This past weekend didn’t only contain cooking sprees but also my other favorite thing restaurant hopping! I should write a comprehensive post on restaurants in Amsterdam at some point but before I get around to that I’ll pick two out of the pile I enjoyed this weekend. First I paid Café Pluk in the negen straatjes in Amsterdam a visit. The café came recommended from a friend and it’s a new organic café which is open from morning until around 6 pm in the evening. Again a fantastic place that I would definitely come back to! Apart from the yummy watermelon and feta salad I had (am I seeing a pattern with my feta;-)) they also have nice little treats you can buy for your kitchen. Definitely a place you can hang for hours at end and enjoy one of their fresh squeezed juices or smoothies.

Cafe Pluk

Watermelon and feta salad

My indulgence in dining out didn’t end there though as I trekked my way to De Wilde Zwijnen in Amsterdam Oost. I have been there before on one occasion and had a lovely dinner at the bar, but without knowing it they have now opened what we call in Sweden a back pocket (bakficka) where there is a slightly different menu and tapas oriented. My love and I enjoyed half a dozen small dishes including a delicious vegetarian tarte tartin with caramelized onions and a salad of fresh peas and sour milk vinaigrette, then we topped up with some cured meat and fish of the day which today was a fresh mackerel with tomato salsa. All dishes were delicious and teamed up with some nice wines. All in all a visit worthwhile and the tarte tartin was a particular favorite. It’s a little outside the main drags but if you take a taxi from the center you’ll be there in ten minutes which I think it’s worth! 

Bar position at De Wilde Zwijnen

One new hotspot in Amsterdam is HappyHappyJoyJoy, Julius Jaspers new restaurant. It serves up various Asian dishes with influences from China, Japan, Thailand and many other countries. Clear favorite on the menu was the bao pao both with pork and duck. I didn’t try the dim sum. Only improvement area on the menu is actually highlighting spiciness on a scale from one to ten…unfortunately one or two dishes had a little extra strong kick;-). The visit to HappyHappyJoyJoy made me realize another point to that the trend of the hamburger joints is now officially I feel dead and has been replaced with the street food trend. Just look at all the TV shows popping up on this topic. If you ask me though not a bad thing the hamburger trend died (I was never a big fan of this) and the  street food influence is simply fantastic! 

Fun decor in HappyHappyJoyJoy