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| the recently opened new wing of the Stedelijk museum |
Last weekend Mrs G and I visited friends in
Amsterdam who’ve recently had a baby. When Mrs G wasn’t cwtching the rugrat, we
managed to explore Amsterdam’s food offerings.
Sebastian’s
Hotel
We stayed in the brilliantly located
Sebastian’s which is a short walk from the central station, the trendy Jordaan district
and the bustling Haarlemmerstraat. Our room (£104 a night) was clean, stylish, the size of a
shoebox and had a good view of the canal.
Address - Sebastian's Hotel, Keizersgracht 15, 1015 CC Amsterdam
De
Belhamel
On the first night we visited De Belhamel, a Dutch influenced French restaurant located a couple of minutes walk from the hotel. The restaurant’s art nouveau interior was stunning and the food was mostly very
good.
Whist my starter, a vol au vent filled
with a meaty ragout of lamb sweetbreads (€9), was an enjoyable bit of comfort food, it tasted a
little too similar to a Pukka chicken pie. Mrs G in contrast loved her old
skool terrine of duck liver and breast with red port aspic (€15)
Mains were both excellent. Unctuous confit
duck (€23.50) was served with sauerkraut flecked
mash and mustard sauce. Both the sauce and the vinegary cabbage punctured the richness of the meat. A
tender sirloin steak (€24.50) was served
with buttery spinach, potatoes and a cracking cognac and tarragon sauce
Mrs G’s selection of Dutch cheeses (€12.50)
was decent but ultimately let down by a lack of
variety. Profiteroles (€9.50) stuffed
with ice cream and slathered in hot chocolate sauce were amaze-balls.
Web - http://www.belhamel.nl
Address
– Restaurant De Belhamel, Brouwersgracht 60, 1013
GX Amsterdam
Kantjil
& de Tijger
Despite our friends warning us about the
quality of Amsterdam’s Indonesian restaurants, I was intent on
sampling the food of the former Dutch colony.
The food at Kantjil and de Tijger, located
in close proximity to Spui Square, was enjoyable but unremarkable.
We ordered a rijstafel (€25
ahead) – a traditional way of sampling a load of small
dishes. Disappointingly, the namesake of the meal, the rice, was a run of the
mill bowl of the long grain variety.
Highlights included some excellent chicken (sate
ajam) and pork satay (sate babi) served in an almost black sauce containing
Indonesian sweet soy sauce, palm sugar and peanut paste among other things. Eggs
in a spicy coconut sauce (sambal goreng telor) and chicken in a sweet soy and
peanut sauce (ajam pangang ketjap pedis) were also good. However the meat in a beef rendang
was too chewy and a warm salad of green beans, bean sprouts, cabbage coated in
satay sauce (gado gado) was one peanut too far.
Web
- http://kantjil.nl/en
Address
- Kantjil & de Tijger, Spuistraat 291-293, 1012
VS Amsterdam
De
Blauwe Hollander
I was really keen to sample the Dutch
speciality stamppot – a hotchpotch of mashed potatoes and vegetables served
with meat and gravy. A hasty googling led us to De Blauwe
Hollander, located on the tourist restaurant packed Leidsekruisstraat.
Apart from a flavourless bowl of pumpkin
soup (€4.75) and the inexcusable fact they don’t
serve tap water, it was very good.
A plate of bitterballen (€4.50), served with an unnecessary bowl of mustard, were immensely moreish. The deep fried balls were filled with a beef studded meaty bechamel, a bit like a Dutch cousin to the Spanish croquetta.
My stamppot (€12.75) was of the sauerkraut variety and was served with a smoked
Mattesson’s u-bend style rookworst, crisy bacon pieces and thick gravy.
A dessert of poffertjes (small pancakes)
served with icing sugar, a knob of butter and smooth vanilla ice cream (€5.75) was the ideal companion to the freezing March weather.
Address
- Restaurant De Blauwe Hollander, Leidsekruisstraat
28, 1017 RJ Amsterdam
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