BBQ at Het Park and performing at Theater Zuidplein

While we are awaiting the real spring/summer to arrive, we are just itching to get out and enjoy what sun we can get. So last weekend, we arranged a picnic BBQ at Het Park.

On the day of the picnic, we awoke to cloudy skies and chilly winds. But did that dampen our spirits? Kinda. But we kept the faith! And while we were rewarded with sun eventually, it was the first time I've sat on a picnic blanket with a coat on ;)

Photos courtesy of Riri P.

We, as a group, are so unused to having picnics that we forgot so many basic things like moist wipes and... some other things which I can't remember now. Well, it takes practice!

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Now, for something else more personal.

On 1 and 2 June, I performed onstage in a real theatre for the very first time! Okay, I was onstage before at the Actors Studio in Bangsar about six years ago, but that was pretty silly stuff. Both times were for my ballet school, but at my first performance, I had only had three years of ballet under my belt, so I hardly could perform in a proper choreography. So all I did was run about the stage pretending to be graceful.

But this year, I was in a proper big auditorium in Theater Zuidplein, performing in my ballet school's Les Arts & La Danse, a dance show with choreography inspired by famous artwork. I danced two pieces - Les Sylphides and Das Triadischen Ballet - one classical ballet and the other en pointe.

Julien B recorded a short clip of my dance from his seat at the balcony. It's surprisingly good! I had such low expectations of our performance, haha.

Before both performances, I was impossibly nervous because all my friends were attending. But I managed to push out a smile for this backstage pic with my fellow dancers.

Anyway, despite all the nervousness and tiredness by the end of the weekend, it was a fantastic experience and I wouldn't mind doing it again :)

REVIEW: Stroom Rotterdam

Yesterday, March 7, was mine and Rik's third year anniversary. We usually don't celebrate it because we always forget about it until it's past, but somehow we remembered it this year. So we decided to use Rik's Bongo that he got for his birthday, which offered a main dish for free at any of the participating restaurants. There were only 5 in Rotterdam, so we chose Stroom, who said that they were the hippest lifestyle hotel/restaurant in the country.

Well, when I read that description, I was already scoffing, because no one says that about themselves and is actually telling the truth. But, everyone and everything deserves a chance to prove itself.

True enough though, when we pulled up in front of the restaurant, the logo looked like it was made for an electrical appliance shop - so Stroom means electric, and the building is an old electric company or factory, but it doesn't mean that an electrical shop logo will fit a "hip lifestyle restaurant".

Even worse, the interior felt to me like a cafeteria, and not the hip, artistic type cafeteria. It really felt like a cafeteria on the ground floor of an office building, with all the echos and the cheap furnishings. I should add that Rik actually didn't have the same impression at all as I did, so don't take my word on this.


What we did both agree on though, was that the service was pretty much "meh". Sure, the waitress came without having to be called, and she knew what the dishes were like, but there wasn't much friendliness or "hipness" about it. Oh, I should also mention that Stroom says that they are inspired by the Australian social dining experience. Well, I have been to Australia about ten times now, usually to Melbourne and Sydney, and I wasn't reminded of it at all while I was at Stroom.

Anyway, the service wasn't outstanding but it wasn't abysmal. What was really disappointing was the food on offer. Our Bongo said we were entitled to one main dish each. So the waitress told us that it could be either a fish with potatoes, or Chinese chicken. And if we wanted to order something from the menu, it would cost us an additional € 5 per dish. So we looked at the menu to see if there was something more interesting... but there wasn't. In fact, there were only around 5 items of € 25 and 5 of € 15 to choose from. Our Bongo was worth € 17,50 per person, so of course we weren't going to order a € 15 + € 5 (of our own money) dish with it. Effectively, there were only 2 dishes we could choose from for "free" or 5 dishes at € 30. Which is a lot of money for eating in a cafeteria with cheap furnishings.

So I ordered the fish and Rik ordered the Chinese chicken. He asked the waitress if it came with rice; which Chinese dish just comes with meat alone, right? And she said, no it doesn't come with rice, it comes with fries.

Yup, fries.

