Rabbi Soetendorp speaking at TEDx Amsterdam

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

You can’t miss me, I’ll be the dwarf running around in a bright red jacket and matching pants.

Dag.nl is located in the INIT building as featured in the previous post.

Was all I needed to get the cheer back in my life. Didn’t know most of the songs, didn’t matter. (Seen 22-1 at the Paradiso in Amsterdam.)

My trolleybag is packed. It was hard to imagine ‘Dublin + heatwave = which clothes?’ It’s going to be 5 degrees cooler than Amsterdam, but still 27 C.

I envy my cousin who was born in Africa, schooled in Indonesia and Denmark, and is living in France. Cosmopolitan beats nationalist in my book.

In my highschool days I would have loved to go on an exchange program to the USA, but that didn’t seem to be available to me at the time. When I was in college I worked in Northern Ireland for 6 weeks, but there weren’t any schemes for a longer stay. Later still, well, it just didn’t happen. Maybe I’m just not that adventurous.

Let’s face it, I should have moved to Ireland years ago. Before the goldrush. When houses were dirt cheap (seven, maybe ten thousand Euro would have got me a nice cottage back then. What a great investment that would have been.

I always said I wouldn’t fit in over there, but fuck me, I’m Ms Square Peg whereever I am including this place I call ‘home’. Still as round holes go, Amsterdam ain’t so bad.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this. It’s just a little frustrating at the moment not being able to hop on the DART to lend a hand.