Maenaam Thai Restaurant

When it comes to food it´s definitely something my boyfriend and I always agree on, we love Asian cuisine! Thai food is nice and it seems difficult to really mess these dishes up! I never had bad experiences with Thai food, so I had good expectations when we were trying a new restaurant called Maenaam Thai in Amsterdam. This restaurant is located at the Spuistraat, which is 2 minutes walking from the famous Dam Square. It’s also 5 minutes walking from the restaurant to Central Station. So this was an ideal place to grab food before we had to catch our train for a 2 hour ride to see my parents 🙂 Little detail: Maenaam ( แม่น้ำ ) means river in Thai.

A few pictures of our dinner:

Tom Kha Koeng

In my opinion there’s no other soup that can compete with Thom Kha Koeng. This is because I prefer soups with a coconut milk base. This soup contains coconut milk, prawns, mushrooms and coriander.

Plaa Shoe Shie

Fried fish in a red curry sauce with coconut milk and sweet Thai basil. The fish was fried pangasius fillet, normally we prefer other fish than pangasius, but this main course with white rise was tasting ok.

Phad Thai Kai

Pad Thai are typical Thai fried rice noodles. I took the pad thai with vegetables, egg, tauge and chicken. I like taking Phad Thai as a side order next to white rice.

The dish I liked most was the Tom Kha Koeng. This soup was delicious and I can recommend this as a starter. The menu is not expensive, average as other Thai restaurants I know. Starters are around 5-7 euro’s and main courses are around 14-18 euro’s. I have seen lots of vegetables sculptured into various animals like swans of flowers. But I’ve never seen an onion carved into a flower as a decoration on a plate. I found this quitte original 🙂 There are no desserts on the menu, but we had 2 scoops of vanilla icecream with almonds and whipped cream. Staff is friendly and mostly English speaking.

Skyybar @ Westcord Fashion Hotel

Last weekend, me (Stephanie) and my sister celebrated our birthday at the Skyybar of the Westcord Fashion Hotel in Amsterdam.

The Westcord Fashion Hotel is located in the westside of the city and is easy to reach by tram, bus and car (parking fee). The Skyybar is on the 10th floor of the hotel. It is closed (not open-air), fashionable with mostly dark colors and shiny stuff and of course you get a nice view of the beautiful city of Amsterdam.

First impression

When you enter the first things you’ll notice is the bar and the mannequins everywhere, making it feel like you’re entering a Paris catwalk show. The Skyybar is not that big, so it actually feels cosy. On the right side there is a lounge with beautiful lights on the ceiling, which distinguishes the Skyybar from any other bars as you actually get a feeling that you’re clubbing. From 10 pm there is even a DJ on site. The Skyybar looks beautiful and classy and gives honor to it’s hotel’s name. You can order drinks, cocktails and bites like sushi. Although not so exclusive like other (open-air) sky bars, it is a nice place to hang out and have some drinks.

Party

The theme of our party was… tadaa… “This City of Gold”! and believe it or not my sister came up with it. The gold did fit the whole interior of the bar which was mostly black and velvet.

For a party from 10-35 people, you can reserve the lounge upstairs and that’s what we did. The lounge covers half of the bar, so you can still see the bar from above and enjoy the music. The lounge looks nice and fashionable like the rest of the bar. They say it is for max 35 people, but i’m pretty sure 50 people would fit too. We definitely invited more than 35 people. You don’t have to pay to reserve the lounge, but there is a minimal spending limit of 500 euro’s, which is not hard to spend when you invite so many people.

The beers and wine aren’t very expensive, around 3 euro’s. Liquor on the other hand was much more expensive, but normal for Amsterdam (7 euro’s). We pre-ordered some bites, like vegetable egg rolls, mini croquettes, sushi and potato wedges. The egg rolls, croquettes and potato wedges were delicious. The sushi was too, but there were some complaints that they fell apart easily. We also pre-ordered a birthday cake. This was quite expensive, costing 5 euro’s per person. We ordered a small cake as no one really wants to eat cake anyway. You can order whatever flavour cake you like. We decided to go for the whipped cream-flavour, which was delicious!

