Our foray into bite-sized travel has been a success in a lot of ways. We’ve been to two cities we’ve never visited before, in two countries we’ve never visited before. In fact, this represented the first new (to us) countries we’ve visited since we moved… well, unless you count Portugal. Smashing success! We’re out of our comfort zone, and are feeling more comfortable about poking our hands into even more virgin territory. (Hush.) The only even slight downside is, since now we know we like it in these places, we would like more time in them. Well, as we frequently say to each other, “next time.” For the nonce, we have exactly two days in Amsterdam and this was it. Cultural icons, varied food choices, and a good old fashioned walk-and-gawk made for a good first day.
We began our one full day in Amsterdam with breakfast in the hotel. We’re still not sure why, but we’ve been having better luck than usual with breakfast on this trip; maybe we’ve been hitting places with more business travelers without even realizing? This is one of the places where we still fail, or at least don’t acquit ourselves very well, when it comes to embracing local customs. We see a plate of cold cuts and a basket with yogurt cups, with maybe slices of white bread, and it just deflates us. The warm buffet is often not much better, with runny eggs and sausages of uncertain provenance. But lo! On this trip the choices have been more varied, the eggs have approached firm, and we’ve even seen the glint of recognition in servers’ eyes when we bring up waffles or pancakes. Good heavens.
Our morning is given over completely to the Rijksmuseum, which is the official, state museum of the Netherlands. As such, it gives pride of place to Dutch artists. Oh no, we must content ourselves with Rembrandt, Vermeer, et al… (Van Gogh is slightly represented, but he’s kind of like impressionists at the Louvre; the clear message is that there’s a whole ‘nother museum next door, beat feet if that’s what you want.) The Rijksmuseum is in the same glorious arts park that we visited yesterday, so we know the way just fine. By now we had sorted out the mass transit, and the weather was el gross, so we took light rail from practically doorstep-to-doorstep. Amsterdam has been surprisingly busy for February but we got in and ticketed without too much trouble and were soon being led by audio guide on a three-hour(!) “highlights” tour.
It’s a beautiful museum that can easily absorb as much attention as you’re prepared to give it. We were prepared to go until sore tootsies and empty bellies spurred us onward. Speaking of culinary peculiarities by region, the dining options in both museums we’ve been to in Amsterdam have been “cafeteria chic” without much in the way of “chic“. Sadly, our alternative for lunch turned out to be not much better. The Cafe in de Waag (“the weigh house”) is housed in the preserved remnant of the fortifications of Amsterdam and is the oldest non-religious building that exists in the city; it dates to the 15th century. Whatever value it once offered to the city has been slandered by what goes on in there now, with the Epcot version of old Amsterdam for decor and not-all-that-spiffied-up versions of pub food to eat. We don’t often get lured to our doom by tourist traps, but this place blew. (And now you know what it sounds like when we really don’t like a place.)
Post-lunch we had a nice block of time with which to do nothing in particular. We wandered the streets of the central district, poking around and generally just taking in the atmosphere. Amsterdam is a happening place; for all that there’s a lot of interesting old things to see, it isn’t propped up by tourism a la Venice. This is a fully functioning city that just happens to also have some cool stuff.
We meandered near and far but generally towards our hotel, where we kicked our feet up for a spell before heading back at for dinner at Ron Gastrobar Oriental Downtown (whew, such a mouthful of words!).
Billed as Amsterdam’s best night out made us leery. But Lisa had it recommended to her as a great place to get the classic many-dish rijsttafel, (literally: “rice table”), described as dozens of small, shareable dishes ranging from mild to spicy, in all colors of the rainbow, served with rice. So we settled in, ordered cocktails (high test and unleaded 🙂 ) and perused the menu with interest.
We both thought the rijsttafel sounded like a great way to try lots of dishes in one meal. According to the menu, we could expect satay skewers – both chicken and goat – various curries (meat and fish), boiled eggs in sauce, vegetables in peanut sauce (wonderfully named gado-gado) and fried bananas. Yum.
But.
We are spice wussies.
So we took it to our waiter, and he was great. He thought a few dishes would be way too spicy for us and even asked the chef if substitutions could be made . . . but no. It was too much of an ask (which is utterly fair, and I respected them for being upfront about it!).
So instead, we started with dim sum, the classic shrimp and pork. So delicious. They do seven different flavors including Dai Tie Sieuw Mai (scallop, Chinese mushroom and spring onion), Who Ngau Sieuw Mai (Wagyu steak with bone marrow), ha kau with tobiko (prawn and wasabi mayonnaise), Beef Bao (steamed oxtail bun and foie gras, and kauw choi kau (steamed then fried chicken). Served with a thick soja and fermented leek sauce. We also had a gyoza of shredded duck (so good!) and the boneless spare ribs, Pai Kwat. No sticky fingers or mess, just very tasty sticky soft marinated pork meat, so full of flavor. We finished with the satay — to die for. The chicken and goat meat were perfectly moist yet charred on the outside, and the sauces spicy (for us) yet sweet. We’re pretty sure we had dessert, but we can’t remember what they were, except delicious! Every dish was perfect, luscious, and fun.
It’s hard to describe how truly marvelous this meal was. We never felt rushed, although the energy (and music) was definitely high energy (and increasing as the evening rolled on). Everything was great, and we will absolutely go back here the next time we visit Amsterdam.
