Lessons Learned from Living Abroad continued

As promised, here's my husband's thoughts on living abroad, with a focus on managing finances, dealing with tax preparation, managing remaining finances back home, etc.  I love how practical his advice is and while it may not work for you, it's something to think about as you're making the transition abroad or still figuring it out (it is indeed an ongoing process!).  Feel free to drop a comment if you want him or me to expand on any points you see here! 

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Monica did a really nice job explaining the challenges we've faced, both personally and professionally, during our expatriate experiences.  You can imagine there are stories behind each and every bulleted item in her list, but expanding on those may be fodder for other posts.  She has asked me to comment on the paperwork and financial challenges that came with our experiences, so I’m going to spend some time going over my methods for managing those topics.  The methods I use are not strictly for expats…they can also be useful for day to day life experiences, but there is a strange marriage of paper and electronics that happens when you become an expat, so I’ll go through that.

First things first, though…

Where is your home country?:  United States of America (Minnesota)
How many years have you been away from your home country?: 4 years
What is your current and previous expat location?:  Currently in Eindhoven, The Netherlands; previously in Torino, Italy
Why did you choose to live abroad?: I was presented with an interesting professional opportunity, with an interesting product, in a fascinating culture.
Are you working?: Yup.  I’m a mechanical engineer for a medical device company.
How often do you go to your home country?: perhaps once a year.

So I’m going to tell you how we manage our paper and financial lives while overseas…this isn’t “the right way,” it’s my way.  If you think these kinds of things are helpful for you, I encourage you to find ways to adjust them to meet your own needs.

With what currency are you paid?
You need to think ahead about this question, because it has an impact on your access to funds overseas.

There are at least three ways that an expat can get paid.  For our first jobs, we were paid in dollars to our US accounts by the US branches of the companies we worked for.  This means that we would be earning dollars and spending euros…that’s obviously a mismatch, but we still had a lot of US expenses that needed to be paid in USD, from US accounts.  So this worked fairly well.  We just needed to figure out how to buy stuff in local currency without paying exorbitant exchange fees.

Another way to go is to hedge - I met one colleague who was paid half his salary in euros and half his salary in US dollars.  That’s pretty smart, and provides him some margin when the exchange rates fluctuate.

In our current position, we are paid solely in euros.  This brings its own challenges, because while we have wound down most of our US expenses, we do still have some, and now it is expensive to wire money back home to keep those accounts funded.

How do you get spending money in each of these cases?
The easiest way to make purchases is with a Capital One credit card.  They don’t charge extra for foreign currency purchases.  You pay the Wall Street exchange rate and that’s it.  But they only accept dollars, which is relatively challenging to address when you are paid only in Euros.  You also earn points on your payments, so you continue to have a small benefit.

For access to cold hard cash, we set up an account with Charles Schwab.  If you take advantage of their offer to link a brokerage account to a checking account, then you can withdraw cash from your US account using overseas ATMs at no extra charge!  It is literally just the wall street rate.  What’s great about this is that we can be traveling anywhere in the world, and if we need money, we just pull it from the local cash machine.  Easy peasy.  That said, it’s still critical to call the bank if you travel to make sure they know you’re abroad.

If you’re paid in euros, then you have a European bank account.  That’s pretty easy to figure out.  Europeans are debit card nuts, so you have PIN payments possible at almost any establishment you want, making cash withdrawal almost obsolete anyway.

Banking as an expat:
We only have two experiences with this…assuming you have your residence papers, setting up a bank account in Eindhoven is EASY.  Sign a few documents, they mail us PINs and debit cards and that’s that.  Funny enough, the hardest part of the whole transaction was the initial deposit.  We had hand carried a thousand euros or so to give us a little spending money when we first arrived.  We withdrew it using our US-based bank cards by using the local Italian ATMs.  But we found out that the banks here in The Netherlands don’t actually carry cash…nor do they typically accept it.  It turns out that when you open a bank account, you get a one-time opportunity to deposit cash without additional fees.  Good thing we only wanted to do it once.  Basically, every bank transaction is electronic.  We got used to that fast.

The contrast between Italian banking and Netherlands banking couldn’t be starker.  Banking in Italy was an amazing experience.  The sheer volume of paper that was processed in order to make it work was shocking.  And what’s even more amazing is that the system seems to work like 20 years ago in the USA, with really horrendous bankers hours, reams and reams of paper documents, but also with fees for using the teller.  Remarkably, they actually use real paper to record your transactions…paper!  with signatures!  To set up an account, you set up a formal meeting with a local banker, who greets you very formally.  The specific bank branch is also critical to the process in Italy, as it serves as the location for bank deposits (for expats, anyway) and is the place to go for mortgages should you want one.  In this day and age of electronic banking, it is remarkable to suffer through those kinds of strange restrictions, but it’s a typical example of the kind of thing you have to realize you are taking for granted back in the US.

But here’s another hint: maintain a bank account in the US with somebody you trust.  Put their name on the account with you.  In a pinch, they can help you move some money around.

