Fresh ingredients, simple techniques and great food.
Lunch
For lunch we revisited the egg salad and sprouts sandwich with Dave’s Killer Organic 21 Grains, not toasted.
A good sandwich for $1.84 per serve.
Dinner
Tonight was our regular monthly user group meeting followed by pizza, for which we each contribute $10.
Lunch
For lunch we shared a serve of tuna and avocado roll and one of combination avocado roll. We had decent sushi for $8.99 per serve.
Dinner
We revisited the Pinto Bean and Adouille Stew of two nights ago. It was definitely better without the rice. Without the rice it was $1.85 per serve.
Lunch
Foodie Philip had a throwback to the Burbank Monday days, and took the opportunity to pick up an In and Out Double Double Animal Style, now $4.54.
Dinner
Our monthly developer meetup was at Gordon Biersch where Foodie Greg had the fish tacos while Foodie Philip indulged in the 12oz Brewery steak with gorgonzola sauce.
Someone else in the group picked up the tab.
Lunch
For lunch we had the final two serves of Côte d’Azur with a fresh-from-the-oven rustic bread roll. Even though we were both feeling fine by today, the soup is just plain delicious.
Lunch today was excellent for $4.64 per serve.
Dinner
We’ve had Southwest Beans and Rice quite a lot, but tonight we went further back in food history to a Pinto Bean & Andouille Sausage Stew, which is likely an ancestor to the Southwest Beans and Rice.
We followed the recipe fairly closely although we substituted a can of fire roasted tomatoes for the fresh in the recipe. We kept it moderately spicy. The recipe makes at least eight serves.
This dish spans the space between a stew and a chili; served with rice, but dressed like a chili. We think it works best without the rice as there’s sufficient starch in the pinto beans, which is what we’ll do with future serves. Despite only half a sausage in each serve (and less bacon) it has a great meaty taste for $2.18 per serve.
Lunch
For lunch we tried a new bread – Dave’s Killer Organic 21 Grains – that we like although a little sweet for our taste. The goal is to find a tasty bread that doesn’t need toasting and this one works.
Filled with Trader Joe’s Egg Salad and Sweet Clover Shoots, this was a pretty good sandwich, and not toasted was a nice change.
A good sandwich for $1.84 per serve.
Dinner
When you can get a pound of lamb loin chops for $11.49, there’s no excuse not to buy and grill them. We grew up with lamb chops and these from New Zealand are likely a result of herd downsizing due to drought, which drives the price down.
We paired with a salad of balsamic maserated strawberries, cucumber and feta with dolmas on the side to bulk out the meal a little.
We used the remaining strawberry balsamic mix for a dressing on the lamb chops, which were a perfect medium rare and very tasty. A simple, but great meal for $8.60 per serve.
Lunch
Back home and back into routine, we did toasted sandwiches again. First was a mustard, liverwurst and shallot, while the other was Sweet & Spicy Tuna, Swiss Cheese and shallots.
Two sandwiches shared between us cost $2.75 per serve.
Dinner
With one of the Foodies a little under the weather from a bug picked up at the end of the conference trip, Foodie Greg decided on Côte d’Azur: the cure all soup!
Garlic and chicken stock thickened with egg yolks it tastes a lot more interesting than the picture above. The recipe made at least four serves and we served with Trader Joe’s Cheese Bites as croutons (not pictured).
This is an amazingly delicious soup and seems to have done it’s job as Foodie Philip is dramatically improved the morning after. Cheaper than a trip to the doctor for $4.33 per serve.
Breakfast/Lunch
An early flight out of Amsterdam had two meals: an average “dinner” of an odd cabbage, sun dried tomato and olive salad, chicken teriyaki with rice and green beans and cheesecake.
The second meal had a salad that only one of us ate part of, along with a slice of bread with tomato and cheese, like a very poor idea of a pizza. This meal was accompanied by tiramisu.
The food on flights out of Amsterdam has not been great, and this flight was no change. Meals in flight are included in the air fare.
Dinner
Well, actually a late lunch that ended up substituting for dinner. We did a little supermarket shopping and picked up some bahn mi on the way back, which was definitely the best meal of the day by a good measure.
The bahn mi is $8.75 per serve.
Lunch
As we had a day between trade show and trip home, we decided to go to the seaside at Sandvort, Netherlands. While it was a little too windy to truly enjoy, we had a good meal at Meijer, one of the many, many restaurants on the beach.
The Foodies each had a fillet steak with peppercorn/Baernaise sauces, while our friend had a club sandwich. All were good, without being outstanding, for €17.16 (US$20.25) per serve.
Dinner
Since we arrived our friend has been craving Indonesian Rijsttafel (rice table). We found a nearby restaurant that specializes in them, and tonight was the only night we could get there.
It was a generous feast of a variety of Indonesian/Sumatran dishes served with rice. We started with beef satay with a sweet soy dressing and chicken sate in a peanut sauce. The other dishes were sea bass, chicken, beef curry and stir fried vegetable.
Our friend paid for the meal.
Lunch
Shortly before the trip we ran across an article of “50 Things to Do in Amsterdam” that include de Kas restaurant, which we’d not heard about before. After determining whether the other person sharing our rented accommodation that she didn’t want to join us, we tried to book for dinner.
There were no booking left for dinner in September but we were able to get in for lunch. The restaurant is in the former Municipal Greenhouse, which has been meticulously restored.
The meal started with two, off menu, Amuse-bouche: little bites to set the tone, and they were wonderful.
The on to the main meal.
It’s rather exciting to be eating vegetables and herbs grown on the premises (or in a greenhouse nearby).
The meal was excellent. Every bit was full of flavor and well balanced. A great meal for €32.50 (US$38.35) per person.
Dinner
For a complete change of pace we went to a local (to our rented apartment) “hummus” restaurant recommended by our host. D&A Hummus also did not disappoint.
The three of us shared some hummus (of course), baked eggplant, falafel and Sinija, which is ground lamb and beef on a roasted tomato, sliced eggplant and a crispy pita zaa’ta topped with tahini and pickled onion.
A good meal for €59.50 (US$70.21) or $23.40 per person.
Lunch
On our way to the convention center we stopped again at Van Dobben for each, or US$5.26 per serve.
Dinner
For dinner the Foodies were invited to join our friends at LumaForge for their annual cruise and dinner. The cruise was a pleasant trip up the Amstel river and back to restaurant Riva, which is where we had an excellent meal last year.
We er not disappointed this year. As we only saw the menu in Dutch the descriptions are my own.
We started with a deeply tomato flavored tomato tatin topped with creamy burrata. The main was a choice between beef two ways: slow cooked and grilled. That was the choice of 90% of our table, including Foodie Greg . Philip had the fish, which turned out to be a piece of seared and perfectly cooked white fish like cod, on a potato mousse, with kale and mussels. As you would expect it was very good.
The meal concluded with a rich soft chocolat balanced against a sharp orange sorbet, which perfectly balanced each other.
An excellent meal, and excellent company. Many thanks to LumaForge for inviting us.