When the dishes came, they even looked like cafeteria food. I really couldn't believe that a restaurant which charges € 25 for main dishes and € 7 for plain soups could have this standard of food presentation. It looked terribly weird to see pieces of chicken in black sauce and vegetables just sitting smack in the middle of a large plate. Something was missing. Oh yes, the rice.

My fish dish came with potatoes and celery, all chopped up and poured onto my plate like I was eating a children's meal that was already cut up and mixed together by my dad. Did they think that I didn't know how to use a fork and knife? Come on, no self-respecting restaurant serves a meal of fish, potatoes and vegetables all pre-cut into pieces and pre-mixed on the plate.

At least the restaurant was quiet enough to chat and have a nice time dining. If you can ignore the cheap surroundings and the disappointing food (Rik was even still hungry after the meal) that's overpriced, then you may find it alright. But I really would advise against it. If you want similar fusion food with great service and at the same price level, I would recommend Citroen on Kop van Zuid, a small and cosy restaurant with great atmosphere, upbeat waitresses and delicious food.

Pilkington's in Den Bosch

We had a belated Valentine's Day this year. To celebrate, we took a day trip to Den Bosch, one and a half hour's train ride from Rotterdam. I didn't know what to expect at all, so as always, that's the best way to be impressed.

Den Bosch is a very pretty town with a nice town centre with all the shops and cafes clustered in one area. The perfect structure for a tourist.

The most famous landmark in Den Bosch is the St John's Cathedral, the most outstanding Catholic cathedral built in the gothic style in South Holland. It sure didn't disappoint! I snapped many photos with my phone, but unfortunately, after taking a series of action shots of Rik jumping down huge ledges by a piece of water, my phone decided to reset itself once again.

The only photos I have are the ones I sent my mum and sister to make them jealous of us being in Den Bosch, hahaha. Sometimes jealousy is useful! So all I can do now is to write about Pilkington's, the English tearoom (although it calls itself a restaurant) we stumbled upon right next to the cathedral.

Very popular place, so I'd recommend making a reservation. We were lucky that the couple by the window were just leaving when we entered. In fact, that was even the best table in the restaurant. You have a view of the cathedral, and it's much quieter and more spacious than towards the back, where you have a nice view of the garden, but it's much busier and cramped.

My cream tea consisted of two scones and a pot of tea, and cost a reasonable € 6,50. Very pleased with that! I don't think I would've enjoyed it as much if it were more expensive.

If I ever go back to Den Bosch, I'm pretty sure I'd like to go back again :)

PHOTOS: Cologne, April 2012

I recently shifted back to my trusty iMac 24". It's been with me ever since I started Goodputty in 2007 and it's as awesome as ever. Even better than the lousy Mac Mini that I brought home from work that's, what, only 3 years old?

I had put aside the iMac since July, that is, since I started working from home for MERX and they provided me with the Mac Mini. And now that I no longer work there, I'm back to the iMac. Hence the discovery of old photos and things that I'd been hoarding before.

Among them, I discovered the photos from Cologne, Germany, from when Rik, Harry and I took a day trip there back in April. I searched my blog but found that I hadn't posted them or written about Cologne. Then I realised that it was in April, and Pim had just left us a month earlier. If you guys follow my blog, you'll know there was quite a long silence from me at that time because I was in mourning.

Anyway, although the photos are up on Facebook, that's not the same as writing it up in my blog. So here they are, 7 months later, our trip to Cologne.

First up, you absolutely cannot visit Cologne without seeing the Cologne cathedral. Literally and figuratively. It just stands out. It's a World Heritage site and one of the top sights in Germany and is very impressive indeed.

After parking the car, we needed a refueling of coffee and pastry. So we sat in the very touristy yet not too terrible cafe opposite the cathedral.

The only photo of me during the whole trip. We took this using the old-school timer method!

We didn't really have a plan for the day. Our aim for the trip was actually for Harry to buy German beer at half the price. So we just wandered around following tourist signs. We ended up here at the City Hall, which seems weirdly to be located in some back alley. There was a wedding going on.

Harry and Rik trying to blend into Karin and John's wedding party, probably for the free food.

Rik's going: Ermahgerd, Lergo!

