Amsterdam Foodie

Picture the scene: my friend was at an Amsterdam restaurant that shall remain nameless (largely because I can’t remember what it was), in which he asked for a glass of white wine. ‘Dry or sweet?’ asked the waitress? ‘Umm, do you have anything medium?’ he replied. The response came: ‘Well, not really, but I could [...]

I apologise already for the football metaphor. I was only moaning a couple of weeks ago about every random company using the World Cup to market their (completely unrelated) products, and here I am writing headlines like this. My only excuses are that a) it genuinely is an appropriate metaphor in this case; and b) [...]

To offer you a little insight into the way the Amsterdam Foodie’s brain works, I’m sitting here trying to think of an angle for today’s restaurant review. As you’ve probably noticed, I rarely dive straight in with ‘the restaurant was great/rubbish/slow/fashionable’. My brother thinks this is a weakness; I think it’s why you read it. [...]

Anyone who’s known me over the past 15 years has probably had to endure one of my anti-marriage speeches. I won’t go into the details but, while I’m absolutely sure of my views, my principles do have their downsides. One of which is that I’ll never have a hen do. Still, being female and imaginative, [...]

The menu featured a starter with the rather sexy name ‘Ispanak’. It makes me think of flying carpets, pharaohs and Arabian nights spent in the dessert… Only it turned out to be spinach and yoghurt. ‘You’re going to have to sell me more than a sexy name to get me to eat breakfast yoghurt for [...]

Last night I met my first drag queen. Well, this being Amsterdam, I’ve encountered a few drag queens. But it was the first time we’d – you know – sat down and had a chat. I was in Getto: a grungy-on-the-outside, funky-on-the-inside, cocktail-cum-burger bar that’s slap bang in the middle of sex-shopping central. We’d worked [...]