Amsterdam Trip Part Drie: Little Bites Here and There

I've had very little time to report in, but two things are for certain. One: it's very difficult to not find a different cuisine to sample every night. Two: it's fairly easy to spend €15 to €20 (that's $23 to $30) on a meal. At least I get a free breakfast. Unfortunately, it's godawful, so I just go to the local Albert Heijn supermarket and buy a croissant for €0.50.

Again, I have no access to my photos at this point. Yep, stupid hotel's wireless just is untappable with my computer. So photos will come later. I must say that, apart from the hotel kitchen, everything I´ve eaten has been quite good. To wit, a few cuisines and their attached restaurants:

Dutch - already addressed this in my previous post. But I am desperately looking around for stroopwaffels to bring back. Man, I love those things. You can get them for a little more money at Trader Joe's for about $5 (at Albert Heijn they are €1.50, or around $2.25). Lovely things. Also bought some syrup, which is far less sweet and far more molasses-y than our own. Also bought some sambal oelek, a very hot spice which is...

Indonesian - My friends and I all had some nasi goreng and Bojo, as well as a few other things. RE: Indonesian food is like Chinese food in the US. It. Is. Everywhere. That's due to Dutch colonialism in Indonesia. I had a very hot mackerel. Jim had lamb satay. I can´t recall what Gil had. I have to ask him. Total cost for me was about €15.

Surinamese - Most Americans have never heard of Suriname. And though I tried to find a purely Surinamese restuarant in Amsterdam, all I could find was a Surinamese-Chinese one. That´s the Wok to Walk, a popular franchise here. I got the Balinese bami with pork for about €5.

Italian - O Sole Mio is pretty close to Bojo, and for that matter it´s close to a few good eet-huisen. I got the pizza napoletana (anchovies, tomato sauce and mozzarella) for about €11. €4 more and I was in tiramisú heaven.

Sweets - Australian is not an Australian place. Instead, it has waffles, crepes and lots and lots of chocolate. My crepe with nutella, chocolate sauce and whipped cream was €4. The crepe was not soft at all, but that turned out to be a good thing, as I needed it to be hard so everything would not fall out.

Irish - Hoopman's is one of many, many Irish pubs in Amsterdam, again near the street with the aforementioned O Sole Mio and Bojo. I had a hearty salmon chowder for lunch today, their Galway Bay Chowder, for €10. Very good idea, considering the ridiculous amounts of snow, little styrofoam ball-sized pellets of hail, and more snow that we have been getting here. No problem, though: it's supposed to get much sunnier on the day I leave. Wat yammer.

Middle Eastern - Crystal on Leidestraat, one of the main thoroughfares through the city, serves up a mean hummus and falafel platter. My friends got lamb shaorma and something else - I forget what exactly. Mine cost about €11.

Indian - Bollywood ain't just the biggest movie industry in the world, it's also a cozy two-story restaurant across from Bojo. Most of their entrées run about €20, but we each got the chicken table meal for €14: pappadam, chicken soup (the only part I wasn't too crazy about - lots of grains of chicken), chicken curry, the tastiest and tenderest chicken tandoori I have had in a very long time, and naan.

Chinese - Two Chinese places to talk about, both on Zeedijk near the Red Light District. Nam Kee has been mentioned in various travel guides, and no wonder: they get you in very quick if they can, and will seat you sometimes with someone at a partially full table if there is nowhere else to put you. It´s Chinese but serves many Vietnamese and Indonesian dishes. In fact, many Chinese offerings had typically Indonesian names, such as the Chinese lumpia (spring rolls, €3), which were tasty if greasy. I ordered the nasi goreng, another Indonesian favorite, for €11. Heeeeeel lekker. Jim got the salt and pepper squid (€12). I don´t know what Gil got, because he went off to the small town of Arnhem to visit a friend. That´s the last I´m seeing of him this trip.
The second Chinese place, which all three of us went to a few days ago, was the Good Fortune Dim Sum restaurant. Many good pieces of dim sum there, and the proprietress and waitresses were able to talk to us and others in English, Dutch and several other languages. She commended me on my at least attempting to talk to her in Dutch, even if my friends gave me a ribbing for it. Total cost: €60, or €20 each.

