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For me and a lot of my Asian friends or relatives, having Chinese food is both comforting and celebratory. We’re a little unadventurous in what we order. We always say ‘next time’ we’ll choose something we haven’t tried yet, but Cha Siu, Peking Duck and For Nam are just so. damn. good. we almost always order it.

Sil Jeh Fan is a great option when you are really greedy AND don’t want to spend too much. It’s rice with a bit of all the three dishes I mentioned. Triple WIN, although you need some luck to get the better bits of the duck. Some restaurants serve chicken instead of the duck, which is a bit of a let down.

If we have starters it’s usually steamed tao si oysters or scallops and sometimes I order razor clams. If it’s an occasion, we get side orders of various greens with oyster sauce or garlic.

One day I will order the stewed stomach. One day.

The decor was ‘French’ in a string-of-onions-round-the-neck-’allo-’allo kind of way, but it proved quite effective, I no longer felt I was in Amsterdam.

The menu was chalked on a black board on the wall. It was mostly self-explanatory (if you read French), but the jovial French owner dropped by to explain it all anyway, in lovely Dutch and Franglish even for our mixed company.

A quick glance told me I was never going to find anything on it that would fit my current calorie-limited diet, so to hell with it for once.

I was very tempted by the duck, but I decided to go against my usual choices and picked the Sanglier en Daube (wild boar stew) for my main coarse and three-way Foie Gras en Brioche for a starter.

I’ve had tiny bits of Foie Gras before, but never a complete dish based on it. I’m always tempted as I am very keen of liver of any kind, but generally decide against it out of health or financial reasons.

I could tell after the first few bites that I’m really not used to that kind of fattiness in my food anymore. It’s absolutely gorgeous, but just a bit too much for me now. The Foie Gras came three ways: plain, mousse and a large slice caramelised as if it were a flan. The brioche was soft and fluffy and I used it to spoon the mousse on top. There was a sweetness to the dish that lingered, from the caramelised foie gras and the dressing on the accompanying salad.

The wild boar, the meat covered in a rich dark brown sauce, had a sweet touch too, I found a sizeable piece of pear in the stew. I loved it, it’s great comfort food in these cold wintery days, but I will probably pick something more dainty off the menu next time. Once my system has recovered from the cream, butter and sugar onslaught, that is.

The house wine was good, but after the first few glasses my colleague picked something else from the list that was even better. I can’t remember what it was, but it tasted lovely, rich and syrupy. (I’m told it was ‘Château Sainte-Béatrice’)

We rounded off our dinner sharing a few (rather safe) cheese platters and coffee.

I think the food at Le Petit Latin is old fashioned and that’s a compliment. It’s pretty hard to find well executed classic cooking, and in such a pleasant, relaxed environment too. Best of all is the service. Positively un-Dutch. That too is a compliment.

Le Petit Latin, Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 306, 1012 RV, Amsterdam

Took less than 15 minutes to prepare (I nuke the spuds in the microwave). Tasted like heaven.

What’s your favourite simple meal?

Tjie = Jee / Gee = Pork

A-Fusion is a really nice place stuck between the mostly grisly looking shops and restaurants on Zeedijk. Once you’re inside it’s kind of hip and trendy in a cool Asian way. I tried their bubble tea, they’ve got tons of different flavours, but I have to say I thought the coffee flavoured one I tried was a little bland. I prefer the Indonesian version of this type of drink, called ‘cendol‘.

I also tried their ‘thigh’ meat (deep fried battered chicken) and siu long bao. I’m not an expert, but I think the siu long bao was too dry. Descriptions of the dish always warn for the hot broth that spills from the dumplings once you bite them.

Service was a little hapless, though I noticed they were a lot more attentive to their regulars.

I bought a bamboo steam basket and a couple of trays of (frozen) dim sum from Toko Dun Yong on Gelderse Kade.

Sieu Kaui, Ha Kau, Won Ton and Char Siu Pao.

I’ll pretend it’s healthy.

What beautiful days we’re having. Long walks by the Amstel, sushi in Zuid, crazy voicemails (‘Vy aren’t you picking up ze phone? VY?’) and an (almost) announcement. Things are shaping up nicely this summer.

A hearty soup is what I needed so I decided to make a fish ball soup, mixing japanese and chinese ingredients and. Here’s what I did.

I made stock (3/4 liter) from dashi powder, bonito flakes, a slice of ginger root, some crushed garlic. Then I added 4 scampis, 4 fish balls, a sliced carrot, 4 shi-take musrooms to the boiling broth, as well as portion of udon. I should have prepared the udon separately, but I was lazy so I just cooked them in the broth.

Topped it off with a few stalks of yau choy sum (one of the many types of ‘chinese seasonal greens’) and deep fried japanese tofu. Didn’t have any spring onions, which should have gone on top. The last thing I added was a raw egg, which slowly cooked amidst the noodles.

Tasty! The comfort food of my childhood. Next time, I’ll try to remember to take a picture before I eat it all.

No, I didn’t fly to London or Dublin today after work. I jumped on my bike to pick up something from the Hardware.nl shop on Ceintuurbaan. And on my way back, my eye caught something interesting.

There on Sarphatipark, not 5 minutes from my door, was a sign that read "Thomas Green’s, the best of British.’ It looked very small, but I hit my brakes, got off my bike and went to investigate.

Inside I found a British grocery store. Fully stocked. Frozen products, a range of instant Indian meals as well as ingredients, cheese (Cheddar, natch, but Wensleydale too.), rashers, various kinds of sausages, double cream, clotted cream, beverages, crumpets, crisps (salt & vinegar!), a large rains of teas and enough biscuits and sweets and chocolate bars to give the entire nation diabetes. Bottled ales, cider.  Etc. etc. And they deliver too.

How long had they been there? 18 months. How could I have missed them before? Local regulations prescribe they’re not allowed to advertise in the street. They’re looking for another location.

‘Don’t move too far out of this neighbourhood,’ I said.

www.thomasgreen.nl

PS. Aussies, they’ve got tim tams and vegemite too! 

Bwah! The chefs at Zushi, a sushi bar I frequent on weekends, usually say ‘See you next Sunday’.

I wonder if I can get a discount if I increase the frequency of my visits.

I’ve just booked a flight to New York for my trip Oct 6-12. It’s funny how they can turn a 350 euro ticket into one that costs 535.

So… New Yorkers… where’s the cheap sushi in your town?

You couldn’t just get a bag of chips, it only came as extra with the
sausage. I marvelled at the ludicrous idea of having french bread with
chips (‘le chip butty’) and tried to decide what sausage I wanted.

The merguez (moroccan, spicy) looked great, but I wanted something
bigger so I pointed at the large ones on the hot plate. Looking at the
menu, I guessed they were ‘andouilettes’. That rang a bell. When the
woman scooped one disintegrated sausage into a baguette for me, I
remembered. Andouille… Tripe. Chitterlings. Offal.

I smiled, having made the age old unsuspecting-tourist-in-france
mistake. But I pride myself on a strong stomach and palate. I’m not
squeamish about food (as long as it’s not insects) gladly slip live
shell food down my throat and wax poetically about black pudding. A
little pigs’ offal wasn’t going to put me off.

I tucked into my baguette with great relish. Texturally, it was fine.
That thick white rubbery bit must have been a vein or stomach lining.
The pale grey brownish filling was like minced meat. It was the smell
of it that did me in. It was minging, sickly and sweet, much or exactly
like the food I used to cook for my pet.

Half of my baguette andouillette ended up in a bin. A bottle of Evian
took care of the taste and smell. Once inside the stadium, I stilled my
hunger with a plain old hot dog.