Foods I have Known in Morocco

Now, to turn to my favorite topic... eating.

On my first day, I enjoyed a delicious tagine with lamb, prune, and onions. Woah, lots of onions. But it was delicious. Finger-licking-I-can't-even-tell-you delicious. It was at a suspiciously touristy looking rooftop overlooking the square... and you had to write down your own order... but it was GREAT.


After a big meal like that, you need some mint tea. I don't know if they thought I left without paying, or if they were just really in a hurry, but when I got back from the bathroom they'd cleared all my things away. So, I left and went elsewhere for tea. Ended up at a lovely riad, Dar Timtam. There, I drank some lovely tea. Splendid!

I know you're curious what I ate at that stall on the market... well, here it is:

Clockwise from top left: spicy salsa-type-stuff, mild salsa-type-stuff, olives (I almost liked them), traditional bread, lamb sausages, and the best eggplant in the entire world. Now, I think eggplant is okay. But this eggplant was AMAZING. How could a simple eggplant taste so good??? I have no idea. It is worth the struggle to emerge from the booths single just to taste this eggplant. Mmmhhh...

At Jardin Majorelle I enjoyed a very unique and strangely spicy drink: ginger, mint and pineapple juice. Yum! Very refreshing for a warm day.

At our cooking class (see the previous post), we learned three dishes: Moroccan salad (this does, contrary to how it sounds, involve cooking), chicken with lemon and olives, and pancakes with 1,000 holes. I think I will have the most success replicating the pancakes, but all three dishes were delicious, and since I have plenty of Moroccan shops in the neighborhood where I can get "authentic" ingredients, I think I'll give them a try.

Here, you see the early stages of chicken with lemon and olives:
For some reason, I figured that after the conference started, my culinary adventures would end. Oh how wrong I was...

One day, we arrived at the congress center to see these taped up:

Ah, of course, the dinner that the King ordered. Awesome. It started out slowly, with a pastilla big enough to fill us all completely. Fortunately, I did not know how much more food was coming, and ate a good amount of this. I say fortunately because it was really the best course in my book. Flaky pastry filled with sweet and cinnamon spiced chicken (not pigeon, they said):
Yum! But then, things started to get worrying. The next course arrived:

"Do you think that's a whole lamb?" one of the women at my table asked. No one could tell her for sure. It surely wasn't a small part of one... was it a half lamb? Who knows. What I do know is that we were sitting at a dinner for 2,600 people... so either way, a lot of lambs ended their lives for us.

Then, I was surely full. Which explains the next course:

How many chickens? Three? Four? For TEN people? I can't remember. The excess was alarming. After this, I could no longer take pictures. I was so full that I could barely move. Certainly I could not think. But, lest you be concerned that we still had not eaten enough, you will be happy to know that this was followed by:

• Couscous with vegetables and chicken
• Chocolate cake
• Fruit

Seriously? Insane. And we had another feast that nearly replicated this quantity on the last day of the conference. So, let's just say that they didn't let the conference participants go hungry!

All in all, I was a big fan of Moroccan cuisine, and hope to be able to make some soon in a kitchen near you.

And then there was Morocco

Next in my saga of "amazing places that I've gone for work": Marrakech!

To be honest, I wasn't as in love with Marrakech as I expected. There were busloads of (Dutch) tourists at all of the major attractions, and when I escaped the tourists I was assailed by offers of goods and marriage. Now, not everyone behaved like this, but it was enough to get on your nerves. Still, for the two days that I had to wander around before the meeting started, I tried to make the most of it.

First, I was off to the major tombs, palaces, and markets. This is the Saadian Tombs. They're particularly cool because they've been in the center of Marrakech, just around the corner from a major mosque, and for 300 years they were completely forgotten. That gives you an idea of how twisty the roads are...

The rooms are all decorated with brilliant geometrical patterns, and there's now a lush garden in the center. As soon as you elbow your way through the hoards of tourists, it's quite nice!

