17.7.09

The Floating Buttermilk Picnic







It's raining cats and dogs so what better way to beat the rainy blues than with some sunny pictures?

We, the lucky ones, got ourselves an invitation for a boat trip in the Amsterdam Canals last Wednesday. Now, to be honest, I'm a bit apprehensive about boat trips. I've been on a few that were less than satisfactory.. sailing around with your butt on a rockhard wooden bench, your feet in an inch of muddy water, eating nothing but potato chips and drinking lukewarm beer, which makes you want to pee, but not a bathroom in sight, and everytime you want to move around the tiny boat you think you'll fall overboard, and when it gets dark it gets cold, ... that's not really my idea of a good time. It's not that I'm that high maintenance (although some people will probably happily argue that I am), it's just that I like a little bit of comfort with my fun.

For this trip, we were lured in by the promise of cocktails and fried chicken, and when I saw the boat I sighed a happy sigh of relief: a sturdy vessel donned with pillows and napkins and wineglasses and an ice bucket and wait, is that a pepper mill I see?

This was going to be good.

See here for some scenic pics. Here's some of the food: fried chicken that Chef was a bit apologetic about, and while we agreed that the skin had lost some of its crispness I still though it was great fried chicken.. especially when drenched with Real Barbecue sauce. Everybody loved the chicken:








By some strange coincedence there was not only buttermilk fried chicken, but also buttermilk biscuits (oh so good with lots of butter and honey) and buttermilk nectarine cake. There were mojito's being expertly mixed with some unorthodox equipment. To add some excitement we were almost run over by a rondvaartboot. And this is what I look like when I think I'm about to bump my head against a bridge:



Fun.

1 comment:

RachelD said...

Now, THAT'S a picnic!! You could have been at the lake near our house in Mississippi---the fried chicken, the biscuits, all the comforts of (floating) home.

And, of course, some quite unusual utensils---what's a kitchen without a toolbelt? I won't mention the time I was catering a really elegant outdoor tea for a lady who had borrowed silver trays and urns and napery, and had a string quartet playing on the lawn.

She'd said they'd be responsible for the beverages, and imagine my dismay when I looked out the kitchen window to see her brother-in-law stirring an immense vat of iced tea with a 2x4. eew