Any way, before I had my time away I had started writing this post, and I have decided to put it up as I left it. It's not finished, but it's worth putting up. I can no longer remember what I ate on the rest of our trip to Amsterdam, but what's below is worth knowing. So, there you go.
After this post I am going to attempt to write up my trip to Japan and all the amazing food I ate there. I was away a long time, but I've got it all written up long hand, so fingers crossed I'll remember everything ok.
Til next time...enjoy Amsterdam.
In February I went to Amsterdam with the Bear for a long weekend. It was such a great weekend. From coffee shops to the Supper Club, over three days we gorged ourselves on everything Amsterdam had to offer.
Getting Started
We arrived on the Friday afternoon and decided we didn't have time to fit in a museum before closing time, and headed straight to a cafe for some food. What better way to start than with a pancake? You can find them everywhere in Amsterdam and are usually served with a mixture of cheese, bacon, ham and of course sweet accompaniments. I went for the cheese and felt instantly part of the furniture. The pancakes or pankokken have the size of a crepe and halfway towards the thickness of an American pancake. Yum yum yum.
After our lunch we went for a stroll through the flower market and made the inevitable trip to a coffee shop. I won't say much about our experience in the Dampkring coffee shop except to say the mint tea was lovely, I had to have a lie down pretty soon after and I shan't be going anywhere near a coffee shop for the rest of the weekend. Nuff said.
First Meal - Indonesian - Tujuh Maret - 73 Utrechtsestraat - 7/10
After spending the rest of the afternoon flitting between deep sleep and uncontrollable fits of giggles we were bloody hungry. Amsterdam is famous for its Indonesian cuisine, a leftover from its imperial past. The Bear wanted to try a Rice Table or Rijsttafel. This is a dish unique to the Netherlands. It's the equivalent to our Chikken Tikka Marsala. You probably won't find it much in Indonesia but the Dutch are mad for it.
The basic idea is a plate with rice as the centre point with a number of side dishes around it that increase in chilli intensity. You can have as many or as few side dishes as you like. We went to one of the main eating streets in the city Utrechtsestraat, and headed to the not so famous but very yummy Tujuh Maret. The Bear got his Rijsttafel and was very happy with it. There was everything from satay vegetables to Beef Rendang (an Indonesian Beef curry with an almost dry coconut sauce). The only slight niggle was the heat. Even though the Bear had asked for his spicy he could easily handle it and was slightly disappointed. Great flavours though.
I went for the vegetarian selection and ordered some Prawn Satay on the side. My dish was a clear loser compared to the Bear's Rijsttafel. Although everything tasty nice it was a lot less colourful and the tofu was chewy, overdone and there was no heat whatsoever. The Prawn Satay on the other hand was great. It had a much lighter sauce than the vegetable satay, and it was thick and moreish. Something to get your hands sticky with!
We didn't get and booze with our meal, but instead some gorgeous fruit juices. I went for lychee juice and the Bear for Mango. I tell you what, they did us the world of good after our exploits in the afternoon.
The bill came to 60 Euros. Not too bad. But we didn't have starters or alcohol. Amsterdam isn't a cheap eat unless you live off chips and pancakes.
Albert Cuypmarkt - Breakfast on the Move.
After a night drinking Heineken, wandering through the Red Light District and playing chess in the Bull Dog we needed a good breakfast. And boy did we get it.
The Albert Cuypmarkt is a market in the De Pijp area of the city, open six days a week 9am - 5pmish. It's named after a seventeenth century painter and has been trading on Albert Cuypstraat for nearly a century. We decided to take a morning stroll through the stands which line each side of the road. There is a mixture of clothing, tat and food stalls. The food covers everything from Deli stalls, spices, cheese, meat, fish, hot food, veg, everything you could ever want or need. There's Greek, Dutch, Chinese, Middle Eastern, everything.