Not sure if I will be checking in again tomorrow or before my flight. I will try. But the photos will be going up later this week, after I´m back in the US. I haven´t had any time to comment, by the way, but thanks to all of you who have given me suggestions and tips and input. I´m still looking for some Belgian chocolate, but it´ll have to be obtained here in Amsterdam. A train ticket to Antwerp, the nearest Belgian city is €58! YIKES!

Amsterdam Trip Part Twee: Dutch food - goed, of niet so goed?

Pictures to follow...



I haven't gotten to a working internet connection since Thursday. It's now Easter Sunday morning (Happy Easter, or Goede Passdag) and I am surprised that anything is open right now.


I have no way to get the pictures off my card at this internet kiosk, and some of the places I hve eaten I only remember by name if I see their photo in my camera. So I will just wait on writing about them (long story short: fascinating and fast stir fry at this Surinamese-Chinese noodle franchise, excellent Indonesian food, not so great Dutch, delicious Middle Eastern, and a pancake in the Hague that is to die for). Let me mention at least the Dutch food I have had:


The Hotel Old Quarter has been, well, interesting. Not in the best way either. Loud and loutish tourists from Germany, the UK and - yes! - the US have either kept me up at night or woken me up in the morning. The plus side? They have free breakfast. The minus side? It's not very good. But if you pay €5 more you get a real English breakfast (the proprietor is English I think. Lots of English ex-pats here).

One frigid night my friend Jim (not a fan of being out to begin with) begged me that if we went back to the hotel, which we had just left, he'd buy me dinner there. I was all up for that! I ordered a traditional Dutch dish, called hutspot. This is a potato mash with shreds of carrot and onion mixed in, and a large meatball covered with gravy in the middle. I don't know if it's supposed to be good, but theirs certainly was not. It was like a big Salisbury Steak meatball, only hard. The potatoes also left something to be desired. At least the dessert pancake with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream was better. They had the most wonderful ice cream. It's the only good thing they serve there.

In fact, I had to go all the way to the Hague to find good Dutch food. At the Babbelen Brasserij I got this filling and very tasty pannekoeke met spek en kaas (pancake with bacon and cheese), with powdered sugar and syrup. Dutch syrup is not super sweet like in the US. In fact, it's the main part of their delicious syrup waffle cookies. I must buy some of each to bring back.

Time at the kiosk is almost out. I'll write soon... With photos!

The vacation starts tomorrow...

Well it's finally here. The passport is xeroxed - twice, the clothes are packed, the dishes are cleaned up and the mail is... uhhhm, oh shit, I forgot to stop the mail.

Anyway, in 24 hours I will be in Boston, roaming around the city while I wait for my connecting to Reykjavik, which then takes me to Amsterdam around 11AM Thursday morning, Nederlander time. A few things I'm hoping to see and try:

1. My first lobster roll in Boston or, barring that, some "wicked" New England seafood. Certainly it's not as good as the Chesapeake's, but whose is? :) But I'm still looking forward to it.
2. Will anyone in Reykjavik's Keflavik Airport be able to talk to me in English?
3. Trying real Dutch foods like pannekoeken with some other stuff (bacon? raisins? cheese? Apparently these are heel Nederlands things to put in your pancakes).
4. The supermarkets, where I will be getting most of my food, due to the continued slide of the dollar into the proverbial gutter.
5. Some good Indonesian food (again, easy to find in the supermarkets). It's as easy to find as Chinese is here. Nasi goreng, anyone?
   
6. Surinamese cuisine - I have little clue what it is, except the word roti keeps popping in my head.

That's it for now, except that I am going to start copyrighting these posts, just as any of you who writes a blog (hopefully) may be doing already. I thought it was understood, but since the previous one (I still have no idea how to contact the bastards) I have to threaten legal action (direct quotes that give credit to me are A-OK). Malnurtured Snay also gave me the suggestion that I go to Wordpress, which apparently will allow me to choose who links back to me or not, but that still only solves part of the problem.