Ruby Foodie – Amsterdam [Part 2]

Pop-up ramen!

We walked into a small Asian grocery store in Chinatown and signs for the Ramen pop-up restaurant pointed us to an elevator that I had never even noticed before, even though I had been there countless times.

Merchandise still lined the walls of the second floor as we stepped out of the elevator, but tables and chairs had been set up around this big industrial kitchen in the middle of the room. Then I realized that this space is normally used for teaching cooking courses. Standing in the middle of the kitchen, hidden behind all the steam, flustered and hands full of noodles, was the chef.

Although the place was small and it felt a little like we were eating lunch in the kitchen-utensils-isle of a grocery store, it was quite nice. There was some melodic music playing from a small speaker and fresh flowers on the table. Seeing how the chef had his hands full, we waited patiently for our noodles.

There seems to be a lack of ramen in my life, it’s not that popular in Seattle and almost impossible to find in Copenhagen. Most recently was the ramen Sebastian and I had in Vancouver, Canada. So this pop-up ramen was better than no ramen at all. I’ve definitely had better, but this one was still fresh and delicious.

I was very impressed by the soft boiled egg.

Lekker, hoor!! 🙂

Ruby Foodie – Amsterdam!

My boyfriend encouraged me to do this “Foodie Ruby” theme since I’m always taking pictures of food… -_-  It’s great, because who doesn’t love looking at food porn?

Let’s start with Amsterdam.

I flew back to the Netherlands and was reunited with my family. My parents had flown in the same day from Seattle and we were all starving for a good meal.

We went to this small Italian restaurant by Shirley’s apartment and I apologize for forgetting the name… The service was slow, the choices were limited, but the food was fresh and delicious, just like a European restaurant should be.

Starter: Shrimp with other stuffs. The blue cheese was horrible, but we are a family that has not learned to embrace blue cheese just yet. The rest was delicious though.

Ravioli with some sort of cheese inside. I’m usually more eloquent with food descriptions, but this time I really am not sure what I was eating, it was just delicious. This one however, we identified as some sort of  mascarpone cheese inside. It was rather rich for my taste. My favorite was this seafood pasta. Big shrimps, fresh mussels, and pasta cooked to perfection.

Lekker, lekker!! 🙂

Ruby Foodie – Excuse me, there are flowers in my drink.

I AM BACK IN COPENHAGEN, DENMARK! 🙂

Couldn’t be more excited to be back in this beautiful, quaint, yet exciting country again.

As much as I love this country and the people in it, I have to admit that I hate the water here. It’s chalky and has a mineral taste. For my American readers, think of Arrowhead water and then throw in a handful of crushed up chalk… For my Danish readers, you probably think I’m crazy because you guys think that chalk tastes delicious. So I’ve been looking for ways to make water my best friend again.

Once again, my boyfriend came to my rescue when he introduced me to this beautifully refreshing drink.

Hyldeblomst!! It usually comes in a syrup form, and you mix it with water. Like this one:

Concentrates like these seem to be very popular in Europe, which makes me question just how much they really love their water…

Hyldeblomst grows everywhere here and they’re beautiful. People make the drink at home too, they cook the flowers with fresh lemon, sugar and citric acid.

Drinking flowers… What a new concept for me because we don’t fuck with flowers in America.

Happy mixing and drinking! 🙂

Ruby Foodie – My go-go juice!

Carrots, apples, pears, and papaya

So refreshing!

For extra hippie points, I threw in some kale. It made the juice kinda grassy tasting and brown. I did not like.

I’m getting so pro at making this health potion.

Juices for everyone! My family really enjoys them, I don’t know why we haven’t been doing this more, probably because washing the machine is a little bitch. I’m happy to do it though, makes me happy to know I can make something really healthy for my parents.

I woke up one morning craving juice. I’ve never been a big fan of juice or beverages in general, but that morning I had a sudden urge to make some fresh juice. I managed to find some carrots (it was meant to be), an apple, and a pear, and dug out the old juicer (literally, it’s ancient).

Basic ingredients to make two glasses:

(use a glass, because like Coca Cola, fresh juice tastes better in a glass)

2 carrots (peeled and tops & tips cut off)

1 apple (I used Fuji, big and juice [hahah])

1 pear (I used an Asian pear because they have more juice)

Directions:

1. Wash

2. Cut (size depends on how bad ass your blender is)

3. Shove it down the juicer!

3. Drink up!

I like to add some ice. Juicing is great because of course, it’s all natural and you know exactly what’s going in it and you can adjust it to your own tastes. And if you think about it, if you’re normal, you probably can’t eat all those fruits and vegetables in a day!

I was juicing everyday for a few days until my Mom cut me off because she was scared that I would turn orange from all the carrots. My friend Lindsay said, “Oh, that’d be perfect for summer! Get that orange glow! ” I got everyone looking out for my best interest.