A Few Hours In Amsterdam Part 2

Since I spent so much time at the airport trying to figure my way out, I didn't have that much time to explore. My goal was to have a nice leisurely lunch before heading back to the airport. During my 60 minutes of free wifi time, I used Foursquare to find a restaurant within walking distance of train station with a good rating. I found De Bakkerswinkel, a cozy bakery cafe.

A shame the cow's head was not captured.

Here's me on the way from the train statioin to the bakery cafe. Couldn't pass up this kitschy tourist pic. That's the train station behind me.

Entrance to the bakery cafe

A Few Hours In Amsterdam Part 1

I had a flight connection in Amsterdam back in August 2014 and started to write a blog entry but then totally left it to gather dust. Since I had so much written already, I feel like I should finish it. Should I call this a #laterpost?

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During my 7-hour connection in Amsterdam, I got a chance to venture out from the airport to the city. I've visited Amsterdam once before and had a great time. However, I realized I forgot a lot about getting back and forth between the airport and the city. For a seasoned traveler, I was discombobulated mess. But I survived and learned a lot. I made the mistakes so you don't have to! Allons-y!

Entertainment and shops at Schiphol airport

Amsterdam Schiphol is a great airport. Pro: It's huge. Con: It's huge. I landed in Terminal G from the US and had to walk the entire airport to Terminal B for my intra-Europe flight. Along the way, I came across lots of great shops. LOTS of shops. You could spend days shopping in the airport. An overall plus about The Netherlands is that the Dutch are fluent in English. So don't hesitate to ask an airport employee for help. Also along the way, you may have to go through customs while you're transiting. Make sure to have a print-out of your itinerary handy. For me, I didn't have a boarding pass for my intra-Europe flight yet so my itinerary print-out helped a lot.

BBQ in Memphis

This post could also be entitled: How I got fatter in Memphis. :) Memphis is a BBQ city so being my first time in Memphis I was excited to try some out. I love ribs. My first experience with ribs was at Bâton Rouge in Montreal on a business trip. After that I was hooked.

Memphis is also known for pulled pork but to be honest I can't really tell the difference between different kinds of pulled pork. They all taste good to me. But ribs are a different story. They have to be fall-off-the-bone tender to compete for my palate. And Memphis ribs did not disappoint. What's unique in Memphis is dry rub and it's delicious. It's a mix of spices with a little bit of sweetness. You can get your ribs wet or dry or both. Of course I went for both. 

Corky's ribs. This was my favorite out of the three - both the dry and wet ribs were excellent. The onion stack appetizer in the background was crazy. The fries were delicious too. I don't want to know how many calories I consumed.

Central's ribs. The ribs were tender but the sauce and dry rub coating weren't that great. Glad I only had a small portion. The BBQ nachos with pulled pork are the popular item here.

The BBQ nachos with homemade chips and pulled pork. I didn't realize the chips would be cajun spicy so I didn't end up liking the appetizer as much as I thought I would. I'll have to try it with tortilla chips next time.

Bar-B-Q Shop's ribs. They came in a close second. I loved the dry but the wet wasn't as good as Corky's. I tried turnip tips (green vegetable) for the first time. The bbq spaghetti was really cool and I enjoyed it.

Life Update and Food with Love August 2014

Wow summer flew by! My grandma had a minor stroke in June so my family and I have been busy taking care of her. I bring this up because grandma has lost interest in many things, including food. It's a victory if she's willing to eat more than a couple of bites at meal time. A Chipotle bowl last week was a win! She kept spooning rice, veggies, and chicken into her mouth. All the while she kept saying how it was 'too spicy'. It wasn't spicy but it did have bits of onion in the salsa so that probably set off her spicy meter.

I like to open subscription boxes with my grandma too. I opened my Love with Food box with her the other day. She really enjoyed the Nutty Rice Bites. It's mini rice squares with nuts and currants. If grandma likes something she'll usually have 2-3 pieces but with the rice bites she had 5 pieces! Victory!

