This morning when I blogged, I briefly mentioned about the blandness of food, and I kinda put the blame on the hotel. But, what followed during the rest of the day will be mostly remembered by my taste buds.
I was told that the Dutch like to come straight to the point, either on the phone or in person. There are bushes for them to beat nor there is excitement in doing so. I will be a Dutch in Holland until my journey ends. Posts will be terse, to the point and will strike where it needs to.
We had to walk under extreme conditions (-2 degrees centigrade) for half a kilometer from our campus to the cafeteria. I was well protected with my terry-woolen suit, and decided on not wearing a hat and gloves, following the foot steps of my Dutch colleagues. I paid the price. By the time we reached the restaurant, both my ears were frozen, and if anybody had attempted to pull it off my head – would have succeeded. The walk back is a tragedy retold.
We went to an Italian restaurant, and I love this cuisine, not just the pizzas. After lurking around the dishes, hot and cold, for about ten minutes, I decided to go for an Italian wrap, and a tomato soup.
The soup was basically tasteless, it was like hot water mixed with some herbs and I could see soya chunks in it. The sight of it made me puke – figuratively. Half cup downed, the rest drained. The wrap was huge, and so was the price, at around 4 euros. It had a common cousin with my friend tomato soup – tastelessness. I tried to swallow some, allowed myself to get distracted and gobbled up some, yet, there was more than half left on my plate. A colleague who was watching me struggle quietly bought a couple of slices of pizza for us. The slice of cheese pizza was probably the best food I had in the day so far. The rest on my plate was up to the dishwashers to figure out the next course of action.
I did some chocolate shopping later in the evening. I wanted to have Thai, but ended up going to a Chinese restaurant next to the hotel I am staying in. Prices were sky high! I realized it when I saw the menu. On another day, I would have walked out. But, today, I wanted to eat good, eat tasty food, and nobody can hardly go wrong with Chinese. Yes, nobody can go wrong with the Chinese food, except for the Chinese living in Holland. I ordered a vegetable fried rice, and to my surprise, I got rice and vegetables on separate plates. Vegetables came in all shapes and sizes, and none to my liking. Sea weeds were prominent and so was broccoli. These are probably two things I hate in the vegetable-dom, and the day I wanted to eat good, I get them in plenty. There were some broad beans as well, and one, just one slice of carrot. I tried eating a couple of sea weeds, and I felt as though I was gnawing on bamboo shoots. Broccoli was as bad as always. Broad beans – well, what can I say – were tasteless. I downed most of the rice, paid the check and rushed out to get that meal out of sight, I was afraid that it could have a lasting effect on my Chinese liking syndrome.
Right, I am about to sleep, and I am thinking of what is in store for tomorrow. I had thought of Chinese in office cafeteria, I think I will give it a miss.
