Chufi

Here (in the Netherlands) rosehip jelly and jam is readily available and quite popular. I love the flavor of rosehips but I´ve never seen fresh ones for sale... could be one of those things that you only get fresh if you have a garden or know someone with a rosehip bush in their garden!

re: vegetarian options in Amsterdam: I´ve heard good things about Betty´s. On a completely different note Burgermeester opened on a second location in the center, Elandsgracht 130, which might be a more convenient location for tourists. I recently had a very good, interesting and creative dinner at Tjing Tjing, a South African restaurant (the only one in Amsterdam, I think, since Pygmalion closed). All the meat was delicious (kudu, ostrich, springbok), my starter (eggroll with a creamy biltong ragout) unlike anything I ever tasted, and the milktart for dessert was terrific. Great South African wines to drink, too.

When you spend an evening cooking and eating things you never made/ate before (surinamese blood sausage, pom) with people you'd never would have met if it wasn't for eGullet! Pictures & reports here, here, and here !

It is getting near... we're leaving next Saturday, Sep 20! here's the new and updated and improved version of the itinerary: Phoenix Prescott Sedona Flagstaff Grand Canyon Cameron Kanab or Page (Antelope Canyon looks enticing, but it may be too much of a detour) Bryce Torrey Bluff or Blanding Monument Valley Durango Santa Fe Silver City Tombstone Phoenix We've booked a couple of hotels but not all of them, and we have a day or 3 undecided so we can always stay somewhere longer or make a detour. Can''t wait!! I'm trying to stay away from the computer as much as possible while on vacation, but I promise you all a nice big fat trip report loaded with pictures when we come back

I'm jealous, where did you get them? In Amsterdam? I've been looking for fresh (unsmoked) eel for a long time to make this Dutch classic for the Dutch Cooking thread! 'Stoofaal' is eel chopped into 5 cm pieces, braised with lots of butter, a bit of vinegar or white wine, salt and pepper and nothing else.. served with a sprinkling of parsley and floury boiled potatoes. My husbands grandmother used to make this for us and it's delicious, but very rich as you can imagine

I had several reservations but had to cancel all of them. over the years I've heard many disappointed reviews about restaurant week. Could it be, might it be, that restaurant week is not the best week to go out to dinner.. could it be that chefs think that restaurant week guests are a notch below their regulars, people who want to eat cheaply, could it be that they try less hard...

3 medium potatoes, 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic in a regular size frying pan, with about 3 tablespoons of oil, took about 45 minutes cooking very slow. I fried the tortilla in a much smaller frying pan (18 cm) or it would have been too thin.

I love to revisit old Cook-off threads. And I can never make anything that resembles an omelet, quiche, souffle or frittata, without thinking of the phrase Eggs, Beaten, with Stuff In Them I think it should be a cookbook! anyway, I made a pretty good potato tortilla today. The key: cooking the onions and potatoes sloooooowly for a loooooong time.

I cannot resist linking to this blogpost of mine (in Dutch), because it not only has pictures of making ratatouille, but also of a sweet little rat... anyway, my recipe: first make a tomatosauce with either fresh tomatoes or canned, lots of garlic, some chilipepper (fresh or dried), ground corianderseed (I think I got this from Elizabeth David, and it's a really good addition). The fry up all the vegetables (onions, peppers, courgette, aubergine) seperately , in plenty of olive oil, and add them to the pot with tomatosauce when nicely browned, then simmer everything together for 20 minutes or so. It should not be too saucy... more like chunks of vegetables lightly coated with the sauce. Just before serving, stir in some red wine vinegar. The vinegar and corianderseed really make the difference in this recipe.

many, many people go out to dinner for other reasons than to eat the food. This may seem like a weird statement but just look around you in a restaurant. Couples go out to dinner to be away from their kids, businessmen to impress eachother, girlfriends to gossip and to show off their new shoes, etc.etc. (and yes I know these are all generalizations). I see many people, without cameras, for whom the actual eating seems to come secondary... and I do say 'seems', because, as docsconz said, you never really know what your fellow diners are thinking.