What obligations do you have…and which will you maintain from afar?
Here’s a list of obligations we had, and our thought process behind each of them:

We each had our own homes when we got married, so we started dealing with those...

• House #1: keep it and rent it.  Turns out that being able to depreciate a property is a huge help when tax time comes.  So combining the depreciation with the rental income actually manages to (almost) pay for the property.  We don’t earn anything, but it has allowed us to avoid losing much money.  Find a reputable management company who is full service.  They’ll make the process one of low overhead.  Note that we also needed landlord insurance on it, so we need a way to pay that bill...
• House #2: I had some roommates for awhile, but once they left, we decided to sell this house.  It wasn’t in a good enough neighborhood to rent it out at a high enough monthly price.  This was an incredibly painful decision because I had invested a tremendous amount of money in remodeling it.  But without a rental income to sustain it, the cost was far too high.  It had to go.
• Accomplishing the sale of a house from afar was much easier than I ever expected.  We were able to use online electronic signatures for everything, so contracts were pretty easy to review from email.  The hardest thing was to manage the timeframes involved.  Due to timezones, you’re never able to respond fast enough.  The second hardest thing was the check with the proceeds…but since we had an account in the US, we were able to have the proceeds sent to our parents, who were on the same account, and they were able to make the deposits for us.  If we hadn’t done that, then we would have had to fedex or DHL the paper check across the ocean.
• Monica’s pet cat…we were expecting to take Dusty with us, but after exploring what would be necessary with shots, and the cat’s violent lack of interest in receiving them, we decided to give the cat to Monica’s parents…who proceeded to feed him salmon.  So no more cat.  It’s in love with them now. [Monica’s editorial note: Grr, he just doesn't like the cat!]
• Mortgage payments: managed electronically through the bank websites.  This is awesome. 
• Electronic bill pay.  Equally awesome. 
• The truck: its purpose was for remodeling the house.  With the house remodeled and sold, the truck needed to go.  No need to keep paying insurance on it.
• The sports car: the smart thing to do is to sell it.  After 4 years of being overseas, it gets a whole body style older.  But I just couldn't part with it.  I already paid for it, and I put so many personal hours of hard work into it that I just couldn't let it go.  Besides, it still looks pretty good.  So that’s one where I needed to set up an insurance program on it.
• Insurance: a few interesting bits of insurance…I mentioned that we needed a rental policy for the house, I needed a fire and theft policy for my car that I could turn into a driving policy when I’m back visiting, and we needed to have a separate jewelry policy.  I cannot stress enough the value in having a great insurance agent who likes to give good service.  It is very easy to manage and pay for our policies over the phone using an American credit card.  We don’t have good visibility to the due dates of the policies, nor the paperwork that regularly arrives, but the agent calls us to check in if there’s an issue.  It works really well.

Speaking of calling in…
When we came to Europe, we ported our existing cell phone numbers to Google Voice.  This provides us with a local US number at no additional charge, and it provides a nice voicemail box as well.  We just use that phone number if we need to list a local US number.  The biggest benefit is that it is the listed number for our credit cards already, so when I call my card companies from google voice, it already recognizes that number as my home number, even though I’m way over in Europe.

One of our friends uses something called MagicJack, which has a monthly subscription fee, but is still pretty cool.  The idea is that you plug an extension into the router, and you plug any landline phone into it.  At that point, magic jack communicates with its service, and the telephone is activated through the internet - you have a VOIP connection through the US, and you can talk with that line through a normal home telephone.  This is more comfortable than with google voice, and more private, given that Google Voice communications are like talking to a speakerphone.

For personal communications, FaceTime and Skype work well when at home, as long as everyone in the house wants to participate in the conversation.  For a more private solution, I have been using an application called Localphone on my iPhone.  It’s a neat application.  It contains its own list of contacts, and when I select the contact to call, Localphone dials my phone to a local Netherlands number, but the person on the other end of the line is the person in the US I wanted to talk to.  The cost is really low…I put $10 in and it would last me for many 40-minute phone calls (the length of my commute home in Italy), because they are less than a penny per minute.  This approach is nice because it doesn't rely on the phone’s data connection or download limits…it is actually using the phone minutes.

Managing your paperwork:
Although most of our mail in the US has been stopped by virtue of our departure from the country, we do still get correspondence, some of which is very important.  Monica’s parents have been indispensable in managing our mail for us.  They perform a quick sort to throw away the trash, and then periodically forward our documents to us using the postal service.  It’s about $16 each time for about 4 months of mail.  Included are our various 1099s and W2’s from the US that come around tax time.

Both Italy and The Netherlands have their fair share of paperwork and bureaucracy.  But Italy is a whole new world of bureaucracy.  They have special colored ink stamps they aggressively apply to documents printed from a dot-matrix printer (dot matrix!!!!) in an effort to partially emboss the papers.  Then they sign over the top of the colored stamp.  They also have a paperwork tax you have to pay for official papers, and that’s done with a self-adhesive sticker, just like a US postal service stamp.  Remarkably, every regional authority has its own method for registering you as a resident alien, so it’s a different process every time.  You should just assume that you will do it wrong the first time and will need to reschedule.  The end result of all this is that you will generate a ton of documents that you really aren’t allowed to get rid of.

