TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

It’s past 10PM in the Netherlands and in less than 2 hours it will be 2011! This afternoon I went to the centre of Utrecht to buy oliebollen for the new year’s celebration and this is what greeted me when I stepped out of Hoog Catharijne: an Oliebollen Gebakkraam with quite a long queue of customers. In the Netherlands, oliebollen (oliebol - singular, fried doughnut balls with raisins and apple bits, usually sprinkled with powdered sugar on top) is the symbol for New Years. New Years Eve and New Years Day are not complete without oliebollen. I bought 2 packs of oliebollen and a bottle of Prosecco (boycotting champagne this new year for a change). Hmm, I think its time to warm up the oliebollen... HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE! Oliebollen and Appelbeignet, taken at work last week.

As part of my re-integration to Filipino culture last October, I visited a couple of markets in Cebu and I’ll have to affirm that the ‘Minglanilla market’, especially the uber busy market street outside the fish and meat covered market hall was a delight to re-witness and re-experience. Public markets in the Philippines particularly the Minglanilla market in Cebu have a sundry of ready-to-eat food items to offer. I never thought markets these days have moved to a different genre but I guess we arrived late at the scene, just before dusk when vendors selling fresh produce from the mountains and catch from the sea have left or trickled down in numbers, replaced by a new set of merchants peddling already cooked fare for the dinner table. My camera quickly became the popular visitor in the market and in no time I have some of the friendly vendors voluntarily posing for me. FUN =) L to R then R to L: woman butcher; puso (hanging rice); old woman with mangoes; man breading the chicken; girl ...

Have you ever lusted for some old-time ‘comfort street food’? Well I have, when I was in Cebu in October this year. My taste buds were desperately yearning for a stick of fried banana cue (caramelized banana) and some fried kamote cue (caramelized sweet potato) as well, but how come these street delicacies were nowhere to be found in the city? I am honestly fearing the (imminent?) banana cue sold on the streets tradition extinction so kindly pass this on to all the ‘manangs’ and ‘alings’ out there... please, please, please... do not tire from deep frying these yummy caramelized treats at corner streets and at sari-sari stores. As for you, the local Filipino consumer: Buy Filipino! Buy banana cue, buy kamote cue and help preserve Filipino street food culture. And because I was still craving, we all hopped in the car and went to Naga, just to buy banana and kamote cues. Yipee! I took a few fotos of the environs there as well, see them below. The rest of the fotos are all here: Naga, Cebu...

Two weekends ago Blondine and I were in Valkenburg visiting the Fluweelengrot Christmas Market and it seemed like everyone had the same idea including our German neighbours. A stream of traffic to the city centre received us and because this is the Netherlands, there was no available parking in sight, unlike in Germany where it is as simple as drive, park, pay and go. The Netherlands is helaas NOT a car country, you get punished here for having one. But that didn’t distract us a bit because I am a lucky gal when it comes to parking. After a few rounds in the parking lot, we found a spot, along with the leaving occupant giving us his parking ticket that is still valid for another 4 hours. Grand. I am indeed lucky. Valkenburg aan de Geul in December is a lovely and gezellig place, the Christmas lights and beautifications give it the ‘it’, the punch, the vigour that any city would want. Like a flower that blooms all year round and only gets prettier at the end of the year. Heated outdoor...

...when it’s getting dark is not fun at all. Thankfully this section of Austerlitz forest is relatively small and we have the option to go back and take a different route through a nearby village. To prove the point, we had to retrace our tracks twice because we could not remember seeing the fallen pine tree on the road. It was getting dark and in another 10 minutes it will be pitch black in the forest. You never know, there could be a serial killer sheltering behind the iced bushes and trees waiting for his chance to slay. I know, macabre thoughts always come into the equation eh? Can’t help it, its automatic pilot when dire consternation is involved, plus it’s freezing cold, definitely not my choice of place to be stranded. So trusting our instincts we followed the path we thought is best and indeed after several minutes we saw moving lights from a distance. Must be the main road! Ah, thank goodness we are almost there, we just need to figure out which side of the road the car was pa...

Another Christmas Market I went to is the ‘Fluweelengrot (Velvet Cave) Kerstmarkt’ in Valkenburg, located in the south of the Netherlands in Limburg province. The ‘Fluweelengrot Christmas Market’ is the only Christmas market in the world held inside a cave. Quite unique, huh? Indeed. I have heard about this intriguing cave spectacle a long time ago and promised myself a gazillion times to trek down south during December. You see I always end up going east, to Germany instead. This is the chapel inside the Fluweelengrot (Velvet Cave). During the many wars that transpired in European history, both the public and soldiers took shelter in the caves. In the latest war, the World War II, the American troops took cover here as well and many of them inscribed their names on the cave walls. The opportunity came when Blondine and I went to Aachen, Germany last weekend which is located very near the border of the Netherlands and Belgium. When I checked Google Maps, it showed a mere 10+ kilometers...