Posted by I just spent some time walking around Amsterdam during the day. Given my disinclination to living in a hazy state – my mind’s naturally foggy anyway – it was a particularly lucid affair. The weather’s been great today. I didn’t need a coat.
Canals, canals, canals. The city’s built on canals which gives it a very nice relaxing boating type feel thing. And it’s very bike-oriented. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a major city with less cars. Most people either cycle around or takes the trams. And everywhere there are outdoors cafe’s and coffeeshops (which are smoky to say the least) to sit and have some tea or a coke and relax in the nice spring weather.
Dutch cuisine is … what is Dutch cuisine? My Rough Guide recommended trying Indonesian food, saying that it’s the best cuisine the city has to offer. A delicious legacy of the Netherlands’ colonial past, I guess. And there’s tons of Argentine parilla’s. Seared bovine flesh is delicious.
I find the contrast in beef cooking styles between east & west interesting. For steaks, you’re generally advised to go for a medium. When cooking it in the deshi tradition, we cook the h*ll out of our meat – slow cooked till it’s falling apart soft. Whole steaks aren’t done in deshi cooking. I honestly don’t think I had my first real steak till I moved to KC. And it took me a while to learn that you don’t get it well-done.
Anyway, despite my previously stated straight-edged philosophy, I’m liking Amsterdam a lot. The ease of it. I’m not sure that it doesn’t compete favorably with Barcelona on some levels. They’re both port cities which is a plus to Maher. I don’t know if Amsterdam necessarily speeds up like Barcelona seemingly can. But I think the biggest plus (and yes I’m being hegemonic) is that just about everyone can speak Englige. Maher speaks Amrikan but it’s not hard to translate to Englige.
