eating abroad

It would seem that eating abroad is part of the adventure of traveling. And indeed it is.

But for us, it's also a bit of a challenge. Because Adam can't eat wheat, our restaurant options are severely limited. (Particularly for breakfast and lunch.) Even the Dutch treat bitterballen are verboden for us!

Luckily, Studio Elf has a well-equipped kitchen, and we've had no trouble getting yummy ingredients, so there's no worries of malnutrition as a result of eating nothing but Indonesian. (Although we have been known to eat Shah-Jahan more than once in a week.)

On our block there's a neighborhood grocery, and an organic market with things like bulk grains and oils. There's an organic farmer's market every Saturday in the neighborhood, too, and they even have things like cheese and fish! (Pictured: wine-braised tuna, mashed sweet potatoes, and a green bean, shallot and tomato medley, all from the farmer's market!)

All in all, we've cooked up some yummy stuff. Even if there has been some interesting improvisation involved. For instance, did you know that a cheese slicer-spatula works for frying eggs? Or that a French Coffee press can be used to wash quinoa? Consider yourself informed for the next time you're trying to fry eggs without a proper spatula or wash quinoa without a fine-mesh strainer.

After we brushed up on our metric measurement units and learned some essential Dutch food vocabulary terms (tarwe = wheat), we got to cooking. We've had lots of rice/quinoa with protein-and-veggie medleys. And we found a great gluten-free (GF) corn pasta, so we've enjoyed some excellent tomato sauces and pesto at home.

We make breakfast at home. (Eggs aren't sold refrigerated in Amsterdam!) We eat lots of home-made sandwiches, because we discovered an excellent GF baguette! and because there are excellent little meat and cheese shops all over the place. (Our mayonnaise is in a tube. Like toothpaste.) Our local grocery carries Rosemary & Garlic kettle-cooked chips -- like sour cream & onion for grown ups, which are an awesome accompaniment to lunch sandwiches. We enjoyed a lovely coq-au-vin made with organic chicken and veggies. (The one "essential" thing our little kitchen lacks is an oven!) So we're saving lots of money eating in most of the time.

Of course, we do eat out on occasion as well. We've had cafe fare from decent to great, and some really good Mexican and Indian food. (Also, sub-par over-priced Thai.) There's lots of great-smelling Italian restaurants that we probably won't try, since all the really great stuff there is gluten-tastic. We've found gluten-free bagels at Bagels & Beans, though, which is a real treat for Adam -- we don't even have those at home!

When I'm by myself, I'm free to eat the divine-smelling bakery breads that are baked fresh every morning. I've taken to having a croissant, some cheese, and some dried fruit for my between-classes mid-morning snack, which feels very European, but it sure is good. There's a great dried-fruit vendor whom we visit at the Farmer's Market every weekend. Dried kiwis + dried strawberries = Awesomeness. (Pictured is a multi-grain croissant with a British Farms Pressed Apple Juice with Ginger.)

In addition to the delectable meats and cheeses to be found in small shops, there's also a proliferation of yummy olives and sun-dried tomatoes and tapenades. So we often snack on anti-pasti platters with GF crackers.

Amsterdam has a ton of Argentinian restaurants -- a relic of its colonial past -- but we have yet to try those. We also have yet to try any Dutch food, other than cheese. There are also Indonesian and African restaurants that we haven't tried. Finding menus that are in English is always a consideration.

Still 2 weeks to go. That's many more meals to plan cooking here at Studio Elf, and many more opportunities to try new restaurants.

ETA: A link to all the photos