Taste of Amsterdam, event site

We spent 5 days in Milan to visit my in-laws. Going to Milan is always a great treat to me. Not only because of the fact that it’s vacation, with nice weather, amazing historic sights and family, but for a large part it’s also due to the amazing food. Going into an ‘express’ supermarket makes me giggle. The loser version of a grocery store is actually better, in quality and choice, than the large Dutch (or American) grocery stores.

Taste of Milano, event site

This trip to Milan was extra foodielicious, because the week before we left, I realized that not only would there be a movie, a music festival and the fashion week, but the first days we were there were the last days of ‘Taste of Milano’.

Saffron everything at Taste of Milano

When I found out I didn’t hesitate one second (or ask Laurens if he was even interested), but immediately contacted them for tickets. And on Sunday, the last day of Taste of Milano, we went to the ippodromo where it was held.

Cute chef's hats and aprons at Taste of Milano

When we came back to Amsterdam, I realized that Taste of Amsterdam had just started. I figured I’d contact them for tickets as well, and so two Sundays in a row were spent at a ‘Taste of…’ event.

Delicious hams at Taste of Milano

Now Taste of Milan and Taste of Amsterdam look somewhat similar. The furniture, tents and logo look exactly alike. The two events couldn’t be more different in atmosphere though. And to be honest, I felt much, much more in place at the Italian event, despite the fact that I’m a Dutchie by birth.

Champagne for VIPs at Taste of Amsterdam

Taste of Milano was -despite the rain and mud- a fun event. People who went there, often with their children who ran around in the mud while eating the finest cuisine – were casual. They were there to have fun. To find the tastiest treats, to learn about some wonderful products, to taste. It was very laid back which made great to just hang out and eat and drink and try things. The dishes that were offered from the top 20 restaurants of Milan all looked amazing and the few dishes I tried tasted as great as they looked. They were extremely refined and special. It reassured us that we really need to have more time in Milan, because there are so many restaurants we just need to try out!

Hand made tortellini and ravioli at Taste of Milano

The dishes offered by these restaurant ranged from 4 to 6 euro’s with a lot of them being 4 or 5 and only a slight few being 6. Besides the restaurants there were a whole lot of booths presenting their products, which offered their products to taste for free or gave some demonstrations. More on the tasting of some amazing wines and the making of some wonderful chocolates will follow in a next blog post.

Traditional (and less traditional) panettone and pandoro at Taste of Milano

Taste of Amsterdam was completely different. The weather was really nice, so it was busy. It didn’t seem like the guests were more food lovers though. It seemed to me that it was a seen-and-be-seen event for the nouveau riche of Amsterdam (or their wannabe counterparts). It was just a very, very different atmosphere. One I personally don’t care for that much.

Visitors of the VIP lounge at Taste of Amsterdam

The restaurants that showed themselves at Taste of Amsterdam were very decent, but didn’t seem to me like the absolute top 20 of Amsterdam. If that’d been the case Ciel Bleu, Yamazota and La Rive (among others) would’ve been at the event.  Some came close or are in the top, but I think we all have to agree that while Fifteen is a great concept, it’s not one of Amsterdam’s very top restaurants. The dishes the restaurants showcased had the same 6, 5 or 4 euro price structure, though more dishes were in the 6 euro range than in the 5 or 4. Also there were very few dishes that gave an instant wow factor. I mean come on, I love pizza, but mini pizza’s aren’t an exceptional dish to show at a food event, just like barbecued pork sausages. Tasty, but nothing close to exceptional.

Mini pizzas at Taste of Amsterdam

The only dish that had a wow factor was The Amsterdam-onion-sherbet, made with liquid nitrogen by restaurant Bolenius.

Stirring the composition of the sherbet after adding liquid nitrogen at Taste of Amsterdam

The many booths around the event also didn’t seem to be interested in educating us about their products as well as sell, sell sell. If you’d be able to get a taste, portions or pieces were almost too small to even taste something, or actually had to be paid for. A nice exception to that was the ‘workshop on how to make a cheeseplate’ (will blog about that later) and South African Vineyards (Idiom), that actually gave me a small glass of a wonderful Viognier to try. A big shout out also goes to Maldon Salt, who understands that the way to getting people to buy your product, is by first giving it. The big box of salt I received has been well used already, and will appear in recipes soon (and will be bought again when I’m out!)

