I'm in Somerset this week. I took an early flight this morning (woke up at 5.45 am) and I parked the rental car in Secaucus at 10.00 am. Pretty smooth connections every where.

I took the train from Secaucus to downtown Manhattan, where I had a nice lunch and visited an exhibition in the New York Public Library. I arrived in Somerset around 5.00 pm.

An American eagle doll on a renovation project in the city.

I had a great 'Durham morning'. After spending some time on my new hobby I went for a run over the Duke campuses, East and West. Then I went for a haircut in 9th Street, had coffee at Francesca's and shopping at Whole Foods.

I visited the library and was pleasantly surprises to see they had their book sale. I constraint myself and bought only 1 book, a beautiful version of Rip Van Winkle for $3. Then I visited the Durham Scrap Exchange because I was curious about it. A nice store.

An exhibition with biblical engravings and woodcuts by Dutch and Flemish artists opens today in Atlanta, Georgia after a successful display in the Museum of Biblical Art in New York.

The Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University presents Scripture for the Eyes: Bible Illustration in Netherlandish Prints of the Sixteenth Century, a collection of approximately 80 works. The exhibition explores the ways in which printed illustrations of Biblical and other religious themes supplemented and magnified the texts they accompanied during a period of dramatic religious and political upheaval. Featured artists include Lucas van Leyden, Maarten van Heemskerck, Dirck Volkertszoon Coornhert, and Hieronymus Wierix.

Illustrations are on loan from 13 institutions including the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Antwerp’s Plantin Museum, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The exhibition was earlier on display in the Museum of Biblical Art in New York and the New York Times wrote a glowing review about it:

"What remains undeniable [...] is the ability of Dutch printmakers to measure the heights and plumb the depths of the European soul."

Art in the 16th century helped the faithful to visualize and remember Bible stories but it also served to interpret these stories and to affirm church doctrine. The exhibition and catalog essays discuss the various aspects of this relationship between church and art. The New York Times:

"While some viewers may be fascinated by the scholarly issues and biblical themes that the exhibition so adroitly frames, the pictorial and narrative excitement will captivate many others. Among a series of dramatic scenes engraved by Philips Galle in 1565 is one showing soldiers tossing the accusers of Daniel into the lions’ den, a rocky hole in the ground. The hyperactive choreography of writhing, half-naked men and ravenous beasts — vivified by the syncopating play of light and shadow and the Michelangeloesque draftsmanship — is almost comically horrifying."

Michael C. Carlos Museum, Scripture for the Eyes: Bible Illustration in Netherlandish Prints of the Sixteenth Century
http://www.carlos.emory.edu/scripture
Through January 24, 2010

A co-founder of Dutch Bros., a coffee chain at the West Coast, has died from Lou Gehrig's Disease.

The Associated Press: "Travis Boersma said his brother, 55-year-old Dane Boersma, died Thursday morning at his home in Grants Pass.

The Boersmas started Dutch Bros. pushing a coffee cart up and down the streets of Grants Pass. They started franchising the company in 2000. It has since grown to more than 150 coffee stands in seven states, with more than $50 million in sales last year."

Dane Boersma was born in Lynnwood, California and he is a third generation Dutch American. When he was diagnosed with ALS he started Dane's Drive to raise funds for research to find a cure for ALS. Mr. Boersma is survived by his wife, Sandy, a daughter and two sons.

I watched Argentina - Urugay with some very nervous friends tonight. We watched the game online on two monitors in the living room.

For a couple minutes I was cheering for the wrong team until I realize that Argentina was playing in different shirts this evening. I quickly corrected myself after some deadly looks from my friends when Urugay almost scored.

Luckily Argentina won (1-0) so it was a fun evening. With this win Argentina qualified for the World Cup in South Africa next year. It will be fun to watch those games next summer.

Last week we visited Corine's Cafe in Mooresville, North Carolina, one of nearly 40 Dutch restaurants, bakeries and stores in the United States that we know of.

Corine's Cafe is located in Mooresville about 30 minutes north of Charlotte, NC. A sign with big red letters marks the spot: 'homestyle cooking with a touch of Dutch'.

Owner Corine Croxell is a Dutch native and her husband Dennis works for a NASCAR team. The cafe captures the family spirit by featuring orange Dutch flags and NASCAR racing memorabilia. The classic American dining room is decorated with 1950's bar chairs and a black and white tiled floor and the cafe was used to create a TV commercial with Dale Earnhardt Jr., a NASCAR racer.

A touch of Dutch
The frontpage of the menu has a picture of classic Dutch windmill and Dutch items on the menu include bitterballen, kroketten, Dutch pancakes, Dutch apple pie and home-made stroopwafels.

The waitress gave us a friendly warning: "the bitterballen and the kroketten are pretty much the same thing". She was right of course, and it was nice to warn us, but we ordered both anyway. The bitterballen are home-made and delicious. They're filled with chicken, parsley and spices. While their crust was a bit thinner than the mass produced ones in the Netherlands, they had a really nice bite to it. Of special note is the mustard used. Corine's Cafe use exactly the right type of mustard for bitterballen and kroketten -- spicy and not too sweet.

Mrs. Croxell is a hands-on manager and starts her day very early bake and prepare for breakfast. "I always have to train the American cooks on how exactly to prepare a pannenkoek", she said. Her lessons paid off -- the pancake was excellent.

We tried the cheese and bacon version and the structure of the pancake was classical Dutch: fluffy, with a great flavor and a little thinner than the American version. In the Netherlands pancakes are served in many different styles and flavors. While using fried bacon instead of smoked spek is definitely American it works out nicely and this is a true Dutch-American pancake.

Mrs. Croxell worked in a pancake house in the Netherlands. She has worked in restaurants from an early age and in August 2005 she started Corine's Cafe. Through the years she has brought many Dutch items from Holland to North Carolina to decorate the cafe; even the pen-holder at the register is a wooden shoe. Mrs. Croxell grew up in Waterland, a municipality just north of Amsterdam, and in the hallway there are a number of photographs of Marken and Monnickendam.

Corine's Cafe is a casual eatery with 225 seats and Mrs. Croxell said they are frequently full. Breakfast is especially popular. They have a lot of regular guests. The Dutch snacks are popular for lunch, for example the kroketten with French fries. The kroketten are also home-made and except for the size and shape are very similar to the bitterballen, as is the case in the Netherlands.

Dutch desserts
The stroopwafels, made one-by-one by Mrs. Croxell in a small waffle iron, are a real treat. They are different from store bought stroopwafels (a little crispier) and remind of the freshly baked stroopwafels on the markets in the Netherlands.

Finally, the apple pie is as Dutch as it gets -- this is the real thing. For a real 'Dutch treat' we had it heated up with a scoop of whip cream on top.

Corine's Cafe is definitely worth a visit. For a real European experience you could combine a visit with a trip to the Ikea a few miles away.

Corine's Cafe
559 E. Plaza Drive
Mooresville, NC
View on map

"Corine's Cafe: homestyle cooking with a touch of Dutch".

Bitterballen.

Dutch specials on the menu.

Kroketten.

Home-made Dutch apple pie (appeltaart).

I cooked a couple of dishes tonight, and froze a lot of it for the week. When cooking Indonesian it's much more efficient to cook a couple of different recipes at the same time since there is so much cutting, chopping and preparing involved and often ingredients are similar.

I got a nice piece of chuck roast from the butcher and made two meat stews: rawon daging or zwarte rundvleesstoof and daging smoor. In addition I prepared a home-made satay sauce which was fun to do and marinated a number of chicken satay skewers.

Yesterday we spent the day on the road; we went to the new Ikea there and picked up a book case.