Author: dutchgrub

The Dutch Sake Samurai

I have written twice about sake in Amsterdam recently, reporting about some good bottles of sake I discovered first at Meidi Ya on Beethovenstraat and later also at Ton Overmars on Hoofddorpplein.

While sake is still a new trend in Amsterdam, there has been a big improvement in availability and selection recently. We are actually at the point where you can get a decent bottle at mainstream liquor stores like Dirk III.

sake europe

A large part of that improvement is fueled by Dutch Sake Samurai Simon Hofstra and his distribution business Sake Europe. Simon is a specialist in all things Sake and has been doing a great job promoting sake amongst wine stores and restaurants. He has great connections with the sake breweries, an amazing selection (pdf) for Dutch standards, knows a lot about sake and is more than happy to help out with his wealth of knowledge.

I had been looking for a bottle of sake made according to the Yamahai method in Amsterdam for quite a while. When I shot Simon an email he was quick to hook me up with wine store De Gouden Ton where I managed to find a the coveted Yamahai sake!

Thanks, Simon!

Restaurant Pompidou Amsterdam – Don't Bother

Restaurant Pompidou opened recently on Koninginneweg near Amstelveenseweg. In many ways, it’s the kind of restaurant I try to avoid in Amsterdam – recently opened in a trendy location, gorgeous interior design and professional branding and an ambitious French menu. But there was also a part of me that wanted to like Pompidou. It’s conveniently located and has an extensive wine bar with many good wines available by the bottle.

restaurant pompidou amsterdam - outside

So I decided to give it a try, opting for one of the bistro tables near the wine bar towards the front and set on keeping food choices rather simple.

Unfortunately the inevitable happened and Pompidou proved to be as disappointing as I had feared. As is the case with many similar places in Amsterdam, Pompidou is all about appearance and little about good food and knowledgeable, friendly service.

The host was overly intent on taking our coats that we would have just as well put on the back of our chairs. The waitresses were either chatting when we tried to get their attention or kept showing up at our table when we clearly hadn’t made our choices. Then there was substantial confusion about the “soup of moment” – I assume a soup of the day would sound too ordinary… – which, we were informed, was “either fish or something else”. The staff finally managed to determine that the soup of the moment was fish, which we decided against. True to our original plan we ordered entrecôte.

Pompidou started us off on an amuse, which much to our surprise but rather less amusement was the same fish soup we had just decided against. The bread had little flavor and the tapenade didn’t seem home made. And when the entrecôtes were mixed up between medium and medium-rare, which on further inspection seemed identical, we knew that all the effort had gone into the decoration and none into the food.

restaurant pompidou amsterdam - inside

Pompidou is certainly well designed, with a large window towards the street, high ceilings painted in fake marble and lit by a large chandelier. And the wine list also looked interesting, two full pages with breadth of various regions and grapes and depth from simple to quality. We went for a 2007 Côtes du Rhône and liked it. So we might come back for another glass of wine, but won’t bother with the food again.

Restaurant Pompidou Amsterdam – Don’t Bother

Restaurant Pompidou opened recently on Koninginneweg near Amstelveenseweg. In many ways, it’s the kind of restaurant I try to avoid in Amsterdam – recently opened in a trendy location, gorgeous interior design and professional branding and an ambitious French menu. But there was also a part of me that wanted to like Pompidou. It’s conveniently located and has an extensive wine bar with many good wines available by the bottle.

restaurant pompidou amsterdam - outside

So I decided to give it a try, opting for one of the bistro tables near the wine bar towards the front and set on keeping food choices rather simple.

Unfortunately the inevitable happened and Pompidou proved to be as disappointing as I had feared. As is the case with many similar places in Amsterdam, Pompidou is all about appearance and little about good food and knowledgeable, friendly service.

The host was overly intent on taking our coats that we would have just as well put on the back of our chairs. The waitresses were either chatting when we tried to get their attention or kept showing up at our table when we clearly hadn’t made our choices. Then there was substantial confusion about the “soup of moment” – I assume a soup of the day would sound too ordinary… – which, we were informed, was “either fish or something else”. The staff finally managed to determine that the soup of the moment was fish, which we decided against. True to our original plan we ordered entrecôte.

Pompidou started us off on an amuse, which much to our surprise but rather less amusement was the same fish soup we had just decided against. The bread had little flavor and the tapenade didn’t seem home made. And when the entrecôtes were mixed up between medium and medium-rare, which on further inspection seemed identical, we knew that all the effort had gone into the decoration and none into the food.

restaurant pompidou amsterdam - inside

Pompidou is certainly well designed, with a large window towards the street, high ceilings painted in fake marble and lit by a large chandelier. And the wine list also looked interesting, two full pages with breadth of various regions and grapes and depth from simple to quality. We went for a 2007 Côtes du Rhône and liked it. So we might come back for another glass of wine, but won’t bother with the food again.

