September 2007 - dutchgrub

Weihenstephan in Amsterdam

What a nice day! Sunshine, warm temperatures and blue sky. Such a pleasant surprise after this year’s wet summer and the arctic temperatures of the last few days.

To me, warm weather is weissbier weather and I am currently enjoying a cool Weihenstephan Hefeweizen!

For all of you who have never tried Weihenstephan, I encourage you to go out and have one. Like many other German “Weizenbier”, it’s very different from Belgian “witbeer”. It has a much fuller and smoother flavor. It has a wonderful cloudy appearance when poured into the typical tall half liter glasses and will charm you with its herbal and yeasty fragrance.

If you are craving a “Weizen” now, here are some suggestions where to get one:

Hesp on Weesperzijde has Hefeweizen on tap! Great! Just make sure you ask them for a proper Weihenstephan glass rather than a terribly unfitting Grolsch pint.
Restaurant As by the Beatrixpark has Hefeweizen in bottles and a great terrace to go with it.
Grungy cafe Soundgarden on Marnixstraat (do they have a web site?!?) has a dark Weihenstephan for you to enjoy on its secret terrace.
Then there are brown cafe Westers (no web site either!?!) on 1e C Huygensstr near the Vondelpark, Jordaan institution De Tuin on 2e Tuindwarsstraat (nope, no web site either…) and Cafe Bax on Ten Katestraat.
And cafe Gollem on the Spui not only has a web site and over 200 beers on offer, including Weihenstephan, but even an image of the good stuff on its home page!

Of course you can also buy a few bottles or crate. Here are two suggestions:

Slijterij Ton Overmars on Hoofddorpplein has bottles, crates and and otherwise great beer, wine and whisky selection with very knowledgeable and friendly service
Or you can oder from the Cracked Kettle

Prost!

Le Creuset Pots – Special Offers

This weekend I bought a Le Creuset pot! I had been looking at them for a while because I like the cast iron with enamel coating. It’s perfect for cooking – providing for a very balanced heat distribution. And the enamel coating gives them a great look and makes it easy to clean and maintain them.

Looks and quality do come at a price, so I have been doing some comparison shopping. I do find the number of models they have confusing and there is little usable information available on the web.

In the end I bought a 22cm soup pot for EUR 69,- from a local store here in Amsterdam. I could have probably found it for EUR 5 – 10 less, but I got good advice from the shop owner and went with it.

The soup pot is a new model and specially priced as an introductory offers. I saw that many stores, online and offline, have the soup pot on special offer.

When I first saw the pot, I was a little confused: Is this the standard Le Creuset model? Or one of the many specialty items they started making when they became popular? I was in the market for an all purpose, everyday pot. So I did some research online which proved much more tedious than I had imagined. I am summarizing it here for everyone interested in going for the special offer.

So first of all, I was interested in pots and during my research disregarded the plentiful mini cocottes, exotic stuff like woks and tajines, pots in the shape of vegetables, plates, spatulas and anything else that is not a container for cooking.

That narrowed my choice down to the following three model: The Round Oven (Cocotte Ronde) shown on the lft, the Oval Oven (Cocotte Ovale) shown in the middle, and the Soup Pot (Madeleine), shown on the right.

But that’s only the start. The model come in many different sizes and colors. I didn’t think color was important (altough I like – and got – the classic red look shown above). But choosing the right size is very important – the pot should be large enough to hold the quantities of food you are usually preparing, but also not too large because it takes up space, is harder to clean and makes it more difficult to judge quantities of ingredients.

I could not find a good overview of size, so I made my own. Here it is:

Model	Diameter	Volume
Cocotte Ronde / Round Oven	16 cm	1,3 l = 1½ qt
Cocotte Ronde / Round Oven	18 cm	1,8 l = 2 qt
Cocotte Ronde / Round Oven	20 cm	2,4 l = 2½ qt
Cocotte Ronde / Round Oven	22 cm	3,3 l = 3½ qt
Cocotte Ronde / Round Oven	24 cm	4,2 l = 4½ qt
Cocotte Ronde / Round Oven	26 cm	5,3 l = 5½ qt
Cocotte Ronde / Round Oven	28 cm	6,7 l = 7¼ qt
Cocotte Ronde / Round Oven	30 cm	8,4 l = 9 qt
Cocotte Ronde / Round Oven	34 cm	12,4 l = 13¼ qt

