Grilling in Groningen

It’s good to get out of town now and again. Even if the town in question is Amsterdam and you’re new to said town. After 5 weeks of heavy networking, 2-5 meetings a day with new people, biking like mad in order not to be late to said meetings and telling my story over and over again..well, I really needed a break.

Enter good friend Richard Kastelein of Agora Media Group, Expathos and a handful of other fascinating businesses (the man has his own wiki page for Pete’s sake!) and his lovely family; all lovely ladies, which includes his wife, three beautiful little girls, the cat and the dog.

After a smooth and relatively short (by US standards) train ride I arrived at the lovely town of Groningen, which is the northeastern most province of the Netherlands. It’s a nice sized town consisting of just over 185,000 residents and a good sized college which makes for a busy and ever changing mix of inhabitants.

After dropping off my bags our primary mission was to shop for that evening’s dinner via the local fish and vegetable market where Richard promised we’d find everything we needed for our grill fest.

Thankfully his little girls (ages 4-7) all enjoy fish so fish it would be. Here’s a nod to feeding young children foods parents eat..no chicken nuggets in this household! So off on our bikes we went with grocery bags tucked away and the lovely Spring day surrounding us.

When we arrived we did a quick visual tour to plan the meal…we’d grab the whole salmon last and head to a nearby Moroccan shop for olives, pita,  and hummus first then load up on veg, fruit, fresh herbs and local eggs.

Richard had a blast as I described uses for some vegetables he was unfamiliar with or whose uses extended beyond raw salads. I explained how the common red radish takes on a mellow, almost sweet flavour when tossed in olive oil and roasted in a hot oven; it’s red skin turning a beautiful pink with the slow caramelizing of internal starches. Same could be said for the long, white daikon radishes we passed. Roasted slowly in the oven, grilled over coals or sliced thinly for pickles, it really is a versatile vegetable whose radishness (I couldn’t help myself) is easily tamed with a bit of extra care.

Yet we opted to keep things simple, kids in mind, and try not to press our culinary luck too much with new additions to their existing repertoire. It was hard not to buy more than we needed because everything looked, smelled and tasted so good. I’m not afraid to admit that I spend more money on food than any other item in my life; more than shoes, clothes and cosmetics combined. To me there’s nothing more amazing, enjoyable or easy to share with others. Clothing styles come and go but great food is timeless and universal.

In the end we opted for simple side dishes of rosemary and garlic roasted baby red potatoes and grilled peppers with a little grilled fennel bulb. A cold cucumber and fresh dill salad was also included since the girls love cucumber. From the sea we chose to grill a whole salmon with a mix of fresh rosemary, red onions, garlic, fennel, olives and lemon; a blend of Mediterranean flavours that would perfectly match the weather, be easy to assemble and appeal to our young dinner guests.

Cycling back we stopped off at another square for a freshly made “Stroopwafle” which I have affectionately renamed “Crackwafle” since it’s my opinion that you can’t eat just one of these addictive, caramel centered, thin waffle-walled cookies. They are so addictive in fact that I have to force myself not to buy them when I go to the store..and yes, they come covered in chocolate as well! Pure sin.

Back at Richard’s we got to work prepping and talking shop. Seems cleaning fish and veggies goes quite well with talk of internet marketing, blogging, online publishing and social TV. Richard’s passion for Convergent Media, where all fields of on/offline communication cross to provide a true high point of social interaction, is akin to my love of fusion cuisine; where drawing from the various communication cultures blend into one harmonious and powerful way of connecting to each other. Where spices, herbs and raw ingredients blend in my world so does communication platforms merge in his. It all made for a great and delicious mix.

I’m not going to list any actual recipes in this post because we didn’t follow any. We used our collective experiences to create an incredible and simple meal that had us full-bellied and smiling by the end of the night. Breakfast the next day only extended the fun as we played “Duck, duck, goose!” with an incredible mix of duck and goose eggs from the market.

It was a weekend of pure food and shared experience that none of us will soon forget. Until next time gang!