Friday, June 11, 2021

CHEESE, HERRING, AND WHAT'S WRONG WITH AMERICA

Years ago a travelling companion sneered at the Dutch, stating that the Belgians were far far better, foodwise, than they were. Based on several weeks exposure to both cuisines.
And that is, to be fair, entirely correct. 100%. Belgian cooking is fabulous.
All the Netherlanders have is cheese, herring, and Indonesian food.
Which if you think about it is the breakfast of champions.
Just add sambal.


Well, okay, they didn't used to be adventurous cooks, but in modern times they have travelled the world to discover everyone else's culinary masterpieces and replace them with frikandel. So they've had exposure to Vietnamese, French, Chinese, Japanese, and other fine cuisines. So far, the crusade to replace everything with frikandels has not been particularly succesful, even though there are now food-stands in Thailand and Morocco that will serve that.
To visiting Dutch people. Who crave it.

Far over anything else the locals might have to offer.
I'm sorry, I don't have a picture of frikandel to offer.

But you can find those all over the internet.

A frikandel is about sixty to seventy percent double ground fatty meat, with spices and binders mixed in, crucially nutmeg or mace, and a pinch of cloves, maybe onion and garlic. Chill it for an hour or so, form it into staves or sausage shapes, dip it in beaten egg whites then roll it lightly in very fine rusk or toast crumbs ("paneermeel"), and deepfry that puppy.

Usually served with mustard, but also good with sambal.

Whenever I go "back" to the Netherlands, I must get my Eurotrash yayas out, and indulge in unidentified fried object, Genever, herring, decent coffee, and frikandel.

[Born here, raised there, and fully ambivalent about both countries, thank you.]

I rarely make frikandel here in the United States.


But without sambal, my life here would have been very grim indeed.
And as far as regards seafood, I still don't trust Anglos.
It's all canned tuna and fillet-O-fish.
Which need sambal.
Absolutely



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