Restaurant Breda, Amsterdam

For our final meal in Amsterdam, we chose to visit Restaurant Breda. The place offers modern international cuisine, featuring a mix of modern Nordic and Asian flavours. Another key feature of the place is “there’s no menu”. Upon seated, we were asked to choose between the three options of ‘Basic‘, ‘Extra‘ and ‘The Full Monty‘, that differ in number of courses (5/7/9 – I think). We opted for a ‘Basic‘ and ‘The Full Monty‘ for each of us so that both of us could taste all the items without bursting our stomachs.

We followed our map and made our way to the address on the website, but it took us a while to verify that this was the correct place since there wasn’t any sign indicating the name of the restaurant.

From the wine menu we spotted the Santorini PDO ‘12, Domaine Sigalas, Santorini (GR) Assyrtiko and decided to try it. Assyrtiko is a rather uncommon wine in Singapore, I read that the white Greek wine grape is indigenous to the island of Santorini.

Our dinner started with a snack – fried peas with mint and a trio of starters comprising of Corn soup, polenta croquettes and taco with white fish. The slightly charred peas was crunchy with a refreshing mint dip. I was happy to see a platter of small bites presented, I always preferred variety over quantity =)

King crab, cabbage remoulade with wild fennel and Oyster ceviche that has a hint of sesame oil which is distinctively Asian flavour.

After the 2 relatively light seafood items, we moved onto slightly richer dishes. Starting with the Tomato, tarragon, celeriac and Seaweed soup, pork belly, star anise, thai parsley. The tomato and celeriac pairing was good, but what caught our attention was the clear soup with pork. We were familiar with seaweed soup but to cook it with star anise was something interesting and adding more complexity to the soup.

The next dish also featured familiar Asian ingredient – Choy sum, garlic, horseradish, sambal and brown butter. Usually we will simply stir-fry choy sum with garlic and oyster sauce. Here the chef put a twist to the dish with horseradish and brown butter. Now I’m inspired to replicate this dish when I’m back home =)

Up next was Fish with green apple, parsley oil. A delicate fish perfectly cooked and I loved how the Dutch always finds way to cook their apples!

Familiar veg appeared in the next dish again Langoustine, pak choi, bisque of the head. Even the staff told us that she didn’t need to specially explain to us the Asian greens since we are probably very familiar with them! The crunchy green was a great addition to the rich and creamy bisque.

The final main was Veal aged ribeye with caramelised onion. The mildly charred onion was sweet and aromatic. Veal with a slight pinkish centre was tender and flavourful.

Ended our meal with Granita strawberry and White chocolate with basil and bell pepper.

Moving on to Copenhagen for the meal that triggered this whole trip =)

Other Related Posts:

• Cafe Winkel 43, Amsterdam
• HEMA restaurant, Zaandam
• Lanskroon, Amsterdam
• Pancakes Amsterdam
• Street Snacks from Netherlands
• Cafe de Prins, Amsterdam

Cafe Winkel 43, Amsterdam

The day trip to Kinderdijk to see windmills was more hectic than we had imagined it to be and we had skipped our lunch…Back in Amsterdam in the evening and we decided to have a quick grab before our dinner in 2 hours’ time.

Stopped by Cafe Winkel 43 to try their famous Apple Pie (appeltaart) and saw they also have bitterballen (Beef croquettes) on their menu so we ordered that too to go with the beer.

The apple pie has a nice crust with moist chunky apple-filling which was not too sweet. Although fattening, I’ve agreed to top it with whipped cream.

Bitterballen served with spicy mustard was a great beer snack.

Another 2 items on my “To-Eat” list checked~

Other photos taken earlier during our day trip to Rotterdam/Kinderdijk:

The architecture style of Centraal Station in Rotterdam is a total opposite from the Amsterdam one. The Rotterdam one is ultra-modern and sleek looking.

The Markthal (Market hall) is a mixed development comprising of a market hall and residential units. The horseshoe shaped structure became one of the many icons of Rotterdam since its completion in 2014.  The glass facade is one of the largest glass-window cable structure in Europe.

The cube houses are another one of Rotterdam‘s icons. I find them mind boggling as we walked through the development since the cube houses are all angled at a certain degree. The tilted surfaces seems to greatly reduce the amount of usable floor area and appears to me as an inefficient use of space? However they really looked amazing and unique from the outside.