I made tamales for the first time this weekend (twice, first batch: ok, second batch: really good). I have a ton of masa harina left over and while I will make tamales again, I don't see myself whipping up a batch of tamales on a wednesday night very often Now, can someone explain to me the mysteries of tamale pie? I realize it's no substitute for tamales, but is it a good thing in it's own right? And why do the recipes I find online use regular cornmeal instead of masa? Or... any other ideas what to do with my big bag of masa harina?

In de Wildeman has a nice selection of jenever and Korenwijn. Also try Proeflokaal Wynand Fockink for their jenevers and liqueurs Also, it's not jenever, but somehow jenever makes me think of whisky ... should you have a craving for whisk(e)y, check out the famous whisky cafe L&B on the Korte Leidse Dwarsstraat 82 (near Leidseplein), they have (I think..) more than a 1000 whiskys to choose from...

I second the recommendation for brouwerij 't IJ.. for late night beer drinking, In de Wildeman or Gollem are both really nice. Lots of beers on tap and nice bartenders who will give you samples until you find a beer you like!

well, if it really was just food... would this Momoffuku place be the hype that it is? If it really was just food, wouldn´t all the people who are now dying to get a reservation, be just as happy staying at home with a cheese sandwich? I think a restaurant owner should be able to lay down the rules about whatever behavior he does not want in his place (and in this light, this discussion is reminiscent of the no laptops in restaurant bars topic.) If Chang does not want cameras... fine. Customers can disagree and argue about it, but it´s his call.. IMO. But explaining it by the remark he made, is just silly.

btw I love it that the Amsterdam thread is getting some action.. keep the reviews coming people

I think his reviews used to be much more ´to the point´. van Vlaanderen, Segugio, and A Tavola are examples of excellent restaurants he gave a great review... years ago. He recently gave Pollux a 8+ I think, I ate there a couple of months ago and it was ... quite bad. But, Bouchon du Centre has been praised by some of my knowledgeable friends, and he gave that a 9.5 if I´m correct. It´s pretty high on my list of things to try.

Betamax, I was there a couple of days ago, and was going to post about it, but you seem to have described my experience pretty well but just to add a couple of things... the view is gorgeous, and if you can get a table outside, you can have a very nice outdoor dinner (for which there are, in my opinion, not enough possibilities in Amsterdam) . I had the cod croquettes, which were very tasty, husband had the steak tartare which he really liked. Then I had the half portion of steak frites with bearnaise, and he had the half portion of Eggplant parmesan. My steak was perfectly cooked, the frites were good, the bearnaise quite good. I did not like the eggplant much.. it tasted like it had been reheated a couple of times. The icecreams we had for dessert were all excellent as was the molten chocolate cake. All in all, the food is nothing fancy or mindblowingly original, but it's pretty good. And I REALLY like the fact that they serve most of the apps and main dishes in both half and regular portions. Very waist and budget friendly I think. Our total bill for 3 courses each and 4 glasses of wine was 70 EUR.

Chufi, please report back on your dinner. We won't be there until early Oct. but Gaigne heads my short list for the first dinner in Paris this trip, which will be on a Sunday. Paul ← don't hold your breath for my report.. I got sick and never went to Paris as disappointing as that was, I don't think I'll ever voluntarily plan a trip to Paris in August again. I got crazy with researching restaurants and shops etc only to find out time after time they were closed on the day I wanted to go (or closed on Sunday.. or not closed on Sunday, but closed in August.. etc. ) I'm sure one can eat well in Paris on a Sunday in August, but I'm also sure it's easier on a Thursday in October!

hehe. I was just thinking some more on this subject and this was exactly what I thought. let's all switch off our computers and go eat something! Right Now!

