Category: Daily recipe

Sep 26: Apple & Cheddar/Corned Beef and Spicy Labné Sandwiches; Thai

Lunch

More sandwich combinations on village bread (a dense grain bread we enjoyed a lot in Amsterdam). Today apple and caramelized onion cheddar, and a repeat of the corned beef and spicy labné sandwiches. The sandwiches were split and shared.

  • The bread is $2.99 for the loaf of 12 slices, or 50c per serve
  • The corned beef was $14.99 for 1.2 lb, and we used about 2 oz in this sandwich, or 79c per serve
  • The cheddar is $3.99 a block and we used 1/3 or 67c per serve
  • The apple was 96c and we used 2/3, or 32c per serve
  • Add 25c for spicy labné and mustard aioli.

Today’s sandwiches were returning favorites for a good reason: they’re great and just $2.53 per serve.

Dinner

A friend invited us out for Thai food  at Krua Thai and paid for the meal. We enjoyed Tom Ka Gai, eggplant with ground pork, stuffed chicken wings, and duck on rice. All were great.

Sep 24: Corned Beef Sandwich; Perfect Pot Roast

Lunch

Now that we’re home from traveling, it’s back to making our own lunch. Today we went simple and did corned beef and spicy labné on village (dense) bread.

  • Two slices of bread are 39c
  • The corned beef was $4.99 for 8 oz, and we used about 2 oz in each sandwich, or $1.25 per serve
  • Add 25c for spicy labné.

Lunch today was $1.89 per sandwich.

Dinner

As we had a chuck roast, the obvious meal is a pot roast. Slow cooked until tender, the perfect pot roast recipe has a lot of flavor, particularly when you ramp up the amount of mushroom in the recipe.

Unlike Pioneer Woman, we cook the potatoes in the flavorsome liquid.

  • The roast was $21.41 or $5.35 per serve
  • Onions are 20c per serve
  • The carrots were 69c or 18c per serve
  • One cup of red wine is around $1.33 or 33c a serve
  • Two cups of broth is half a $1.99 carton or 50c per serve
  • The mushrooms were $1.99 or 50c a serve
  • The Rosemary came from our own plant
  • Add another 15c for oil, seasoning and Thyme
  • Add 25c for potatoes.

Dinner tonight cost $7.06 for a hearty, warming meal.

Sep 22: Filet Américaine; Tapas

Lunch

We took an early train the Haarlem, and sadly experienced Haarlem in the rain again. After exploring the city for a couple of hours, we headed back to Amsterdam and Rembrandtplein for another Filet Américaine at van Dobben. Aproximately $5.40 per serve.

21.5Dinner

Our final dinner in Amsterdam and an opportunity to return to a restaurant, or find something new. As there were unexplored entries on the Dos menu, it was close by and we liked the local ambience we went back.

Tonight it was a little later and the light was not good for photos, but we enjoyed three different dishes.

The roasted garlic mushrooms was good with plenty of garlic flavor, but we decided that Greg’s version with butter is better.

We finally had an opportunity to try the ropa vieja – a beef and vegetable beef stew with origins in Indonesia, as it was out at Jottum last night. It was exactly what a warming beef stew should be like.

And for a fish dish, we had fried calamari, which was also as perfectly floured and fried with just the right bite and tenderness.

All up, the food cost about $13.45 per serve. Worth every penny.

Sep 21: Steak and Fries; Tapas

Lunch

As we were out walking, we did the total tourist thing and stop in for rib eye at an Argentinian steakhouse, just off Dam Square. It was competent all round, although the sauces lacked a lot of flavor.

Lunch cost approximately $27.85.

Dinner

We returned tonhave a full meal at Jottum, as we enjoyed our last minute, on the way home, meal there last year.

We chose four dishes, which seems to be enough for us. First out were the padron peppers. Although there are random hot ones, we had only mild on this plate.

Next out was the lamb sausage with yoghurt dressing and a little tabouli. They had good flavour, and the texture was perfect.

We couldn’t have Tapas without tortilla, the Spanish kind made from potato. This was a particularly good example.

