The shop that has it all: Friday Next

Once in a while you find that rare thing: a shop that has it all. Friday Next in the centre of Amsterdam, near the Leidseplein, offers everything from clothes and bags to furniture, art, jewelry, even bicycles, and also houses a great café inside the shop.

The taste in goods is amazing: the designs are functional, clear, yet at the same time homy and comfortable. Sitting down in the café is like sitting down in someone's living room. And there's so much to see, it's hard to keep your seat.

Wannahaves and great café

There was an ingenious bookcase I want to have, an amazing filigrain ring and matching pair of earrings, gorgeous necklaces, there were wonderful plates depicting parts of old maps of Amsterdam and lots and lots of other things I'd love to own.

The people who work at Friday Next are all very friendly and helpful, from the girl in the café to the girl at the cashregister. I had a passable latte and the most luscious, aromatic, fluffy apple and cinamon muffin and a pecan and maple slice. The slice was more of a wedge, really, covered in a thin layer of good chocolate and it was rich and nutty and sweet.

Prices are a bit steep (E2,50 for a latte), but still this is a place I'll come back to. If only to check out all the finds when the new collections are out. Any place with taste this good, with so much to offer for all your senses deserves a place in Amsterdam!

Friday Next
Overtoom 31
1054 HB Amsterdam
http://www.fridaynext.com/

Best burger in Amsterdam: Nassau at the Wittenkade

 















One of the best places to have a great burger and a nice evening out in Amsterdam is Nassau at the Wittenkade in the Westerpark neighbourhood. Nassau calls itself a café-slash-restaurant ('eetcafé') and this describes exactly what it is. It's a café, where you can meet with friends or business acqaintances and have a drink. In the evening you can also have a bite to eat.

The staff is friendly and relaxed and the interior design is comfortably hip, livingroom style. There's lots of wood and beige leather seating. Opposite the peninsular bar is a small fake fireplace and check out the funky lighting in the ceiling. The art on the walls is changed regularly.

The fare is homey and down-to-earth, but with a classy twist. Like the burgers, which are made from wagyu beef. This breed of Japanese bovines is renowned for its flavour, tenderness, and fatty well-marbled meat.

And -oh my!- this makes for excellent burgers. They are moist and tender and chockfull of flavour. A bun covered in sesameseeds, pickles, fried onions and beets accompanies my burger. It comes with crisp golden fries and a mayonaise that, according to the menu, is flavoured with wasabi (but in reality does not burn at all).

Ok, so the New York cheesecake we ordered for desert is awful (the cheesecake I make myself is about 12 times better, I swear), but I will (I am one hundred percent sure of this) come back for that incredible wagyu burger!

Nassau
De Wittenkade 105 A
1052 AG Amsterdam
no website, but the telephonenumber is:  +31 (0)20 6843562

Out of commission

After last week's post about where to live in Amsterdam, I was thinking I'd continue along this train of thought and list some of the gorgeous shops where I'd spend all my money on furniture and lamps and decorations for our house.

I haven't been able to though, because I'm out of commission. I won't go into the details, but my stomach has been having a tough time the last few days. I'm thinking it's probably a virus of some kind.

I'll be back soon with those shops. And I will also owe you the address of the place with the very best burgers in town (I was going to go today, but had to cancel). Will post photos and details after me and my friend Matt reschedule.

The crisis paradox

Truly, how hard can it be, finding a creative, challenging, fulfilling job in the city of Amsterdam? This is the creative capitol of the Netherlands, it shouldn't be so hard...

But it is. And eventhough I was not looking before the crisis hit, and so I cannot tell the difference between how easy it was then and how hard it is now, it does seem like the current crisis is not helping.

What I'm not doing however, is helping the crisis. I refuse to let the mere idea of a recession make me not spend any money. I know it is a human reaction, to save your money instead of spending it, a way to try and be safe, but it achieves the opposite of what people want. It is a sure fire way to keep the crisis going. I refuse.

And so the paradox is this: my way to help stop the crisis, and thereby hopefully increasing my chances of ever finding a job, is to simply not play. I will keep spending my money like there is no crisis, until I have none. We'll see who has the longer breath!

Where to live in Amsterdam

Living in Amsterdam isn't cheap, or so they say. At least not in the nice neighbourhoods. At the moment I don't have the money to spend, but if I did, then where would I choose to live?

Right now I live in Amsterdam West, in a borough called De Baarsjes. Levi and I occupy a tiny attic appartment, with furniture from your friendly Scandinavian warehouse, chosen more for economical than aesthetical reasons. It's ok, certainly for the rent we pay, but we've been living in close quarters for so long, we long to move somewhere bigger.

Levi's got a steady job. Me? I've been hopping from one crappy job to the next the past few years, in search of... Fulfillment? That typical thirties thing, you might say.

Wanted: a perfectly good, steady job
I quit a perfectly good, steady, part-time job, because I wanted to do something more creative. Then the crisis hit and to be honest, now I'd settle for a perfectly good, steady, part-time job. I've got some freelance gigs, but eventhough I love what I do, financially it's nothing to write home about.

Now, if I did have a steady job, with firm financial ground under my feet, then Levi and I would buy a house. The Westerpark neighbourhood might suit our fancy, with the hip and happening Westerpark nearby. Barbeque in the park in the summer, cultural happenings at the Westergas, movies at the Ketelhuis. There is no end to the possibilities there.

Alternatively, we might look for a house in the neighbourhood of the Wilhelmina Gasthuis. There is a timeless charm to this neighbourhood, with its lovely old buildings and leafy courtyards and arches.

