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.