Idiom vineyards letting me taste their Viognier at Taste of Amsterdam

All in all it was fun to be able to go to Taste of Amsterdam and make the comparison with taste of Milan. If I have to choose though (and it was possible), I’d go and visit Taste of Milan every year from now, while I’m not sure if I’d visit Taste of Amsterdam again.

One of the chefs of Teatro alla Scala/il Marchesino looking stern at Taste of Milano

Group photo @ Food Blogger Connect (c) Sarka Babicka of cookyourdream.com

Last weekend was spent in London, at Food Blogger Connect ’11. An annual, international Food Bloggers conference/get together/party which lasts three days and leaves you with experiences and friends worth a lifetime. At FBC, people get together from different cities, countries and even continents. People with completely different backgrounds, but one common denominator. We share a (in other peoples eyes possibly unhealthy or strange) hobby, or profession that brings us together. We’re all food bloggers.

Olives from Spain (one of the sponsors of FBC11) on the table during drinks

The thing is, in normal-people-land I am considered a weirdo. I get excited by kitchen gadgets that have only one use, and are only useful once every other year. Herbs and spices make me giggle. I make my own pasta and vanilla sugar. I’m no fan of yardwork, but I have a little garden, because fresh veggies just taste so much better. I think it’s completely okay to spend 6 hours decorating a cake that will be devoured in 5 minutes. I buy flour and chocolate in bulk because who knows if I’ll feel like baking and I don’t want to be low on ingredients. Laurens gave me a cookbook titled ‘the perfect Dutch kitchen maid’ for my birthday and instead of smacking him upside the head, I kissed him and told him it was the perfect gift.
You understand by now, I get a little giddy about food. I know this and have come to accept this. The people close to me have gotten used to it and see it as one of my strange-but-charming quirks. The rest of the world - I really don’t care what they think about it – give me strange looks when I mention it.

Tasty falafel during drinks at FBC'11

And then there was Food Blogger connect. Suddenly I wasn’t a weirdo at all. Suddenly the fact that I like to talk about recipes and social media or technology or photography was completely normal. Suddenly taking a picture of food instead of eating it wasn’t strange at all.

Long live social media. It unites the freaks and outcasts of the world and makes them realize they’re actually the normal ones. Or something like that.

Giulia (Juls' Kitchen) and I at FBC11

When I first heard about Food Blogger Connect last year I got excited and a little sad that I’d missed it. I made sure to get on the mailing list so I could go this year. I blogged my prequel a little while ago, after I booked my hotel and plane tickets and got more and more excited as preparations started. I agreed on a prop exchange with Giulia of Juls’ Kitchen, agreed to share my hotel room with Kelly of Condensed Stew and arranged to meet Simone of Jungle Frog Cookingat the airport. All people I had never met before, which instead of making me nervous actually excited me more. I knew there was no way I wouldn’t have fun. A weekend filled with other people with the same obsession just had to be fun.

Marthe of Baking Bluefinger, me, and Simone of Jungle Frog Cooking

And fun we had! Simone and I arrived in Londen late Friday morning. We walked around, had lunch and then met up with the other attendants for drinks and snacks. Everyone talked and laughed as if we had known each other for  years. Even though I hadn’t met anyone before, it didn’t feel like that. I knew they were foodbloggers, or even knew their blogs and therefor had taken a glimpse of their soul.

Tasty chocolates at FBC'11

There were sessions and many more sessions and food, lots and lots of food. Breakfast and pastries and chocolates and lunch and warm cookies filled me up. There was wine and talking and getting to know each other, advice giving and receiving, friendly banter, serious conversation, food photography, pictures with newfound friends, exchange of business blog cards and Aaron of Cuisinart made wonderful cappuccino’s.