Two landmark bridges in Rotterdam, the red one is Willemsbrug and the blueish white one is Erasmusbrug (newer one and is considered as one of the longest swing bridge in the World).  Nearby is the De Rotterdam that looked like building blocks being stacked off-centred. It is also the largest building in Netherlands.

From the modern Rotterdam city, we took a waterbus to reach Kinderdijk – an UNESCO World Heritage Site to see one of the icons of Netherlands – Windmills.

The site is a short walk across the pier where we alight from our waterbus. The place is free to enter and you only need to pay if you wish to take the shuttle boat within the site and entry to museums and a working windmill. Many locals brought their own bicycles to enjoy a day-out at the historic site.

It was interesting to visit the inside of the windmill where they preserved the furniture and living condition of a family that used to occupy that windmill museum. I was attracted to the amazing view of green fields and waterways when I peeked through the cottage-style windows.

On the little garden outside, they even put up a clothes line to mimic the daily life of the people who stayed in the windmills. The scene reminded me of “clothes detergent” commercials with the white shirts swaying in the breeze against blue sky backdrop. As we wandered around the site that covers around 10 windmills, there are in fact other windmills surrounding the UNESCO site that are private properties and are occupied by others who are still staying in them.

Saw a family of swans paddling down the waterway in a single file, what a cute sight!

Other Related Posts:

• HEMA restaurant, Zaandam
• Lanskroon, Amsterdam
• Pancakes Amsterdam
• Street Snacks from Netherlands
• Cafe de Prins, Amsterdam

★ &samhoud places, Amsterdam

Our first proper fine-dining meal for this trip is at Michelin-starred &Samhoud Places. I first came to know about this restaurant when they were featured in a TV programme “Top Tables, Top Cities” on NatGeo introducing top eateries in Amsterdam. I vaguely remembered Chef Moshik Roth sharing about how he gets inspiration for his dishes during his diving trips? I reckoned he would be a master in handling seafood ingredients.

Welcome drink was served upon seated – can’t remember the exact ingredients but its a drink that resembles those served in Thailand post-massage – a bit of ginger-lemongrass, calming & soothing kind of tea.

Menu wise, from the Inspiration Menu (Degustation) there are options of Large Menu or Small Menu (of 5 course). We opted for 1 large and 1 small menu, whereby large menu has additional 4 courses over the small menu. We were excited to go through the menu and see lots of seafood dishes.

Trio of Starter was presented comprising of Herring/Potato/Apple/Cream Cheese, North Sea Crab/Red Curry/Cauliflower/Raita and Goose liver/ Sea buckthorn berry / Carrot / Yogurt.

We were really fans of the Dutch herring and this version served here was an upscale version, much more exquisite and elegant compared to the ones from the street stalls.

The 2nd starter with North Sea Crab featured some spices used often in Asian/Indian cuisines.

Last starter had goose liver pate sandwiched between what looked like meringue discs. I loved that the bite-sized starters were all artfully plated with a touch of edible flowers and displayed much finesse.

Up next was a snack from the kitchen, soft boiled eggs (eggs cooked for 40 seconds, to be exact) topped with salmon caviar, underneath were salmon carpaccio from Scotland and gambas from south of Spain.

For the large menu, guest will enjoy the Anna Gold Caviar Corn/Miso/Passion Fruit. Once again we see a bit of Asian ingredient incorporated in the dish with the use of Miso. Overall the base is sweet from the corn with mild (or minimal) taste of the passion fruit.

On the side, we were served the golden-coloured Guernsey Butter with bread. And after the first taste of the butter, both of us agreed that the rich and smooth butter was uncontrollably addictive! We found ourselves slathering more and more of the butter with each mouthful of bread! I would declare Guernsey Butter as probably the best butter in the world~

Progressing onto the next course we had Garden of the Sea Gamba Carboneras/Langoustine/Sea Urchin/Kimchi and Our Summer Favorites Daikon/Kohlrabi/Summer Fruit/Verbena respectively.

