Spotted: Little Collins

The latest addition to Amsterdam HOT SPOT.. Little Collins!

Located in one of the most happening area in Amsterdam (De Pijp), Little Collins is definitely one of the most happening hangout lunch and dinner place! When you step in, you can see quite trendy and hip crowds. With Australian owners, Little Collins gives a different flavour to standard Amsterdam restaurants.

I knew this place from a friend who's a pork lover. She told me about the possibility to enjoy pork belly (well.. you can count where you can get a good pork belly in Amsterdam). My verdict: not that bad. Still not comparable to Momofuku's taste but it's good enough for me! Portion wise is quite small but for lunch is more than enough. I haven't been there for dinner but the concept is more a sharing dinner (some kind of tapas).

I got myself the sweet and sour pork (yummm.. love it), the only thing for me is that I prefer to have the sauce separately due to it's sweetness (not that fond of too sweet food), but no complaint at all. My hubby got the Little Collins' big one, which is kind a similar to English breakfast and he loves it.

Definitely coming back VERY VERY SOON!

Address:
1e Sweelickstraat 19-F

xoxo

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A Delightful Saturday in Amsterdam

Yesterday was definitely one of the days which makes me realise how LUCKY I am to be living in the wonderful city of Amsterdam! Truly, I haven't been enjoying Amsterdam that much in 2013. Just got back from Indonesia mid-January then off to London the weekend after, yesterday was truly my first ENJOYABLE saturday in Amsterdam. 

First of all... who can deny the Beauty of the canals especially when snow started to fall.. 

To start my out and about in the city... I went to my usual coffee spot De Koffie Salon whilst waiting for my hubby to finish up his meeting.

Spotted on me yesterday: 

• Topshop studded ankle boots
• Topshop Petite Supersoft Skinny Leigh Jeans (truly, it's my current obsession). The length fits perfectly on me and they are SO COMFORTABLE! I love them so much that I want to have all colors. Highly RECOMMENDED!

Stepping out from De Koffie Salon, I cannot not stop by and check it out! It's my latest addiction and new eye candy.. MARCbyMARCJACOBS store at Utrechtsestraat.

Afterwards, we went to pick my parents in law who were in town yesterday to have a romantic weekend! I find it so sweet.. :) they are staying in The Floating Hotel. To make it better, I brought them to De Bakkerswinkel, my fave luncheon in Amsterdam.

I had a Quiche Lorraine and ofcourse, we had to order the amazing Scones! Yummm happy belly..... I definitely recommend De Bakkerswinkel if you stop by in Amsterdam and don't mind to wait a bit (unless you make reservation in advance) to do a high tea or just sit for a super nice lunch.

Missing out the 'alcohol', we all went straight to Wynand Fockink. Open in 1679, Wynand Fockink is one of the oldest liqueur tasting place in Holland. Never mind the busy tourists waiting in front of the bar not knowing what to order and not moving from their spot :), if you know what you want.. just walk straight and make your way through! It's one of the places you have to go for a liqueur try out in Amsterdam.

Being the good wife and a shopping advisor, I wouldn't miss the chance to go for a quick shop with my hubby who needed a new pair of pants badly. We went to Carhartt and he found such a good bargain!   He got himself a nice burgundy pants for only 44.50 euros.. 

To end our beautiful evening, we had a lovely dinner at Loetje. Though we had to wait for almost 40 minutes for a table (you can never reserve if it's under 6 people). It's SOOOO worthed! How can you not love the look of the steak :).

In overall, one successful weekend! And to end the amazing day.. we walked through Amstel at night. How can you not fall in love head over heels to Amsterdam.

xoxo

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Say Hello to Rotterdam New Hot Spots!

Last weekend my hubby and I went for a visit to our old hood, Rotterdam! Truly, I have been dying to go to Rotterdam for a while since one of my friends who is living there told me about this new Sichuan Restaurant and how she loves the food! (bummer.. the should have opened it when I was still living there). Located at the address Hang 33, San San is just what I have expected! Delicious and.. finally a real proper Sichuan restaurant.. SPICY!!!! PS: when we went for dinner, it's empty because of the Netherlands EK2012 first game (well.. we didn't miss any since they LOST 1-0 against Denmark). Hence, make sure to make reservation if you want to go for dinner as most of the time it's SUPER FULL!

