Food for thought

Pics of the week  - don't you love this little Clog Boat? ............and the tram that nearly ran me over!

For “Foodies” I haven’t said much so far about eating out. Interestingly enough we arrived during some sort of Restaurant Week organized by “DiningCity” which gives information on the lines of “Time Out” or “Harden’s Guide” on where to eat in The Netherlands. Many of the top restaurants participated in offering 2 or 3 course meals for 25€ pp and we helped the promotion by going out 3 times to different places deciding the deal was too good to pass over considering “The Week” happens only twice a year.

What we have discovered since then is this, it makes no sense in economizing or trying to find one of those nice local restaurants serving excellently prepared fresh food, as all places seem to charge almost the same price as the Top Table and Michelinguide Starred Restaurants. Even the ethnic restaurants charge way over the price we are used to paying in the UK. It’s quite normal to go out for Thai food and the bill is around 80/90 Euros for two. That is expensive in my book.

At least during the Food Week we managed to try 3 of the top restaurants for 25€ plus wine and if the quality for the “sampler” food was anything to go by then we are in for a few treats – but, it is expensive to eat out in Amsterdam. Our Dutch friends confirmed this. Wine, even in the shops costs considerably more than we pay back in the UK but the killer is when you eat out, the mark up is ridiculous for a very ordinary bottle. We are toying with the idea of doing wine runs over the border into France once every couple of months or so.  We will have to hire a van for the weekend (I always fancied myself as white van woman!) then we can head off to The Wine Society our tried and true normal suppliers who have a warehouse just outside Calais.   We have to keep our stocks up,  after all I spent hours the first week assembling wine racks and screwing them to the wall. Can’t have a dry house now can we?

I would give top marks to a little restaurant called BIHP on Keizergracht. Established by an Artist, the walls covered in modern works of art which I think you can buy – very buzzy, great food and funky clientele, part bar, part restaurant. Many restaurants are built on the lines of the houses ie not very wide but very deep, historically, something to do with a tax being imposed on the width of the property, but these properties are extremely deep - they go back for miles, sometimes into a garden at the back or a roof terrace above. It’s always a bit of a surprise when you go into what looks like something nondescript from the street and a real Aladdins cave emerges inside. Another place we liked was Claes Claesz in the Jordaan which we stumbled upon just wandering around, again they participated in the Food week and for the price it was great. So far the best Thai food and value for money is a place in Chinatown called “Bird”– it’s a lunchtime snackbar, unlicensed but excellent food and reasonably priced.

Cheese has always been my downfall and although most Dutch cheeses are hard or matured and normally I prefer soft cheese, but they do have an incredible selection in the good cheese shops and we just happen to live within minutes of one of the best in The Netherlands - TROMP, where we go cheese-tasting most Saturdays. Although for years “Oude Amsterdam” has been up there amongst the favourites of K,  he has been cutting back on account of his high Cholesterol. The good news is that this week the Doctor confirmed that, after his year of using BENECOL taken in liquid or spread form it has come down to an acceptable level so I guess the cheese consumption will go up again.

Eating in the street is perfectly acceptable here. People go far and wide to buy a bag of chips (frites) served in cornet shaped paper and covered in mayonnaise. Everyone knows the best places for these and will queue for miles. The other delicacy is a sort of sweet pancake and again people will queue for ages to get their hands on these. Personally, I haven’t tried these yet but I have participated in eating “kip” in the street, these are boxes of  pieces of spit roasted chicken.   Kip (Chicken) is really cheap and excellent here our local market has the best and you get the full cross section from Corn Fed and Free range to “don’t ask”. Jamie Oliver would be pleased to know.

But, the piece de resistance in Dutch cuisine is the herring… There are kiosks and stalls all over Amsterdam selling this little delicacy. It is salted herring served on a little disposable plate covered in finely chopped onions and pickled gherkin. People just stop enroute to wherever they are going and eat this,  either from plates or in a bread roll. Our man at the corner of the street is always busy and at 2.80€ a portion he has a nice little business going.

On that note I am off to make a nice cup of Yorkshire Tea………………