vuurvogel Posted November 1, 2009 Posted November 1, 2009 Great report on Amsterdam. I always like to see what foreigners think of our country. If you live to long in one plays you get a certain blindness, only an outsider can show you the nice touches of your surroundings. It's always funny to see how seriously Belgians take their fries! you should take fries very seriously. I am supervisor of a 'snackbar' and it takes practice and learning to make it really taste great. We use dutch fries. Made from dutch potato's and we call them fries. The flanders thing you will mostly found in tourist area's. We mostly use the word patat if we are talking about fries. Its from the belgian word for potato wich we call 'aardappel'. Always funny when language is so related but have slightly different meaning wich can really screw up communication. The popularity of a topping is changing with the seasons. In the summer you sell a lot of classic 'mayonnaise' (we use frites- or frietensaus with less fat in it and is a bit more sour than mayonnaise) at the moment with the weather becoming colder, we sell more specials. mayonnaise with curry (ketchup with sharp spices) and onions or mayonnaise with warm 'satesaus'(sauce made from peanuts) and onions. Maybe ideas to try out with your home made fries.
Philrad71 Posted November 3, 2009 Author Posted November 3, 2009 ^ Mmmmm...curry mayonnaise and onions! Sounds awesome! I sure wish that most places here in the States took their fries more seriously. You cut the bag of frozen fries open, throw them in the deep fryer and salt before serving and let the rest sit under a heat lamp for an hour. Usually, they end up tasting bland or extremely greasy. I don't recall getting any "limp" fries in my cone at Manneken Pis! Our impressions of Germany and Amsterdam are one's that will never be forgotten. We hope to get back to both some day, but this trip made us realize just how friendly and accomodating European folks are to us Americans! We really did have the time of our lives!
iplf Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 ^ Mmmmm...curry mayonnaise and onions! Sounds awesome! I sure wish that most places here in the States took their fries more seriously. You cut the bag of frozen fries open, throw them in the deep fryer and salt before serving and let the rest sit under a heat lamp for an hour. Usually, they end up tasting bland or extremely greasy. I don't recall getting any "limp" fries in my cone at Manneken Pis! Our impressions of Germany and Amsterdam are one's that will never be forgotten. We hope to get back to both some day, but this trip made us realize just how friendly and accomodating European folks are to us Americans! We really did have the time of our lives! Strangely enough, I noticed the same thing about American being friendly against Europeans, when I was in the USA. Guess we can still have faith in humanity !
ginzo Posted November 4, 2009 Posted November 4, 2009 Our impressions of Germany and Amsterdam are one's that will never be forgotten. We hope to get back to both some day, but this trip made us realize just how friendly and accomodating European folks are to us Americans! I think I'm going to post a TR of the European tour I took this summer before the Scandi trip.
Philrad71 Posted November 5, 2009 Author Posted November 5, 2009 Hi folks! This will be the last installment of our big European adventure to Germany and Amsterdam...and (unfortunately) my last TR of 2009. Last day in Amsterdam, we toured the Heineken museum and did a night-time wine and cheese canal tour. Amsterdam is a very beautiful city at night, although I will say that I was disappointed in the way most of my pictures turned out. Don't worry, I promise not to bore you with too many non-theme park pictures...okay, maybe just a few! Centraal Station at night...can't wait to get back to Amsterdam and Germany - hopefully very soon! Thanks for reading! The views from the canal were spectacular, but I sure wish the pics would have come out better. See those feet? Yes, there are pissers on the street and those are my feet! This is really where Jim Morrison went...he never died in Paris contrary to what people say. He opened up his own Doors coffee shop in Amsterdam! After receiving several generous credit donations from some of the tee-totalling guests, we headed out of the Heineken Experience well sated and a bit buzzed! We ended our last night with an awesome wine and cheese canal cruise. What a great way to see Amsterdam at night! Coasters or beer? God, that's a tough one! They even had virtual drink coasters! Here you get to use your credits for two tasty glasses of regular Heineken or the kick-ass-not-served-in-America Extra Cold Heineken! After more virtual exhibits, you enter the last leg of the tour....the bar! Inside of the mini-keg! After getting two smallish glasses to savor, you get to see how the bottling process works. After a cool virtual ride where you get bottled as delicious Heineken, you empty out into the tasting room! But we really did get to don an apron and stir the wort! They let me open the valve to one of the big-ass beer vats! (kidding) The museum winds through about five floors of artifacts, history and interactive exhibits...it is definitely the coolest brewery tour I have ever taken! After a virtual welcome on a large screen tv simulator, I get to look like a beer wench...yay! I must admit these arms look manlier than my own! ...which includes two "credits" for free beer at the end of the tour! They also give you a Heineken bracelet to wear... When you get your tickets, you are greeted by a nice looking ticket- taker lady that loves to pose for photos! People here are soooo friendly! In addition to a really cool museum and brewery, they also have a great store where I managed to buy $75 worth of merchandise! Okay, enough serious talk...time for BEER! Not too far from that was the Homomonument which consisted of three giant pink granite triangles which made up one giant triangle that jutted out into one of the canals. This is a public memorial to remember all gays and lesbians harassed, imprisoned, or exececuted in WWII and beyond. Although it was too large to capture a picture, it was a very nicely designed memorial! We also took a sobering tour of the Anne Frank Huis. In addition to visiting Dachau in Germany, it really provided a grim, albeit depressing view into WWII and the Nazi occupation. Really sad that this family had to endure being cooped up in this tiny attic to avoid being put into the concentration camps, only to be caught and taken into custody. And who knew that Gouda came from here? I didn't! Before beer, we must visit more cultural stuff. How could we visit Holland without seeing windmills? Did you know that windmills perform a variety of functions and tasks? Neither did I! The one we went in used the wind power to grind nuts into oil. Sounds painful yes, but it really was a fascinating process!
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