Because we were eating ahead of the trade show meetings we delved into our supply of Salami, liverwurst, Smokey and blue cheeses on village bread. A little hard to calculate an exact proportion, but it would be around US$5.00 per serve.
Dinner
Since we last stayed in this area of Jordaan a new Italian restaurant has opened around the corner: cafe de Curtis. Between the three of us we had some excellent asparagus ravioli, a perfectly cooked fillet with arugula and Parmesan salad, and some amazing nut crusted lamb chops.
We will definitely come back again. Our friend paid for the meal.
On our way back from some early meetings at IBC, we stopped for Dutch Pancakes or Pannenkoeken. Being lunch we had savory versions. Foodie Greg had a mixed mushroom filling, while Philip had a pancake version of a schwarma, or yeros.
Both were generous serves and very tasty for €10.05 average, or US$11.71 per serve.
Dinner
In past years, Sunday night at IBC has been dedicated to the Supermeet, but unfortunately the event can’t find a home in Amsterdam at the moment. A few of us who would otherwise be at the Supermeet got together at the Capri in Jordaan and had an alternate meetup, a.k.a. dinner!
The tab was picked up by one of the associated companies.
On our way to the convention center we stopped again at Van Dobben for each, or US$5.26 per serve.
Dinner
For dinner the Foodies were invited to join our friends at LumaForge for their annual cruise and dinner. The cruise was a pleasant trip up the Amstel river and back to restaurant Riva, which is where we had an excellent meal last year.
We er not disappointed this year. As we only saw the menu in Dutch the descriptions are my own.
We started with a deeply tomato flavored tomato tatin topped with creamy burrata. The main was a choice between beef two ways: slow cooked and grilled. That was the choice of 90% of our table, including Foodie Greg . Philip had the fish, which turned out to be a piece of seared and perfectly cooked white fish like cod, on a potato mousse, with kale and mussels. As you would expect it was very good.
The meal concluded with a rich soft chocolat balanced against a sharp orange sorbet, which perfectly balanced each other.
An excellent meal, and excellent company. Many thanks to LumaForge for inviting us.
Last IBC started our flirtation with smoked trout over the last year, so we decided to go back to the RAI’s Grand Cafe and once again enjoyed the smoked trout, baked potato and small salad with a beer included for €22.50 (US$26.18) per serve.
This was not just good food for a convention cente, but genuinely good food.
Dinner
A last minute change of plans found us at Eatcafe Koevoet, near where we are staying in Jordaan. Every time we’ve been here we’ve had an outstanding meal and tonight was no exception.
We started by sharing a tuna carpaccio and a beef carpaccio, swapping half way though. Both were good, but we gave the edge to the tuna.
The tuna carpaccio.
Foodie Philip chose the mixed ravioli in a sage butter sauce, which was flavorsome. Foodie Greg had the Eggplant Parmigiana, which sounds a lot fancier in Italian! This was definitely our favorite of the two, because of the deep, rich tomato flavor of the sauce.
The meal cost €28.25 (US$32.87) per serve and was well worth it.
Part of our IBC/Amsterdam experience is a visit to Van Dobben for Filet American on a very good small baguette. Filet American is a raw meat mix like steak tartar.
Each Roll is €4.50 with tax, but Foodie Philip had two, making the average €6.75 or US$7.89 per serve.
Dinner
At dinner time we visited a well regarded local Indian restaurant Shahjahan in Amsterdam’s Jordaan district.
As soon as we walked through the door we were hit with the smell of warming spices, which of course carried through to the food. The samosa we started with had a little growing heat, while the rest of the meal was well spiced but not hot.
A mixed grill, butter chicken, aloo gohbi and garlic naan rounded out the meal and was the perfect amount of food for three people.
The meal averaged €18.83 per person, or US$21.33 per serve.
Today we travelled from the South of England to Amsterdam for The IBC convention. Being at Gatwick airport st lunch time, waiting for gate assignment, we had some decent Fish and Chips at Garfunkel’s for £14.24 each or $18.68 per serve.
Dinner
Settled in to our Amsterdam digs, we headed back to a nearby neighborhood tapas/small plates place: Dos.
We shared tomato bread with anchovy, chorizo sausage, grilled asparagus, endive with blue cheese sauce, and fried chicken – lightly floured and fried.
As it was in previous years, the food was excellent, for €35.20, (US $69.67) or $23.32 per person.
