D'Vijff

Today began with some fine apple and cinnamon pannenkoeken right next to Sara's place. I made my way over to the Van Gogh Museum, which houses 200 of 900 works, plus paintings by his contemporaries, his proteges, and those who inspired him. Spent four plus hours there and basically covered the entire thing. Took the Tram back (1.65 Euro), which really cruises even though it goes down the bouleva(a)rd. Sara and I went to dinner that night at the D'Vijff Vlieghen* on Spuistraat, a short walk from Sara's place that is described as Contemporary Dutch, a term that for good reason made Sara dubious (Dutch food is like German or Irish food: not existing to delight the palate necessarily, but fine for filling you up). But this restaurant puts the cuisine on the map! We had Shiraz, some winning appetizers (something with goat cheese and truffles), then a North Sea red perch fillet with herring caviar, salty vegetables, poached egg yolk and red wine butter sauce for me, while Sara enjoyed the combination of grilled and smoked wild halibut with langoustine jus. Well done, Dutch.


* I didn't attempt pronouncing this to anyone who asked where we went...and Dutch is supposed to resemble English more than any other language (Frisian aside [i.e. major languages])?!