Recently, we went to Amsterdam for a weekend, just to kill the boredom of summer, since there are people in this world who do not (yet) have their right for vacation (me!!). I actually wanted to visit a new city that I have never been to, such as Marseille to visit a good friend of mine, or all the beautiful cities in Spain. But it is just too long (the distance) for a weekend. It is easier to go to the northern countries. While northern part of france is out of the question for me (I have never been there, but I save it for other boring summer with no choice at all), and going to the low lands such as Belgium and Netherlands does not actually interest me either. I mean I have been to Brussels, it is a nice city, but I only spent a day there and it seemed boring, while Antwerpen, the city of diamonds seems to be out of the plan either, I saw some pictures of Mr. Gorilla about the city...hmmm...i could be wrong, but it seems less interesting and less sensational, and pretty much ressembles to other european cities that i have visited.
So, I said to myself, if I have to go north, let it be to Amsterdam, which was onced my ideal city, where I spent a year of my living misery there as well, with boys who made me went through hell (and back and went inside again...accckkk..over and over again). I picked up Amsterdam because the weather forecast supports the thought of going there, and i thought: this could be the perfeck weekend gateway!
I meant, Amsterdam is one helluva city, very different with the rest of the cities of Europe. My ideal of a city; it has characters, different ambiance, attitude, just like Paris. For me, not even other cities in Holland could match the beauty of Amsterdam with its remarkable canals, the home of my favorite painters, Van Gogh and Rembrandt, especially Van Gogh, whose story and paintings made me want to become a painter (yeah, I had to bury this dream, hehe).
So there we went, to Amsterdam by car, with our bike hung up on our bumper Yea, I told Mr. Gorilla that I would show him the different side of Amsterdam by bike (he went to Amsterdam several times during his student years, but he always went high and did not even give a damn what the city has to offer culturally). We did camping in Amstelveen, a town situated around 12 km of the south of Amsterdam, (to save money), and to redo the biking session to the central city which i used to do when i was studying there. During our way to Amsterdam from Amstelveen, I told him my version of the city. I pointed him where I used to live, what I used to do, and we even passed my old campus. Life felt good during that weekend, because the sun shined, and we really enjoyed Amsterdam, although the city could be too bustling with tourists activities!
Apart from biking, what we did was visiting the museum of Van Gogh, and then visiting several restaurants. Amsterdam is quite good for Asian food (as explained before, I did nostalgic thingy by going to Wagamama Japanese Restaurant in Max Leusomething plein, and Nam Kee in China Town), especially those from Indonesia, which have more value in taste and theme, than those who are located in Paris. We went to Kantjil en de tijger, an Indonesian restaurant, which is quite famous in the heart of Amsterdam. But we just went to the "take away" part, not the restaurant itself, as we wanted to eat outside, next to a plaza, to enjoy the sun (and the gay parade, hehe). I am amazed of the concept of the restaurant, I know they are not the first one who invented a take away like this, but still, their packaging is a very good marketing. And during dinner time, tourists (not just the Amsterdam locals) are actually queuing to buy stuffs from this take away. I dream that one day i would open a take away Indonesian restaurant in Paris...oh but when? Anyone with lots of money and wants to donate? hehehe
Well, in general, nothing has changed a lot to Amsterdam (even the Malaysian restaurant where I used to work is still there with the same decoration) the city is still too busy and noisy. But I still have a dream that I would someday live there for real, as I really enjoy the quiet part of Amsterdam (not the central station part, I hate it, while I used to love it, hehe – how I change and loves nature more!), where people houses seem so neat and very well decorated. I love the idea how people rent a boat for a canals-promenade, and having drinks over there.
A week has passed since our Amsterdam weekend trip, and I think I left my heart in Amsterdam. Here bellow, is the picture of kroket that i made this afternoon, the typical national food of The Netherlands, and which is also quite famous in Indonesia (they influenced us with their food because of the colonisation, but we influence them more with ours, that is why they have a lot of Indonesian restaurants over there).
I introduced Mr. Gorilla to Kroket long time ago when I made it for the first time here in France, and he liked it (but he hates the Febo ones, he said...maybe because he was too high to eat – while I think Febo is just fine). I remember I told him many times that Kroket is typical Dutch food, but I actually got curious why it is called kroket, because it sounds very French, ( Croque or Croquette)... well, I did a little bit of research on the net, says that Kroket is from France. Strange that Mr. Gorilla does not know about it, said that he has never eaten things like that before (before I made the introduction years ago). He said that deep fried thing is not so French (except the disputable French Fries, which is claimed to be Belgian Fries, depend to whom the questioned is asked - while the French are normally don't care that much about this thing- not a single valid research can prove the origin of the so called French fries). One thing is for sure, apparently, that thanks to Marie Antoinette, European people eat potatoes.
Kroket Recipe is taken from
here, and I used 2 chicken fillets which I boiled 30 minutes. I was quite surprised that they don't use potatoes for the ragout. I thought that every kroket is made of potatoes. Nah, it is probably Indonesian version of Kroket, which is very closed to
Perkedel Kentang, Indonesian potatoes fried patti.
Anyway, Amsterdam, i'll definitely be back....to do biking, cultural things and restauranting for sure!