The Garden of the Sea dish actually has 2 parts to it. On the upper deck was a composition of cubed tropical fruits including mango, papaya, dragonfruit etc. placed on what looked like a desiccator plate, with a rim soup bowl underneath. We were advised to taste this in a clockwise direction to taste the changes in the flavours. After finishing the top tier, the staff would then remove the plate to unveil the lower deck which was the langoustine with prawn stock flavoured with kimchi (juice? cos we didn’t eat any cabbage).

For our summer favorites, it was a colourful display of refreshing and light “salad platter”.

For the large menu, guest will enjoy Tomato Inspired by Andy Warhol Tofu/Ponzu/Thai Basil. A placard explains Chef’s idea behind the creation of this dish. Chef rediscovered the ‘originality’ of tomato with mozzarella and basil and replaced the ingredients with tofu, soy and Asian basil.

The next course had options either From the North Sea Palm Heart/Red Bell Pepper/Elderflower Blossom or From the Land Black Truffle/Goose Liver/Leek. As we opted for 1 each, we tried both the dishes. The fish dish (pictured above) has a squid ink gelatin “skin” which was a playful presentation. The sweet red bell pepper sauce went well with the mild tasting white meat fish.

We were pleasantly surprised to see these cute and delicate “wantons” served.  They come at a supplement of €25, but I’m pretty sure its worth it. The skin of the wantons were pretty thin and wrapped inside were fillings with aromatic truffle.

For mains there were 3 options available but one of which requires supplement of €65 – Hida Wagyu A5 Beef. So we choose the other 2 which were: Anjou Pigeon Liver/Chinese Cabbage/Plums/Orange/Angelica and Sweetbread Prepared on hay/Evolution of Citrus/Polenta.

Although I’m not adverse to eating pigeon, they are certainly not my favoured protein if given a choice. However this pigeon turned out to be the best pigeon I’ve ever had~ Other than the perfected roasted meat, the brown glaze was the star. This dish did not have any gamey taste and the blend of citrusy plum, orange was a good balance with the slightly bitter and warm angelica (presumably angelica root aka dang gui).  Overall this protein dish reminded me of Herbal Roast Duck back in Singapore.

For the other main, please pardon us for being ignorant…when we opted for Sweetbread we were still wondering what exactly it was… we were expecting something like bread pudding? To maintain the mystery, we resisted checking out the term on our mobile phones. Instead we waited till we tasted the dish before making a guess.

The service staff presented us with a dish with cloche. At the count of three, the cloche was opened and we saw the golden brown piece of sweetbread sitting pretty on a pile of hay. They wanted us to take in the earthy aroma of the smoked hay before plating the sweetbread for us. Doesn’t it looked like chicken meat?

After cutting through the piece of “meat”, I concluded that it is not a “meat” as it did not have the texture of muscle tissue. My guess was it has to be a type of offal. We thought it was rare to be served offal in Western countries as it is a food that is usually looked down upon (except for foie gras?).

I still recalled a British couple commented that they found it Barbaric to eat offal…I wondered if they eat Sausages? Or had they not known that traditional British offal dishes include black pudding and brawn?

Anyway, so what is Sweetbread? It’s made from an animal’s pancreas and thymus glands. Sweetbreads are considered a delicacy especially in France and I absolutely enjoyed the one served here. It was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

For the large menu, guest will enjoy Truffle Cappuccino Black Truffle/Emulsion/Turnip-Rooted Celery/Sorrel before desserts. They’ll get to try 2 desserts while the small menu would have 1 dessert.

Innovative was a rather acidic sorbet which didn’t go well with me. I’m really adverse to overly citric desserts…Homage to Paris was a Chocolate Mille-Feuille, which was my kind of dessert. Rich and chocolately mousse sandwiched between layers of flaky and crispy puff pastry.

Overall the ambience at the restaurant was not as formal as other “fine-dining” restaurants. The staff were energetic and I noticed that they were even sporting running shoes with their blazers. Other than projecting a vibrant image, the running shoes are probably a lot more ergonomically friendly to the staff who had to stand for long hours daily.

Photos taken earlier:

After returning from Zaandam, we had time to explore other parts of Amsterdam searching for photospots.

A bridge filled with love locks and could capture the Groenburgwal canal with the Zuiderkerk church at the end.