who said that looking at pictures is a substitute? would you say the same thing to people taking pictures of their newborns, their parent's 40th wedding anniversay, their first christmas as a couple, the long awaited vacations to far away places? perhaps you are someone who does not like to take or look at pictures (my husband is one of those people) but for many people, taking pictures is something they do to hold on to precious memories. Food is my passion, and photography to me is just another way to enjoy this passion. I like to write about food, read about food, photograph food, eat food, cook food, think about food, shop for food, look at other people's food, read what other people have to say about food. Not what everybody has to say about food is interesting, and not everybody's pictures are. There are tons of blogs out there with crappy pictures and bad writing. But there are also lots of blogs and websites with great pictures that inspire me, and beautiful writing that moves me. It's up to you to find the ones that are worth your while. As feedmecookies said, there are annoying and arrogant blogs out there... I stumble upon them, then don't read them anymore. Taking pics of food in restaurants here (in the Netherlands) is not so common that it's starting to annoy restaurant owners to the point where they forbid it - but it's also not so UNcommon that people look at me weird when I take a picture of my plate before I eat it. It's all over in about 15 seconds anyway, and then I eat. And enjoy. And while I eat, I try to taste as best I can, but I never discuss the food while I'm eating. That is truly distracting to me. Usually it takes me until about an hour after dinner before I can express my thoughts on what I ate. Sometimes it takes me till the next morning!

thanks for the heads up.. as usual, I forgot about restaurant week and now I'm too late for the big ones. But, I've made reservations at 2 places I've been wanting to try: lunch at The College Hotel (a restaurant & hotel that are part of a school for the food and hotel business, both resto and hotel are a training ground for the pupils, which (if reviews are to be believed) can lead to funny and sometimes erratic service, but, the chef is supposed to do innovative Dutch food so I want to try that!) and dinner at Umoja, 'sustainable, fair trade, organic' restaurant. I'll be sure to report back.. restaurant week is from 25 august, so not for another couple of weeks.

completely forgot to report back, sorry. we had gruyere biscuits (home made) with the Pineau. A salad of borlotti beans and cubes of deepfried tuna with the white wine, and entrecote ( steak), potato mushroom gratin, and braised fennel with the red. With the Recioto, blueberry madeleines and chocolate macarons. it was a great dinner.

I made another dish from the book: tuna with borlotti beans (don't have the book here so don't know the Italian name). Again, I had issues with his instructions. He says to cook the beans with sage, chopped celery, and whole garlic cloves, amply covered with water. When done, you're instructed to puree a couple of table spoons of the beans (with or without garlic/celery/sage? with or without cooking water? ) I pureed without cooking liquid first but that gave me a much too dry puree (and not enough). So I ended up adding liquid (and some seasoning, and olive oil, otherwise the puree would have been much too bland). I deepfried my tuna cubes for a little too long.. you really have to fry them only seconds, or they won't be pink in the middle. Mine weren't, but they were still juicy and delicious. I used a mixture of salad leaves, and omitted the raw onion from the salad because we were having a special white wine with this course.

In the Good News Department: one of my favorite restaurants, Orontes (Southern Turkish cuisine)opened another restaurant in Amsterdam West, appropriately called Orontes West. The address isn't on their homepage yet, but you can find it here. The place is an exact copy from the one on the Albert Cuypstraat: same menu, and even some of the same staffmembers. Service is friendly (if not always completely efficient) and cordial as ever, and the food is just as good. Go for an assortment of the appetizers (my favorites are the cold octopussalad and the aubergine with pomegranate syrup, and last time we had the most amazing fried mussels) and then if you have room, order the grilled lamb or the fish of the day - everything freshly grilled, and served with bulgur and salad. edited to add: while Orontes Albert Cuyp has a couple of tables on the sidewalk of a busy street, Orontes West has a nice terrace which makes it a better chice for summer outdoor dining. It's a bit out of the city center but this also makes it easier to get seats on the terrace!