Zuurklooschotel met riesgling
("Sauerkraut with Riesling" - Salted pork, bacon, sausage, frankfuter and rozeval potato)
Jet lagged on our first evening, we ordered room service in. And what pleasantly surprising room service it was. I think those oval-shaped things are the "bacon," since Europeans are weird like that. The sausage was absolutely succulent, and the "frankfurters" were a far cry from Nathan's Famous. This meal was so delectable that I was forced to admit my non-abhorence of sauerkraut. I can't even tell you about the mustard. OH MY GOD, THE MUSTARD. However, it was the SALT, not the mustard, that swelled my eyes up to veritable capsules the next morning. Worth it, but I really should have known better.
FYI, they sell beer here that's up to 9% alcohol.
I don't know if it's the increased alcohol content or the supposedly-cleaned-daily pipes that lead to the superior taste and easier headache ratio (said the gal who gets a headache from one beer, normally).
Another thing they do differently here: Goat cheese.
It looks creamy, and if one had never seen cheese outside of the 48 contiguous states, one might assume it was Brie. But it's not Brie. It's good.
Yet ANOTHER thing they do differenetly here. Fries. With MAYONNAISE:
All your cellulite are belong to us
That shite is disconcertingly tasty, but I suspect only when it's "real" mayonnaise. None of that bottled BS.
Here we have some cheese. Didn't get the name of the cheese - just "Dutch cheese," aged and young. With mustard. OH MY GOD, TEH MUSTARD.
Sinuses open farther than a yogi's hip joints
One night we had Indonesian for dinner. This is a prevelant cuisine in the Netherlands, due to the fact that the Dutch colonized Indonesia for some inhumane amount of time. I can never remember if it was four or six hundred years, and cannot be bothered at this moment to Google the fact.
This is a rijsttafel:
"rice table"
Ours consisted of - vaguely from back row to front row, left to right - beef satay, spiced chicken, spiced beef, spiced fish (with hidden chilis, OMG), vegetables in coconut milk, vegetables in coconut sauce, [second row] fried chicken (wrapped in some kind of dark pepper skin), cucumber salad, shrimp crackers, something I didn't catch, soy bean paste. (And steamed rice in the front there.)
All I have to say is that HOLY CRAP, INDONESIAN FOOD IS GOOD. And SPICY.
And now, for the Dutch master work: PANNENKOEKEN!
Banana pancake, front. Apple pancake, background
Bacon pancake
Those crazy Europeans and their "bacon." Which is really "pancetta." Pssh.
And you know what? Our last night we felt entitled to be a little lazy, so we camped out at the hotel's restaurant, which conveniently showcased another couple of Dutch strenghts: Seafood and game.
Yet ANOTHER thing they do differenetly here. Fries. With MAYONNAISE:
That shite is disconcertingly tasty, but I suspect only when it's "real" mayonnaise. None of that bottled BS.
Here we have some cheese. Didn't get the name of the cheese - just "Dutch cheese," aged and young. With mustard. OH MY GOD, TEH MUSTARD.
One night we had Indonesian for dinner. This is a prevelant cuisine in the Netherlands, due to the fact that the Dutch colonized Indonesia for some inhumane amount of time. I can never remember if it was four or six hundred years, and cannot be bothered at this moment to Google the fact.
This is a rijsttafel:
Ours consisted of - vaguely from back row to front row, left to right - beef satay, spiced chicken, spiced beef, spiced fish (with hidden chilis, OMG), vegetables in coconut milk, vegetables in coconut sauce, [second row] fried chicken (wrapped in some kind of dark pepper skin), cucumber salad, shrimp crackers, something I didn't catch, soy bean paste. (And steamed rice in the front there.)
All I have to say is that HOLY CRAP, INDONESIAN FOOD IS GOOD. And SPICY.
And now, for the Dutch master work: PANNENKOEKEN!
Those crazy Europeans and their "bacon." Which is really "pancetta." Pssh.
And you know what? Our last night we felt entitled to be a little lazy, so we camped out at the hotel's restaurant, which conveniently showcased another couple of Dutch strenghts: Seafood and game.
Oysters:
The Aftermath. They were Dutch.
Duck!
My favorite thing about Amsterdam, just discovered since I've never been before, is that you can walk anywhere and everywhere. So it makes a whole bunch of sense to me why their food is so rich and yummy, and why they're still so comparatively slim. The one Dutch treat I didn't get to try was a herring roll, with pickles and onions. Granted, working at a Swedish restaurant gave me more than enough exposure to herring (ugh) and I know that I actually don't care for it, but herring here would have been like, say, blood sausage in the U.K. Oh well. Next time!
It was literally a choice between duck, quail, pigeon, venison, and a bunch of fish we'd never heard of. All hail the adventurous Dutch palate.
My favorite thing about Amsterdam, just discovered since I've never been before, is that you can walk anywhere and everywhere. So it makes a whole bunch of sense to me why their food is so rich and yummy, and why they're still so comparatively slim. The one Dutch treat I didn't get to try was a herring roll, with pickles and onions. Granted, working at a Swedish restaurant gave me more than enough exposure to herring (ugh) and I know that I actually don't care for it, but herring here would have been like, say, blood sausage in the U.K. Oh well. Next time!
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