As expats, we live in a smallish apartment in a city.  As Americans, we used to live in a big house with big storage.  So, we used to keep a lot of papers around.  As expats, we don’t keep paper unless its absolutely necessary.  There’s just no space for it anywhere.  I do keep one 3-ring binder with all of our papers for each country.  Our Italy one is bursting at the seams, but the one from The Netherlands is still ok and doesn’t seem to be filling up quickly.  The things I keep in real paper format are the things that have to be that way, like the residency applications and letters granting residency status.  Dates of entry and exit from the country, our dog’s pedigree, things like that which are really on paper and need to stay that way.

How do I manage to keep all my files in order without keeping all the paper?  ScanSnap and OCR.

The Fujitsu scansnap is an incredible scanner.  It’ll scan duplex in one pass, feed different shapes of paper with ease, all while performing on-the-fly OCR for your documents.  I use the OCR to make the documents searchable, which means with my Mac, I can use the spotlight search to find anything.  I also use it to scan all of our receipts so I don’t have to keep track of them.  Why do I scan receipts?  Well, partially because it was really hard to keep track of expenses when spending money in foreign currency.  We had a budget to stick to, but it was really hard to do that without a real time understanding of our expenses.  The Mac also has a neat application called Hazel, which is able to look into the OCR text of a document and take actions, like renaming the files and sorting it into the proper folders.  So when I get a document, I can just scan it it in, and if it is a tax document it goes right into the tax document folder on its own, with a proper name.

The real magic of this approach though is that when I get a long letter from the Dutch government in the mail, which looks very imposing being full of Dutch words, I can easily feed it into my scanner, push the button, and because of the magic of OCR, I can copy and paste the entire text of the document into google translate in less than 30 seconds.  Then I know the meaning of the letter, and I can throw it away, and file it electronically in the Dutch government electronic file.

With all of my documents going into my computer, I also have to have a strong backup system, both in-house and off-site.

This leads us into the next topic: Taxes!
I’m not a tax expert.  I’m just not.  But I have had to learn how to retain all of my tax documents in a good format for my reference.  Many expats (like us) have access to accountants who will ensure our taxes are filed in a prudent way.  The accountants were hired by the employer, and their allegiance is to the employer, not to us, so it still takes a bit of vigilance.  The process is simple but time consuming.  They send an electronic organizer to us that we have to fill out where the questions are similar to those provided for turbotax style tax software.  But this is where having set up electronic access to everything will pay off.  One of the trickier parts of the taxation is the funny questions asked in different countries.  In both The Netherlands and in Italy, they levy a wealth tax, meaning that they tax us on the total value of our assets and savings.  This is anathema to Americans of course, but there isn’t much choice.

As Americans, we are taxed on worldwide income every single year, and we are required to file our returns every single year.  The only way to avoid that is to stop being American.  It is important that we apply for the foreign earned income exclusion in order to reduce our tax burden in the USA.  If this isn’t filed for properly, then it is likely that the exclusion will be lost, which means a huge tax hit.  So stay on top of that!

To be properly prepared, you will want to save:

• year-end statements for all retirement accounts, including 401k, traditional IRA, roth IRA, roth 401k, pensions
• year-end statements for all of your bank accounts
• an accounting of the value of all of your stock purchases, in particular any stock purchases done through an ESPP.
• mortgage statements…in The Netherlands it turns out to be handy to have access to all your statements.  Fun fact: when you sell your home, you lose access to all the documentation online.  So make sure you download it first!
• rental profit and loss statement…one trick we found useful was to have a breakdown of our town home association fees,which are somewhat deductible.  We had to get it from the management of the association.  In order to make rental properties really useful to you, you have to deduct everything possible, so take advantage of that by keeping good records.
• any foreign bank accounts need to be declared if the value was ever above $10000 in the year.  There’s a special form to fill out that isn’t actually part of the normal IRS process.  It’s a separate electronic declaration.  It is pretty important because the fines for forgetting to file the form are exorbitant.  In fact, while this is true for US taxes, the fines for failing to report your worldwide assets for the wealth taxes of foreign countries are REALLY exorbitant…in Italy, it can apparently lead to forfeiture of the asset!  And since the wealth tax is like 0.01%, it’s better to declare than to lose your stuff.

Making tax payments is also a bit tricky.  When we were being paid in dollars, we were unable to pay our Italian taxes for Monica’s income because we had to make payment in euros.  We were able to work with her company to have them make payment for us in euros, and then we paid the company in dollars.  It took some extra steps!

I recommend consolidation.  To make this process easier, it’s best to get your financial life compressed to the fewest number of accounts possible.  I’ve been reducing my accounts year by year, and it has been making the process easier for us.

That’s all folks

That’s a huge outpouring of stuff for my first-ever blog post.  If you’re interested in a little more information on any of the topics above, I can probably expand on them.

