"EatWith" a Local - Amsterdam
On Tuesday, our team was joined by Kurt Roush for a night out to dinner, minus Oxana who wasn’t feeling well. Instead of going to a pub or a fancy restaurant, Kurt had the great idea to use a website called EatWith in order to get a truly Dutch eating experience. Nobody on our team was familiar with EatWith. After some digging, we found out that EatWith is just like Airbnb. However, instead of renting out other peoples' homes or apartments, you pay them to cook a meal for you.
Our chef for the evening was a wonderful lady named Petra. Petra is a local artist who specializes in a unique type of anime (but don’t tell her it looks like anime). See for yourself:
Petra was great as were the other guests who joined us: Victoria, Vlad, and Vitali. These three unique individuals are from the Ukraine. We’ll talk about them in a future post. To start, we were brought an "amuse-bouche" of cured (raw) herring with chopped raw onion and pickle. (I’m sorry if you don’t know what an "amuse-bouche" is. Nobody else did either, but think tiny bite sized hors d’oeuvre.) It was a strange dish for some in our group. I could tell because as I looked around, there were several squeamish faces/slow eaters. None the less, everyone ate it. I also forgot to mention that throughout the entire meal, Petra was restocking the table with white wine, which definitely made the unique food go down easier.
Next up was the homemade tomato soup (sorry Eric, not Pumpkin). It was delicious. Petra mashed and ground up the tomatoes herself, so it tasted very fresh. Then, we had the main course, which consisted of garlic stuffed chicken, wrapped in pancetta, roasted in a white wine sauce. Oh yea- it was delicious, too. The plate also came with sliced baked potatoes with rosemary and more garlic, as well as a salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Finally, it was time for dessert. Petra made a white chocolate panna cotta with a homemade blueberry sauce. It was pretty dang good, if you ask me!
Once the meal was over, Petra spent some time showing us her art work, and how she gets it done. We also found out that Petra started a charity that raises money for children without parents. Her charity is very unique in that she has created an entire world called "Heart-World" and in "Heart-World" there is a family called the "Fam.Li". The family has a mom and dad, as well as nineteen children and a dog. Each member of the Fam.Li has a name that ends in Li, for example there is Happi.Li (who, by the way, is always very happy). Petra has created books about the family for the children to read and enjoy. One way Petra makes money to support the children is through partnerships with donors who become friends of the Fam.Li and are later added to the books. Some of the friends are Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Dutch National Soccer Player) and the Prince and Princess of Orange. The other way she helps to raise money is through selling art featuring the Fam.Li, which can sell for several thousands of dollars at galleries all over the world.
Overall, the meal was delicious and the company was great. Petra was a fantastic host and had a beautiful apartment with an amazing view. Thanks again to Kurt for setting up the dinner. We had a blast!
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