Dan dan noodles, you had me a spicy peanut sauce! | in my Red Kitchen

Dan dan noodles

Dan dan noodles, you had me at spicy peanut sauce! | in my Red Kitchen

– Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Dan dan noodles in een pittige pindasaus

You will probably not believe me but I had my first driving lesson when I was 28 years old; and 6 months and 26 lessons later I got my driver’s license. In the Netherlands this is quite fast, but when I tell this to my American friends they are all surprised. In America (or at least in LA), you need 6 hours of driving lessons to do the driving test. In the Netherlands I “only” had to spent €1.500 on my driving lessons, written test and behind the wheel test. In LA the costs are much lower, we only had to pay $33 for our Californian license. That includes 3 times a written test (if you fail, you can do it 2x on the same day to succeed) and 1 behind the wheel test. If you fail the second behind the wheel test costs… hold on… $6!

If you are over 18 then you basically don’t need driving lessons to complete the tests and from 16 you can drive with a temporary license (then you’re under the supervision of your parents). If that’s the case, you need 30 hours of theory lessons and you have to spent 6 hours of driving lessons behind the wheel.

Spicy tuna and cucumber salad | in my Red Kitchen

Spicy tuna with cucumber salad

Spicy tuna and cucumber salad | in my Red Kitchen Every Wednesday morning I go on a hike, that’s my main workout during the week. Up and down the Santa Monica Mountains in 1,5 hour. Bam! 1200 calories burned! Every other weekend P and I also do a hike and twice a week I do some short workout routines on YouTube.

I tried to do a walk three times a week in the neighborhood and although I liked it it was so time consuming! Since I started hiking on my own I look forward to Wednesdays. Ha yes! I’m looking forward to Hump Day 😉 I’ll bet I’m the only one!

My hike is just great, it has beautiful views over the ocean, a paved path, lots of history marks and some great wildlife. Blue Jays, rabbits, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, lizards and even pheasants!
But apparantly there is also other wildlife in the Santa Monica Mountains that I don’t see. Rattlesnakes, coyotes and even mountain lions!

Salmon sushi salad

Don’t you just love going out for some sushi? But be honest, how many times is it a disapointment? The rice is tasteless, the roll isn’t firm enough so it falls apart halfway to your mouth leaving soy sauce stains on your white shirt, or the salmon taste like water.

Salmon sushi salad p

Personally I like the salmon sushi rolls the most. With fresh salmon that is, without the cream cheese. Typically American, who made that up?! That’s not a very Japanese combination, isn’t it?

Did you ever tried to make sushi yourself? Well I did and it’s a hell of a job and leaves you with enormous amounts of sushi.

Noodle salad with peanuts

Moving to another country is not the easiest thing to do. You have to leave everyone and everything you know behind to start a new life. So now in LA we have to discover everything: where do I need to go for some good pizza? How do I know which groceries can be ‘trusted’? Where do I have to buy underwear (or better: what will be my favorite underwear)? Who can I trust to cut my hair? Oh and I can go on with this list for -let’s say- forever!

Noodle salad p

One of the things I have to miss in Amsterdam is good dim sum. I regularly went to a really good dim sum place where the weekends were packed with Chinese customers. So then you know it’s good! 😉