bananas

1 x honey dew melon

2 x corn on the cobs

2 x tomatoes

couple mushrooms (5 or 6 large white mushrooms)

10 x assorted buns

Demarkt

1 x jar of nutella (750g)

1 x box of pancake mix (crepes) (400g)

1 x jar of lemonade mix (.75 L)

1 x box of milk (1 L)

1 x jar of extra virgin olive oil (500ml)

1 x block of butter(250g)

1 x pack of spaghetti (500g)

1 x jar of pasta sauce (700g)

1 x box of tea

I think I did pretty good for 26 euro. And there were some start up costs in there like the oil and nutella which wont be incurred again, or anytime soon, so my bills will just keep going down. Hurah.

One thing that was NOT very pleasant about my grocery trip was all the walking. The stores were about 5-9 blocks away, and it seems even longer when your hauling heavy groceries. I was in a full sweat by the time I got back (not very fashionable or European) not just from the walking but from the worrying that my bag was about to split open onto the street (or straat).

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After I recovered from my strenuous grocery trip, I headed down to my local RaboBank (which is TWICE the distance of the furthest market I went to) to set up a bank account. I meant to hit a post office on the way there, but somehow it eluded me. Getting there was fine, but getting back I got very lost. I live on a canal, the Nieuwe Rijn. My landlords here told me, if you ever get lost, follow the river. And I did. Except I found out after about 4 blocks in the wrong direction I was following the Oude Rijn, and had to backtrack. I thank my lucky stars I had a map, and the humility enough to glance at it.

On my way back I picked up a soft ice cream (1.40 euro) because I felt I deserved it. My butt was hurting from all the walking by the time I got back home. I did not take any pictures of my adventures because I was to self conscious and I didn’t want to stand out like a tourist just yet. I promise to take lots of pictures of the city, perhaps in the early morning when there are fewer people on the streets, and when I can get from point A-B without getting lost.

In the meantime, here are some pictures in the daylight of the view from my bedroom overlooking the canal.

I have successfully moved into my permanent home in Leiden.

It is a lovely beyond words. I feel extremely fortunate to have lucked out with such a wonderful room and such nice people. I have posted pictures of the place here.

I have not seen much of it yet, but Leiden seems like a posh city, and I am looking forward to seeing more of it.

Now that I have settled in, I look forward to receiving your love mail. Email me for the address.