Gourmet Night

According to wikipedia, gourmet is een typisch Nederlands fenomeen (a typical Dutch phenonemon) similar to the Swiss tradition of raclette. Basically you have some teeny little pans and lots of yummy little things to cook in your teeny little pans.

They make electric versions of these, but ours runs on brandspiritus (which is denatured alcohol I think).

Flames don't photograph very well, apparently.

We like to use mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, zucchini, and other softer veggies since they don't take as long to cook. Smaller pieces of meat work best, and so we chop up some chicken, make little mini meatballs, and use shaorma or other strips of meat. This time I cheated and bought a gourmetschotel (a gourmet platter) that had marinated chicken, some little sausages, shaorma, mini hamburgers, and tiny little slavinken (bacon wrapped ground meat). Since it's just the two of us, I was able to split the package in two and put the remainder in the freezer for next time.

The small gourmet pannetjes (literally "small pans") are also a great size for pancakes. Not the typical American fluffy pancakes, but the more European flat ones that I would call crepes. They're good for little omelettes too, but we didn't end up using any of the eggs I put out since we had enough other goodies.

Special thanks to Martijn for pausing during his pancake flipping so I could snap a photo.

One of the nicest parts of gourmet is that it's rather laid back and slow paced. You can take your time and don't feel the need to rush through dinner. I highly recommend it!