When I came out of the tombs, I was excited to get away a little bit. I thought I would take a shortcut to the next palace. Well, that clearly will not work. I had a very nice wander through some streets where there were neither tourists nor people trying to sell me something nor men trying to marry me. In fact, it was quiet, and almost tranquil. This, I suspected, was the part of Morocco that I liked. I said hello to some women (the extent of my Arabic...), asked a man for directions... it was lovely. Look at the doors:

So, I'm looking forward to more of this in Fez at Christmas, only then hopefully my Arabic class will have had enough effect that I can move from "hello" to "how are you?". I have high goals, I know. But really, I think this is the way to see the "real Morocco".

When I finally found my way out of the twisting streets, I found another palace... I can't keep track of which was which. They all have colorful, beautiful patterns... wow!

This one had the good fortune of a view on a stork's nest. This is supposed to be good luck, and is a very cool thing to see. These are not small nests...

Then, by sunset I headed over to Place Jemaa el Fna, the main square in town. Here you can see the hustle and bustle on the square as dusk fell.
After dark, it's a nice place to be... if you're an Arabic man. I guess that the storytellers were telling nice stories, and for sure there were some very interesting musical performances, complete with drag-queen belly dancers. But mostly, this is a place to find single Western women and ask them to marry you. Apparently.

At least there's also food there. I did (on another night) eat in the stalls... good food! Crazy atmosphere! More marriage proposals!


The day after my adventure in the center, I tried out the new part of town. This was much calmer, less salesmen, and less marriage proposals. Thank goodness. Also in the new part of town is the Jardin Majorelle - the most beautiful part of Marrakech.

Yves Saint Laurent was the most recent owner of the garden, and upon his death it was opened to the public. What a beautiful place!! Cacti, bamboo forests, and lots of deep blues, greens, and oranges. It was a very calm and peaceful place of beauty.

Finally, on Sunday morning before the conference started, I went for a cooking class. The class was held in a villa outside of Marrakech, and just to satisfy those demanding photos that prove I was actually there, here's one of me by the pool in this little slice of paradise.

Now, on to the next post for my favorite thing - food!

In September, off to Riga

After a few relaxed weeks at home in August, I was off to Riga in September. While the real purpose of my visit was to attend a conference, I managed to arrive the Friday before the meetings, to catch up with my friend Wendy and see the town of Riga.

To be honest, I had low to no expectations for Riga. I hadn't had time to do any research, and figured I would just see how it was when I got there. After all, my hotel had a bathtub, so in the worst case I could always stay in and take bubble baths with glasses of wine.

Unfortunately for the bubble bath plan, Riga was a brilliant surprise. Not only were the people incredibly friendly, but the town itself was the perfect combination of old and new, city bustle and quiet town.

Foremost amongst the city's attractions are its Art Nouveau buildings. Little did I know that Riga has the most Art Nouveau buildings of any city in the world. This one is one of the gems:

It's impossible to tell in this photo, but the whole facade is covered in faces, bodies, animals, and symbols. Even though it was pouring rain on the day we decided to discover Art Nouveau Riga, it was well worth getting wet.

This is one of the others that I particularly liked... it's really in disrepair, but somehow that gives it its own character and charm. I love how the elaborate decorations mix with the dilapidation. Beautiful contrasts.

While we did make an effort to see the sights of Riga, Wendy and I had both prioritized relaxation above all other goals. This led us to a great discovery: Riga is the town of tea houses. Amazing, unique, not-to-be-missed tea houses.

This one was perched in a park... the patrons sit along a platform upstairs, on cushions and pillows, shoes off, sipping their tea while watching the river or the pedestrians pass by. I cannot wait to build my own tea hut modeled after this one!


Another of our favorites, Goija Tea Room, was quite the opposite. Dark and quiet, it lent itself to long conversations and contemplation.

I won't admit how many other tea houses we went to... let's just say that we spent most of Saturday and Sunday either drinking tea or walking to the next tea house.

Riga, all in all, was a lovely town. In fact, even the meeting room for our conference was lovely:

So, I would highly recommend it as a destination. In the end, just before I had to catch a taxi to the airport, I discovered a very cool second hand shop upstairs just around the corner from my hotel. There, I got a green jacket, a brown fuzzy jacket, a white lace shirt, and a pair of shoes for something like 15 euros. Not a bad way to use up the last of my lats!

