Who is this self-proclaimed glutton?
I am an excellent eater and okay home cook trying to get better at cooking and creating recipes. I was born and raised in The Netherlands, a little country not particularly known for the great food, though we’ve got some national, culinary gems (stroopwafel, hutspot, or brined raw herring, anyone?). Luckily for me, my family also has its roots in Indonesia and my late grandmother – a great home cook – has taught me a great deal about building complex flavours, cooking delicious food without specific recipes, and the necessity to always have enough food in case an unexpected guest arrives. My parents also raised me by having me try out as many different dishes and cuisines as possible and to never question any type of food, no matter how odd it may look… Luckily, I was never a picky eater and never had any problem with that.
Some might say I am still quite adventurous in my culinary journey (at least, I try to be) and I’ve taken this insatiable hunger for trying out and learning about interesting new foods abroad. After obtaining my master’s degree in Literary Studies from Leiden University in October 2017 and after travelling back and forth between Greece and The Netherlands for about two years, I decided to move to Athens. So far, I’ve already tasted many new dishes and interesting ingredients here in Greece and I hope to discover many more and to eventually learn how to cook Greek food like a proper Greek… or at least like an unconventional one.
Discovering new flavours, ingredients, and places to eat always gives me great pleasure and I am always on the lookout for new things I haven’t tasted before. I also love to share these new experiences and discoveries with others, hoping they will make them as happy as they make me. There’s hardly anything more satisfying than presenting someone with a good meal, amazing ingredient, or new place to eat and seeing their face light up with delight as they tuck in! Realising it’s impossible to personally meet every foodie in the world to share my food-related experiences with, I had to think a different way to do so…
And that’s how The Glutton Life was born in March of 2018 in an attempt to combine both the personal touch of a blog with an ever-growing archive of recipes developed or adapted and tested by this self-proclaimed glutton to share with other food enthusiasts. The blog evolved from my Instagram account (@thatgluttonlife) where I was already sharing some of my home cooked meals, sloppily written recipes, and journey as an insatiable glutton. What you’ll find on The Glutton Life is more in-depth writing (sometimes…hehe) about food: my own recipes of home cooked favourites, my personal culinary discoveries and adventures, my favourite places to eat, and my overall obsession with anything food-related.
Oh, yeah: also be prepared to find a couple of what some might call ‘unpopular’ or ‘unconventional’ recipes and ingredients on this blog… if you like tentacles, offal, pickled or fermented stuff, smelly cheeses, and bold flavours in general, you’ve come to the right place! Don’t worry if you are a picky eater, there will also be plenty of traditional recipes here… though, I do hope to convince you to try out something you think you wouldn’t enjoy!
Well, I think that is enough about me. Did I mention I love food?