Travel

Island Lava Java Chelsea cookies – Aloha from Hawaii

Hawaii or the Big Island is known for a lot of things including the famous Chelsea cookies invented by the chef of that name at the **Island Lava Java**, the go-to breakfast, lunch and dinner spot on Alii Drive facing the ocean.

It’s all Aloha

Lucky me and now lucky you. With a karma exchange I can share the Island Lava Java’s most popular and uber secret cookie recipe with you. We gave our trusty steads that we had ridden for a month (that we bought from some fellow Canadians who had purchased them new) to some Island Lava Java staff in need of wheels. We got the cookie recipe!

Rather than rent a car we do our bit for the environment and our legs and ride.

These cookies are best served right out of the oven. Island Lava Java will heat yours up for you if you ask…

Chelsea Cookies Recipe © created and provided by Island Lava Java

Recipe makes about three dozen cookies

Pre-heat oven to 350 F

Lightly butter two cookie sheets

Cream together:

1 cup room temperature unsalted butter (I used European butter re the superior taste)

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

Add:

2 room temperature eggs one at a time

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

In a separate bowl combine:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 1/2 cups coconut flakes

2 cups oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Add to butter mixture slowly
Add 1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips last

Scoop the batter onto the prepared cookie sheets using an ice cream scoop. Squish the round cookies a bit flatter and garnish with coconut. Bake in a 350 F degree oven for 8 to 12 minutes. They should be lightly browned. Pour yourself a nice cup of Kona coffee and enjoy right from the oven. For the full meal deal, go to Island Lava Java’s site and click on their webcam and enjoy their view while you munch.

My swimming view from the pier. Swim first, Island Lava Java next.

February 10, 2019 5

Oh yes, there is a dark side to all those uber-fit, uber-green Amsterdammers and their bikes. With more a million bikes in the city, more than one per person, bike theft is a big deal. Every year more than 54,000 bikes are stolen and the canals are dredged regularly to haul more than 15,000 bikes back to dry land.

Arguably a small price to pay for this environmentally-friendly and healthy mode of transportation? For sure.

The real dark side is the danger they present to the pedestrian tourist.

In Amsterdam, over 60% of trips are made by bike in the inner city and 40% of trips are made by bike overall in the greater city area. These trips are made by busy Amsterdammers on their way to work after dropping off their children at day care while talking on phones, talking to other cyclists, balancing groceries, briefcases and all manner of things and looking impossibly stylish while doing so.

Notice… no helmets. They just aren’t cool and Amsterdammers are so confident in their bike skills that they don’t feel them to be necessary, even for their children.

As is common in Dutch cities, Amsterdam has a wide net of traffic-calmed streets and world-class facilities for cyclists. All around are bike paths and bike racks and several guarded bike parking stations crammed with more bikes than you can imagine (Fietsenstalling) which can be used for a nominal fee.

Amsterdam’s small size, the 400 km of bike paths, the flat terrain, and the arguable inconvenience of driving an automobile: driving a car is discouraged, parking fees are expensive, and many streets are closed to cars or are one-way for motor vehicle traffic (but not for cyclists, note to pedestrians). Amsterdam’s bike paths (Fietspad) are red in colour, in order to differentiate them from both the road ways and footpaths.

Fresh-off the plane visitors to Amsterdam must quickly learn to stay out of the Fietspads and to look all ways before navigating across streets. Amsterdammers just want to do their thing, get to work, buy tulips, go to the bar for an Amstel, eat waffles, look amazingly well-dressed and so Euro and not have to cope with the many, many, many visitors and their lack of bike lane etiquette.

First morning in Amsterdam, everyone is asleep but I need a coffee and it’s bike rush hour. The lovely house we were staying in is near Vondelpark, a popular cycle route into the city and I need to cross one road at the entrance to the park to get to the caffeine. Bikes are streaming by with no break and I wait for my chance to cross and wait and wait and wait. An Amsterdam pedestrian just goes for it and the bikes stop. Too chicken to do the same I wait some more until a sympathetic cyclists stops and motions me across. I won’t even talk about the return trip but the coffee made me less hurried.

Many tourists discover Amsterdam by bike, as it is the typical Dutch way to get around the city but even that takes some guts. To blend in with the bike traffic flow bring your A game.

These guys have mad skills. Picture the tallest, handsomest blond dad you have ever seen riding to work propping up his adorable napping baby’s head with one hand as he deftly navigates a bridge ramp and makes a sharp right.

Koffie in Amsterdam

This cafe, located near Anne Frank’s house, has been a coffee shop for hundreds of years.

When you talk of coffeeshops in Amsterdam it’s not about the coffee but the weed. Amsterdam coffeeshops are local legal dispensaries for marijuana, especially in the Red Light District where most of the 250 such shops are located.

I, on the other hand, went in search of the caffeinated fix. This little photo essay about Amsterdam’s Koffiehuis or cafes will give you a little snippet of the experience. Although not particularly known for their great coffee, the Dutch know a thing or two about presentation. The little cups usually accompanied by a treat and a glass of water are served in lovely cafes where you can linger and people watch.

What better time of the year than Spring to linger at a cafe where everyone is basking in the sun after a long grey winter.

The pastries are beautifully presented as well.

A perfect chocolate on a Delft blue plate is too pretty to eat.

The Dutch are known for their hot chocolate. I bought this mug from a cafe in Delft. I wish I had the hot chocolate in it right now as well.

Coffee with a blossoming view near Vondel Park.

April 26, 2018 0

Sunset dinner in the vineyard at the Vanilla Pod

Lingering over dinner at Poplar Grove’s Vanilla Pod restaurant during a warm smoky summer sunset is one of those memories to be teased out on a grey January day.