Restaurants in Yerseke and Middelburg, Zeeland, The Netherlands

In our quest to explore local hotspots near Eindhoven, we decided to travel to Zeeland, a group of islands in the south-western part of the country.  We traveled to the southern most island and stayed in a little town called Yerske, a harbor town on the North Sea (specifically the Eastern Scheldt).  We took a 1.5 hour tour through to learn about the towns top source of income, seafood!  We walked through the harbors, learning about the process for farming, auctioning, and selling mussels, oysters and lobsters specifically from the area (the rest of the time, they ship in Canadian lobster).  Since it was oyster season, we took some time to enjoy eating a variety of different oysters, raw and cooked.  

A photo of the other side of the Oesterij menu where we ate oysters.  They were located on the harbor in Yerseke. 

Our first plate of oysters where we tried three different types, one was a traditional European style oyster (flat tops), one was a Japanese style oyster (vary curvy shape - they actually grow upwards) which can be difficult to eat due to the shape of the shell, and a raked Japanese style of oyster which is groomed so the shell is flat and its easier to eat the oyster.  The European oyster was the fullest flavor of the three which lingered well after eating the oyster. 

Argo joined us and hung out under the table while we ate.  He gave me a smile thinking I would pet him! 

We finished with some baked oysters, but unfortunately I only got a black and white photo, these had a bit of onion and herbs in them and then were baked covered in cheese.  Pretty yummy, but oysters are truly best raw!

In the evening, we decided to explore the old city, Middelburg, also the capital of Zeeland.  Since we arrived pretty late in the evening, as is the case in many small European towns, it was completely dead (all shops closed, not very many people out and about).  We saw the amazing abbey from the outside in the center of town and then walked around looking for a decent place to grab a small bite to eat.  As we were walking and debating, I spotted a small restaurant called Brassiere Panneke and peaking through the window I decided it would be the perfect place for a dessert.  After finally securing a table around 9pm, we took a look at the menu and what others were eating and decided we had to try more than just dessert!  We settled on a one main dish to share and then we each selected a dessert and dessert wine, because one can never indulge too much.  We ended the night with a Italian-like espresso to keep ourselves wired for the drive back to the B&B.  The experience at this restaurant was amazing, the food is French influenced and the service was fantastic. We were so pleased with the owner who treated us the same as the others, giving us lots of details of the menu, our selections, and recommendations for wine.  While the crowd in the restaurant was older, this did not deter us from having an enjoyable experience, the food truly spoke for itself.  

We started off with a Moroccan influenced lamb stew served in a phyllo dough 'crust' and accompanied with sides of couscous, mashed potatoes with herbs (couldn't figure out what it was and the name was lost in translation), and a mash of red beets.  This also came with a side of oven-baked potatoes.  Then I had a pear tart dessert served with pear ice cream, whip cream, a raspberry sauce and a crunchy biscuit (the ladder looking thing in the photo) with a Moscato dessert wine.  My husband took a traditional (for the French anyway) cheese pate and on the recommendation of the owner had this with a port wine.  We ended the night with an espresso which was served with chocolates and plain cookies.  

These photos were unfortunately taken with my iPhone, so they are not as good as the ones from earlier in our trip.  Hopefully they get the point across and if you are ever in Middelbury, you'll look them up! 

Main course: Moroccan lamb dish

Oven baked potatoes served with main course

Dessert: the highlight of my menu.  Pear Tart

Dessert: My husband's course, cheese platter

Chocolates and biscuits served with coffee

mmmm, italian coffee - had to document it!

Lessons Learned from Living Abroad

This is a two part 'mini-series' of lessons I've learned from living abroad for the last three years. This part, by me, will focus on tips and tricks of establishing a home and things to consider when you have a job offer or before taking a new job abroad.  The next part, a guest post by my husband, will provide advice on financial considerations when making calculations to move abroad and advice on filing taxes as an expat (our experience is that we've always had another firm contracted to file our taxes, so this advice will focus on how to keep your papers in order, how to work with the tax firm, etc.).

I am pretty sure I do not always observe my own advice, but being aware of these differences is half the battle.  If you can actively recognize that these things will be a change for you or are different than what you are used to, you will begin to adapt faster to the new culture around you.  Expat experiences are different for each person and vary drastically depending upon the country you land in.  Expats also vary between whole families, couples, or singles explanted from one country and brought to another, but also include one person joining their  significant other in a new country.  Both situations can result in drastically different experiences for those moving abroad, but in both cases you have a common bond, being the new country you live in, and hopefully you will also find some expats that come from the same country as you!

Expats are not only those that move from the US to another country, they include anyone going to a new country independent of their country of origin.  Seems obvious when it's written down, but I was completely ignorant to this fact when I first arrived.  Be open to meeting all sorts of expats, it only expands your own horizons.

On to the advice.... these are in no particular order, I wrote them down over a period of a couple of weeks as they came to me.  I think you'll find that I gravitate towards compensating for food issues since it's so important to me (hopefully not a surprise if you read this blog often enough!), but I also tried to incorporate some non-food, every day life issues as well based on my own experience.  If there are any you'd like me to expand on, drop me a comment!