Upon the recommendation of a friend we headed for The Abergavenny Arms. It was a wonderful surprise: wonderful, friendly service and exceptionally good food. Really good food.
Foodie Philip had twice cooked pork belly accompanied by cabbage & bacon and mash potatoes with a red wine sauce. Foodie Greg had an elevated version of a Sussex Smokey, which is a smoked fish pie. This version avoided the heavy cheddar base of the traditional version, and the topping was breaded rather than mash potatoe.
This amazing food averaged £13.95 or $18.28 per serve.
Dinner
We had planned on a restaurant nearby, but they had not space for walk in customers. We checked out a coup,e of other restaurants nearby, but frankly, when one restaurant is packed and the rest ar nearly empty, you know where the action is.
We changed plans and picked up grapes, wine, Parma ham and patė again and snacked.
That cost £5.42 with tax equal to US$7.10 or $3.05 per serve.
Continuing our exploration of East Sussex, we drove up to Eastbourne. Thanks to TripAdvisor we found a delightful little cafe, on a street being resurfaced – The Beach Kitchen.
We both decided on their Jazza interpretation of a Benedict, which is a stuffed Brioche bun with the egg on top. We chose bacon because we’ve never had a bacon Benedict!
You can see the result in the header photo. The Brioche was stuffed with bacon, done the way we like it, not American crunchy! The egg was poached correctly and the Hollandaise had a perfect balance of lemon freshness a without being tart.
The home fries had a great balance of crunch and soft interior. I was sorry when the meal was done. Lunch was £7.95 with coffee included, or US$10.34 per serve.
Dinner
For dinner we made a return trip to Terre a Terre because we had really enjoyed it on our last trip four years ago. Still in the middle of Brighton and still fabulous vegetarian food.
Because it’s hard to choose from the excellent selection and because we like variety, we opted for the Tapas platter for two. We did not leave hungry, with a wide range of excellent food on the plate sampled across the menu.
Every bite was full of flavor. A great meal for £18.00 per serve or US$23.41 per serve.
We decided on a nearby pub – Telscombe Tavern, that had good reviews on Trip Advisor since the first choice – a vegetarian place – was closed for an end of season vacation.
We both had a 6oz Burger with cheese and bacon and a very excellent tomato relish/sauce for £8.95 or $11.65 per serve.
Dinner
After last night’s amazing meal we went simple: antipasto platter with two salamis and Parma ham, Stilton and patè on crackers.
Although we didn’t finish everything, in fact only about half the Stilton, we spent £7.33 or $9.54 total for a per serve cost of $4.77.
We had planned on revisiting a cafe in nearby Seaford that we had really enjoyed last trip, but sadly for us they are taking a vacation until the day we leave. (Did someone warn them?)
Instead we had a hearty breakfast for lunch with the “Double English”: two sausages, two eggs, a slice of bacon, fried tomato and English style baked beans, with toast.
Overall it was a fine meal for £9.00 each with a double espresso or $11.63 per serve.
Dinner
Tonight was the first time the Foodies have had the opportunity to go to any restaurant that had been awarded a Michelin star: Matt Worswick at The Latymer at Pennyhill Park . It exceeded our expectations.
Saturday night features a seven course tasting menus and we chose the Signature wine pairings to go with the tasting menu, which meant we spent more than two months normal food expenditure on the meals for both of us, but it was absolutely worth the blowout
Each bite, from the amuse-bouches (all three) to the perfect chocolate paired against the sour yoghurt sorbet, was perfect.
Every dish had the most amazing a wonderful combinations of flavors I cannot truly do them justice.
We got so involved in the meal that we mostly forgot to take pictures.
The big surprise was the pickled apple, which perfectly complemented the roe and the horseradish bought a wonderful earthiness to the dish.
The best thing about the fine dining experience in general and this one in particular, is that the staff are both attentive and extremely knowledgeable about the food and wines. It’s obvious that every person involved loves food and love what they put out to guests.
A perfect desert pairing that was not too sweet.
I don’t recall all the details but the in depth explanation of why each wine was paired with each dish was appreciated, and helped make sense of some of the less traditional pairings.
An amazing, wonderful, tasty and delightful evening absolutely worth the money and the 90 minute drive each way.
The meal cost €28.25 (US$32.87) per serve and was well worth it.
Every dish had the most amazing a wonderful combinations of flavors I cannot truly do them justice.