With the reservation, we also got our personal waiters/waitresses. But don’t expect them to be there all the time when it’s busy, which is too bad.

The Skyybar is open from 5 pm to 2 am and you can decided from what time you want to reserve the lounge area. We decided to start the party at 8 pm. From 10 pm there is a DJ and the dancing can start. And because it is your own private lounge, no stranger will be there to annoy you. Funny to say, it did made me feel somewhat special to say “Sorry, private party”… 😉 lol

Overall impression

The Skyybar is a nice place to have some drinks with friends, and it is great for a party and for an affordable price. The bar and lounge look classy, food and drinks are good and there is a DJ, so you can also dance if you want. The decor is impressive and most guests couldn’t resist taking lots of beautiful pictures. The location is a bit of the city center but not far away and easy to reach. Downfall was the service which could have been better if maybe they had more personnel. But still, that couldn’t ruin the fun with my dearest friends and family. It was an amazing night. One not quickly to be forgotten, for sure.

Kop van Jut

We had a high tea at the “Kop van Jut”-restaurant. It literally means “the head of Jut”. De Kop van Jut is located at the popular and touristic Leidseplein. To be honest, I usually don’t go to the restaurants in touristic places, because the quality is usually bad. But the Dutch restaurants in the Leidseplein are actually quite good. De Kop van Jut is one of these typical Dutch restaurants. It is small, the interior is brown and sober. What makes it not typical Dutch is the service, because they have nice and helpful personnel.

The high tea normally costs 17, 50 euro’s, so it is quite a good price. The time is from 2:30 pm to 5 pm. For this price you get a lot of tea in cute tea pots and tea cups and a wide variety of tea, goat cheese croquette from grandma Bob, roasted tomato and paprika soup, quiche, scones with fruitjam and clotted cream, banana bread, cream puffs, chocolate nut cake and buttercream cookies.

My opinion:

You get enough bites for the price. All the food was vegetarian, so there was no hassel with people who didn’t eat meat or a specific kind of meat. I liked the tomato paprika soup, but because it was served together with the rest of the food it was already cold when i drank it. The goat cheese croquette is original as i don’t see that often in high tea’s. The quiche was very tasteful. The scones and banana bread were fine.

Overall:

The location of the restaurant is great and is has a typical Dutch vibe without the typical Dutch service. Even though, our reservation was only until 5 pm, they didn’t throw us out. The Dutch menu looked nice though we haven’t tried it. The high tea is affordable and good for the price. Downfall is that it some of the food were not home made. This restaurant is good for a nice diner with Dutch food or a quick high tea with friends.

Beauty Review: Victoria Secret vs Collistar Fragrance Mist

This review is about 2 feminine bodyspray’s. Both seem to be girly and nice, but the important difference is that the Collistar fragrance is much more expensive then the Victoria Secret’s bodyspray. Let’s compare these two!

Collistar Bodyspray Profumo Dei Sensi 125ml
Body Aromatic Water with essentail oils and floral extracts

Looks: Beautiful flacon and the bow is really cute. The glass bottle has a luxurious look and would fit pretty well on your nightstand.

On the package: A real beauty treatment for the body providing sensory pleasure and spiritual well-being. It’s a perfume that is both intense and warm, enriched with moisturizing and reinvigorating extracts. Essential oils revitalizing and enveloping. Floral extracts moisturizing and velvetizing. Ginseng energizing and stimulating. Passionflower and wild rose toning and softening.

Price: 32, 64 EUR

Conclusion: The fragrance has a more subtle scent. The scent is flowery and smells almost like perfume. My boyfriend likes this one, because the scent is not that strong and overwhelming. This body water has essential oils and flower extracts. The fragrance takes care of your skin because the body spray really moisturize.

Ingredients:

Victoria Secret Midnight Exotics Deep Berry Fragrance Mist 250 ml

Looks: More seducive bottle, not from glass though, but still a very nice package. I like the colored mix of black, pink and gold.

