Stroopwaffels -- caramel-filled thin wafers -- are my favorite Dutch street eat.
Since I left the Netherlands, I’ve found myself daydreaming about what they do best — ooey gooey street pastries. Imagine my surprise when, wandering through the Shanghai World Expo, I started to smell my favorite Dutch treats. And just when I thought I was hallucinating…
Stroopwaffels!! Stroopwaffels!! There they were. Apparently the Netherlands sent over attractive Dutch people to show the Chinese how to make cookies (really, they looked like models). I promptly dusted off my Dutch, ordered a waffle, and entered caramel heaven.
A thin waffle cookie, cut into paper-thin halves, with a cinnamon-scented caramel sandwiched between.
I wish other Expo exhibits had featured their national edible treasures, but alas…maybe next time the other nations of the world will follow the example of the Dutch, and let desserts lead the way toward world peace.
If you’re interested in making these yourself, check out my friend, Kitchen Butterfly. She posts from the Netherlands and has posted several stroopwaffel recipes that look fantastic. Try to make them and place your cookie on the top of a cup of warm coffee or tea. When the center droops slightly, the syrup has gotten all melty — and you’re ready for a gooey bite!
Sizzling lotus root from a Sichuan hotpot.
In Chengdu, the thing to eat is a hotpot. You’re given a vat of oil and broth on a tabletop grill. It’s filled with enough sichuan pepper, red chilies, chili oil, and spices to burn a whole in your stomach. Since your mouth is numbed, you’ll see how much heat your food has by the sweat that beads on your brow. Ours had a double-layer, with mushroom broth in the center and spicy oil in the outer ring.
Dip your vegetables, meat, and tofu into the simmering liquid.
My favorite add-ins were thickly sliced mushrooms, yuba (creamy tofu skin), and lotus roots, and paper-thin beef. The Sichuan pepper made the only drink offered — a glass-bottled cola — taste incredible. If you have the chance, try a Sichuan hotpot…and the hotter the better.
Mushrooms, and yuba, and peppers...oh my.
What do you call pepper that's not really pepper?
…Or Chinese farmhouse eating, part two.
Many people love Szechuan (also spelled Sichuan) food. It’s been popularized around the world as the hot and spicy familiar version of Chinese food. Sichuan cuisine relies more on spicing, and not raw ingredients, so it’s more easily replicable and adaptable than Chinese dishes dependant on regional specialities (sea cucumbers or yak meat, anyone?).
Knowing this, I expected that the food would be tasty, but not surprising. Oh, was I wrong!
Today, at a farmhouse, I learned the secret of Sichuan spicing in an unfortunate way. After picking some green tea, I wandered into the kitchen to ogle at the fire-heated wok, the smoking meats, and the unfamiliar spices. I was offered a taste of what I thought was normal pepper.
And my mouth went numb.
These farm-fresh dishes first numbed, then heated my tastebuds.
Sichuan pepper, or flower pepper (as it was called at the farmhouse), is actually not a peppercorn. It comes from the berries of the prickly ash tree. Chemically, it numbs the mouth and mutes the hotness of the chillies, allowing you to eat hotter than you think you can, and allowing more flavors to shine through.
Americanized versions of Sichuan dishes may not have this pepper, or at least not at the strength to make you sweat (literally) through the meal.
Sichuan brined duck at the lunch table.
Later I’ll post some recipes using Sichuan spicing. For now, I’ll be having dinner and bringing a handkerchief for my forehead. Yum and yeow!
Here are some travel tips from me…
Chang is served in a steel kettle.
If you find yourself in eastern Tibet, and are invited into a farmer’s house for refreshments, make sure you refuse the offer first. It’s the most polite thing you can do.
When you do accept, go upstairs, since the bottom floor will be for livestock.
- Yak cheese is dried for days in the Tibetan sun
Avoid bumping into the hanging baskets of drying yak cheese.
If offered treats, like tsampa (roasted barley flour combined with yak butter tea), make sure you eat using your right hand. It’s the “good” hand in Tibet, and the one you should use for everything from eating to snacking.
Finally, compliment the host on the chang, or milky-colored translucent barley liquor. Just don’t let the light bubbles and fresh taste mislead you — it’s strong stuff!
