.transient in a constant flux

boekie woekie
this is my favorite bookshop after fnac chiado in lisbon, and foyles on london's charing cross road. boekie woekie, on amsterdam's beerenstraat, stocks limited edition, one-off books from artists and photographers. i love their stuff.

i took kathya and david here, after we'd walked round the other bits of negen straatjes. my ritual is to get a newspaper, have brunch at nielsen's across the street and when i'm done, i go into boekie woekie and see what new things they have in stock. i love the little delicate illustrations on the books; you're buying art, not books. i love the pocketbooks and reading them on the train on my way home.

this time i bought two small photo books of someone's journey to china. i love picture books.

food, glorious food
where do i begin? to tell the sweet love story that is older than the sea, the simple truth about the love he* brings to me, where do i start?

* = food, not robert, huahahaha

kathya and i are so so passionate about food. i think if i wasn't doing design, i would be cooking, cooking and cooking. i was joking with kathya that she should move to amsterdam and we'd get ourselves a brownstone house on one of the grachts, have a cafe/bar downstairs and a design studio on top. so if i got hungry i could run downstairs and kathya would feed me, hehe.

this weekend we consumed the following:
1. tom ka soup that i prepared
2. poffertjes with ice cream (i had mine only with butter and powder sugar)
3. david had strawberry tarts after the poffertjes
4. a box of chocolate from the boulangerie
5. lots of white beer with a slice of lemon, i love you hoegaarden...
6. bulgogi salad with naan bread (me)
7. roast lamb salad (david)
8. some sort of seafood in a cream sauce (kathya)
9. 'death by chocolate' chocolate cake (kathya)
10. pistachio parfait (me)

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11. breakfast of fresh croissant, banana smoothies, mon chou cream cheese spread, orange juice, tea, coffee
12. osaka-style okonomiyaki with marinated beef, onions and spinach (me)
13. osaka-style okonomiyaki deluxe with everything (kathya)
14. hiroshima-style okonomiyaki with salami and cheese (david)
15. green tea milkshake (kathya & david)
16. cocktail of vodka, calpis and 7up (me)
17. more white beer with slices of lemons
18. tiramisu
19. rendang
20. gado-gado
21. ayam goreng pazri nanas
22. sate kambing
23. nasi putih + garnish (srundeng, acar, sambal goreng kentang, kerupuk udang)

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24. breakfast of fresh croissant, banana smoothies, fresh strawberries with cream cheese, tea and coffee
25. tahu isi dengan saus tausi (stuffed to fu with tausi sauce)
26. ayam bungkus rebung (chicken wrapped in bamboo shoots)
27. jellyfish with duck and cucumber salad
28. nasi goreng
29. ho fun (kwetiau) with cha siu and roast duck
30. chow fan (cakwe dibungkus pake bahan mie trus disiram kecap asin)
31. prawns and mango wrapped in pastry, with a mayonaise sauce
32. deep-fried prawn balls (in indo: udang mayones)
33. turnip cakes with chinese sausages
34. fried salted squid with chili
35. ...

hey kath, did i get everything or did i miss something?

for food pictures, check out kathya's flickr page

we went to amsterdam specially for the okonomiyaki. we went to this place, which is run by joachim, a german guy from ulm, and his japanese wife (who greeted us in bahasa indonesia, what a pleasant surprise!). joachim gave a great thorough explanation on the history of okonomiyaki whilst we watched him cook our food, as well as talking about our personal backgrounds. it was such a great experience, this is one place you should not miss when you are in amsterdam. :)

anyway, kathya and david have left me now, and i was sad to see them go. we didn't manage to get all the food spots i wanted to take them to. i hope next month they return to NL for a longer time, hehe...

have a good week everyone!