(Top) Magere Brug, aka Skinny Bridge, over the river Amstel (Bottom) Python Bridge, officially known as High Bridge, in the Eastern Docklands.

Other Related Posts:

• HEMA restaurant, Zaandam
• Lanskroon, Amsterdam
• Pancakes Amsterdam
• Street Snacks from Netherlands
• Cafe de Prins, Amsterdam

HEMA restaurant, Zaandam

After 2 days of walking around Amsterdam, we took a 15-mins train ride to neighbouring city of Zaandam. I first took notice of Zaandam after seeing the photo of a bizarre building. The colourful and mind-boggling facade looks really interesting. After reading up on the city, I soon realised that there is a Primark shop there! Woohoo…shopping day~

Our tired feet needed time to rest, so we went into HEMA store that has a restaurant on the top floor. HEMA is a Dutch retail chain which is somewhat equivalent to Target in the US.

At first glance, I felt as if I walked into the restaurant of IKEA…very Scandinavian feel, modern yet simple with clean straight lines. The layout is also rather open-concept. With self-service drinks counter on one side and warm food counters on the other side and a cashier at the corner.

We looked at the posters above the food counters and decided to go with the easy choice of what was pictured – Sate skewers with Fries. Grabbed a bottle of Chocomel – a chocolate milk drink that somehow gets Airfrov requests (I wonder which kind souls would help to buy them and add on weight to their luggages, risk spillages?!) and ordered a tea-time set comprising of a pastry-of-the-day and a coffee.

The Sate skewers were probably adapted from Indonesian cuisines (as Dutch had previously colonised them). The meat skewers were actually minced meat paste wrapped around the stick instead of sliced meat, hence to me it actually tasted like tsukune yakitori (Jap chicken meatball skewers). As for the sauce, although it has bits of chopped peanuts in it, the consistency of the sauce is a lot more paste-like compared to the more gravy-like satay sauces in Asia. It was an interesting experience tasting a “fusion” satay.

The chocolate milk was chocolate milk. Frankly I couldn’t tell how special is this Chocomel drink as I don’t usually drink chocolate milk. But it was a nice chocolate drink.

I was more impressed by the outstanding quality of pastries that we’ve tasted so far in Netherlands. Even a simple cake looks tantalisingly mouth-watering. Pastries are often decorated with bright and colourful fruits (think raspberries, strawberries etc.), it was a lovely sight to see them on display at the counters. Perhaps one could attribute the presence of wonderful pastries to the availability of high quality fresh cream milk?

After our break, we continued our shopping along the shopping street. Other than fashion stores, there are also Flying Tiger – a Danish retail concept store that sells lots of quirky lifestyle products, Albert Heijn supermarket etc. In fact we did quite a lot of shopping at the supermart, including buying touristy chocolates – loving those Amsterdam house magnets, wines from Austria (which are not common in Singapore), Dutch Drop (liquorice) – for my office jie-mei with acquired taste…In fact I chose one with half gummy and half drops for fear that full liquorice taste might be too overwhelming.

I guessed I enjoyed my trip to Zaandam because all the shops are concentrated along a nice pedestrian-only shopping street and its not overly touristy. Over at Amsterdam, stores are scattered around the city, having to navigate through the canals and walk a longer distances to cover the places you want to visit. I’m not sure if I’ve been to the wrong side of town, but I see more cafes/eateries/coffeeshops (for consuming Marijuana)  in the 3 main canals area than other genre of shops.

However there is no luxury stores in Zaandam, for high-end shopping there is a big luxury dept store in Amsterdam called de Bijenkorf.  We’ve seen some Chinese tourists waiting for the store to open when we passed by in the morning…

Photos taken earlier:

Once we stepped out of the train station at Zaandam, we headed towards the main shopping street and were greeted by the unique architecture that is a hotel.

This was the most outstanding structure along the shopping street. Nothing else compares.

Other Related Posts:

• Lanskroon, Amsterdam
• Pancakes Amsterdam
• Street Snacks from Netherlands
• Cafe de Prins, Amsterdam

Lanskroon, Amsterdam

After our unsuccessful attempt to locate the famous Stroopwafel stall in Albert Cuyp Market, the next morning we decided to make our way to Lanskroon to try their legendary Stroopwafels. Lanskroon is a bakery shop cum cafe, hence should be easier for us to locate them.