Such a brilliant and colourful shop. In these bubbles you can pick up individual Lego pieces that you need. You just pick a cup size, fill it up and pay one price for whichever cup size you chose.

Just one of the many times we checked the map.

Rik and Harry were debating the map so I took a photo of where we were.

This was a lovely break from the walk. We had wandered kinda out from the centre and were getting hot and tired. I may point out here that it was only April, and in NL it was rainy and cold and you needed to wear leather jackets still. Then look at us here. Look at the sun shining onto Harry's arm. It was bliss.

Not a very interesting structure, but it was weirdly located in the middle of nowhere.

You know how you sometimes wonder if someone, somewhere looks exactly like you? Ahem.

Finally reached the shopping street!

Found the famous No. 4711. A verrrrrrrry old and famous eau de cologne company. I believe that's where the name Cologne comes from.

You can wash your hands in it and smell like 4711 all day.

I don't know what this means but I thought it just looked cute. It was tucked away on a corner wall upstairs.

The outside.

Map-checking again.

It was getting close to dinnertime, so we decided to start looking for the beer. Strangely, it was super difficult to find a supermarket or any beer shop. Someone on the street pointed us towards the station, saying there was a big supermarket there. But we still couldn't find it, so we stopped by this cafe to ask where the supermarket was. An asshole barista there cut us off mid-question, saying: We are not an information desk.

Asshole.

Eventually, we found the supermarket thanks to a girl behind the counter at a bookshop opposite the cafe. There wasn't any Paulaner, which Harry wanted, but he found the Vita-malz for Vicky.

Harry carrying it one-arm style like a hero, and the Cologne cathedral in the background.

We gave up on the Paulaner and decided to head to this brewery-restaurant that I found on Tripadvisor. It's supposedly the number one restaurant for people visiting Cologne, but not only that, it's also exceedingly popular with the locals because of its amazing food and Kölner - special Cologne beer.

But then whaddya know? Across the street from the restaurant, we found a little kiosk in the wall selling all kinds of things, like a mini market, and we decided to ask for Paulaner. And they had it! Not in a crate, but Harry didn't mind carrying 24 bottles of Paulaner in plastic bags :P We had the car just there anyway. So we finally had success!

This is the brewery-restaurant - Päffgen. I would recommend this to anyone visiting Cologne.

Inside is big. But they are so popular that even when we went in at 6pm there were already people at tables, and the rest of the tables were reserved. The only spot we could find was this little table in the hallway (they even had to make an eating space of the hallway!) nearly opposite the toilets.

The photo above shows the German dishes waiting to be served, unloaded from a dumb waiter, and a guy on the right serving kölner. They march up and down and around tables watching if anyone's glass is empty, and once it is, they just replace it with one of those full glasses and make a notch on your beer mat. Talk about efficiency!

The hallway towards the entrance.

My delicious delicious (big) wienerschnitzel.

Harry's, I don't know now... pretty huge dish of sausages.

And Rik's, I don't know either... pork cooked in beer and things like that.

Look how popular this place is! And it has such a genuine authentic feel to it plus great service. Surely a winner!

The kölner is so popular - each brewery brews its own kölner, and this is Päffgen's own - that from our special vantage point in the hallway, I could see them changing the beer barrels once every 10 minutes or so. And they had three big ones! See that barrel on the top right? That's not just decoration. I saw them hoisting it up, but I don't remember why now.

Cologne had one more surprise for us. When we finished dinner and went back to our car, we found this lovely white rose waiting for us. No note and no one else around. No roses on other cars either. Maybe it's one of those pay it forward good deeds kinda things. Or maybe they wanted to show appreciation for our eco-friendly Prius. Whatever it was, it was certainly something to remember of Cologne!

Dinner at Parkheuvel

Last Thursday, I got a surprise phone call from someone from Rik's company. He said that they were very pleased with a project that Rik had just completed, and that the client had also personally called him to congratulate him and sing Rik's praises. Incidentally, the client in question is the Ministry of Finance *ahem*.

That's just to illustrate how important this project was to the company. And so, this colleague of Rik who called me to tell me that as a 'thank you', they would like to treat both Rik and I to a nice dinner.

