Text 15445, 100 rader
Skriven 2014-08-04 07:05:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: tale of 2 porkbellies 737
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Lilli told me that by way of compromise we could
go someplace I wanted to eat. We wandered around the
Muslim quarter, and though there were a couple of
cafes that smelled okay (with Turkish food), nothing
really appealed, so we ended up going back into town
and hitting a Cantonese restaurant that we'd noticed
before. Paradijs is near the back entrance to the
Utrecht train tracks - the route was not menacing (we
haven't found anything in this city that is) but rather
inconvenient owing to heavy construction and remodeling
of the roadways. It's easily accessible from downtown,
not so much from the area of our hotel.

Service is exceptionally slow, and our meal took over
an hour to arrive (after a long wait for a server to
take our order, which was complicated by her and my
only common language being a bit of Mandarin).

For me, mapo tofu, which was the standard Cantonese
interpretation - cubed tofu, meat, shrimp, peas, in
brown soy sauce, rendered "Szechwan" by a teaspoon
of that hot chili paste. I asked for it to be made
extra hot, and maybe I got two teaspoons. The tofu
was of decent quality, the meat and shrimp abundant.
Not a trace of the Szechwan pepper that distinguishes
the dish normally, but a bit of canned Szechwan pickled
vegetable, which was interesting. A giant serving,
which with some rice served for two breakfasts after.

I ordered the three barbecued meats platter for Lilli;
you get 2 dishes of your choice for E11, 3 preset for
E15. I was expecting a smallish amount - what came was
a quarter duck (Peking, the menu said, but really a
dryish ordinary roast) and at least half a pound each
of char siu and roast pork belly, both of good quality
but slightly soggy from having a soy broth poured over.
The loin was mostly too lean, not a surprise as that's
the fashion these days among white folks. There's not
much one can do to defat pork belly, though, short of
criminal action, so that was fine. It had been roasted
to a crispy outside and a melting inside - nice -, but
of course that sauce stuff made the exterior lose its
crunch rapidly.

Two Tsingtao beers, two glasses of red plonk, E40
counting tax and tip. A lot for Chinese food but 
quite reasonable to dine in Europe.

=

So we found ourselves wandering around Leiden at
dinnertime and came upon the Grandcafe Van Buuren,
whose sandwichboard said Sunday steak special, E12.95
(or the equivalent in Dutch).

A pleasant, hip-looking but not too much so room
(because of the wind we chose to eat inside, rather
than out on the street), very attractive and English-
speaking staff.

I discover Palm beer (a Belgian red but not offensive)
costs about 25% more than the usual Grolsch or Heinie
but has 1/12 more alcohol and about 24/12 more flavor.
I had two big ones. Lilli's Argentine Malbec tasted
better than most.

Bitterballen are the standard Dutch bar snack. The name
is misleading - they're not bitter balls but rather
balls made to go well with bitter liquors. Envision a
thick bechamel flavored with nutmeg. Try to think of it
twice as thick as anything you've imagined before. Add
chopped leftover roast beef and maybe a whiff of onion.
Chill or freeze, then roll in egg wash and crumbs. Deep
fry and serve with mustard. They are better than they
sound, and they do indeed go well with booze.

Lilli's Sunday steak, rare, was about a 6 oz rump,
fatless of course, perfectly cooked. She also got a
giant salad of the usual sort.

I was going to get beef tartare, but for just a few
bucks more, pork belly was on the menu. Three about
3 oz slices, parboiled and then rolled in sugar and
grilled until all that remained of the sugar was a
vague hint of caramel. The only problem is that half
the fat melts off in such a treatment (bordering on
a crime, but not quite). Fairly tasty. The sauce was
a vanilla-applebutter concoction I think, actually
sort of obscure. A big blob of salad made of fennel,
onion, Belgian endive, chives, and flat-leaf parsley.
The meat was served over a celery root and potato
puree, slightly strange.

A big bowl of fries came with - these were extra
crisp and extra good, served with mayonnaise, which
added nothing. E54, but the beer and wine were more
abundant and of better quality than at the other.
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