Ordered a piece of Stroopwafel along with a cup of cafe latte, with the purpose of placing the Stroopwafel over the cup. It is said that the steam/heat from the coffee will help to slightly melt the caramel syrup which is sandwiched between the two thin crispy waffles. I certainly loved the crispy texture of the waffle along with the sweet & savoury caramel syrup – a heavenly combination. The delectable stroopwafels are also available for sale in boxes.

We were also attracted to the cinnamon croissant in the display counter and had bought one. The cinnamon croissant was freshly baked as evidence from its fluffy body and crisp outer crust. Sprinkled with a generous coating of the aromatic cinnamon powder. The layered flaky texture is much lighter and easy to eat than the denser cinnamon rolls that we get to see more commonly in Singapore.

Having tasted the addictive stroopwafel, we decided that it was worthy enough for us to hand-carry a few boxes of these Dutch snacks back to Singapore. Unfortunately since we were only at the start of our trip, we didn’t want to buy them from bakeries. Sounds ironic, but it was because these freshly baked ones are likely to be without preservatives and we aren’t sure if they would turn mouldy by the time we returned home? We decided to look for those packed and manufactured in factories to bring back as gifts. We found out that a particular brand – Dutch Heroes was commonly cited on Airfrov requests so we went about trying to find them at the local supermarkets.

After searching around we realised that most supermarkets usually carry their own house-brand of stroopwafels or for factory-made ones another brand called Daelmans. Apparently Daelmans are available in Singapore as well. Even after asking the locals about Dutch Heroes brand stroopwafels, we were left clueless as to where to get them – the locals haven’t heard of this brand. The locals shared that for them, they usually pop by any bakery shop to get stroopwafels, wouldn’t purchase these factory-made ones – a point which I absolutely agree with.

Just as we were about to leave Amsterdam without stroopwafels as omiyage, we found them at the Schiphol Airport… Tons of it, proudly displayed at the Fine Food shop. We also found that the stroopwafels are sold in individual 2-piece packaging.

As for the taste test, undeniably the ones at Lanskroon beat the factory-made ones hands down. The Lanskroon ones were really thin, while the Dutch Heroes ones were slightly thicker. The freshly baked ones were a lot crispier with the right ratio of syrup in the middle. The Dutch Heroes ones were less crisp and a bit more chewy in texture. However I guess without easy access to freshly made stroopwafels in Singapore, getting the Dutch Heroes one will be good enough to satisfy one’s craving.

Photos taken earlier:

Summer weather is good time to visit Europe due to longer daylight and the cooling weather. Amsterdam is a very walkable city due to its rather flat terrain, though I wasn’t brave enough to cycle around town – I foresee I will have trouble riding uphill to cross bridges!

Other Related Posts:

• Pancakes Amsterdam
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• Cafe de Prins, Amsterdam

Pancakes Amsterdam

Woke up bright and early because we wanted to beat the crowd at the “I amsterdam” letters at the back of the Rijksmuseum. Some sources said it is better to arrive before 9am so we heeded the advice. However after snapping photos at the location, we soon realised that many of the cafes only opens from 10am. Was on our way to visit a cafe famous for their Stroopwafels (opens at 10am) when we happened to pass by Pancakes Amsterdam and they are one of the rare ones available so we popped in for our breakfast.

The place was already 95% full and we were pretty lucky to get the last indoor table available.

On Day 1 of our trip, we had pancakes for breakfast too. So this was our 2nd taste of Dutch pancakes. Instead of ordering apple pancakes, this time round we ordered the Banana with almond nuts pancake which was served with chocolate sauce. The pancake was covered with thinly sliced banana and generous almond nut slices. Although comparatively it is not as crispy as the one we had the previous day at another cafe, the ones served here had a slightly chewy texture.

Other than pancake, we also tried Poffertjes. These “baby pancakes” are small and fluffy, served with butter and sieved powdered sugar. They are a lot more spongy in texture than their larger-sized cousins.