I must admit we got a bit carried away. We started off by munching through a huge thin, caramel filled Dutch waffle made fresh before our eyes. The man at the stall rolled up little balls of dough which he then squeezed flat and cooked in hydraulic waffle irons. He then clamped two waffles together with caramel. NAUGHTY. I got caramel all over my gloves. There was warm happy faces everywhere within 50 yards of the stall.
We then came across the Belgian Waffle stall. It would have been rude to say no. These are your traditional deep, thick, cross hatch waffles. Again they were cooked in huge waffle irons in front of us, dusted in icing sugar and then splattered with your choice of dark, milk or white chocolate. What a breakfast?! The dough was so light it melted in your mouth. Amazing.
Having consumed enough sugar to last us at least a week we wandered back through the market towards the Museum district to see some Van Gogh (of course). As we neared the end of the stalls we realised we missed the herring stall right at the front when we'd started walking. There was no way I was missing out on this, even if I had just eaten a pound of sugar!
They call it Hollandse Nieuwe or Dutch Sushi, and it consists of raw herring and some gherkins served on bread or just by themselves. The fish is beautiful. It's prepared in a special way, with the innards removed apart from the pancreas. The enzymes in the pancreas allow the fish to ripen, along with salt, and it's this process that gives the fish its signature taste. It's the perfect start to our first full day in Amsterdam.
Lunch - Old Amsterdamer and Heineken - Yum
After wandering round the Van Gogh Museum we needed some sustenance before we ventured forth into the Heineken Museum. Over the road from the imposing brown brick brewery there is a tiny brown cafe which serves great traditional Dutch lunches. I went for a simple yet perfectly formed Old Amsterdam (cheese) sandwich served with mustard sauce. Crusty roll, mature cheese, beer. Sorted.
The Bear went for the croquettes, which are minced beef and mashed potato deep fried. Pretty simple food, but the Bear commented that it made such a difference that good quality mince had been used, unlike the pub food you get in the UK more often than not.
Properly fortified we entered the Heineken brewery, which was very enjoyable, and we left suitably pissed.
Second Meal - Moeders - 251 Rozengracht - 9/10
We decided we needed to sample some traditional Dutch cuisine whilst we were in the city so we hot footed it to the Jordaan, which is a bohemian area of the city, filled with boutique shops, brown bars and teeny tiny restaurants boasting all cuisines.
We'd read about Moeders in the guide book, and the story of the restaurant intrigued us so much we just had to go. The restaurant was opened in 1990 and didn't have any decorations, cutlery, furniture etc. So the new owners ask their customers to donate a picture of their mother (aka Moeder) and whatever else they could spare. The result is a fantastic space covered from floor to ceiling with framed pictures of people's mothers, and a happy eclectic style and brilliant home comfort food.
The place was heaving. The atmosphere was great. Huge windows surround the dining area so you can gaze out into the streets of the city whilst eating top notch food. I started with the Lobster Soup, which was deep, rich and buttery with a huge punch of flavour. The Bear started with a Mama's Happas which is a plate of different hor'd eorves. There was Tuna Pate, Sabayon Oyster, Spinakopita (filo pastry with feta and spinach, and liver pate. We were both delighted.
For mains I had the fish of the day which was cooked in a lovely white wine sauce with sauted carrots (which I ate even though I normally hate carrots) and the Bear went for a traditional Dutch Stamppot. This is a hotchpotch of mashed potato with vegetables, Dutch sausage from the HEMA department store, bacon and a meatball. It was particularly hearty and the Bear had proper meat sweats by the end of it.
We couldn't face pudding after all that lot but we did go for a fresh mint tea which is a staple in all good Dutch restaurants, bars, cafes etc. The was accompanied by a biscuit tin with homemade cookies and shortbread which were awesome.
The whole lot came to around 60 euros again, which was a bargain considering all the seafood I'd had. The service was very friendly, the atmosphere was excellent and the food was delicious. I was definitely recommend this place to anyone travelling to Amsterdam. It's a bit off the beaten track but very much worth it.
The Last Supper - Valentines Day - The Supper Club - Jonge Roelensteeg - 10/10
