A Maastricht Thanksgiving Dinner

Yesterday was a “Happy Thanksgiving” for those Americans out there, whether living abroad or at home. We celebrated this year by having some friends over for a Thanksgiving chicken and all the fixings. Sadly, I forgot to take photos so you’ll just have to believe me when I say the chicken looked great (and tasted pretty good too).

One of the fun challenges of recreating Thanksgiving dinner in the Netherlands was making everything from scratch. A whole turkey can be tricky to find, they don’t do stuffing, and no one sells the jellied cranberry sauce that is the staple of American ready-made turkey dinners. Potatoes are easy to find though.  Here’s a quick rundown of our alternatives:

• Chicken vs. Turkey. You can buy a turkey at some butcher shops in town, but you’ll have to make plans in advance. I was able to pick up a whole chicken that was just the right size the same day I cooked it. Turns out chicken is dead easy to cook. Recipe.
• Stuffing. I ended up making a vegetarian stuffing from scratch with apple chunks and pecans in it. The only problem was that my recipe called for condensed cream of mushroom soup and all I could find was the un-condensed sort and I think that resulted in a dryer stuffing. Recipe.
• Mashed Potatoes. My mother makes a delicious combination white & sweet potatoes mash which I wanted to duplicate for dinner. White potatoes are easy to find, but I ended up hunting down sweet potatoes at a small (I think) Turkish grocery shop in town based on recommendation from another expat. I hand mashed them because I don’t have a mixer. Recipe.
• Cranberry Sauce. I love the kind of canned cranberry sauce that’s all jelly and, when you take it out of the can, you can still see all the ridges. Crazy I know. Since that sort of sauce isn’t available here, I made some from scratch and mashed the berries up quite a bit to make it as smooth as possible. Cranberry sauce is seriously simple to make and it turned out very good. Recipe.
• Dessert. Our lovely guests provided dessert and included a wonderful pumpkin pie made from scratch. I haven’t had pumpkin pie in a while and, as far as I’m concerned, it’s more important to Thanksgiving than the turkey. I have no recipe for this, but it was the best “scratch” pumpkin pie I’ve ever had.

The other nice way we got to recreate Thanksgiving here was sampling some local delicacies. This isn’t really a tradition for us per sae, but back in Vermont we use to eat local birds and drink our own apple cider. So I guess it could become one. We included some regional cheeses (including limburger cheese), a Maastricht Riesling, rolls from the shop up the street, and a Limburg port. It was fun to try the new foods and there’s nothing like a dinner party to give you an excuse.

But really Thanksgiving is about spending time with the people you care about, and that’s what made this year a little more special than last. It was a lot of fun to cook good food, share the meal and get a little taste of the holiday.

Cranberry image is by Muffet. Used under a Creative Commons-By Attribution License.

Places Around Maastricht: Sashimi

Type of Place: Restaurant

Location: Helmstraat off the Vrijthof

If you’re looking for a classy, date atmosphere with all you can eat sushi and some of the best tuna we’ve had in a while, you should take a look at Sashimi. Located just off of the Vrijthof, Sashimi is a cut above the usual sushi restaurant with fresh tasting short-grained rice and a wider menu that our usual all-you-can-eat choice. In four courses you can chose between a variety of sushi rolls, nigiri, handrolls, cooked dishes, and soup (although surprisingly not sashimi). The lunch menu is naturally cheaper at 16,50 euros, and dinner cost 23,00 euros. For dinner you get fewer items per round, but more variety.

The interior of the restaurant is really nice, with a dark and soft glow. The two floors are dominated by a huge, dark wood Buddha statue which sits in the center of the restaurant. Wall decorations and furniture are modern and help to enhance the romantic atmosphere. If I was with a family, I’d still eat at Kashi, but for a date or adult meeting, Sashimi would be my first choice (at least until we find another option).

Cultural Screams & Pecha Kucha as a Form of Protest

So I’ve been out of the loop. The Dutch government is increasing the BTW on cultural activities from 6% to 19% (the maximum), and there are plans to cut cultural funding by 200 million euros; 20% of the budget. Austerity measures? Maybe. But it wasn’t long ago that we were being told that the economy was improving and that the Netherlands had escaped the worst of the economic downturn that damaged so many other countries. 200 millions euros represents a massive cut to cultural and entertainment budgets across the board, and will threaten and close lots of events and institutions enjoyed by people from all walks of life. Just the change in tax will increase the cost of seeing a movie or visiting the museum.

Maastricht is seeing its share of cultural funding problems as well. The AINSI building (where Pecha Kucha and many other cultural events are held) is running out of funding from the city and there are no plans to extend the assistance they need to keep this place open. That means not only lost jobs, but lost venues for cultural events that benefit from the casual environment the AINSI brings.