Model	Diameter	Volume
Cocotte Ovale / Oval Oven	23 cm	2,6 l = 2½ qt
Cocotte Ovale / Oval Oven	25 cm	3,2 l = 3½ qt
Cocotte Ovale / Oval Oven	27 cm	4,1 l = 4½ qt
Cocotte Ovale / Oval Oven	29 cm	4,7 l = 5 qt
Cocotte Ovale / Oval Oven	31 cm	6,3 l = 6½ qt
Cocotte Ovale / Oval Oven	35 cm	8,9 l = 9½ qt
Cocotte Ovale / Oval Oven	40 cm	14,8 l = 15½ qt

Model	Diameter	Volume
Madeleine / Soup Pot	22 cm	2,5 l – 2¾ qt
Madeleine / Soup Pot	26 cm	4,2 l – 4¼ qt
Madeleine / Soup Pot	32 cm	7 l – 7½ qt

I went for the Madeleine becuase it was on offer, opting for the smallest one. I think the soup pot is very versatile but will mainly be useful for soups and sauces. Later on I hope to add a round pot, going for a little extra volume for preparing veggies, pasta, etc.

Update on Klein Jansen

At the end of August I reported about an unwelcoming visit to Klein Jansen during Restaurant Week.

I also posted a comment on diningcity.com, the organizer of Restaurant Week and also host of the web site of Klein Jansen. Even though the food was good (but not great), I rated the restaurant “slecht” (bad) because of the annoying formality and self-importance.

A few hours email I received an email from Hans Jansen, co-owner of Klein Jansen. I thought it was great to hear back from them, assuming that they cared about my feedback. Their message, however, did not express any interest in my feedback and only informed me that it was now too late for expressing dissatisfaction and that I should have done so that same evening I was there. Hm. By now I was really wondering if Klein Jansen was as non-pretentious as their web site states. Didn’t they care about my feedback? Didn’t they want to win back a customer?

I tried again, emailing back and asking about an explanation regarding my specific points of criticism. The response was a note that all other reviews were positive and that Klein Jansen was sure that I would be satisfied on my next visit.

Maybe it’s just me, but now I was feeling looked down upon even more. So I decided to have a closer look at reviews by others on diningcity and iens.

Granted, the ratings are solidly positive: There are many “good” and “very good” ratings and only few “average” and “bad”. I did note, however, some interesting things:

Reviews of Klein Jansen on diningcity are not visible on the regular restaurant page.

You can only see them when accessing http://www.diningcity.com/amsterdam/kleinjansen/reviews_nl.jsp:
There is a post by Hans Jansen and Yolanda Klein stating that all anonymous criticism will be removed from the diningcity review list.

And when reading the commentary and reviews more carefully, I also noticed many good reviews with a caveat, most of them in line with my earlier comments about inflexibility and a tendency of caring more about the restaurant itself than the customer.

In summary: Klein Jansen is good if you do not mind a somewhat formal setting and if you do like a set menu with pre-selected wines. I would not recommend it if you are looking for a restaurant with a personal touch that is passionate about its food and its customers.

Hotel bars in Amsterdam

Just read the September issue of nl20, which has a great feature on hotel bars in Amsterdam. Hotel bars are a nice change from brown cafes and trendy scene hang-outs. They are more quiet and less smokey; you get more space; and often there are good wines and cocktails.

nl20 felt that hotel bars in Amsterdam do not get the attention that comparable bars get in other major cities. Unjustifiably as nl20 does a good job of explaining.

The article provides a good overview of the five star hotel bars and manages to give the reader an impression of the atmosphere, specialty drinks and bar tenders.

The Okura Hotel bar on the 23rd floor is worth a visit because of its great view. I would only go to the Hilton bar on a nice summer day to sit in the terraced back yard and enjoy a long drink. And I agree with nl20 that the risk of being overcrowded by drunk or stoned tourists at the Bar Americain on Leidsekade is simply too great.

One bar that I like and that was not covered by nl20 is the Golden Tulip Apollo (formerly Le Meridien). It’s spacious and has a great view out over the water behind the hotel. The bar personnel is very professional and quickly remembers the preferences of regular guests. I like to hang out there on one of the lounge chairs, by the window, with a glass of Pinot Noir from Bourgogne.