We also had a scallop each, but there’s no photo!

All in the meal cost approx $16.67 per serve.  Although Jottum was good, we think Dos takes the lead for local tapas.

Sep 20: Pannekoeken; Tapas

Lunch

Out for a walk around Centrum, we stopped for pannekoeken: Dutch pancakes. Greg had a bacon, onion and cheese, while Philip got a huge surprise with his schwarma pancake!

A full schwarma wrapped in a pancake.

Lunch today was approximately $11.90 per serve.

Dinner

For dinner we decided to revisit a neighborhood tapas place – Dos – where we had enjoyed a great meal last year. They did not disappoint.

Starting with the tomato bread with anchovy featured in the cover photo, through three more great dishes.

The rib eye was perfectly cooked and full of flavor, largely because there was fat on the meat.

The cherizo sausage was simply fried off, but was delicious and proper sausage  not the loose version common in Mexican food.

The hit of the meal was definitely the endive and blue cheese. Yum. The bitterness and wetness of the endive is a perfect balance totblue cheese dressing.

With a bottle of wine the total was 50 Euro, or without wine, about $17.00 per person.

Sep 19: Filet Americaine; Lamb Loin Chops with Green Bean Salad

Lunch

We followed our IBC tradition and had filet Americaine at van Dobben. Filet Americaine is a tartar variation that includes mayonnaise and limited spices. Best consumed on a crusty French loaf, for $5.40 per serve.

Dinner

We finally made a much anticipated return visit to Eatcafe Kevoet. We had two great meals here last year and we’re not disappointed tonight.

Both Foodies had the Spring Lamb loin chops. Cooked perfectly, but much less than would be in the US, they were tender and fully flavored.

The lamb was about $26.50 each.

Worth mentioning is their Sgroppino: lemon sorbet with vodka beaten in until it’s light and fluffy, finished with a little proseco. Indulgent but good.

Sep 18: Smoked Trout; Beetroot Marshmallow, Flank Steak, ‘Tiramisu’

Lunch

Circumstances had us eating at the RAI convention center, so we ended up at the Grand Cafe there. We chose the smoked trout from the limited menu, with relatively low expectations – It’s is a conference center after all.

It was genuinely good: tender, tasty and the accompanying Caesar salad didn’t have potato! Really good, not just conference center good, for approx $23.40 per serve.

Dinner

A rather magical night started with a sunset luxury cruise on a private “boat” (it was big enough for a group of 20+ to not be at all crowded) that ended at restaurant Riva. An amazing meal followed.

Bothe the Foodies had the ‘marsmallow’ appetizer because it looked intriguing. Described as ‘Goats cheese – beetroot marshmallow’ and detailed as “acocado cream, hazelnut, olive oil and orange blossom ice cream” it exceeded the description with a mousse-like texture and a subtle beetroot backroad, offset by the slight tartness of the ice cream. Definitely a dish to remember, and the popular choice at our table.

The Foodies chose different entrees with Philip opting for the flank steak with jacket potato, and Greg going for the hake filets with mussels.

Both dishes were amazingly good. Full of a variety of flavour and texture that balanced each other perfectly. Impossible to fault either meal.

The biggest suprise of the night was desert. We both chose the tirimasu. Although neither of us are ‘sweets’ people, tirimasu has some balancing bitterness from the espresso. Not this one.

This version was very deconstructed, and not at all sweet, so naturally we both really enjoyed it.

Our two bonuses? Number one is that we were guests of a very generous host.

Number two: we had a clear view of the open kitchen and could see first hand how hard people work – and how precisely- to bring us this wonderful food.

The open kitchen also made it possible to thank the kitchen directly.

Sep 16: Club Sandwiches; Snacks

Lunch

We picked up some club sandwiches to take with us to the conference venue. The cost was about $3.00 each.

Dinner

Because of the odd conference schedule, we snacked on some village bread with a mix of meats and cheeses, before Philip went out to an evening mixer, where some snacks were available.

Hard to detemine a cost, but let’s say $4.00.