On the 20th of November, all around the country, people got together to Scream for Culture in protest to these changes. Even here in Maastricht there was a crowd. Unfortunately we missed it, but we did get the chance to “protest” in a quieter way simply by attending this month’s Pecha Kucha event on the 20th and then going to a book talk on the 21st.

This 8th Maastricht Pecha Kucha wasn’t the best I’ve attended, but there were still several excellent presentations and even an improvised presentation in which the speaker had no prepared subject and was given 20 slides he’d never seen before. Very funny. Of note was a presentation about Estonia & Wifi by our friend Cyrus Farivar. I encourage you to check out both the video (when it is available) and his soon to be published book: The Internet of Elsewhere.

Another book we checked out is The Adventures of Yin & Yang: Snoepje & the Pizza Box by Susan Schaefer, another expat in the Maastricht area. On Sunday we went to a nice reading at the Dominican Selexyz bookstore where Susan and the Minister of Immigration gave a bilingual reading of the book. It’s a cute story about adding a new member (a kitten) to the family. I can’t promise, but I believe the book is available through bookstores.

Watch the 8th Maastricht Pecha Kucha Videos.

A Quick Bus Tip

I picked up this bit of information when planning our trip to Aachen and it was so handy I felt it needed to be passed on. There are many places near Maastricht not accessible by train, Vaals for example, or that require a long and roundabout route, Aachen and Cologne.

Fortunately that’s where the Veolia (Dutch) bus system and Zuid-Limburg Dagkaart/International comes in. These day tickets are good for traveling anywhere in South Limburg including into the naighboring areas of Germany and Beligum for an entire day for just 7 euros. They can even been used on Veolia trains (although not the NS ones). I purchased our tickets ahead of time from the bus office in Maastricht, but you can also get them on board a bus.

It is an especially good idea to travel to Aachen via bus rather than train. The train will cost you more and take twice as long. Instead take Bus 50 from the Maastricht Station. In about an hour you’ll reach Aachen with only one, very quick switch just on the outskirts of the city. The bus takes you to the central Aachen train station, so you won’t end up in some strange out of the way place.

Happy travels.

A Wet Day in Aachen

Aachen apparently translates roughly to water, so it is appropriate that it poured down rain during our visit on Saturday. But who lives in the Netherlands and lets a little water stop them? We met up with the another expat couple who have been living in Bonn for a little exploration. For a day trip, Aachen is a lovely city of hot springs, history, and printen.

Before getting started, I thought I’d mention something about the water. Aachen is known for their hot spring. People since the Roman times have been flocking to the area for the benefits of the spa and the spring waters. People even drink the water as it is suppose to help digestion and your skin. However drinking too much is a bad idea since it actually contains a small amount of arsenic.  I took a sip from one of the fountains and the water tasted odd, but not necessarily bad. It apparently smells strongly of sulfur as well, but I didn’t notice.

We started our visit with a little walking tour that took us from the Tourist Office by the XX, the largest fountain in the city, past the Dom Cathedral, and to the Market Square and town hall. Along the way we saw some attractive fountains, an old chemist shop, and got to taste a bit of the printen, Aachen’s gingerbread-like cookie. Despite the rain, the tour was actually quite nice and it gave us an easy way to learn about Aachen. Charlemagne of course featured prominently , but the guide also spoke quite a bit about the horse races, which are popular in the area.

Aachen Cathedral

The Aachen Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in Europe and the original resting place of Charlemagne. The dome inside is the most impressive feature of the church, featuring a beautiful large blue and gold roof and huge chandler. While we were there the cathedral was under construction, so the English tour was unavailable and I was a bit disappointed with it.

Town Hall

I found the Town Hall, built in the 14th century on the ruins of Charlemagne’s palace, to be more impressive; probably because we had the opportunity to explore with with a nifty pseudo-augmented reality audio player. The structure was original Gothic, but was refurbished in a baroque style later. Inside each room had a dome-shaped ceiling and is done up in different colors. The upstairs room use to be used for coronations and is also where you can find the original Charlemagne statue that once stood in the Market square (the one there now is a replica) and replica’s of Charlemagne’s royal vestments. The tour took about an hour or so and was pretty interesting.

Printen

The third thing you can’t miss in Aachen is the printen, a spicy, gingerbread-like cookie shaped in a mold and something covered in almonds or chocolate. The story we were told is that the cookie was “invented” after the Aachen city fire when the local people needed to feed visiting pilgrims something. In reality, the recipe is probably from Belgium. We had a taste in one of the many shops in Aachen, and then visited a great restaurant called XX to sample more German confections. This place is worth visiting both for their cookies and the ambiance (but not for the hot chocolate).

After a late afternoon dessert we had run out of things to do in the city, what with the rain and all, so we parted ways and took bus 50 home before dinner. We didn’t make it to a spa, but Aachen has several, and I’d love to check out a public bath sometime. Maybe next visit.

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