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Ejo #34 – TEEC: Day 17 (Chucking A Sickie In Amsterdam)

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It’s been brewing in the background for a few days. A tickle in the throat, a sneeze here and there, a runny nose (I don’t want to name names, but let’s call it The Rachel Syndrome). And this morning, it developed into a full blown cold. Booooo! Who likes getting sick when they’re on holiday? Not me. Luckily we’re staying in a very cosy apartment which is very conducive to snuggling up on the couch and watching DVDs. We did manage to get out of the house for a morning coffee and brekky at my favourite cafe, called Latei.

My favourite cafe in Amsterdam. I wrote my best short story here in February 2011 amidst several coffees and a number of cheesy goodness eggs!

You have NO idea how good this cheese omelette tastes. You can’t even BEGIN to imagine.

I discovered this really great cafe when I was here in February last year. It makes really good coffee and FABULOUS cheese omelettes. It’s quirky and cool and the antithesis of every coffee chain that spews branches all over Dubai. So we ventured out this morning for coffee and eggs, also grabbing some chips “met” (which means “with” mayo – Dutchie style) before heading home with a medicinal bottle of port. Not a bad way to spend a sick day!

“Friet Met” (which mean “chips with mayonnaise”). Fabulous comfort food.

Ejo #34 – TEEC: Day 14 (Fondue In Amsterdam)

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Yesterday we farewelled all our friends. So tonight, we went out to dinner alone for the first time in a few days. And in a way I feel like we betrayed one of our friends by going to a fondue restaurant. While we’d been together, we’d had several (interesting) conversations. One of which entailed admitting your crack. What does this mean? It means confessing what food (or drink) item you either can’t live without or simply cannot have because once you start you can’t stop. You know, your crack!!!

Mine is bread and chocolate. Which I avoid like the plague. Claire’s is cheese! Which she chooses to eat most days. So in a way, I feel mean that we didn’t have fondue night while she was here. But maybe… just maybe it’s for the best??? You know, I don’t want to be an enabler!!!

So off to Cafe Bern we went. Bubbling with the lilting chatter of a room full of Dutch people, it was a welcoming restaurant to step into. That welcome was extended when the friendly and charming waitress translated the Dutch menu to us. They don’t do an English menu, you see. And that’s one of the reasons I liked Cafe Bern from the start. It doesn’t go out of its way to attract a tourist clientele, preferring to cater to the local crowd. Just my scene!!!

Cafe Bern’s menu

It’s a fairly simple menu. Melted cheese in a pot (with bread to dip) and entrecôte that you cook yourself over a flame. So that’s what we got. Now I don’t, as you know, eat bread. But that didn’t deter me. I just dipped my salad into the cheese. Yum!

Why not lettuce and Gruyère?? Why not, I ask you?!!

Delicious entrecôte that you cook to your own liking by placing it in the yummy herb sauce which is sitting over a low flame. Divine!!!

Ejo #34 – TEEC: Day 12 (The Gang Gets Bigger In Amsterdam)

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We are lucky enough to be able to travel a whole lot. And that’s nice. We’re even luckier though to have friends that are equally afflicted with the travel bug, and there’s nothing nicer than catching up with old friends, especially in a city as wonderful and as captivating as Amsterdam. Since we’ve moved to Dubai, any time that I can spend with my old friends is golden.

And we’ve been lucky enough on this trip to get a double shot – with a couple of friends from Australia who are here on a whistle-stop tour of Europe (Kevin and Rachel) as well as a couple of Aussie expat friends who’ve lived in London for the last several years (Claire and Ben). The six of us have spent the last couple of days just wandering around town, going to the Rijksmuseum yesterday, eating and drinking a WHOLE lot and, really, just enjoying each other’s company.

Today we happened upon a street market where we stocked up on organic, local produce before walking back to Ben and Claire’s gorgeous apartment and setting up a table picnic. It was a good day.

These were delicious served with mascarpone drizzled with spring blossom honey.

Kevin and Rachel helping prepare our magnificent table picnic.