Amsterdam Foodie

A few weeks ago, I got in touch with the brains behind Amsterdam Spoke: an online magazine for Amsterdam’s would-be writers to profile their work – and to provide insider info on the city to boot. For the last few months, Spoke’s writing community has been congregating for meet-up drinks, dinners and creative events, so I went along to yesterday’s meeting to get to know some fellow writers (and – of course – to try out a new restaurant).

The venue was Humphrey’s: a super-central, multi-roomed eatery with an international menu. Given its location, you’d expect a lot of tourists, but you’d also expect prices to match. Humphrey’s offers three courses for €22.50, which is probably what attracted a group consisting of three writers and two amateur photographers, none of whom (I imagine) are exactly on JK Rowling’s salary.

Salmon, seaweed, wasabi

After considerable mixing up of drinks orders, we tucked into the entire loaf of bread speared to its board with a knife. To start, I had salmon that had been wrapped in seaweed sheets, breaded and deep fried, served with more seaweed (this time of the salad variety). The salmon was fresh and raw in the centre; its oiliness was given a welcome zing by the wasabi mayonnaise with which it was served. All in all, a good beginning.

Mixed grill: beef, chicken and pork with curry sauce

My mixed-grill main was less accomplished, with the skewer of chicken, pork and beef all having been grilled for seemingly the same length of time – which was slightly too long for the chicken and pork, and much too long for the beef. They were also dusted in dried herbs (sorry, pet hate) and served with a creamy curry sauce. A simple Hollandaise would’ve done the trick.

The tiramisu for dessert (of whose name we spent quite some minutes discussing the Italian meaning, in true pedantic writerly style) was strangely circular and served with a caramel sauce. It wasn’t the most authentic tiramisu I’ve ever eaten, but equally it wasn’t the worst, by a long shot.

Food aside, however (and I realise it’s rare that I put food aside), the true pleasure of the evening was in talking to a Scottish musician who’s writing a Celtic fairy myth, an American travel writer who’s just trawled the hotels of England for the perfect hideaway, a Polish painter who’s turning her hand to photography and an Israeli entrepreneur with a passion for fashion photos. Amsterdam – with its colourful, cosmopolitan, creative people – never fails to fascinate me.