The Hard Rock Café of Dutch-Indonesian cuisine

Indonesian food is prevalent in Amsterdam (Indonesia having been colonized by the Dutch), and one of the most popular Indonesian restaurants in town is Tempo Doeloe. According to their website, “Tempo Doeloe” roughly translates from Indonesian to “the good old days” and they are known particularly for their rijsttafels. A rijsttafel is a bit like Indonesian […]

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after a trip to the library, I dumped the contents of my bag on to the table. Pictured here: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun, Charles Yu's How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Nikon camera, proofreading pens, Grolsch, sandwich

Joining the library when you don’t speak the language

As I’ve mentioned before, checking out books from the Amsterdam public library isn’t free. Considering how otherwise literate and progressive the Netherlands is (with a few notable exceptions), this came as quite a surprise to me. But, like the efficient and functional infrastructure, the beautiful parks and the low crime rate that we presumably pay […]

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A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck – an international guide to social awkwardness

I’m not a big social hugger. I hug my family and loved ones – and of course there are incidental exceptions – but unless you and I have really gone through some shit, I probably don’t want to hug you. The whole notion of body contact greeting makes me feel like an alien from the planet […]

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My favorite books for self-care and their comfort food pairings

Synesthesia is the phenomenon where people have a mix of sensory experiences in response to a particular input. Numbers may have tastes, musical notes may sound like a specific color. Numbers and notes are pretty mono-sensorial for me, but when I’m reading I often associate books with kinds of food. Then again, I’m also hungry all the time so that […]

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Minibieb tour of Amsterdam

A lot of things have changed about my reading habits since moving to Amsterdam. The biggest shift came when I had to divest myself of most of the books that I’ve been accumulating more or less since middle school. This has had the obvious result of chopping down my TBR pile into a measly slim stack. […]

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Stuff I ate in #Amsterdam – Authentic India grocery store

It’s a damn shame, but the Indian restaurants in Amsterdam are all pretty crap. Honestly, you can get better Indian food in Louisville. The Dutch have Indonesian food as their go-to takeaway and that, plus Holland’s fairly bland palate and intolerance of spicy foods, means that good Indian food is tough to find. I’ve tried dozens of […]

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#Books of the month – April

Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays – Zadie Smith It’s been a few years now since I read On Beauty and White Teeth, but I remember really loving both and I’d consider myself a fan of Smith’s. I would imagine if you are as educated in the world of literary criticism as Smith you might get more enjoyment out of this […]

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Stuff I did in #Amsterdam – Urban Sports Week

Over the weekend Amsterdam was host to a huge variety of urban sports demos and tournaments as part of Urban Sports Week Amsterdam. As an old, I was pretty unfamiliar to the world of urban sports (beyond skateboarding and tourist bashing) and it was delightful to wander around the city watching the kids do their flips. […]

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My Old Kentucky Homesickness

I love Amsterdam, but every so often I get a hankering for my home town. Usually it’s not a specific thing I’m missing, more the general feel of the place. Sometimes it’s comforting to FaceTime with my friends and family, but I’ve discovered that nothing conjures up the feeling of being back in Kentucky like engaging […]

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