He said: "nice dinner", "enjoy yourselves", "nice restaurant", "surprise" and "no budget".

Oooooooooh!

After hanging up, I browsed restaurant review sites to find a good restaurant that matched those requirements. I found one that seemed to fit the bill and I reserved a table for Saturday.

Forty five minutes later, I got an email from the colleague, saying again that they were very pleased and to enjoy ourselves at the dinner, and to email him the receipt from the dinner to this address. And that there is an indication of € 200 to be spent.

Oh shit. Is what I thought.

You see, I had reserved a table at Parkheuvel.

Some of you may not know Parkheuvel. It has its own Wikipedia page and two of its own Michelin stars. I wasn't quite aware of its fame when I was making the reservation, but I did have an idea of its prices. Seeing as I was told specifically, "no budget", I had just gone for the best (obviously). But was € 200 going to be enough?

Here's a little back story to the restaurant. Parkheuvel was the first restaurant in NL to be awarded a Michelin star, back in 2002. Under its original chef, it had risen to a 3-star restaurant, but when it got taken over by the current chef, it lost two of its stars (sounds so terrible, but if you think about it, how many other restaurants have even one?). It received one more star in the recent past, making it to a grand total now of two.

As the dinner was supposed to be a surprise from work, I told Rik that I would just be taking him out for a dinner because he had been so stressed the past few weeks. He was happy about it... until I told him it was at Parkheuvel. Then he started fretting and sweating and "we can't afford this" speeches. So, of course, I had to then admit the truth, so that he wouldn't dread the whole dinner. He was obviously very surprised and pleased. Then he told me the story of our ex-boss, who was there with a friend for dinner, and had racked up a bill of € 800 (of mostly wine).

Oh shit.

So we set some ground rules before arriving at the restaurant. No alcohol.

I wore my nice clothes, Rik wore his nice clothes, and we set off.

We were greeted by quite a young and unsmiling girl who looked more like a page boy in her waiter's outfit. So first impression wasn't that awesome.

In the restaurant, it was kind of old (as in 1986, the year it was founded) French decor, but pleasant enough. It's a circular standalone building, sort of like a gazebo, so that everyone can look out onto the river Maas from their tables. When we arrived at 7.30pm, the restaurant was already pretty full with older couples, many of whom were presumably regulars (homagad, what do they work as?).

From then on, my impressions just got better. We were served by about three different waiters, all professional and courteous and wearing one glove on their serving hand.

Now for those of you who don't live in NL, it might not come as such a big shock, but the range of prices certainly made my colleagues jaws drop. At the time, the prices didn't mean anything to me except to keep below € 100 (per person). And so, it didn't register in my head that starters were ranging from € 30 - 50 and mains were ranging from € 45 - 80. To put into perspective, at an average restaurant, you can have a proper dinner with wine for € 25 - 30.

Okay, so on paper, this restaurant sounds expensive. But when you factor in the sublime service, the in-between courses that come complimentary and the fact that you don't have to worry about anything at all, not even calling a waiter or even asking where the restroom is (when you walk away from your table, there is someone who will politely indicate towards the restrooms), can you really fault them for charging so much? Training must come from somewhere. We spent three hours in the restaurant, and not once did we feel disturbed, rushed or stressed having to find service. And believe me, that is something you will tend to feel in any restaurant in NL.

What a splendid experience. One that we will always remember.

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And to you Asians reading this, here's what we ordered.

Started off with an aperitif. We didn't want alcohol, so we had premium Swiss bitter lemon (which Rik said was superb) and I had apple juice with soda (which tasted normal to me, but apparently is something special).

A sort of degustation plate of: macaroon of oyster, prawn something, and two more things, and light crackers. Sorry I don't remember everything. They don't look like what they are, but they had exquisite flavours.

One more small light and complex teaser before the main appetiser (Rik, can you help me out with what we had??).

I ordered chef's signature goose liver. Course it came with some complex layers of flavour, which I'm ashamed to say I'm too bourgeois to remember. There was a piece of bread made from pinot gris, I remember.

Can't remember Rik's appetiser.