Kelly of Condensed Stew, me, and Regula of Foodwise at FBC'11

I can’t properly convey how wonderful this weekend has been. There is just no way to explain how awesome all these people are. They’re instant friends – but instead of water, you just add food to ensure a wonderful, wonderful time.

Duck canapes, served at FBC11

Thanks Bethany, Sarka, Nando, Joclyn and everyone else who made this happen! Oh, and thank you social media, for existing, and making my life just so much more awesome!

Since we moved to our new home, I started my little urban vegetable garden patch. I planted various sorts of tomatoes, bell and spicy peppers, eggplant, artichoke and zucchini. The zucchini and the tomatoes have since grown into a jungle and while the tomatoes are growing steadily, but are still green, the zucchini plants have started to supply us with a steady crop.

When the first zucchini started growing, I knew I had to try “fior di zucca”, zucchini flowers. We researched which ones we should pick and when to pick them and ended up picking just 2 male zucchini flowers. (Had I known then that we would be hit by massive rain and no sun, I wouldn’t have done that, because removing those blossoms, and not giving them the chance to pollinate more females, has definitely hurt out crop. That said, I’m still harvesting more zucchini than we can eat, so it’s not really a problem.)

I had researched a multitude of recipes for zucchini flowers, but ended up choosing to go the simplest way and just batter them lightly and fry them in olive oil. I made a very thin batter of flour, salt and water and covered the zucchini blossoms in it. I fried them and we ate them. They were wonderful. Delicate, meaty flowers, beautiful light texture and taste. I liked them.

Laurens wasn’t convinced though. He liked them, but seemed to recall that the fior di zucca that his nonna made when he was a kid had a thicker batter. He was convinced they could be improved and suggested adding egg the next time.

A week or two later we had friends come over for dinner. Since it was kind or a spur of the moment, last-minute-after-we’d-already-gotten-our-groceries thing, I had no options to make an extravagant feast. I decided on simple stuffed shells, made with ricotta, spinach and leftover chicken and figured that would fill us right up. When we went into the yard however, I did see a couple of zucchini flowers that had done their pollinator duties. So I picked them and a couple of baby zucchini and decided that would be an appetizer.

This second time around I made a thicker batter with an egg, a good amount of flour, salt, a little fresh cracked pepper and a couple of drops of water to make it liquid enough to coat the entire flower. I decided that indeed ‘Fritta è buona anche una ciabatta’ and sliced the baby zucchini into disks which I coated in the batter and fried as well.

The verdict: Wonderful!

Laurens was very pleased, this was exactly the way he recollected them from when Nonna made them in Tuscany. Our guests, who’d never had fior di zucca before enjoyed the delicacy and I was happy I cracked the code.

There are millions of options with fior di zucca. Stuffing them before frying (with endless options of stuffings), not frying them at all, using them in baking, eating them raw in a salad. And who knows. As our crop keeps growing, I might try more options. For now I’ll stick with the Laurens-approved version. Because Nonna’s Nonna was right, Fritta è buona anche una ciabatta!

The way I treat them can vary. Sometimes I slice them very thin (in half, or thirds even, about 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch thick) and marinate them for 15 minutes in olive oil, crushed garden and resemary I picked from my garden. Just drop them in a dry skillet, turn once brown and you’re done. They’re great when they’ve cooled off as well, so you can make them in advance and just serve them in a cold dinner with a salad on hot summer evenings.

I’ve also been known to leave them thick, as is, (3/4 of an inch or so) and just salt and pepper them and brown them in butter. It gives them a slightly caramellized, crispy exterior. Very tasty.

Recently I wanted to make portobello-burgers, but it was raining and I don’t like to stand over my grill with an umbrella. also, I’d realized that I’d forgotten to buy buns, which makes the burger concept fade completely anyway. So I changed the concept and topped a couple of fairly thin pork chops with the whole portobello’s and placed them in the oven. The pork and portobello infused eachotehr with their flavors. I quickly added some potato croquettes and voila, a meal!

I love it when quick and easy meals turn into yummy dinners!