In love with a street
Or, and this is my ultimate dream: we'd get a place nearby in the Bosboom Toussaintstraat. A lovely treelined street, close to the centre and yet relatively quiet. And there are some very good restaurants right on your street.

Levi and I are in love with the Bosboom Toussaintstraat. Granted, it does not sound as ideal as the Westerpark does with all its possibilities, but if you happen to walk or ride your bike through this street once, you'll know what I mean.

Prices start at E225.000 for around 60 square metres. So Levi and I have some dreaming left to do before we'll be able to buy.


Grotere kaart weergeven

Tons of atmosphere: restaurant In de Waag at the Nieuwmarkt

Restaurant In de Waag is smack-dab in the centre of Amsterdam, a few minutes' walk from the Central Station, on the Nieuwmarkt at the end of the famous Zeedijk. Last weekend I made my boyfriend Levi take me there.

I'm not spoiled. I can cook. Actually, I can cook up a storm and all the world can go quiet around me (or is it just in my head where it finally goes quiet?). But there's nothing like going out to eat. Tasting the atmosphere of a place and enjoying well-prepared food and not having to lift a finger, except in the end, to pay the bill.

The thing is, I do this often with friends. But for some reason, I rarely go out to dinner with Levi. We do go out, we like to have lunch in the weekends and discover nice new places that serve good coffee and great pie. We go to festivals and go shopping and do so many more things... Just nearly never have dinner at a proper restaurant. So on Sunday we dressed up and went to In de Waag.

A restaurant lit by only candles
This monumental structure has seen many uses and many occupants over the centuries. Now, among other things, it houses an excellent restaurant. The interior is large, but has a very inviting and intimate atmosphere. Part of the reason why is the fact that the entire restaurant is lit almost solely by candles. Hundreds of them.

The menu includes starters like a tarte tatin of red onion and a pasta dish with horse mushrooms prepared in vieux. Mains include dishes like an entrecôte for two, or baked gravad lachs. Prices vary from E7-E12 for the starters to E19-E25 for the mains. The daily menu is a good deal at E34.

I chose the salad with homemade smoked salmon and the tenderloin beef for a main. Leev opted for the daily menu which consisted of a salad with smoked turkeyfilet, followed by beef with mushrooms and a coffee parfait for desert.

Attentive staff
The waiter was funny, a little flirty even, and attentive. It's funny how good staff can make or break your evening. At least as much as the quality of the food can. My starter was excellent. The homesmoked salmon was mild and silty, not salty. And everything on my plate went together beautifully, from the avocadomousse to the cherry tomatoes, to the green asparagus and even the big, fleshy, green olives. Leev was equally impressed with his smoked turkey salad.

Levi's main dish was huge. His plate seemed heaped to the point of nearly spilling. Oddly though, his steak was red (whereas he'd ordered it medium) and my tenderloin was medium (which I had requested rare). We had a bite of our own, then of eachother's and decided to swap. This is one of the reasons why I love this man.

My veggies had been in the oven too long and were overly salty and dry. Levi had enough for two, so he donated some of his. What was to die for though, was not the big chunk of meat, not the dry, salty veggies, but the mayonaise that accompanied my six Belgian-style fries (yes, only six, but because of the size of them, that was truly enough). Truffle mayonaise. Fingerlicking good. I want to kidnap the souschef who made that and make him make that for me ever single day.

We shared Levi's desert (our waiter brought us two sets of desert forks and spoons, a sweet touch), and eventhough Leev doesn't like icecream very much and I'm generally no fan of coffee-flavoured things, we finished the whole thing. Enough said.

Good for a revisit
So the food was excellent (starter), ok (main) and excellent (desert), but the gorgeous candlelit atmosphere, the great waiting staff and the good location make In de Waag one of those places I'd like to revisit.

The pricerange is well over the budget of most tourists (the bill came to E75,75, which includes two drinks and a pitcher of water). Most of the clientele is over 40.

Restaurant In de Waag
Nieuwmarkt 4
1012CR Amsterdam
http://www.indewaag.nl/

Musing: to have or not to have?

According to my boyfriend Levi, if a person wants children, they should have them, regardless of circumstance. Money, job, housing, they will manage. The topic came up in conversation a while ago, and I can't help but wonder if he really believes what he said.

Speaking for myself, I can honestly say that I feel I have no business bringing a child into this world with so very little to offer it. Just a few years ago I turned my life completely upside down. I have no steady job or substantial income and our house in Amsterdam is so tiny, we have trouble fitting in just the two of us.

I can't imagine thinking "Ah, we'll manage"?? And, come to think of it, is having children in a big city like Amsterdam a good idea at all?

When I was younger, I always thought I'd have children at a certain age. These days, just past thirty, I rather doubt I'm anywhere near ready. And yet... I know a few people who hadn't planned on getting pregnant just yet but who are happy parents now nonetheless. If it happened by accident, then I am sure we would manage. But I can't make a conscious decision based on the facts at this moment.

Besides, I like my life right now. Alright, so I don't have money like water, but our little place is nothing if not cosy and what money I do have, I get to spend on clothing, books, shoes and lovely lunches and dinners in the city with friends.

And then I see my little niece, who is the cutest little creature at nearly one year old. She's going to be a heartbreaker, that one, with her gorgeous eyes and long dark lashes. And she's so smart. I'm very much in love with her and she makes me wonder: what would ours look like? Sometimes I catch myself thinking up names for my own little one. Odd behaviour, methinks, for someone who thinks she is not to have?