Restaurant Choix Du Chef The Hague (Guest Post)

Today I am very happy to present the first guest post on dutchgrub.

The post is by Andy, a tech entrepreneur currently living in the Hague.  He hails from Nieuw Amsterdam, better known as New York City.  When he’s not writing code, he enjoys cooking and tasting food from around the world.  In fact there’s nothing he won’t eat.  Except for bitterballen (really, what is in that?).  His current project is Sensobi.com.

Last night I had the best meal I’ve had since moving to the Hague.  It was a cold and snowy night which kept a lot of diners in, and we wanted to go somewhere close to home.  Luckily we live near a nice stretch of restaurants mentioned in the Michelin Guide.  On a less busy corner of this street sits Choix du Chef, a restaurant I have been curious to try for about a year.  The reason: the premise of the restaurant is that there is no printed menu.  Instead, you choose between one to six courses at the start of the meal, and then you wait in anticipation for the chef’s selection that night.

restaurant choix du chef the hagueRight from the start, we knew that this restaurant was unlike any we had ever been to in the Hague; the service was extremely attentive. They seemed genuinely happy to see us there.  Their well-curated wine list is supplied by de Gouden Ton; I knew this because the jovial diners seated next to us happened to run the store.

The first course was a house-made smoked salmon, served with a relish of diced daikon radish and Jerusalem artichoke coulis.  The salmon was lightly smoked, so it sat somewhere between cured and raw, imparting both the silky texture of raw fish and the savory flavor of the smoke.

The second course was a medley of grilled quail, served atop a moussaline of potato, something called “Dutch cabbage,” and pureed beets.  The meat of the bird was tender – even the breast had an airy quality to it.  In France or New York, technique of this kind would be expected for a fine-dining establishment.  But here in the Hague, in a restaurant on a hidden back street, it was nothing short of delightful.

After living in New York for a decade, adjusting to the dining scene here has not always been easy, though there are certainly bright spots.  To know that a restaurant such as Choix du Chef exists in my new city (so close to home no less) gives me hope that there is more to discover in the coming year.  Eet smakelijk!

Basic facts: 2 course dinner: 28 euro, courses get cheaper the more you order.

Other places I’d recommend nearby: Oker, Alexandre

Great Deal Italian Take Away – Pasta di Pino

Update: Vino di Pino had to close around mid July 2011. Apparently a disagreement with the landlord forced him to leave the location on Haarlemmermeerstraat. Pino is currently looking for a new location where he can reopen shop.

The area around Hoofddorpplein has a great new Italian take away option. Italian wine store Vino di Pino started offering pasta dishes a few weeks ago and has been cooking up a storm since then!

The pasta is prepared fresh in the kitchen of the store and very good. It started out with a daily dish and has grown into a full-fledged menu with several starters, pasta dishes and desserts. The menu changes with daily specials and classics like lasagna, parmigiana alle melanzane or penne all’arrabbiata. There were some great truffle specials and recently also main courses like osso buco.

The food is very good and a great deal at € 5,= per portion. What’s really special is the warm and friendly atmosphere that owner Pino creates. He welcomes all regulars and new visitors with a big smile and a fun story. After explaining the menu and specials of the day, Pino quickly moves the conversation to other topics, taking a personal interest in his customers, talking about recent developments in the neighborhood or showing videos of the latest local food and wine events that Pino is organizing with some of the other cafe and shop owners on Hoofddorpplein. While chatting, Pino loves to break out a bottle of wine from the store and offer a taste to shorten the wait for the take away food.

I’ve been a frequent visitor recently, enjoying great take away pasta at an attractive price and catching up with Pino and other neighbors over a glass of wine. As an additional benefit you can purchase the wine at 50% off for the second bottle.

pasta take away vino di pino

Grab a Piece of dutchgrub

Recently I’ve discussed the idea of guest posts with a number of fellow foodies and bloggers.

The idea started when I was thinking about posts about food and restaurants in places other than Amsterdam and the Netherlands. I travel frequently and food is an important part of each trip. And I like to share my food experiences from those trip. The dutchgrub blog, however, does not seem like the perfect place to post about restaurants in Lisbon, Cape Town or NYC.

At the same time it would be nice to add other foodies’ opinions about the food and restaurant scene in Amsterdam. And also encourage contributions from guest writers about food in other parts of the Netherlands that I am less familiar with and that I get frequent questions about.

So in December I made a start by publishing a guest post about Restaurant Clio in Boston on the fantastic blog of The Boston Foodie. And later this week I will share the first guest post on dutchgrub by Andy who is from NYC and will share his favorite restaurant in The Hague.

Please drop me a note if you’re a foodie and would like to share your Dutch food experiences on dutchgrub or have a food blog about Berlin, Cape Town, Hamburg, Lisbon or NYC and are interested in hosting a guest post by a fellow blogger.