We also noticed something different about this place. Usually in Singapore “Cash is King”, but this place – they ONLY ACCEPT CARD PAYMENT, no cash allowed. Hmmm….we also noticed in supermarts that they have “Card Payment Only” counters. There was this particular mart that we visited doesn’t accept VISA nor Mastercard…we couldn’t figure out which brand do they accept…

Photos taken earlier:

Heineken Brewery visit was initially on our “To-Visit” list when we looking for places of interest. However we soon find ourselves too occupied exploring the city’s amazing streets & canals that we gave them a miss. Afterall we have our own Tiger Brewery in Singapore~

After waiting for a few groups of visitors to clear out, finally managed to get a shot of the iconic slogan without much people. Busload full of visitors came in intermittent intervals despite us reaching at 8.45am…

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Street Snacks from Netherlands

Typically we wouldn’t make arrangements for meals – lunch or dinner that required reservations on the first day of our arrival after flying half the globe. Because there is a high chance that we would be suffering from jet lag and might even knock out by late afternoon.

Hence on the first day of this trip, we decided to fill our stomachs by eating small snacks that can be found in local markets, food trucks, convenience stores etc.

We were at the Albert Cuyp Market – Amsterdam‘s largest and busiest market, when we saw one of the food on our “To-Eat” list: Dutch Raw Herring. Described as the “Dutch Sashimi” – it is a national delicacy which can be eaten in 3 ways. The traditional way of enjoying this raw herring is to lift the herring by its tail and then take a bite upwards. For the less adventurous ones, there is also the choice of having the herring served in a bun. For us who are in the middle of the scale, we ordered a portion served  in bite-sized pieces, topped with raw onions and pickles at the side. This dish that cost around  €2.50 is surprisingly affordable! Being accustomed to eating raw fishes, this is definitely a delicacy which suit our palates.

As we continued our stroll at Albert Cuyp Market, we kept a lookout for stall that supposedly sells very good Stroopwafels. Unfortunately we didn’t managed to locate the exact stall that we were looking for, although there were many others that also sells both freshly cooked and packed Stroopwafels.

Nonetheless it was a great experience exploring the local market that sells vegetables, seafood, fruits, cheese, clothings and sundries etc. Perhaps most crowd were drawn to the EuroPride Parade that was on-going, the human traffic flow was still relatively comfortable.

After checking into our hotel in the late afternoon and taking a short nap, we then ventured out again to explore the city. We headed to the Amsterdam Centraal Station at around 8pm and grabbed the HEMA hotdog (smoked sausage) bun from the HEMA shop inside the station. It’s a quick and convenient food for busy travellers on-the-go. The hotdog with coke set is around €3.

Took a tram to the House of Bols museum so that we could find out all we could learn about Bols flavoured liqueur. The self-guided tour stimulated our senses with sight, aromas and tastes, including a sniff test to guess the different flavours produced by the company.

At the end of the visit we were entitled to a cocktail at their bar. There is also a specialty shop that sells a wide variety of Bols flavoured liqueur.

While on our way back to our hotel, we passed by the fast-food franchise – FEBO that serves up its snacks in well-known “automat”-style vending machines. We decided to try the Satekroket (satay croquette) that cost €1.60. Yes, that’s right. Its Satay Croquette, this Asian flavour made its way back into Netherlands when the Dutch colonized Indonesia in the 16th to 17th century. The vending machines do not give change, so you’ll have to prepare the exact coins, drop them into the coin slot and open the slot for your food. The Satay Croquette had more of a black pepper taste but was reasonably warm and had a nice crisp bread crumb crusted potato mash.  The shop didn’t have any proper sit-down tables, most people either grab and go; or stood around the high tables to finish their food. When its closed to mid-night, having such comfort food is a good enough option for many. For us, its just for the fun experience.

For the next few days in Amsterdam, we didn’t get to try much street food for various reasons such as food stalls were closed when we found them? It happened to a herring stall and a stall selling bitterballen (dutch meat ball). Eventually we got to try them in eateries instead, posts about food that we tried in eateries will be under the respective shop names in my subsequent posts (including stroopwafels, chocomel, poffertjes, appletart etc).