On the package: Refreshing formula is infused with conditioning aloe vera and with calming chamomile
Fragrance Notes: rose, gardenia, hyacinth, sweet pea, pear and vanilla

Price: 14 USD

Conclusion: Immediately a very pleasant but strong smell, you will smell a lot of vanilla, rose and berry-like scent. You’ve got to love the scent of berries; otherwise this fragrance is just not it for you.

Ingredients:

So…
Victoria Secret body spray contains 250 ml of fragrance for 14 USD while the Collistar fragrance is much more expensive and only consists of 125 ml. I think you should set your own priorities with the body sprays. When you don’t need to watch on your budget, the Collistar body spray will be more preferable. The quality of the scent is of course much better. Also nice as a gift. But the Victoria Secret spray is in terms of price and quality definitely a very good match.

Bangkok, City of Angels

Bangkok, one of the most amazing cities I’ve been to. Whenever I’m staying in Singapore, we like to travel for a few days to other close South Asian countries like Thailand. Bangkok has almost been a favorite destination, even while it’s a place where lots and lots of tourist come too. I like their mix of colorfulness, spicy food, culture and chaos!

Grand Palace
The Grand Palace is spectacular and nowadays a spiritual place. Inside the walls of the complex is also the temple of The Emerald Buddha. The kings and his families used to live there and the palace has been built in 1782.

Wat Prakeaw (The Emerald Buddha)
The Emerald Boeddha is made of jade and the most important symbol for the national religion in Thailand

Chao Phraya River
Cross the river by ferry or try the Bangkok Thonburi Khlongs (boats). Using the ferry is the easiest way to get to the Grand Palace and Wat Arun. The network of canals (klongs) branching out from the main Chao Phraya river has floating markets.

Hello Tuk-Tuk!

Street vendors and their icecream

Two sides of Bangkok…

Wat Arun (The Temple of Dawn)
Wat Arun is really impressive. These towering spires are beautiful and definitely a must-see

Wat Saket
The Golden Mount is a sacred pilgrimage site during an annual temple fair in November. There are 300 steps to get above. Before the climb is a cemetery covered in overgrown trees. I actually didn’t know about this when I was walking through this cemetery. At the top of the hill is a wall of bells, you will see a lot of monks and the view at the top of Bangkok is amazing. You’ll see a much more historic image of Bangkok.

Pattaya Beach
A beach resort with many tourists. So if you’re not into that, you should really avoid this place. I like beaches, crowded or not 🙂

Soi Arab
Enjoy shisha and arabic food! This area is full of contradictions and very interesting.

Chinatown
Markets where you can buy the cheapest fashion and gadgets but also many food stalls

Also don’t forget to check out Siam Square. There is a popular nightmarket for the teens of Bangkok. And ofcourse the rooftop bar at the Lebua at State Tower Hotel!

U6

The ‘Utrechtsestraat’ is a street in Amsterdam with nice boutiques and restaurants. It’s near the well known Rembrandt Square, the second city area where the nightlife happens. U6 is a cozy restaurant with a French and International Cuisine. Because it’s near the Rembrandt Square, the restaurant is quite findable for tourists. The staff is from different international backgrounds like Spain and Turkey. There is a regular menu, but also the famous chef’s 3 Course Menu. This menu costs € 22,50.

If you choose a 3 Course Menu, there are various choices of vegetarian, meat and fish dishes. For the starter we choose the puff pastry with chopped salmon, onions and lettuce. The puff pastry dough was very light and crispy which matched with the salmon pretty well.

Here are 3 options for the main course:

Sweet sour noodles with shrimp and broccoli

Nile perch with Parma ham and mashed potatoes

Pork medallions with mushroom sauce

And here are some desserts!

Crème brûlée

Strawberry Cheesecake

Red fruits lattice pie

What we thought about U6: The location is ideal because it’s in the center. Whether you finished your shopping spree in Amsterdam or going to a club after dinner and drinks, the restaurant is close to pretty much everything you need. The noodles main course were not our favorite because the sauce was a bit too sweet. The other dishes were really nice, especially the nile perch with creamy mashed potatoes. The staff were warm, friendly and patient. Last but not least 22,50 EUR for 3 courses is not expensive at all!

