Dui! Holland.
Starting with Amsterdam.
Nicole Neugebauer & Jens Hoffmann features Holland.
With more than 165 canals, 1500 bridges and 900.000 bicyles, the capital of the Netherlands, divided into some 90 islands.
For us it is one of the most charming, unique and outgoing cities in the world.
We are sure you will love the the hotel. It is a YO company hotel brand with hotels at airports like NY, A’dam & London, founded by Simon Woodroffe and Gerard Greene.
The rooms are a bit larger than those in capsule hotels but are very small relative to traditional hotel rooms. The founder saw Japanese capsule hotels, which were the inspiration for YOtel. The first YOtel was opened in 2007 at London’s Gatwick and Heathrow airports, in 2009, YOtel opened a branch at Amsterdam Schiphol airport and the company the Business Accommodation of the Year award at the Business Travel World Awards.
Personally I went back to my study time in A’dam twenty years ago @ the Universiteit van A’dam and enjoyed to ride my bicycle.
Amsterdam has numerous great, fine museums, among them the Stedelijk with a lot of modern art, the Rijksmuseum, the classical Dutch painting and Asian art, and the Van Gogh Museum. The Anna Frank-House, the hiding place of the Franks during the Nazi occupation, is also open to the public. The city naturally has a number of buildings belonging to the Amsterdam School style of architecture, among them Het Schip by Michel de Klerk. Designed as an apartment house it is today home to the Amsterdam School Museum.
For the perfect break: our restaurant tip in A’dam: Ciel Bleu
The restaurant is on the 23rd floor of the Japanese owned Okura hotel in Amsterdam. The picture windows across one side of the dining room give a fine view over the city. The dining room is luxurious, with generously spaced tables set out with fine linen tablecloths, and comfortable chairs.
The wine list stretches over 19 pages and is very well chosen, with excellent growers from around the world.
An array of nibbles appears as you browse the menu. We started with cannelloni of green apple and caramel with goat cheese and dried figs.
It was refreshing but best was a “shake” of sweet and sour cucumber with green apple mousse and a dried mushroom, which had great depth of cucumber flavour.Yummy.
First up was deep fried soft shell crab with avocado and beansprout salad, alongside langoustine with a spicy mango chutney. The soft shell crab was very good with a clever mix of tastes. Next was a cornetto of scallop with truffle mascarpone, served alongside a single cooked scallop with green pea coulis and black truffle, and a Parmesan mousse. The scallop itself was beautifully cooked. I enjoyed it.
Strips of cod were garnished with almonds, garlic and coffee and served alongside a warm foam of “belle de Fontenay” potatoes and horseradish. I never find cod the most exciting of fish, so overall for me the dish was just nice.
My partner had a fine piece of turbot, fried on farm bread and topped with paletta Iberico bellota pata negra, with lardo di Colonnata, glazed black salsify and a dressing of Amontillado sherry. The fish itself was perfectly cooked and had lovely flavour, the sherry dressing a clever foil to the fish, while the pata negra was interesting.
For the main course, saddle of roe deer was served with black pudding cream, cannelloni of green cabbage and dried ribbons of venison with clove jus. The deer itself was excellent, though perhaps this dish had a flavour more than was really needed.
We had cheese, of course, we are in Holland and fennel ice cream with star anise, white chocolate ice cream, mango and soufflé of vanilla and yoghurt with Oreo biscuit crumble and coconut ice cream. It finished off the meal.
Overall I feel this is a fantastic two star level restaurant, the Chef was engaging and clearly passionate about his job.
Give it a try, its worth it, especially when you are interested in architecture.
Dui Holland.
Happy landing and a lovely stay.