August in Amsterdam

August was mostly spent at home, aside from a lovely weekend in Cologne with Albert and Daphne.

We took the train there, feeling extra classy with our cheap beers.

We had great, sunny weather while we were there.


This seems to have encouraged Daphne to make us climb the church tower... unfortunately, Cologne is not a beautiful city when seen from above. But it was the best exercise we got during the trip. The top of the tower itself is quite beautiful.

We also discovered that Cologne still has phone booths. Yellow ones. Amazing. What a place to receive life-changing news!
Finally, as we were about to depart, Daphne met her new lover. Look at the adoring way she stares into his eyes... it's only too bad that he's so... cold.

Another notable event in August was the development of our lettuce tree... I have honestly never seen lettuce grow quite like this before. Starving for light? Yeah, that might be it. (Unfortunately, said lettuce tree has since become dinner for millions of aphids.)

And, of course, the most fun part of August - Albert's birthday! We again went to the lovely pier restaurant behind central station, and had a delicious dinner with a beautiful view.

Welcome Albert!

Instead of starting his own blog, we thought it would be nicer if Albert joined me in posting on Travels & Amsterdam. Hopefully this will help us post more than once every three months!

and, finally, the Alps...

You would think that after all that, I'd be ready for some rest. But no! Fear not! I then proceeded, after 36 hours in Amsterdam, to Geneva. First for a bit (2 days) of holiday with the family, and then for ECOSOC meetings.

Here, you see Albert and I standing inside of a glacier. Yes, inside. Yes, a glacier. Why? Because someone thought it would be a good idea to drill a cave into a glacier so people could go inside. Clearly. It was... cool. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

And here we are, outside of a glacier! Actually, the glacier is in the valley below; you can't quite see it. But, if we'd been there 100 years earlier, it would be poking up where the greenery ends on the mountainside behind us. It was truly alarming to see how quickly the ice is vanishing. Not that drilling caves in the glaciers helps much...

Finally, in the last stop on our Alpine adventure, we stayed in a charming town with charming cheese, both called Abondance. The only thing not charming was the fact that during dinner the river turned green. Not just a little green, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles green. For a while, no one knew why. So, we went on an expedition to find out. Still, we did not know why...

The next morning at breakfast, we were told it was a "test, water source test." Or, at least that's what we think they said, since our collective French is still not excellent. So it remains a bit of a mystery.

After that, I got to go back to work, at the ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Review. ECOSOC, by the way, is a UN body comparable to the Security Council whose mandate is to oversee all the economic and cultural bodies of the UN: WHO, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNESCO (you know, World Heritage sites?)... all those agencies that are in the news all of the time are overseen by ECOSOC, the Economic and Social Council. The meetings were fine, with some good language about sexual health and rights included in the final declaration. It was a good experience, and gave me some things to think about for future years.

Now that I'm back in Amsterdam, I think I'm ready to stay (mostly) put for a while. Maybe a side trip to Cologne, but otherwise sticking around here until the EuroNGOs meeting in Riga, Latvia at the beginning of September. It promises to be a relaxing summer!

Off to Kenya

After I got back from holidays in the US, it was time to go to Kenya for work. Although we did do a lot of work in Kenya, we also had a very nice time.

Kenyans are still pretty into Obama (see top left, the sticker inside a taxi we took). I heard it was much more pronounced around the election, but it's still a big topic of conversation. Also, you see people wearing (and selling) Obama shirts, lots of cars with Obama bumper stickers, etc.

The place where we gave the workshop, at Lake Naivasha, was absolutely gorgeous. Here, you can see one of our giraffe friends wandering around.

This is Lake Naivasha. It's a bit hard to make out in this picture, but the photo shows a cart next to a pier that leads to the lake. Due to flower farming in the area, and a lack of rain, the water level in the lake has fallen dramatically, and they keep having the extend the pier.