Here's what was in the August box:

Fun at the County Fair theme

all-natural cheddar crackers and squirrel-shaped animal crackers

steak-flavored potato chips, lollipops, and salt water taffy

Nutty Rice Bites, ice pop, and Kettle Sweet peanuts

Around the World in Five Boroughs: Bolivia

A couple on Flyertalk started a thread stating their goal to find and try food from every country in the world in NYC and invited the community to join them. When I saw that, I thought it was a brilliant idea. I hadn't really noticed that you could get every type of world cuisine in New York City. I mean, I knew there were a lot of offerings in the city but it never crossed my mind that there would be a restaurant that offered, for example, Azerbaijan-cuisine. So the couple started with Afghanistan and are experiencing the cuisines in alphabetical order by country. I was finally able to join in for Bolivian food at Mi Bolivia in Queens, NY.

Sunnyside

A Sunnyside 'gate' welcomed me to the neighborhood after I got off the subway

Restaurant entrance

Doesn't look open right? Our dinner host even read reviews saying this place was closed but alas it is open!

DMZ Tour from the North Korea Side

It's Throwback Thursday! (aka #TBT) A few weeks ago, I wrote about my trip to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from the South Korea side. Now let's take a look at it from the North Korea side. Let's address the elephants in the room first:

• Yes, I went to North Korea. (http://www.koryogroup.com/)
• Yes, they allow Americans into the country. At the time, Americans had a limit of five days in the country but they have lifted that limit now.
• Yes, I had a safe and wonderful time there. The country is beautiful and the people are lovely. I may not agree with their government but I'm not going to hold it against the wonderful people I met during my time there.

Back in 2008, one of my friends asked me if I wanted to go on a tour of North Korea (aka DPRK). I had never considered going there before but it sounded like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so I decided to go. Most of our time was spent in Pyongyang but we did take a day trip to the DMZ.

Love with Food May 2014 Follow-Up

I had a good laugh when I saw this in my email yesterday, the day after I posted about not knowing what to do with the truffle salt.

Read my previous post to see why this follow-up email was such a hoot.

Subscription Box Review: Love with Food May 2014

I've recently become a big fan of subscription boxes. With a subscription fee, every month you receive a box of goodies. (And usually the value of the goodies is more than the price of the monthly subscription.) There are makeup subscription boxes (Birchbox), travel boxes (Escape monthly), pet boxes (Barkbox), etc. Of course, there are also food boxes! Recently on Gilt City, there was a discount offered for a 6-month subscription to Love with Food so I jumped on it. Their focus is on organic or all-natural snacks. Plus for every box sold, they donate a meal to food banks. Everybody wins yay!

Here is what I got in my first box, the May 2014 box:

The box when it comes out of the mailbox.

It's actually smaller than it looks. It's about 10 in x 6.5 in. It's nice they shrink wrap it.

Open sesame!

The theme of the month was Derby Days. On the inside cover, they remind you how your box contributes to one free meal. Aww warm and fuzzies. Now show me the cookies!

Daily Getaways Offers

The Just Another Points Traveler blog wrote a post about the Daily Getaway specials posted by the U.S. Travel Association and American Express. I have never heard of these yearly specials, much less the U.S. Travel Association, but now I have been enlightened. And I am super excited about them! There is one special that I am particularly excited about and I'll let you know if I get it. In the meantime, let's do some math on some of the offers.

Week 1: May 20
Hertz Offers
I really like Hertz because, unlike other rental car companies, they have a points-based program versus issuing award certificates. For me, my award certificates always expire before I can use them so I appreciate the points-based program for its flexibility. (The points are valid as long as you have program activity within the last 24 months.)

On the deals website, the Hertz offers have prices listed alongside a type of vehicle and rental period. Ignore the type of vehicle and rental period parts. These offers are really about buying points in the program. Here are the prices:

$280 for 5,500 points
$475 for 13,200 points
$775 for 16,500 points

If you pay with American Express, then you get a 10% discount on top of these deals! Here are the new prices with the discount:

$252 for 5,500 = 21.83 points per $
$427.50 for 13,200 = 30.88 points per $
$697.50 for 16,500 = 23.66 points $

I did a points per dollar analysis and found that the offers have very different values. As you can see above, the middle option for $427.50 is actually the best offer.

And the winner is...

The winner of the week/month/year for the most adventurous culinary adventure is Wanderlusty. He ate boiled sheep's head, a local Iceland specialty. And he blogged about it! Bon appétit!

Warning: There are before, during, and after pictures of the entree.

http://first2board.com/wanderlusty/2014/05/08/brunching-svid-icelandic-boiled-sheep-head/