From the outside, it does not look that special, but when you walk in.. it's lovely. The decoration of the place is very modern, clean (not like a lot of chinese restaurants) and very much representing the chinese culture! I love how they use the bird cage (colored them in red) as hanging lamp!

My lovely friend Jing (who always updates me all the great food in Rotterdam and promotes San San) is a Shanghainese origin and I gave her all my trust to order the food (well.. also due to the fact that she's been going to San San for a numerous time) :). She ordered for starters two cold dishes: a traditional Sichuan dish of beef lungs with sichuan pepper (left picture) and sesame chicken (right picture).  They were absolutely WONDERFUL and spicy! I can't even mention which one I like best.. both are MUST ORDER DISH if you go to San San. Just to let you know they have 3 different level of spiciness! So if you don't say any word, they will put the medium level (it's hot enough) and if you're chinese origins who can handle SUPER SPICY, you can ask for even the 4th level! Well, I don't suggest the 4th level.... as the medium one is quite spicy (even for me who can handle SPICY)!

For our main dish, we decided to take the (left to right ) a big bowl of fish soup (forgot the name, cumin lamb, sizzling beef and Ma Po Tofu. My fave? Definitely the sizzling beef, to die for..

Unfortunately, out of the 4 of us who ate there, my dearest other other half (not my hubby but my bff Keita who's Japanese) cannot handle spicy as well as Jing, my hubby and I. He was sweating like crazy after eating 1 bite of the chicken sesame. So, we ended up taking the main dishes with spicy level 1 :). Here is a pic of my with Keita! We have almost 'matching' outfit color! 

And to complete our journey before going back the A'dam, we stopped by at YoYo; the new Bubble Tea place at Karel Doormanstraat. Finally, a proper bubble tea place in Holland! I took the taro&coco milk tea with lychee popping (yumm) and hubby got jasmine milk tea with coffee jelly. I love them...  taste exactly like what I had back in Asia!

So the whole journey back in Rotterdam = SUCCESSFUL eating! love love love.. can't wait to get back soon!

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A Glimpse of Japanese Heaven: Yamazato

What should a guy do to ask forgiveness if he does not keep his promise to his girl? In my case, he should bring me to a super yummy dinner! And that's what I got last week! :) Long story short, my husband ditched me during the weekend for a night out though he promised me earlier to be home after work..and as he felt guilty, he brought me to a special dinner. Where? Yamazato :)

We were there about two years ago with our friends for their wedding present and I remembered it as an amazing experience! So, we were wondering if it still lives up to its standard.

This is what I put on on the lovely Tuesday night! I literally just got my whole orders delivered from Forever 21 the day before and totally in love with the mint lace blouse! A good occasion to wear it!

1. Blouse, Forever 21
2. Necklace, Forever 21
3. Hair piece, H&M
4. Jegging, A&F
5. Shoes, Stuart Weitzman 
6. Bag, Rebecca Minkoff

Greeted by lovely waitresses with kimono, we started our dinner with an aperitief of cherry sparkling wine. We then ordered the 5 different sashimi menu plus soft shell uramaki with deep-fried soft shell crab and california uramaki with king crab- avocado sushi rolls as starters. If you're a sashimi lover, it's like being in CLOUD 9! So.. good! and the sushi's size was huge! They were definitely way bigger than my expectation and taste wise.. NO COMPLAINT at all!

For our main dish, we decided to go all in with the Sukiyaki. Not a cheap one but it was superb! The waitress will do all the cooking for you so you just have to sit and enjoy the whole experience. They first asked us if we would like to have it like the 'Japanese' way! So what's the Japanese way? YOU HAVE TO EAT IT WITH RAW EGG! Literally after your beef is cooked according to your taste (medium rare, well done, etc) then you will have to dip it to the raw egg.

