Markus Anecdotes - Eating on my own

Written by Markus and Photos by Markus

I’ve been living in the country side since I arrived in the Netherlands about 1 year ago. It’s clean, quiet and above all….. Boring! It is the forests and my garden that brought me here, but after a year I’ve found that I do not really make use of them, and still having to travel to get the simplest of things.

Now that Corona restrictions are getting lifted, I’ve decided to move to a city again. And I’m going all-in: I’ve selected an apartment in the city center, above the shops on the biggest shopping street I could find, with everything available in a 3 minutes’ walk. Super convenient.

As I lived in the countryside, I’ve grown several veggies myself in my garden. The last to be harvested are the potatoes. So here we go with the last meal cooked before I move, made by food I have grown from scratch.

A heads-up, the food doesn’t look very nice, but I can tell you, it tastes great, creamy and full of flavor.

It starts with the potato plant.

It is simple: buy potatoes, cut them in half and put them in the ground. That’s all! I’ve pulled the plant and found several potatoes below.

I washed them, followed by peeling and cutting into thick slices.

Then I give the potatoes a 5 minutes boil.

Look at those potatoes. A bit small, but they are healthy. And the thought of having cared for them for so long, gives a special feeling.

I would also take an eggplant, peel it and slice them as thick as I’ve sliced the potatoes. I’ve put them on a plate with a standing edge of about 1cm. I then cover them with slices of farmer’s butter, but if you don’t have a farm near, President’s butter will do just as fine.

This then goes into the oven at a temperate of 190 degrees Celsius until the butter has melted and you see the eggplant simmering in the hot butter. This takes, including heating up the oven, about 10 minutes.

I then add the boiled potatoes and place them between the eggplant slices.

I slice a piece of Gouda cheese, cover the whole plate and put it back into the oven at 200 degrees Celsius.

While waiting on the cheese to get a slight brown baked color on top, I’ve pulled open a pack of fresh asparagus soup to supplement this meal.

Don’t need a lot and a small bowl will do. And of course, being in Europe, it goes without saying that we need a drink to go with this. Though many will point at the cheese and say it needs a red wine, instead I recommend a sweet wine or even a port. I’m going for the latter.

And there we go, a nice and hearty meal that contains my own precious potatoes. Agreed that it doesn’t look like much but I guarantee, every bite is a mouth full of creaminess. It’s a nice farewell to my farming endeavors and while munching it away, good memories of this place enter my mind. Yet still, I can’t wait I have once again choice of food from 15 countries right on my doorstep. First I’ll go for…. ehm…. Greek. Yes, that will be my welcome dinner in my new home. A nice mountain of Gyros with cucumber sauce. I’m almost getting hungry again.