Then a vegetable-based in-between, which I wasn't very fond of because it tasted a bit more peasant than the previous in-betweens.

For the main, I ordered the chef's signature pork belly with caviar and bits of almonds and probably one or two other flavours.

Rik had wagyu beef (which was superb) and very well-cooked asparagus.

For the sides, we were served a choice of sourdough or cumin bread rolls.

Before dessert, we were served a French madeleine. Warm, sweet and perfect.

None of the desserts took my fancy but I had to order something. So I had a passionfruit tartlet, which turned out to be a passionfruit light cake which was just so-so, but with an awesome light coffee-tasting ice cream with delicious bits of I-don't-know-what on the side.

Rik had a beautiful creation of a layer of raspberries below a layer of thin hardened sugar (I think) and another layer of raspberries and another layer of something. And I think there was white chocolate in the mix somewhere.

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It was a lovely experience and so relaxing. We could just focus on the food and on talking to each other. Makes you wonder why people would want to rush through their dinners and watch their phones when they can have a nice experience enjoying eating and talking to the person with them.

Home-cooked Greek food

It's always great when friends or friends' parents are cooks and love cooking. This is what happened with Super Harry when we met up for drinks on Saturday. Got to talking about Greek restaurants and food, and next thing we know, he's on the phone with his dad asking if he wouldn't mind cooking for us the next night.

That is how Schrobbenmaster, Yelleh Belleh and I were treated to a wonderful home-cooked meal of Greek food :D

I have the worst knowledge in the world of Greek food - this is only the third time I'm having it (second time in Super Harry's house). And I'm pretty sure they sniggered politely when I asked if this was moussaka:

No, Super Harry says, it's lasagna, Greek-style.

I'm not a 'meat in slabs and chunks' fan, but the yellow dish in the centre there was super awesome. Pork and potatoes.

Then of course there was feta cheese and olives with homemade bread. There was some discussion as to whether this particular feta was made with only sheep's milk or half sheep and half goat. I found it a tad sour ("... maybe the milk isn't good anymore!" says Super Harry's dad *ahem, worried*), but I really liked the homemade bread.

Best part of any meal is the dessert, in my opinion. And desserts from Super Harry's mum NEVER fail. She's beginning to cement her reputation in my head that she is an infallible dessert maker. The white 'pau' looking ones are crumbly biscuity almondy cookies and the brown earthquake looking ones are crumbly soft fudgy chocolatey cookies. Heavenly food!

It was pretty amazing how at that one table, we had about four languages being spoken - Greek, Dutch, English and Malay. And a Greek news channel playing in the background. The world is indeed small and yet so big. Love it :)

The new kitchen and potato chicken

Have I already mentioned that we changed our kitchen a couple months ago? Just before Mumsy Bumsy and my aunt came to visit.

Schrobbenmaster and I had gone to several kitchen places to request quotations and see what was on offer before we decided that a whole new kitchen was just too expensive. So we discussed and agreed on what the most important things to be changed were, which were the doors of the cupboards, the cooker hood and a new microwave and oven combi.

That didn't make it much cheaper but at least it was in the budget now.

We went back to the original manufacturer of our current kitchen and ordered the new doors etc. It's a huge improvement now, but we were annoyed by the guy who came to build it. Old-ish guy and very very sloppy. I truly believe he gave our wood floor several new scratches because of his sloppiness. Urgh, just thinking about him makes me annoyed now.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the work that was in progress.

Big improvement on the old doors, right?

When Mumsy Bumsy and my aunt came, I of course made them cook some of their delicious meals for us... hehe.

Mumsy Bumsy cooking my favourite dish of hers - potato chicken. Okay, so that's not what she's really cooking above (obviously), but basically I call the whole dinner "potato chicken", even if it includes pan-fried tofu and beans with sambal.

The reason there's all that junk food hanging out on the cooker hood is that relatives will be relatives and they always think you suffer and starve when they're not around. So Schrobbenmaster and I ended up with a fuller than full kitchen of snacks, biscuits, fruits... and lots and lots of eggs. About 30 of them?

The lucky invitees to the "potato chicken" dinner.

I have lined up some Christmas market posts for after this, so stay tuned :)