Asperges Maand!

Updates:

Things are still going swimmingly at my magazine internship. I’m working in to the Amsterdam office thrice a week and enjoying getting a few more heavy writing responsibilities. Through some less-than-honorable experiences I learned the value of old-school fact checking. Now I’m on the straight and narrow, calling sources left and right. There’s been a little trial-by-fire but it’s good to have real experiences setting the tone for how the job needs to be done correctly.

One of my latest projects was finding out about the “new” and “hip” aspects of the tattoo scene in Amsterdam. After doing some background research I went out into the field and interviewed a number of local artists. It was a great experience as I fancy myself a strong people-person, but not necessarily a talented journalistic interviewer. It can be hard getting people to give you a colorful quote. Especially if English is not their first or primary language. But I learned and got better as I went. The folks I talked to were all terribly nice and interesting to get to know. Several offered coffee and invited me back for less official hanging out. Friendly, talented people all. If only they didn’t smoke so much. But everyone around here does, so I guess I can’t fault them.

Last Saturday was National Asparagus Day (Asperges Dag) in the Netherlands. Why? Not sure. Apparently May is National Asparagus Month. I guess Den Bosch was putting special emphasis on the vegetable that day. In the Markt there was a plethora of white asparagus, the larger, sun-deprived cousin of green asparagus. Known for its harder skin, more tender and bland flesh, the white often gets used in soup. Apparently the white color is achieved by packing extra soil around the base so little or no sunlight penetrates, thus preventing the plant from performing photosynthesis and turning green. The things remind me of the Bunnicula books we read in elementary school. But how does the vegetable grow without sunlight? Well, my friends, since the Netherlands is effectively one big delta most of its “reclaimed” (water pumped out) soil is full of juicy, delicious nitrates. Perfect for growing all kinds of good stuff. Like white asparagus. We bought a sizeable bundle of it and then ended up cooking this a few days ago:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Gratin-of-White-Asparagus-358429

I used crumbled croutons instead of bread crumbs and cilantro instead of parsley because, well, that’s what we had. And the grocery store didn’t seem to have bread crumbs for sale. Apparently Holland is practically in the culinary stone age. Bread crumbs, people!

Bread crumbs are not the only major food element missing from Dutch grocery stores. I still have been unable to find a replacement for the staple of my diet over the past several years, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Hollanders love cheese and have plenty of pasta. They also exhibit a proclivity for creamy sauces and salads. How have they not discovered the Blue Box? It escapes me. Then again, they don’t but peanut butter and chocolate together either. What?! I’m sure they would go nuts for either combination with it put before them. I could probably make some serious dough establishing a trade deal for peanut butter M&Ms and the Blue Box. All I know is I’ll have more than a few boxes in my suitcase when I return from my US visit in a couple of weeks. More on that trip soon.