I love the sukiyaki (best one I've had so far) and my whole experience at Yamazato! It's not something that I can do often when I'm craving for Japanese food (so expensive!!....... I have to settle for other Japanese restaurants). But if you have special occasion to celebrate, Yamazato can be one of your options.. it's FANTASTIC!

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Foodism in the U.S. (Part 2: Asian)

Following our first foodism journey in US, this post will review all the Asian's food that we had during our 8 days trip (yes.. people, we ATE a lot)!

Momofuku Ssam Bar

My husband has been dying to try the pork bun at Momofuku from the first time he saw David Chang's video somewhere on youtube and ofcourse from all the buzz around Momofuku, who does not want to try?? And indeed the pork bun was so delicious! We ordered 2 portions (total 4 pieces) and trust me.. I could eat way more than 4! We did not want to stuff ourselves that day so we ordered quite reasonable amount :). We just added a portion of fried duck dumpling and spicy fingerling potatoes with chili black bean sauce. They are both ok but nothing compares to the Pork Bun!

Verdict: MUST TRY!

Address: 207 2nd Ave 

Momofuku Milk Bar

Just across the Ssam Bar, you can find the Milk Bar. Not much option is available but we did try the soft serve cereal milk (plus free cereal ice cream to try). As I'm not the biggest fan of drinking milk in general (unless if it's inside coffee, it's bit too much for me). But if you're there anyway and want to try the whole Momofuku's experience,  get one and share it!

Address: (multiple locations) but if you are eating at Ssam Bar, 251 E 13th ST is located just in front of it

Joe's Shanghai

Ok.. we love food but as it was our first NY experience, we did not really have the time to explore the most authentic Chinese around Flushing. But I did do my research to check where I could find one of the best xiao long bao around. After reviewing food blog and recommendation from one of my besties who used to live in NYC, we went to Joe's Shanghai at Chinatown.

Having used to the dim sum portions in the Netherlands, we ordered 2 portions of xiao long bao (1 pork and 1 shrimp). Surprise.. surprise, the portion is GINORMOUS! A portion is like 3 times of what they offer in NL! And not to forget, we even ordered extra 2 dishes shredded beef with carrots on top and eggplants! The result: takeaway beef and eggplant for the next day breakfast :). All worth it, xiao long bao is delicious (I prefer the pork one). Once you bite them, the combination of  soup, meat and ginger vinegar are all melting inside your mouth. It's LOVELY!

Address: (multiple locations), but if you can't make it to Queens, better try the one at 9 Pell Street

The Grand Sichuan

I was craving badly to eat Sichuan food and I found one at Chelsea which is quite close to our hotel (1 subway stop). It's really one of the most delicious Sichuan restaurants I have ever tasted! We even came twice during our 8 days in NYC.

My ultimate favorite dish is definitely the Cucumber with fresh garlic. It sounds so simple, but so tasty and refreshing! I have no idea how we can make that, please if you've ever tasted that delicious cucumber or know how to make it, DO SHARE with me please, I'm dying to know the secret recipe! I forgot to take pictures on our second visit (due to our hunger and greediness when we were eating), so pictures I put here are only showing what we had on our first visit. But in summary, other than the cucumber (which we ordered the 2 times we were there), we had au zhou spicy chicken, kung bao chicken, braised beef fillets with chili sauce and house spicy beef. For us, the beef dishes were better! But they are definitely one not to miss out in NY! - note: service is as not one to expect, but don't judge on it, just think of the food.

Address: (multiple locations) but the one that I love so much is at 229 9th Ave

Donburi-Ya

I love Donburi-Ya!!! My second night in NYC (although I so love Shake Shack)! I was missing rice so badly and my head kept on giving me orders to eat donburi. So I checked online and found this place! Located in the Japanese area, this place is very authentic Japanese. All people who work there are Japanese and almost all the customers are also Japanese. I got the yakiniku don and my husband took the tonkatsu don. So good........ and portion is big!

