Travelsmartplanet

Even though our guide said that Amsterdam is so multinational that “you can find any food except Dutch food”, we found some delicious traditional food at Restaurant Haesje Claes (www.haesjeclaes.nl). In the six Dutch-style buildings bedecked in wood – walls, ceilings, tables, we dined on crispy cheese croquettes and hearty pea soup heaped with carrots, sausage and potatoes. We licked our plate clean of a memorable “hotchpotch” with carrots and onions in mashed potatoes and meatballs, sausage and bacon. We could’ve had stamppotten, smoked eel or fish stockpot with cheese.

We tasted the old-fashioned dessert made with raisins, brandy, egg liqueur and cinnamon ice cream and Grandma’s semolina pudding with red berry sauce. The liqueur page brought smiles, for you can drink “my aunts water, tears of a bride, Hans in the cellar, parrot soup or mistress in the green”.

If you’re near the Central Station, you can eat at Restaurant De Kroonprins (located in www.hotel-prinshendrik.nl). It’s pub-like, with beer on tap and simple dishes like Indonesian sate with peanut sauce or the popular Dutch steak with yummy fried mushrooms, salad and fries, wiener schnitzel or sea perch, and even a Dutch shrimp cocktail. For dessert, we tried the traditional Dame Blanche, a cousin to the hot fudge sundae.

Indonesian food is ubiquitous in Amsterdam but you can expect a warm family welcome if you dine at Puri Mas (www.purimas.nl), popular for the past 22 years. Ordering is easy because their speciality is rijsttafel; It’s a set meal of many small tastes – about 17 plates – served by friendly waitresses in traditional dress. The dishes in their distinctive sauces are carefully explained to you and placed in order of cool to hot.

Starters would be a crispy egg roll and fried prawns while mains are chicken brochette in peanut sauce, pork brochette in a spicy sauce, lamb in curry,  chicken in a Balinese sauce, spiced cucumber salad, veggies in peanut butter sauce, fried potato sticks, coconut powder to dust about, and you finish with tropical fruit and ice cream or fried banana.

When you want that perfect vacation that combines calm rejuvenation with the rev of action, then head for Holland. Make Hotel Okura (www.okura.nl) in Amsterdam your home base oasis. Its modernity and cool decor belies the fact that it has been here for forty years and brought high end five-star luxury along with Japanese cuisine to Amsterdam. You can start off  by taking advantage of their jet lag program and then wind down in the pool, Japanese sauna, Turkish bath and health club.

Reaching for the stars, the family grabbed a few Michelin ones – half the ones in the whole city. The two-star Ciel Bleu perches appropriately on the 23rd floor, up in the blue sky with walls of glass, so every seat and every bite is a delightful wonder. Winding down is easy to achieve at the one-star serene Yamazato, set in 15th and 16th-century Sukiya style decor and with views of the Japanese garden to complement the Japanese culinary arts.

We dined at the new canal-facing Serre where some of those Michelin-trained cooks drifted. So for only 34 Euros you can taste the same heavenly cooking with simpler versions of last year’s Ciel Bleu’s signature dishes and more. Our bento box lunch was an artist’s palate of tastes and textures filled with 9 tiny delights (guinea hen in garlic sauce, crispy crab, steak tartare, bulghur, smoked salmon, roasted artichoke, all in sauces, foams and powders. Yum!

Amsterdam is fun, hopping, bustling with bikes, museums, cafe life, canals and history. After a day of all that stimulation, it’s a blessing to come back “home” to the Okura Hotel, a 4o-year old sea of tranquility. Fabulous sleek design (love those light fixtures) and super friendly service.

Sure it has a pool and sauna but also a jet lag program, a hairdressing salon, cooking school, shoe shine service, a florist – and – half of all the Michelin starred restaurants in Amsterdam (one French and one Japanese). Best new secret in town is the new sunny Michelinesque cafe, Serre, facing the canal and cheffed by some of the staff from Ciel Bleu. So, the food has all the quality, sauces and presentation of its sisters but at prices you can afford – 35 Euros for a tasting menu or a giant bento box with 9 surprise dishes inside.

www.okura.nl

Tags: Amsterdam, bento, bike, Bleu, canal, chef, Ciel, cooking school, florist, French, hairdressing, History, Japanese, jet lag, Michelin, Museum, Okura, pool, sauna, shoe shine, star