We totally missed out on the opportunity to try street food such as Dutch Fries and Kibbeling (battered chunks of deep fried fish) in Amsterdam. However we managed to try them while we were in Roermond (another city in Netherlands). For the fries, the Dutch either eat them with Mayonnaise, Ketchup or even Sate sauce (satay). I opted for the typical mayonnaise. The fried fish has a nice crusted batter and meaty flesh, goes well with the Remoulade (similar to tartar sauce). I certainly love Kibbeling more than Fish & Chips due to the texture as the fish is cut into larger chunks and has more batter coating.

Other Related Post:

• Cafe de Prins, Amsterdam

Cafe de Prins, Amsterdam

Touched down at Amsterdam in early morning. Our room was not ready for check-in so after leaving our luggage we were off to explore the city and look for breakfast.

In a few hours time the city will be hosting the EuroPride – a pan-European international event dedicated to LGBT pride, whereby floats will be cruising down one of their main canals. Therefore the city was decked out in rainbow flags and rainbow balloon arches.

As we made our way to look for Cafe de Prins at 10am, there were people in their boats along the Prinsengracht canal preparing for the carnival which is happening at 1.30pm.

The cafe was easy to locate as they are on the opposite bank a short walk away from the landmark Anne Frank House. Ordered the Dutch Pancake and had been expecting to see a fluffy puffed up pancake served in a cast-iron pan, but instead we saw a large, paper-thin slice being served to us on a normal plate. *Ahem, this doesn’t seem to resemble the pancake we were looking for… Turned out that the fluffy ones served in cast-iron are named “Dutch baby pancakes” didn’t originate from Netherlands!

The dutch pancakes or pannekoek tasted like crispy prata with choice of toppings (bacon/cheese/apple). From the round rings on the pancake, it’s clear that we ordered one with apples since the Dutch love apples. 

Also had the fried eggs with sauteed mushrooms on toast.

We found ourselves as the rare customers who chose to sit indoor as most of their customers took a seat outside (just like Parisian style cafes) overlooking the bustling canal. But we enjoyed the quietness and quaintness of this “brown cafe” decor.

With our stomachs filled, we continued with our stroll around Amsterdam city’s canals and admiring the picturesque scenes, in particularly those hidden in the smaller canal alleys.

Photos taken earlier:

The relatively generous leg space on SQ A350 was a nice surprise – even for economy class seats. Had a good rest onboard as it seems that with the improved air flow circulation the air humidity is higher as I didn’t experience dry nasal as I used to do on other long haul red eye flights. The meals were pretty good (proven once again that meals for long haul flights are better than regional ones). The wide large touch screen display and control were sleek and fabulous. Clarity and sharpness of the display were a welcomed feature. Tempted to bid for the premium economy upgrade but thought the money would be better spent at enjoying myself at the destination instead of during the flight. Afterall the difference between economy and premium economy is rather negligible especially on the newly configured A350.

Other than the wider seats and leg space, 1 more meal option, availability of champagne, the rest are largely the same. You got to share the same toilets as economy class folks, meals are also served on plastic trays. Cost of SQ flights are already more premium than other carriers so to pay for premium economy is IMO not worth the penny. If you wish to pamper yourself, go for business class to really experience the difference in level of comfort and service.

Hello Kitty Orchid Garden Cafe

I’m sure glad that I am at the airport after the Hello Kitty craze was over. No queues to get into the Hello Kitty Orchid Garden Cafe and I decided to have my meal there before my flight. After all I don’t think I would ever make my way specially to the airport to visit them.

The cafe was much smaller than I expected. But decoration was more elegant than I expected as it’s not overly pinkish nor cutesy. Majority of the attention went to the abundance of orchids hanging overhead while there were 2 large Kitty display for people to take photos with.

I didn’t have much expectations on the quality of food for such cafés. The food we had The Rising Kitty spaghetti with teriyaki chicken thigh and Kitty goes Fishing baked salmon fillet were passable in terms of taste but not value for money.

The best item was the Rose, Rose I Love You cake which looked really pretty – certain to bring a smile to any girl’s face. The orange sugee cake sprinkled with cookie crumble and rose-piped strawberry buttercream with a side of peanut butter gelato. The taste reminds me of the old-school confectionery cakes with the buttercream. Perhaps after the unremarkable mains, this was a delightful dessert treat.

I certainly hoped my meals will get better as I embark on my trip to enjoy Europe’s summer.