Address: 137 E 47th St 

Yakitori Totto

Located just couple of blocks from our hotel, this is also one of the restaurants that we visited more than once for lunch! We were always there early (like around 11.45) so we always got table and had no issue of running out of yakitori stocks. If you are ordering a lot of yakitori, they might be a bit pricey for your pocket but a good solution for a great value lunch is to order the menu. You will get miso soup, some pickles, salad and the main dish. The Totto Don is definitely the best to choose for me (love chicken balls) and the Oyako don is also delicious!

If you want to order separately for the yakitori, I recommend the Yaki Nasu Miso Dengaku (eggplant with miso), Nankotsu Tsukune (meatball mix), and the Negi Pon (pork loin with scallion and ponzu). But I guess, all the yakitori there are super tasty!

Address: 215 W 55th St

Yum Yum Bangkok

Not that much pictures to reflect this yummy Thai Restaurant chain around Hell's Kitchen but there are literally 2 Yum Yum next to another! We tried both and both are delicious. The price is very reasonable! So if you want to eat in a relax environment and do not want to spend a lot of money, it's a good place to go.

Address: multiple locations (but they are literally next to each other) 650 9th Ave

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Foodism in the U.S. (Part 1: Fast Food)

Guilty as charge! I have not yet being updated this blog for a while.. (well.. daily life has been busy as Amsterdam's weather is moving towards the beauty of the sun)! :) . So after almost 1 month from our trip to US, I finally put myself to write about my food adventures in the US. First review is in regards to all the Fast Food that I had in DC and NYC. ENJOY!

1. Washington DC 

Ben's Chili Bowl

In regards to all the buzz that I've heard about this place, it's not that special! I don't find the chili hot at all (although they warned us already that it's spicy)! But this could be due to my Indonesian heritage - I can handle spicy to a different level..  :D but my husband also said that it wasn't spicy at all (and believe me.. his hot level is nothing compared to mine).

One thing for sure, it's very fatty and FULFILLING (which we love). Each of us ordered the chili dog and we shared the chili cheese fries. It's definitely more than enough! We are both very big eater and we were super full just by eating the chili dog and the shared fries! 

So is it worth the hassle to wait in line for a chili dog? Could be an option if you want to see all the famous hanging pictures of Obama, Sarkozy and major celebrities who popped in at Ben's while eating your chili dog! Other than that...... not that necessary!

Address: 1213 U Street Northwest

2. New York

Chipotle

We first spot Chipotle when we were in Washington but only ate at New York! After almost 5 hours of bus drive from DC to NYC, we were starving like crazy and found one of the Chipotle's chains at 8th Ave. Each of us took the bowl and we LOVE it! It's remarkably simple food but taste wonderful (and healthy.. uhmm..)! So much of impression that we came back at the last day to have lunch there! Definitely one of the best chains' I've ever had in my life!

Address: multiple locations

Shake Shack

This is literally the best burger I've had in my whole entire life! OMG.. the bread.. the black angus.. everything is PERFECT!I envy all of you who have Shake Shack around the corner! The shack burger is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G and the Vanilla Milkshake (AAA....). I'm even drooling just by writing about Shake Shack.

We also tried the hot dog and it's not bad at all (for me way better than Ben's Chili Dog). I love the Shack-cago Dog.

So should you be afraid and back off when you see the long line of Shake Shack? NO WAY! WAIT IN LINE! totally worth the wait.. it's one thing you should NEVER EVER MISS!

Address: multiple locations (suggestion for NY: go to the one at Madison Square Park, East 23rd Street - over looking the Flatiron building and, you're also sitting at the park)!

Atomic Wings

At one point, we were craving for chicken wings. So we went to hell's kitchen area which is just 1 block away from our hotel and found Atomic Wings. Ordered small onion ring and small waffle fries (look at that size, definitely XL portion in Europe) and each of us ordered 10 chicken wings. I couldn't even finish mine. My husband got the Jerk BBQ and I had the hot wings. His was definitely better than mine, mine tasted more like wings with A LOT OF tabasco! So lesson to take, don't take the spicy range wings!

Address: 528 9th Ave

Burger Joint

NYC best burger?? uhmmm not for us.. SHAKE SHACK all the way! It's not bad but definitely not the best (fries were really bad), place is super small so you have to be quite lucky to get a seat. Line was long (even though we came around 2). But the whole idea of this place is very interesting! Tuck behind thick curtain next to the reception at Le Parker Meridien, Burger Joint definitely steals the whole scene!