Recipe: Salad with Parma Ham, Goat Cheese and Dates

This delicious salad is ready between 5 and 10 minutes! Just mix the ingredients described below, a child can do the laundry (Dutch saying means: It’s too damn easy!). This great recipe comes from Zinaida, a good friend of mine. She even got her little daughter of 4 enjoying vegatables by serving this salad. The slightly salty flavour of Parma ham and sweet dates gives the perfect flavor. Suggestion: If you don’t eat or like pork, switch the Parma ham with beef carpaccio to keep the mixture of salt and sweet.

Ingredients:

For the salad
Parma Ham ( 5 slices)
Leaf lettuce with baby spinach (80 gram)
Goat Cheese with honey (125 gram)
Sliced black olives
5 Medjool dates
Spring onions
Cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons pine nuts

For the vinaigrette
Caesar Salad dressing

Method:

Garnish a big bowl with the lettuce and spinach, sliced cherry tomatoes, Parma ham and black olives. Deseed the dates and chop them into half. Slice the goat cheese in small pieces. Roast the pine nuts and arrange everything in the bowl. Pour over the dressing and serve. Enjoy!

Inspiration Zhang Ziyi – Magic

Vesper Bar

In the midst of the hip and cosy neighbourhood Jordaan, there is this small peculiar bar, where the bartenders are not tall and have long beards. The Versper bar serves many different cocktails, but the most popular is the Zombie. It is a passionfruit punch cocktail and is very good actually. First, you have to take a shot of the flaming drink inside the passion fruit and then drink the rest of the cocktail. They say this drink is so strong that you are only allowed to have two per night. But with a little bit of persuasion we were allowed to have 3 🙂

The cocktails cost around 13 euro’s each, so it was a good cue not to drinks too much. And be sure to be there on time, because the bar is very small and usually full. But nevertheless, this bar is definitely worth the visit.

The Vesper Bar

Vinkerstraat 57

Zombie cocktails

BEAUTY REVIEW: YVES SAINT LAURENT ROUGE PUR COUTURE LIPSTICK

One of my favorite brands: I personally use a lot of Yves Saint Laurent lipsticks because I like the pigmentation and the colors they offer.. But I’m still going to be as objective as I should be reviewing their new lipstick range. The newest lipstick Rouge Pur Couture is designed by Lloyd Simmonds Yves Saint Laurent International Makeup Artist and the shades are: 31 Rose Fusain, 32 Pourpre Carmin, 33 Rouge Narcisse, 34 Brun Abstrait, 35 Rouge Vernis, and 36 Corail Legende Shade I’m trying: 35 Rouge Vernis

Package shows: Rouge Pur Couture: Pure Colour Satiny Radiance. 1 lipstick is 3,8 gram.

What the lipstick should do: Lips should be saturated with intense color thanks to the Coloreveal Technology. Natural extracts provide moisture that lasts all day. The lipstick also protects your lipstick because it has SPF 15.

Price: 33,95 EUR / 35 USD

The lipstick itself looks fabulous and luxurious because of the golden package. The lipstick gives good coverage on the lips. Red is difficult color and I actually thought that this color wouldn’t suit me well because I often use red lipsticks with a more pink pigment. When I’ve tried the lipstick on it suited well. The lipstick really has a high pigmentation and it’s not easy to get rid of stains for example on clothes.

Advice to keep the red lipstick stain of your teeth: Put your finger in your mouth and form an O with your mouth around your finger. Gently slide your finger straight out of your mouth and the red color on the inner lips will be now left on your finger.

After a few hours the lipstick on the inside of my lips was gone anyway because of drinking and eating. The lipstick was intact on the other parts of the lips.

Like: High Pigmentation, all the colors of the range are classy and it has SPF 15

Don’t like: After a few hours it looks quite obvious that the lipstick is gone on the inner parts of the lips.