As promised, here’s a recipe of Cajun beans and rice I really like. It’s very similar to our Bruine Bonen (Surinamese beans & rice) and the big difference is in the andouille sausage. The dry beans should be soaked overnight, unless you’re using a pressure cooker or slowcooker. The pressure cooker will significantly cut the [...]

Also called “B.B. met R” which is the Dutch abbreviation for “Bruine Bonen met Rijst” (Brown/Kidney Beans with Rice).  The closest thing to this Surinamese national dish I have had in the States, is the Cajun “Beans and Rice,” with Andouille (Cajun sausage) and ground meat (recipe coming soon). You could add these too, but if you want the [...]

One of the neat social activities for the conference was the “Dine-Around” in Amsterdam. After finishing a canal tour the participants were split up in small groups and guided to various fancy restaurants in the city center. Amsterdam is home to many different cultures and the selected restaurants varied from Indonesian to German, French and [...]

Just came back from a congress/mini-vacation in The Netherlands (aka Holland), where I was blessed to enjoy some great international dining in Amsterdam, Den Haag (The Hague) and also in Brugge, Belgium. This is part 1 of my culinary adventures, enjoy! Strange enough I had Italian twice during this trip, and I say “strange” because [...]

A friend of mine loves the spicy peanut sauce I brought back from Suriname and she was asking me where she could buy it. Knowing that she wouldn’t find the same sauce my family makes, I searched the web to find something that closely resembles our pindasambal (or sambal pitjil).  No dice! Tons of recipes, [...]

There is something about onions that give food more flavor, whether raw, cooked or pickled. Depending on which kind, onions can be sharp, spicy, tangy or mild and sweet. They’re used in almost any cuisine in the world and can you believe they have been used since 5000 BC?  Click the link for more amazing [...]

Happy New Year everyone! About time I added a blogpost! Can’t believe it took me almost 3 weeks to adjust and get back into my normal routine. When we came back we went from 80 tropical to 28 frigid degrees Fahrenheit and combined with jetlag it was AWFUL! Since then it even dipped into the [...]

Merry Christmas everyone! All the way from Suriname in South America, where it’s kinda weird to celebrate Christmas in 25-30 degrees Celcius. This is a quick post to update you on why I have not posted more articles about Christmas around the world. The last minute decision to travel, all the preparations for a 12-hour [...]

Hanukkah, Chanukah, Hanukah, or Hannuka may be the best know Jewish holiday because the dates are close to Christmas. Like many, I have to admit that I used to think of it as the Jewish equivalent of Christmas. Of course the truth is different and you can learn more here about the history and tradition [...]

Sinterklaas,  also known as Sint Nicolaas, is an important holiday figure in the Netherlands, Aruba, Suriname, Netherlands Antilles and Belgium. This holiday is celebrated in the Netherlands on the evening of December 5 and in Belgium on the morning of December 6. The feast celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of, among [...]