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First some basics about my expat experience to give you some context:

What is your home country: United States (Minnesota)
How many years have you been away from your home country: 3 years
What is your current (and previous) expat location: Eindhoven, The Netherlands and Torino, Italy
Why did you choose to live abroad (note this could be the same answer as below): Originally my husband's job
Are you working?: Yes, locally in NL and was working remotely for a US company while in Italy
How often do you go to your home country?: Once per year (although I think we're just over at this point)

• Understand the city you are moving to, especially if you are single.  Big city life is less of a culture shock, and often more apt to have the conveniences we are used to in the States. 

• Things are slowly changing in Europe, but typically stores are closed on Sundays.  This will almost always be true for small store operations (much more common in Europe than the states), but large mega-like grocery stores or electronic stores may be open on Sundays.  Sometimes if the stores are open on Sundays, it's not every Sunday (e.g. in Eindhoven, when we first arrived stores were only open the first Sunday of each month).  Check local listing, co-workers or fellow ex-pat friends.  

• Understand what ex-pat groups are available, how often they meet, what the membership is like (i.e. only women, women and men, moms, company groups, etc.).  These groups are essential to getting over the nostalgia of home over the holidays, venting issues about the new country you are living in (they will be there inevitably), getting recommendations for the hair dresser, doctor, dentist, etc.  You will make some of your dearest friends from these groups.

• Expats are a transient group.  People come, people go, some for longer, some for shorter.  As a result, friendship with fellow expats happen fast, you just don't have as much time to waste getting to know someone.  Embrace it, it's a lovely thing to bond with people so quickly especially because they are people you likely may not have bonded with in your home country/region.   

• Cultural differences are real (we are not as universal or worldwide as we’d like to think!), take some time to understand them and figure out how they will impact your work and/or social life.  It may be helpful to understand the history of the country, it could shed some light on any peculiarities you may/are experiencing.

• Make sure that the job you think you have is the job your company wants you to do (there can be a difference!). Use an example of a general task you would expect to perform and see if that matches your manager's expectations.  

• Don’t compare everything to the US, keep these thoughts to yourself and make a mental note.  One, it’s better for you: you’ll acclimate and adapt to your ex-pat life faster.  Two, your fellow co-workers and new foreign friends think you are saying everything is better in the US (even if you’re not trying to). 

• Even if you were hired for your American experience, you will have to adjust to the local methods and management style.  It’s hard and sometimes seems counter-intuitive, but you'll question even your most basic understanding of the way the world works which is part of your expat experience! 

• Figure out if you can obtain exclusively American food ingredients where you are moving to.  Some items we've had trouble acquiring are brown sugar, powdered sugar, molasses, maple syrup, Heinz ketchup, gel food coloring, Christmas cookie decorations (actually, holiday decorations in general), cranberries (in some countries), American candy bars (e.g. Reese’s peanut butter cups – I have found Snickers and Twix bars, but they taste different).  Note, all of these things depend on the country you are going to, you’ll figure it out with time, but for the your first trip there, grab a couple of these if you really think you’ll miss them!

• Organic foods are available: In many of the countries we've been to, obtaining organic food (called bio here) is not difficult and can often be found in the grocery store.  There are often fresh markets (even in the cold Netherlands) where you can purchase vegetables, fruit, fish, etc. all year round (it’s a little warmer in Europe than MN). If you are from the mid-west you will likely find this pretty cool! 

• Find a source of English TV shows and movies: this will allow you to stay current with the American social scene.  Some successful options are Amazon Prime, Roku, Slingbox, etc. Of course, it could deter you from learning the language of your chosen country, so be careful with this mixed blessing. 

• Contrary to this, listening to the local radio and watching local TV can help you learn some very basic language skills quickly.  Put yourself out there and try a bit of the local language if you are interested to learn, I have found that local people are responsive to this and will help you learn... but only if you put yourself out there! 

• Don’t expect people to speak in English because you have arrived... Remember, you are the foreigner!

• Get an e-reader.  Keep your life light and not full of stuff, a great way to start is with an e-reader.  In an English speaking country, there will be some English books, but you will probably want a larger selection.  Most expats use the e-reader approach to get around this.  Large cities such as Amsterdam, Paris, etc will have larger English bookstores, but the cost can be high.  

• You will find American treats/candy taste REALLY sweet when you go back for vacation or permanently. 

• Donuts and cupcakes are primarily American. Tear… =(

• Most of Europe is dog friendly, this is a nice bonus.  Often (but not always) you may be able to bring your dog into a store or restaurant. Generally they are not allowed in grocery stores/bakeries/etc.

• American beef is a luxury, you will find the beef in Europe lean.  Enjoy American beef while you have it.

• Beef can be eaten raw (called steak tartare), it’s delicious especially with all the condiments (and when in France!), give it a try!

• Usually there are amazing places you can travel to within only a 4 hour drive – take advantage, don’t squander this opportunity.  Cheap airlines with equally cheap flight tickets can usually be bought and is also a good way to get around.... take note of the rules and regulations though, they will always try to get more out of you this way! 

