This week there was a basketball game between the University of North Carolina (UNC) and Duke University. This annual game is a hugely popular event, and some of the Duke students have been in line since December (!) to get tickets for the game.

We went for a walk over campus earlier this week and saw the tents and camping equipment in front of the sports stadium. The next day the TV news mentioned that one of the kids in the tents was treated for meningitis, but was doing relatively well. The name of the tent ville is Krzyzewskiville, or Kville, named after 'Coach K' a hugely successful coach of the Duke men's basketball team (and also of the US Olympic team in 2008).

Read more about the line policy on Kville.info.

Sadly for those enthousiastic fans, Duke lost to UNC with 87 to 101.

I realize that it may sound like I do nothing but cooking these days. Having said that: tonight we cooked nasi goreng with real krupuk and it was great.

Nasi goreng is an Indonesian fried rice dish which is popular in the Netherlands.

In Grand Asia, an Asian grocery store near my work in Raleigh, I found real Indonesian krupuk; crackers made of shrimp. They are deep fried for a minute or so in the pan and expand to three times their dry size.

Last but not least I experimented with a peanut sauce from Hong Kong, and that was a very lucky choice. It was delicious, a great combination of sweet and spicy at the same time.

Sunday I was a Chinese store in Durham, and noticed this can of meat, "made with pork and chicken".

The Holland name is accompanied by a windmill, so they must mean the country, but the meat itself was packed and canned in Los Angeles, CA.

For the first time in some 5 years I cooked shoarma tonight. The last week or so we’ve really been in a Dutch cooking mood. While shoarma originates in the Middle East, it is very popular in the Netherlands and when we lived there we cooked it quite often (shoarma is spelled shawarma in the US).

Many butcher shops and super markets in Holland sell pre-marinated ‘shoarma meat’: usually pork, sometimes lamb or chicken, with a marinade of spices. The traditional way to serve the meat is in a warm pita bun, with a generous portion of a garlic dressing (knoflooksaus). You can't find this premarinated meat or the prepared dressing in the States, but I found a number of recipes for them and we liked the result. The knoflooksaus was especially good, and very close to what I remember from the Netherlands.

Below is the recipe that I used tonight. A next time I'll change the shoarma mix -- it was good but not quite like in Holland.

For the shoarma meat we used chicken breast, but a more traditional (Dutch) choice would be pork. In any case, slice the meat in thin slices, no longer than 1.5 inch, and marinate them with some oil and a blend of the following spices.

- 4 tsp cumin
- 3 paprika powder
- 2 tsp coriander
- 2 tsp pepper
- 2 tsp salt

Above are the proportions that I used, a little bit more than needed for two chicken breast. I used about 75% of the blend. Fry the chicken with the spices, until the meat is done.

In the mean time, warm up 4 pita buns in the oven.

For the knoflooksaus, mix the following ingredients (portion for at least 2 people, it was too much for us):

- 4 tbs mayonnaise
- 4 tbs yogurt
- 1 small clove of garlic, smashed
- 2 tsp dried parsley
- Salt & pepper

Yesterday I cooked babi pangang and oh boy, that was delicious. I don't think I've ever made babi pangang before, but inspired by all the Dutch things last weekend I prepare pork ribs in a marinade on Sunday night. It stayed in the fridge for 24 hours and I cooked it yesterday. It was an excellent dish and got great reviews from my audience.

I also made a small pan with sauce, but that didn't turn out very nice. The recipe called for tomato ketchup, which should have been a warning sign, and the result just wasn't delicious. Next time I'll use another recipe.

The meat in the babi pangang is pork, but there are a couple of different cuts you can use. Yesterday I tried pork ribs, another time I'll probably go for boneless meat. In Holland a great choice would be speklapjes (pork belly strips). Marinade the meat and let it stand for at least an hour, preferably over night (see ingredients below).

Cook the pork on a medium high fire, with the marinade in a pan, for about 30 to 40 minutes until the meat is done and tender. Then, put the pork with some of the marinade, in a pan in the oven (400 degrees) for about 10 minutes so it gets crispy. Serve with white rice (and a babi pangang sauce, if you can find a good recipe).

Ingredients for the marinade:

- 6 tbsp ketjap manis (sweet Indonesian soya sauce)
- 2 tbsp oil
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tsp fresh, finely cut ginger
- 2 mashed cloves of garlic
- 1 tsp koriander
- some salt

For best results, use fresh ginger and fresh garlic. Don't be tempted to use that 4 week old garlic you have in your pantry! Garlic is cheap but it's very important for the flavor.

Last night I went to a klaverjassen evening in Durham and it was a great night.

It was organized by the Dutch club of the Triangle, De Wieken. It was a very friendly group of people.

Klaverjassen is a Dutch card game. There were decks of Dutch playing cards, so we played with Boer, Heer, Vrouw instead of Jack, Queen and King, which was nice. It's been at least 6 years since I played klaverjassen; we used to play it a lot in college and playing the game brought back nice memories from the Vrije Universiteit. I missed many a lecture playing kraken.

It took me a while to get back into the game but it was a lot of fun with nice people.

Middenmeer, the village where I grew up and our parents still life, is in the news today. A dead body was found on the street this morning; the police is suspecting a crime.

Read more: Telegraaf, in Dutch or RTV Noord Holland, in Dutch.

Last year around this time I started thinking about purchasing a DSLR. I spent many hours researching the various types of cameras, lens systems and products and every time I'd discover something better and cooler or read something in an on-line review. So ultimately I had figured out what kind of camera I 'wanted' and the total price of the camera and lenses was absolutely ridiculous. After a couple of days I came back down to earth and set my eyes on a nice starter's camera, a Canon 400D. But, I knew myself, so I decided to wait a little. I had been running for many months by then, and started considering running a race. I combined the two goals, and told myself that I could purchase the camera in April after running the Raleigh Rocks, my first half marathon.

April came I and ran the half marathon and thoroughly enjoyed it... and sure enough: I didn't really long for the camera anymore. The Wall Street Journal has column about this.

After our wedding, and going through the pictures etc, we started thinking about a DSLR again. Wouldn't it be nice to have a good camera and take beautiful pictures? I now have my eyes on the replacement model of the camera we were thinking about a year ago, the Canon 450D.

But, truth be told: taking pictures is nice, and it's cool to have a great camera, but I don't think it's the perfect hobby for me. A week ago I went for a run on Duke campus in the evening and I saw a guy there with a nice camera, a big bag of equipment and a tripod, taking a -surely beautiful- night picture of a building. And I thought: that could be me. And would I have more fun taking that picture than running here? No way!

I realize that running gives me a lot more satisfaction than taking pictures can ever do.

I'm sure that one day we'll get a nice Canon DSLR. But there's no rush, especially in this economic climate. So, Tuesday I signed up for Raleigh Rocks 2009 and that will be my goal for the coming months.

Sky above Durham. January 24th, 2009.

The cold weather brings memories of good old Dutch traditions.

I cooked hutspot the other day, and with the tea we had a real stroopwafel.

We assembled the bookshelves that we bought during our trip to New Jersey for Thanksgiving.

It's from the "Expedit" series; the same type as our other two bookshelves we have in the study room.

The weather is dreadful today. Cloudy, overcast, a little rain... a friend called it "Dutch weather".