Address: 119 West 56th Street

Joe's Pizza

One of the most talk about Pizza in NYC (didn't have the chance to try the others). We stick to the cheese pizza. The thin crust with the melted cheese was indeed yummy. But was it the best pizza I've ever eaten? Nope.. Da Michele in Naples still my number 1! Nothing will beat that..

Address: 7 Carmine Street

Katz's Delicatessen

The portion is huge! But mainly due to the thick layers of pastrami and corned beef within the sandwich :) plus you will get GINORMOUS pickles :D. For $ 18, it's definitely not a cheap sandwich. Do I like it? well, the pastrami sandwich is ok.. but for me, after couple of bites, I felt that it's too meaty. The corned beef sandwich was dry. Indeed it's one of the most famous sandwich joint in NYC, so if you want to try, just get the pastrami (and share it).

Address: 205 EAST HOUSTON STREET

End of part one .. and the winner of my fast food craze = SHAKE SHACK 

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The Hidden Gem of Amsterdam.. Restaurant Fyra

Fyra is definitely one of Amsterdam's best kept secret restaurants. Hidden down one of the side streets of Vijzelstraat, it is not one of the restaurants that you stumble upon when you're walking around but you need to know it.


Though no Michelin star obtains, Fyra is above the standards of an ordinary restaurant. Everything about it screams AMAZING! The quality of food is at top notch (even better than some of the Michelin restaurants I've tasted).The wines' origins aren't ordinary (but delicious), example from Greece, Moldova, Bulgaria and my ultimate favorite is the Dutch sparkling Riesling which is normally served as aperetief. Service is very welcoming and friendly. It's so easy going that it feels like you are eating dinner at HOME!


PRICE = VERY AFFORDABLE!
Weekly menu (4 courses) = 38 euros and Chef's menu (5 courses) = 55 euros
The menu is differing every week based on fresh ingredients that the restaurant finds! Before your starter comes, you will get amuse bouche of a small, savory macaron with a filling of smoked herring and pickle flavored creme combines with coconut soup and crackers made from squid's ink. In addition to that fresh home made brioche (super yumm.. all those butter) is provided (and best part you can ask for more)! The menu's combinations are well thought and the portions are perfect in size.


If you decide to order out of the weekly menu, make sure to either try the black angus steak or the braised veal. They are TO DIE FOR! 

Fyra is definitely worth a visit (click picture on direct link to the website). One advise: DO RESERVE! and you are planning to go in the weekend, reserve in advance as weekend is normally fully booked.
ENJOY! and let me know what you think once you've gone there..

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Bánh Mì den Himmel

Though it was already 2 months ago, I just have to re-express my unforgettable experience @ this place when I visited Berlin back in February 2012. As amazing as the city, this small deli place in the middle of Mitte area is definitely a Bánh ami heaven!

A colleague of mine from work recommended me this place and told me to go for lunch! They have different types of Bánh Mi and also some fresh salads. Located at Rosenthalerstr. 2, Cô Cô BÁNH MÌ DELI opens 7 days a week (and the best part, they close late so, you can even go there for dinner or night snacks)!

The interior of the deli is super cute, playfully decorated with modern elements and Asian's influence, Cô Cô makes a colorful statement by using its selling products, hence keep it all simple and clean.

Seats are quite limited, only 1 long table with couple of high chairs and a table against the windows with 4 chairs. It's really nice to sit in (also free Wi-Fi) but it's a perfect grab-to-go place also!

And trust me, the taste is AMAZING! My husband and I could not resist not to go two days in a row! We didn't want to leave Berlin before we ate here again (although we were quite full on the last day)! For me personally, I love the Cô Cô Classic Bahn Mi (even I get hungry just by writing and looking at my old pictures)!

So my suggestion.. DON'T EVER CONSIDER TO SKIP THIS PLACE when you are in Berlin! It's definitely worth a visit and ofcourse... TO EAT!

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