While being an expat is  overwhelming at times, the best advice I received when I started my expat journey was that 'home' is where your family is (immediate in these terms) and the experience is what you make of it.  While you will undoubtedly experience frustration, loneliness, 'homesickness', and a desire to be back in your 'home' country where everything is comfortable... you will also feel extreme joy and awe, luck that you get to have a life in another country, and gratefulness.  Take it in stride and know that there are other expats out there to help you through it all!  

By the way, if any of my expat friends have any other tips, please share them by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post!   

Raghavan Iyer's Chicken with Yellow Split Peaks (Murghi Dalcha) from 660 Curries

This weekend, I was flipping through 660 curries, trying to find a chicken curry that uses curry leaves....  yes, I stock curry leaves as a regular ingredient in my home thanks to the local Asian store that always has a decent supply of them.  To my surprise, it was more difficult than I thought, but I found a couple of recipes.  Both are similar in that they both include yellow/orange lentils, but the recipe I chose used cooked lentils (instead of roasted and ground up with other species) and didn't require marinating the chicken (which is only something I can manage on the weekends).  I'll definitely have to give the other recipe a try because my experience of using lentils (especially yellow lentils) as part of the spice mix is superb! 

Curry leaves have a unique flavor and scent that cannot be replaced with other spices or dried curry leaves.  According the website included in this caption, curry leaves can be frozen and do not need to be thawed before using.  Your local Asian or Indian store should carry fresh curry leaves.  Image taken from http://www.chow.com/food-news/137167/what-are-curry-leaves/. 

While this was a new curry cooking technique, it tasted a lot like 'dal' (Indian lentil soup) to me.  I thought the chicken was a lost component, but I realized afterwards that the recipe calls for bone-in chicken, almost 2 pounds of it, and I had used chicken breast that was cut into 1 inch cubes.  I think the chicken bones would definitely added some flavor that was missing in my version, and as a result of the longer cooking time, the cinnamon sticks would have likely released more flavor too.  My husband did not have the same reaction I did, he enjoyed the savory flavor of this dish and especially liked the mustard seed/curry leaf flavors, at topping added as a finish touch. 

Ingredients:

(While the ingredients list might seem long, if you typically cook Indian food, you will have most of these ingredients on hand anyway.  If not, visit your local Indian store.)

• 1 cup yellow split peas
• 1 teaspoon of tamarind paste or concentrate (I recommend you get the seedless kind if you can)
• 1 small red onion, coarsely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 inch length 'knob' of ginger
• 4 fresh green Thai chilies, stems removed
• 4 tablespoons of oil (recipe calls for canola oil, I used coconut oil)
• 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
• 3 dried bay leaves (you could also use fresh ones)
• 2 cinnamon sticks 
• 2 pounds cut-up bone-in chicken, skin removed (I used 300 grams of 1 inch cubes of chicken breast, even though I used far less chicken then what the recipe called for I thought this was a good amount of soupy stuff [curry] to chicken) 
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro 
• 1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds
• ~30 small curry leaves (or 12 to 15 small to medium sized curry leaves)

Directions:  

1. Wash the split peas with cold water until the water runs mostly clear (this may take 3-4 rinses).
2. Add 3 cups of water to the pan and bring split peas and water to a boil, uncovered, over medium-high heat.  
3. Skim off and discard any foam that forms on top. 
4. Lower the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally until split peas are partially cooked, about 5 -8 minutes. 
5. Stir in the tamarind paste, making sure it dissolves. 
6. While the split peas are cooking, combine the onion, garlic, ginger, and chilies in a food processor and process until minced. 
7. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add cumin seeds, bay leaves, and cinnamon sticks to the hot oil and cook until they sizzle and smell aromatic, 10 to 15 seconds.  Add the onion-chilie blend and stir fry until the onion turns brownish, 3 to 5 minutes. 
8. Add the chicken pieces (meat side down if you are using bone-in pieces) on top of the cooked onion mixture.  Cook until the chicken turns light brown, 2 to 4 minutes.  
9. Sprinkle in salt and turmeric.  
10. Pour in the split peas with their cooking water, and stir once or twice. Heat to a boil and then reduce to medium-low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally until meat is cooked. About 15 to 20 minutes if using 300 grams of 1 inch pieces of chicken breast, about 40 to 45 minutes if using 2 pounds of bone-in chicken. 
11. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in small skillet over medium high heat. 
12. Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds.  They will begin popping immediately, allow them to pop (about 30 seconds). 
13. Remove skillet from heat, and add curry leaves - they will spatter (especially if freshly washed!), so use your oil splatter cover.  
14. Pour the mustard-curry leave mixture in the curry and stir once or twice. 
15. Serve over white rice. 