The cart itself is actually quite ironic - every morning and evening, they hitch a donkey to the cart to bring it to and from the lake. What does it carry? An engine, for the tour boat that goes out on the lake. Nothing like modernity to get you donkey carts hauling engines...

This is one of the naughty monkeys that came into our conference room and stole candy off the tables. They really like to get into trouble. They are also not at all afraid of people, though still not terribly friendly. This little one was sitting on my balcony railing, less than an arm's length away.

Mid-week, we played a soccer match against the hotel staff (when I say "we," I mean the workshop participants...). It was great fun, and thanks to the staff lending us some star players, the game ended in a draw, 2-2. I think my cheering helped a lot.

This is our workshop room, and on the left, the coffee break tent. It was a brilliant place to give a workshop, except that in the middle of the day the sun beat on the stone building, causing it to become extremely hot. And monkeys stole our candy. Other than that, it was perfect!

First Harvest

Well, there are a few new posts coming. I've been traveling like crazy - at one point I was on three continents within 5 days. But first, a look in our "garden," i.e. the pots on the windowsill.

The first harvest brought radishes and lettuce. Unfortunately, I don't like radishes, and these were particularly strong and also a bit woody. But, pretty to look at!

The lettuce, on the other hand, was tender and delicious.

Then the second harvest, which was really exciting. Tiny, amazingly sweet tomatoes, and really nice sweet peas. Let's just ignore those radishes.

Unfortunately the garden did not particularly like being left alone for over a month... so we'll see what more we can coax from it. Maybe it's not too late to start some new peas? We'll see.

Little Garden

Yesterday, we planted a small garden for our balcony/windowsill. Since we have no outdoor space, I got to do this in my living room. Unfortunately, the planters featured "make your own" drainage holes...


We got a tomato plant and transplanted it into a bigger pot...


Our basil, amazingly still alive (this is the kind you buy at Albert Heijn for one euro and kill it all to make pesto... except I left a few plants living and they've grown really well!), got bigger pots and new soil.


I finally got around to planting the cactus seeds Katie got me for my birthday years ago... I'm not too sure they'll germinate because they're a bit old, but hey, I'm hopeful. The green guy is a poinsettia - also from Albert Heijn - who was looking completely dead for the longest time, but I forgot to throw him away, and once the days started getting longer he exploded into leaves. So, I guess he gets to stay.


Oh, and here are my sweet little Petunias... presents from Jetze for our housewarming, and one is actually blooming now! How exciting! It has these adorable little pink flowers.

In the big pots and troughs (is that what you call them?) we planted two kinds of lettuce, sweet peas, carrots, and radishes. So... let's see what happens. For now all we can do is wait!

Queen's Day

As you may know, April 30 is Queen's Day in Holland, a day to celebrate the birthday of the former Queen (and the day the current Queen was crowned)... primarily by wearing orange, consuming street food and drink, and buying lots of things you don't need from all of your neighbors all along the street. Basically, all of Amsterdam turns into a giant orange street fair/party/flea market.

Of course, I just wanted to fit in:

Unfortunately, though, I had no orange pants. Albert, on the other hand, donned a beautiful orange cape, and earned enough money playing flute to buy us two sandwiches!


Here's our booty: Krissy's roller skates (€3), Albert's roller skates (€9), two Asterix books and a Mongolian hat (€9), knee pads (€1.50), Krissy's roller skates (€0.50), two pairs of shoes (€4).

Oh, but we also managed to get some free booty: a Condomerie t-shirt, an Ann Rice novel (I didn't want this! But a guy was selling delicious chocolate-cherry cupcakes that I did want, and refused to sell me a cupcake unless I also took a book. In the end, I got two cupcakes for €1.50, saving 50 cents by taking the book.), golden coasters, black & orange balloons, three psychadlic ties, a sweater-dress, a leather purse, a paisely scarf, and a cute green t-shirt. Total for these: negative €0.50 (from what I saved on the cupcakes).

All in all, a very nice Queen's Day. Well, except for the tragedy with the crazy guy running people over, but... personally, I had a nice day.