Day trip to Antwerp - February 2014

I think many of you who read this blog realize I live abroad with my husband and furry (dog) child and have been for almost the past 3 years.  Currently, we're living in a small city in The Netherlands that is very industrial and not very pretty.  Along with this, the food is ...well, let's just say... lacking (I hear this is a general Netherlands issue, but recently I've been told of some great seafood places by the sea so we'll be tying those out soon!).  Belgium is a mere 20 minutes drive from where we live, so we decided to head to the nearest (I think it's the nearest anyway!) metropolitan area, Antwerp for a day of sight seeing and decent restaurant-ing!

Before we left, we chose a restaurant using the viamichelin website... at first it seemed we wouldn't find anything as everyone was fully booked (we only made reservations the night before!), but after almost 10 calls we successfully secured a reservation at a french style restaurant.  Turns out that they may not actually have had room for us as my husband overheard them chatting about not enough tables and the reservation written for tomorrow... but well, we got in! Here's our review:

De Reddende Engel in Antwerp, Belgium
The food was fabulous, but the service was poor.  At one point during the evening, we realized we were the youngest people in the joint, which is a shame since the food was pretty tasty.  I'm not exactly sure if they wrote us off because they considered us too young to appreciate the food, but I found it right up our alley.  In particular, the waitress (or co-owner, couldn't really tell) didn't offer the cheese platter (I also didn't realize it cost only 3.50 euro more... what a freaking bargain!) which I just consider to be a lack of decent marketing skills.  Additionally there were 2 desserts you could have with your fixed menu, but you had to order it at the beginning.  I didn't realize this and also didn't understand her completely (also the menu was written in Dutch and French) when she tried to explain it (which was also odd because it seemed like she was in a rush even though the restaurant was mostly empty and were were the second couple of the evening!), but she never came back and asked us if we would like it.  Rather we ordered from the standard menu.

The ambiance of the place was quaint and decorated with lots of odds and ends.  From the reviews I've read online, many people consider it out of date.  I didn't find these overly oppressive, but there were a lot of knick knacks that I'm not sure were actually being used.  On the other hand, we realized towards the end of our day that Antwerp is a great antiquing area, so perhaps all their items have some significance.

Here are some food pictures for your (but mostly my) drooling pleasure.  We both picked a preset (i.e. fixed) menu.  I enjoyed mine, my husband was less pleased, but still satisfied.  It turns out popular menu item was the bouillabaisse, it's such a shame that we didn't get it, but I suspect we'll be heading back to try it.  From what we could see of other patrons, it looked fantastic with whole prawns and lots of traditional toppings to go along with it.  Oh how I love french food!

A little treat while we were trying to decide on food.  Olives and a tomato tart on a pastry like crust

Hubby's app: Scallops, asparagus with burre blanc 

My app: Fried goat cheese in a pastry crust (less flaky then the one above) with an orange-pepper sauce and salad

Hubby's 2nd course: vegetable soup in a fish stock, so delicious even though it doesn't look like much here

My main course: sea bass with a shallot cream sauce 

Matthew's main course: Duck (we don't remember what else was in this dish... must not have been that impressed!)

Dessert: we got the same thing, a chocolate-pistachio cake with pistachio ice cream 

The Invention of Wings By Sue Monk Kidd Book Review

As I mentioned in this post, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd was the February book club choice. This book was released only a week or so before we choose it and I'd just recently heard a review of it on NPR, so it was exciting to find it on the list of nominations for book club.

The Invention of Wings is a novel based on the true events of two sisters and their fight for the rights of slaves and women.  Sarah, the main character, is given a slave at a very young age, Hetty (a.k.a. Handful).  The novel chronicles her journey to fight for the right of 'her' slave and others alike, all the while fighting to find her position as a women in male dominated mid to late nineteenth century southern states of America. Sarah is eventually joined by her sister, Nina, who is like a child to Sarah to help pursue her dreams of equal rights for slaves and women.  It's their mark on history that Kidd tries to capture in this novel.

This novel is a fast read, but I have to say I learned a new word or two.  Like many other novels, I read this on my iPhone using the kindle amazon app which allows me to check definitions of words as I'm reading, I love that feature.  Oddly, I've taken to reading on my iPhone perhaps out of necessity but I also prefer the weight consistency of the device (meaning reading an actual book [imagine that...] and shifting the pages changes the way I hold the book which I've realized can be uncomfortable, especially when reading fat books!), that the text is less per 'page' so it seems to be a faster read than a traditional book (I realize this is a superficial reason, but on the other hand I've managed to get through more books this way), and it's super convenient as I'm rarely without my phone.

Most of us at book club agreed that this novel was much more powerful once we realized it was written based on true events and people.  I agree with the groups general opinion because as I was reading, I found myself questioning the plausibility of various events (mostly the chance of them occurring at specific time points) and also just started to get sick of Sarah's inability to stand for herself, a reoccurring problem in the beginning of the novel.  In a purely fictional novel, where historical events wouldn't constrain the writing (by this I mean that the character doesn't have pre-defined events in his/her life... open to opinion if this is a constraint, but I've chosen that for now), I'll venture a guess that the number of occasions where Sarah let herself down would have been reduced.

I found the most powerful symbol in the novel to be Charlotte's 'life-story' quilt.  Charlotte is Hetty's mother, the slave that is given to Sarah on her 11th birthday.  Slaves were not allowed to know how to read or write (it was a crime to teach them to do so), but the quilt is in defiance to this law and is the medium for Charlotte to write her story.  It's the release of her tragic life and history.  Nobody can take away her ability to tell her story even if it's not in a written form.  Charlotte's quilt represents her wings, which as you could guess is a reoccurring symbol.  I don't think these are the 'wings' that Charlotte wanted or hoped for, but they are just as powerful at releasing her from the physical chains that bind her.

So, if you are looking for a book to read that you will want to pick up every night, this is a good choice.  Sue Monk Kidd also has many other novels which come highly recommended, so I think given her track record, the chance you will enjoy this novel is good.  Happy Reading!

Raghavan Iyer's Lamb Biryani from 660 Curries

Recently, the local Persian grocery store butcher has been stocking the meat case with lamb shank (or what we think is lamb shank - speaking in English is iffy and we don't speak enough Dutch to converse adequately).  Given that lamb is pretty expensive or not stocked at other butchers or the standard grocery store, we've been taking advantage of their supply as much as possible.  I often use lamb in a Persian soup which serves as our lunch, but this week I decided to also explore the lamb curries of Raghavan Iyer's 660 Curries.  While this isn't a 'curry' as many people understand curry, it's a wonderful mix of meat, herbs, spices, rice, and sometimes nuts and raisins. According to Raghavan, this biryani is originates from Hyderabad and is called 'kacchi biryani' where 'kacchi' is uncooked lamb (which is later layered with cooked rice and then baked).  

I've previously made chicken biryani's (although I realize I've never posted about them on this blog!), but this is a different twist with a completely different flavor from the meat.  

Ingredients: 

For the Lamb Marinade:

• ~ 1 lb (I used 10 oz) lamb of leg, cut from the bone (if not already available this way), fat trimmed and cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 cup of plain yogurt (I prefer Greek yogurt, but otherwise use full fat yogurt)
• 1/2 cup of firmly packed mint leaves, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup of firmly packed cilantro, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons of minced ginger
• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
• 1-2 Thai chilies (original recipe calls for Kashmiri chilies, which I have replaced with Thai chilies)
• 1.5 teaspoons of sea salt
• 1 teaspoon of garam masala (I used a pre-made mix)
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground turmeric

For the rice: 

• 1 cup of white/brown basmati rice
• 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (original recipe calls for Ghee or unsalted butter)
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 black cardamom pods
• 2 free or dried bay leaves (I used dried)
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt

Others: 

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil (original recipe calls for Ghee or unsalted butter)
• 2 tablespoons of finely chopped mint for garnish

Directions: 

Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350F (~175C).

1. Marinate the lamb (min 3 hours, overnight if possible): Combine the lamb, yogurt, mint, cilantro, ginger, garlic, chilies, salt, garam masala, and turmeric in a bowl and toss/stir to completely coat the lamb.  Refrigerate, covered overnight (or at least 3 hours before cooking). 
2. Soak the rice (min 1 hour, longer for brown rice): Depending upon if you are using white or brown rice, before you are ready to start assembling the biryani, prepare the rice:  Rinse the rice until the water runs clear (first two rinses will be cloudy).  Fill the bowl half way with cold water and let it sit at room temperature until the grains soften.  One hour is sufficient for white rice.  I soaked for 3 hours for brown rice (note, I did not experiment with the time - seek advice on the back of your packaging for advice or elsewhere). 
3. Cook the rice: 
1. Heat coconut oil/ghee/unsalted butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium high heat.  Add cumin seeds, cardamom pods, bay leaves, and cinnamon sticks.  Cook until they sizzle, about 3 to 5 minutes (note, original recipe calls for 15 to 20 minutes, but on medium-high heat, this doesn't take long for me... if I let them go longer, the cumin seeds will burn).  Then immediately add the onion and stir-fry until the onion is light brown around the edges, about 10 minutes (note, original recipe calls for 3 to 5 minutes, for browning on the edges, I think it needs longer).  
2. Stir in the saffron and allow the mixture to release its fragrance.  Add the drained rice and toss gently to coat the grains with the mixture.  Pour 1 cup of cold water, add the salt, and stir the rice to incorporate the ingredients.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook until the water has just evaporated and remove from the heat.  For brown rice, consider adding another 1/2 cup of water as this type takes longer to cook through.  
4. Assemble the Biryani and Bake: 
1. Lightly spray the interior of a medium sized casserole dish with cooking spray or coat with melted ghee/butter/coconut oil.  
2. Spread the lamb (including any remaining marinade) across the bottom and drizzle melted ghee/coconut oil/butter.  
3. Add the rice mixture, spreading evenly over the lamb. 
4. Cover the casserole dish and bake until the rice is cooked through and the lamb is fork-tender (approximately 1 hour).  
5. Serve: Garnish with finely chopped mint and serve.  Note, there are whole spices in this dish, so be careful to eat around these.  

What biryani's have you made?  Have you ever baked one (this was my first baked biryani)?  Any cooking tips?